know that Elspeth was passed over unofficially between colleagues during the war, so we need to find out from Alice Simmons if Aubrey knew or served with her husband.’
‘Aubrey was a tunneller, Sir, I know that much because Miss Beaumont was just talking about it. That’s why he went upstairs to change: he could never bear to be underground, not even in his own theatre, because he’d had such a dreadful war. We could ask Frank Simmons if they knew each other – Walter Simmons would probably have talked more about his friends and the war to his brother than his wife, and it’d be quicker than waiting for Mrs Simmons to get here from Berwick.’
‘True, but I’d rather not let Frank Simmons know anything about the way we’re thinking at the moment. No, we’ll talk to her alone as soon as she gets here. I’d also like her to take a look at Aubrey’s handwriting: if he sent the letters to Walter each year –
and let’s face it, he was wealthy enough to send the money – she might recognise it from the one she saw. The claustrophobia’s interesting, though. I wonder how many people knew about that?’
‘It didn’t seem to be any great secret, at least not among the theatre lot. But even if he does turn out to be her father, I don’t see why that should get them both killed.’
‘Don’t you? Aubrey was Hedley White’s boss, so the chances are he’ll have heard about Elspeth. Perhaps he even met her and realised who she was. What if he wanted to acknowledge her and get to know her better? That won’t have gone down well with Frank Simmons if he thought he was losing his niece. It seemed to me this afternoon that the whole family has lived in constant fear of Elspeth’s being taken away from them. That’s only natural if the adoption was illegal – they built all that love on very shaky foundations, but who knows what they’d do to protect it? And then there’s White, of course. Aubrey might not have approved of his daughter dating the stage hand. I agree that the motivation is much stronger for his killing Aubrey than Elspeth, but there’s a very fine line between love and ownership, and jealousy can distort where it falls. He wouldn’t be the first person to kill his girl rather than lose her to another life.’
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‘No, I don’t suppose he would, and we know he was hanging about here tonight.’
‘Yes, both he and Frank Simmons were here just before the show.’
‘But Simmons couldn’t get up here, whereas White could. No one would think twice about seeing him anywhere in this theatre, even on his night off.’
‘Don’t forget – Simmons said something about having a mate on stage door who helped him collect his memorabilia. He wouldn’t admit it, of course, but the man on tonight might have turned a blind eye if there was something in it for him.’
‘Tell me again what he said to you, Sir.’
‘Aubrey? He said there was something he wanted to tell me, but the way he said it implied that if he’d talked sooner Elspeth might not have died. It was something like “I’ve got to live with the fact that I’ve waited until now.”’ Archie paused. ‘Of course, if I’m right about the connection, I suppose we can’t rule out suicide.
Josephine said he was upset when she told him who’d been killed and I assumed that was because he felt sorry for Hedley, but it could have been much more than that. If you spend all those years wanting to get to know your child, then have the chance so violently snatched from you, that’s bad enough – but if you know you could have saved her, that might prove impossible to live with. It’s a terrible way to do it, though. Look at his body, Bill: what must those last moments have been like?’
‘You can’t imagine, can you, but I think we canrule suicide out.’
Penrose looked at him questioningly. ‘Miss Beaumont says that the door was locked when she got up here – from the outside.’
‘What? I noticed the key on the outside but I just assumed that Aubrey had used it to get in and not bothered to take it out of the lock.’
‘She says not, Sir. She says she knocked a few times and got no answer, so she unlocked the door herself and found him there on the floor.’
‘What else did she say, Bill?’
‘That he hadn’t made himself very popular lately. Apparently 144
there’s been lots of bickering about contracts and tours and who gets what part. Lots of people seem to have held a grudge against him: he’d fallen out with John Terry particularly badly, and – this fits in well with your theory, Sir – she’d heard he’d been furious with Hedley White about something earlier today, although she didn’t know what. She’d had arguments with him herself lately, too – she was very honest about that.’
‘That’s probably what she meant about his not deserving what he got: he’d made himself unpopular but it shouldn’t have gone this far. Did she mention anyone called McCracken?’
‘Yes, Sir, Esme McCracken – she’s the stage manager. Apparently they have some sort of tradition at the end of the play where three of the cast make a toast, and Miss McCracken has to arrange things. Sounds like another excuse for a drink to me, but Miss Beaumont said it was different today because Aubrey was involved and it got nasty.’
‘She saw it or just heard about it?’
‘Saw it, Sir. It happens just before they all take their bows so she was waiting in the wings.’
Penrose listened intently while Fallowfield recounted Lydia’s impression of events backstage. ‘And you say McCracken gets all this stuff ready?’
‘Her or White, Sir – whoever’s on duty. Why did you ask about her?’
Penrose pointed towards the bunch of letters that he had found in Aubrey’s desk. ‘Those are all from her. From what I can work out, she sees herself as a bit of a playwright. They start off very politely, asking Aubrey if he’d read her work and consider putting it on. Clearly he must have ignored her, because they soon lose their courtesy and start criticising all the work he stages and questioning his judgement. She has a very high opinion of her own talent and not much time for anybody else’s, and she’s particularly vitriolic about Richard of Bordeauxand the money it’s making –
she accuses Aubrey of having no artistic soul, only a commercial one. It’s a wonder he didn’t get rid of her: I’m not sure I’d keep someone on the payroll if they sent me this kind of thing on a reg-145
ular basis. It’s obsessive, to say the least.’ He handed the letters over. ‘They were written over a three-month period, and the latest one’s dated today. She loses it completely at the end, throws in a bit of abuse, then says that Aubrey would be wise to take her more seriously. That could be just a rather extreme way of letting him know he’s missing out on the theatrical event of the decade, or it could be a threat – and judging by what’s happened tonight, I’m inclined to read it as the latter.’
‘Blimey,’ said Fallowfield, glancing through the pile. ‘I see what you mean. She’s got to be up there with White and Simmons.’
‘Yes, particularly after what you’ve just told me about the drinks session after work. I’d put money on his having drunk whatever killed him then.’
‘Me too, Sir. I had a quick look backstage and it’s all still there, the decanter and glass I mean. I’ve put young Armstrong down there until the rest of the team get here to pack it all up. He’s a good lad – always does what he’s told. It’s a pity we didn’t have him outside while White was flogging theatre seats.’
‘That’s good, Bill, thank you. Of course, the world and his wife have walked past that decanter tonight, but McCracken had plenty of time alone with it.’
‘I don’t quite see why she’d kill the Simmons girl, though.’
Penrose thought about it for a moment. ‘Yes, Aubrey’s murder is much easier to understand because he was in a position to make enemies, but Elspeth’s death made a mockery of Richard of Bordeauxand we have all the evidence we need in those letters that McCracken resented that play and despised Josephine. I think we can also safely say that she’s not the most stable of people: I can imagine the person who writes notes like this being so full of spite that it could send her over the edge. There’s an arrogance about them, a vanity that we’ve seen in a lot of criminals. Before this happened, it occurred to me that Elspeth’s death might have been a mistake, that whoever did it had meant to kill Josephine.