Desperate Acts

Chapter Nine

NINE

Cobb found himself comfortably seated in the den adjacent to the platform the Shakespeareans were calling a stage. In here the chairs were leather and the fire cosy. On the sideboard a crystal decanter of sherry winked back at the scented, blue candles. Following Marc's advice, Cobb planned to interview the four club members who might provide him with useful evidence, emphasizing that they were considered to be potential witnesses - not suspects. Further, he was advised to indicate that their testimony could be vital in determining the fate of a fellow club member, Brodie Langford. That one of them might be the actual murderer, and lie through his teeth, was to be kept in mind, but that was all. "If we spook them, we'll get nothing," Marc had warned.

Cobb himself had decided on the order in which he would see the "witnesses." After informing Sir Peregrine in the presence of the whole troupe that Brodie Langford was in imminent danger of being charged with murder, Cobb indicated the purpose of his visit, and announced that he would start his questioning with the baronet, then move on to Dutton, Fullarton and Crenshaw. The proposed second read-through of The Dream Sequence was indefinitely postponed, and as Cobb and Sir Peregrine had made their way towards the den, the others drifted, muttering unpleasantries, towards the dining-room and the remains of supper. Cobb had thought it best to interview the baronet first because he wished to have Gillian Budge's account of the members' departures either confirmed or disputed. And since the chairman usually left the meeting last, he should be able to recall exactly when the others had departed.

"You were the last person to leave the meetin'?" Cobb began.

Sir Peregrine, who had settled his bulk in a chair opposite Cobb, decided to adopt a bemused expression, as if he were the director watching himself play a scene. "Always, constable. I invariably have papers to collect and re-organize. And as captain, I feel obliged to be the last man to abandon ship, so to speak."

"I see. So you'd remember when the other gents left?"

"There were only four of them - three after young Brodie departed prematurely - just before half past the hour."

"You're sure of the time?"

"I am. I requested Mrs. Budge to bring us materials for a toast - at precisely nine-twenty-five. She was three minutes late by my pocket watch."

"So you an' the fellas still there - Mr. Dutton, Mr. Fullarton an' Mr. Crenshaw - went on with yer toastin'?"

"We did. But toasting is not an indefinite sporting event, constable. We toasted our success at launching an exciting new dramatic project, the fruits of which you may have observed in the next room, and then we toasted the Queen."

"An' this would take how long?" Cobb had his notebook open and his pencil poised, but he was mainly concerned with checking the time-line he had sketched there, the one he and Marc had worked out.

"Oh, about five or six minutes. Then I asked the others to bring their scripts to up to me as I had some last-minute alterations to pencil in on them, thoughts that occurred to me only after hearing the members read their parts for the first time."

Which must have been quite a shock, Cobb mused.

"So they didn't leave right away?"

"No. Andrew Dutton came and stood beside me, we went over two brief excisions, he said goodnight to us and left."

"Through the coatroom an' down the back stairs?"

"Yes."

"Riskin' any riffraff that might be in the alley just to avoid the taproom?"