Dead Fall by Joan Lock

Author:Joan Lock [Lock, Joan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2020-03-04T22:00:00+00:00

Twenty

The body was curled over into a foetal position.

From what they could see there were no obvious signs of injury. But then the front of her body was obscured and her tumbling curls and the man’s cap on her head might hide any wounds on her head.

They didn’t want to examine it further until the police surgeon got there but one thing was certain. She was dead. Quite dead and decomposing.

Harry, who after retching in a corner for a while had recovered his power of speech, was now unstoppable. He was quite certain of the cause of her death: a backstage accident or fall.

Actors, as he pointed out, were always being warned about the dangers backstage. It was true, the risks were legion, particularly in the flies, which had sufficient ropes to equip a medieval man-o’-war. Then there were the pulleys, drums, windlasses, counterweights, traps, sliders and gas battens. Add to these careless carpenters who dropped hammers from on high and gas hazards and …

Even the scene dock had its risks with sharp edges to catch yourself upon, lumps and bumps to trip over and scenery which could topple at any moment.

‘They’re always being told,’ said Harry, endeavouring to re-establish his status as the imperturbable old hand who was surprised by nothing. ‘But will they listen? No.’

Of course they all realized that it probably was not an accident. But at present no one wanted to contemplate that possibility. Clearly, if it was an accident it was odd that her body had remained undiscovered during the evening’s production activity. Not to mention that of the previous evenings since she had gone missing.

Partly for these reasons Best did not doubt for a moment that it was murder. She had clearly not died there tonight but her body had been placed there then.

When he eventually left the theatre in the early hours, he was thinking, I have never had such a strange case. Or was it two separate cases? Whatever it was, the effect on the company had been devastating. No convivial backstage chat any more or trips to unwind at local hostelries. A pall of fear and depression had settled over them.

Were the murders linked in some way or did they have nothing whatsoever to do with each other? Surely that was unlikely? Two murders in one theatre in a matter of a few days. The odds against that must be astronomical.

But if they were linked – how? What could possibly be the connection between the dramatic onstage murder of Talisman, a lonely orphan super, and the death of one of the principal actresses?

They would know better when the post-mortem revealed whether Miss Esther Gibbons, whose disappearance had given Rosa her big chance, had been raped or sexually assaulted before her death. Also, how long she had been dead and what had been the manner of her demise.

All Best had been able to establish before the body had been removed was that her face had a blueish tinge, there was no longer

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