Final Act (10 page)

Kate opened the curtains
to another sunny fall day and longed to don her running gear and hit the park. 
Before she bought the Condo, she
and Abir used to meet
early for their morning run. 
She missed it
running with her friend
more than she thought possible.
Nothing ever stays the same. 
She turned from the window and got ready for work.

Forty minutes later, she parked her car and h
eaded for
her
f
avourite coffee shop. 
Ten minutes later she was on her way to the precinct, t
he vapour from the
hot
coffee
mingl
ed
with the cool autumn air and
formed a thin cloud
over
her head
. 
My
kind of halo, she thought, evaporating too fast for any goodness to permanently settle in.

Nodding at Withers sitting
behind the
plastic, bullet proof bubble, she opened the stairwell door.  Holding
her coffee high,
she
took the stairs
two at a time
. Reaching the third floor
, she
switched her coffee to the other hand
,
opened the door
and walked
into the
noisy
squad room.  Making her way
through the congestion,
she entered the hallway leading to
the
shared offices. 

Roger was sitting at
his
desk
sipping precinct coffee
, she’d
recognize
that smell anywhere
.  He
looked
up as she came in the room, glanced
at his watch and shook his head.

“Well, well, this is a first.  A late
Kate.
”

I
gnor
ing
the remark,
she
laid her coffee on the gray steel desk that butted
up
against Roger’s, turned on the lamp,
and booted
her
aging PC
.

Her
phone rang.  It was Janet,
Gordon’s P.A.
 

“
The boss would like
to see you and Roger
in his office
.”

“When? 

“
Now
.”

“Okay, we’re on our way
.
”

“On our way where”, Roger asked.

“Gordon’s office.”

Roger led
and
Kate trailed behind sipping her coffee.
 
Entering the small office, they s
at
side-by-side
on the
cold metal chairs facing
Gordon’s desk.
 

“
Good morning.  I hope you
the two of you slept well, we have a lot to do. 
Couldn’t find either one of you ten minutes ago so I
told
Withers and
Shirley
Proctor
I wanted them at the
Coroner’s office
by 9:00am
.
”

“It’s only
7
:50”, Kate said.  “You were lucky you found anyone
here
.”

“Don’t start
,
Kate.  I’m splitting the two of you up this morning.  Kate, you’re to interview....” he stopped speaking and shuffled his papers
.

Kate and Roger exchanged a quick glance.

“
Catherine Stone, the victim’s wife.
”

“Ok
.
”

“Roger, you’re to meet with Henry Ward, the producer, at the crime scene.  He’s put
ting
the heat on already
.  Had the damn nerve to c
all the
Chief
and ask when t
hey could
expect
get the theatre
back?
 
Smug
little
prick
.
  Okay, that’s it. 
See you
at the briefing.
”

Back in the office, f
ingers flying across the keyboard
,
Kate didn’t reach for the phone until
the
fifth ring.

“
Good morning,
Kate.  It’s Susan.
We didn’t get a chance to speak the other night at the theatre and
I
know you
must be
busy so I won’t keep you long.  Alexis and I couldn’t believe our eyes when we spotted you
and Roger. 
Something nasty must have happened behind those curtains
.

Kate sighed.  Susan
hasn’t read her morning paper yet.
 

“
But n
ot to worry,
Kate,
I didn’t call to snoop. 
Alexis and I are in town for three weeks to do some research for
the Director of our small town theatre
.
That’s part of the reason we took in the play.  We were hoping to go backstage on a fact finding mission.  Given the circumstances, that didn’t happen.  So we’re on to plan ‘b’ but that’s none of your concern.  The reason I’m calling is to see if we can get together with you and Roger before we leave town.”

“
Nothing I’d like better,
Susan,
ho
wever, a
get together is impossible
for the immediate future. 
Roger and I are in middle of an investigation,
and
we’ll be lucky if we
find time to eat. 
When it
wraps
, I’ll give you a call and maybe we can meet
in Truro at
the little Italian bistro you and Alexis are so fond of.  Or is it the owner’s son you
both so
fond of
?
I’ll call as soon as I can.”

“Good
save
, Kate
”, Roger said
.
“
As much as I
love those two
, we don’t need
a repeat performance of the last time they interfered in a case.  Let’s go, b
riefing starts in five minutes.”

***

An hour later,
in the police canteen,
Roger bit into
his
jelly doughnut
, red ooze dripping on his chin
.  Kate
made a face between spoons of
yogurt.

“So, did Gordon’s wrap up homily
,
go
troops, do me and the precinct proud
, work the info and put the killer behind bars
,
inspire you”, Kate asked.

“
As much as black and white TV does.  Sorry, forgot, you’re a big fan of the thing.”

“Of black and white classic films,
there’s a huge
difference
, Roger.
”

“
Okay, sure.
”

“
So, what
was your take”
, Kate asked.

“
You go first.”

“We know the victim was a boy genius,
a womanizer,
made his mark in NYC, returned to his roots, was doing fine up until two weeks ago
when he suddenly
start
ed
having tantrums
.
”

“
Seems to be the consensus of the c
ast and crew
.
”
 

“And
th
e
eerie
laugh
coming
from
off-stage that
James
Thom
p
son
heard at the time of the toast.  Killer gloating behind the scenes, maybe?”

“I don’t think so”,
Roger
said. 
I think this killer was
on stage,
front and centre.
  Wouldn’t want to miss the death scene.
”

“Withers gets the prize for the biggest surprise
.
 
According to him,
C
amira Paul
,
aka
Maggie the Cat
,
is hiding something.
 
He thinks she’s
running
scared. 
And a
ccording to
June Grayson, my
hairdresser
by the way
,
Camira
was ambivalent about the Director
.  She
raved about his talent and ranted about his sex life
. 
I think we should bring her in, apply a little pressure.”

“
Right, I’ll arrange it tomorrow, no time today.”

“Keep me out of
it
, Camira’s cousin is a good friend of mine.”

“Okay, I’ll ask Shirley to sit in.”

Kate looked down the list of names.

“
This
Brenda
Parsons
, what did you
think
of what she had to say to Withers?”

“
Stone’s
protégé
?
 
Didn’t really say a lot, l
oyal to Stone
, and
no doubt worried about her future.  Not that she needs the money.  According to Shirley’s background check, she’s married to a Jim Parsons, an Engineer employed by none another than Eleanor
Foster
-Sutton’s
ex, Donald Sutton.  Small world, isn’t it?”

“
Not that small. 
I wonder
if there’s a social connection between the six of them.  Maybe
we
could ask Shirley to
check it out.
”

“
Y
up, the woman doesn’t have enough to do. 
About the
poison
,
it’s
going to be
damn near impossible to determine who put it
in the bottle.
 
On the night of the murder, it was full house,
v
irtually everyone associated wit
h the theatre had access to it.
Victim’s fingerprints only on the bottle
, naturally
.
 

“Maybe
the bottle
wasn’t put there on the evening of the play
”
, Kate
said.  “W
hat about the night before?  There would be less chance of being seen
.”

“
You’ve got a point. 
According to the interviews, after the play closed, Ed was on stage
getting the set read
for
the
final
night’s
performance
.
  He says
no one came on stage and
he
was the last one to leave the building
.”

“
The killer must have come in after that
.”

“
Could have been anyone, Kate. 
According to
what Ed
said
practically everyone in the company had their own key to the back entrance.
”
 

“
Every case needs a challenge. 
So, if
we
start with the premise that the poison was placed in the bottle sometime after midnight and before 10:00am
the next morning, we need to get onto the taxi drivers
, the buses don’t run after midnight. 
Maybe
one of the cabbies
picked up a late night passenger
near the theatre.”

“I’ll ask one of the Incident Room team
members
to get on it.”
 

“
Once the
lab report and autopsy
results are in, we’ll have more to go on.  Let’s hope we get the
m
quickly.”