Chapters (12)
‘Mr Percival and Mr Darcey are also in the list of persons without alibis. They left the stage and returned to it together, or nearly so. But they went of course to separate rooms. Mr Percival is the only one who noticed the smell of gas. Dr Rutherford,’ Alleyn went on, moving slightly in order to see the doctor, ‘could certainly have visited the room during this period, as at any other stage of the performance. He could have come down from his box, passed unobserved round the back of the scenery, taken cover and gone in after these four persons were in their own rooms.’
He waited politely but the doctor’s newspaper rose and fell rhythmically. Alleyn raised his voice slightly. ‘He could have returned to his OP stairs when the rest of you were collected on the prompt side and he could have made an official entry in the character of Author.’ He waited for a moment. The others looked in a scandalized manner at the recumbent doctor but said nothing.
‘Mr Poole has himself pointed out that he could have darted to the room during his brief period off-stage. He could not, in my opinion, have effected all that had to be done and if he had missed his re-entry he would have drawn immediate attention to himself.
‘Mr Doré is in a somewhat different category from the rest,’ Alleyn said. ‘We know he came from her dressing-room with Miss Tarne but although he was seen with the others on the prompt side, he was at the back of the group and in the shadows. Everyone’s attention at this period was riveted on the stage. The call-boy checked over the players for the curtain-call and noticed Mr Bennington had not yet appeared. Neither he nor anyone else had reason to check Mr Doré’s movements.’
Jacko said: ‘I remind you that Parry said he smelt gas while I was still with Miss Tarne in her room.’
‘I have remembered,’ Alleyn answered, ‘what Mr Percival said.’ He looked at Helena Hamilton. ‘And while all this was happening,’ he concluded, ‘Miss Hamilton was on the stage holding the attention of a great cloud of witnesses in what I think must have been a most remarkable play.’
There was a long silence.
‘That’s all I have to say,’ Alleyn’s voice changed its colour a little. ‘I’m going to ask you to return to your rooms. You’ll want to do so in any case to collect your coats and so on. If you would like to talk things over among yourselves you are quite free to do so. We shall be in the greenroom. If each of you will come in and leave us an address and telephone number I’ll be grateful.’ He looked round them for a moment. Perhaps deliberately he repeated the stage-manager’s customary dismissal: ‘Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. That will be all.’