Cue For Murder полностью

“As a rule a murderer tries to escape detection by dissociating himself from his murder with a false alibi, and that is often the very thing that leads to his detection. This murderer realized there is safety in numbers. Instead of giving himself an alibi, he has merely obliterated the alibi of two other people. Instead of dissociating himself from the murder, he has contrived to associate other people with it on the same terms as himself. He has dissipated suspicion by diffusing it equally among three people. He’s perfectly willing for us to know that he was at the scene of the crime when it was committed, because at least two other people were in exactly the same place at the same time. In ordinary circumstances no murderer could take the risk of having two witnesses to his crime. But the peculiar circumstances of Vladimir’s role in this play made it possible to commit a murder before several hundred witnesses on the stage, in the wings, and in the audience before their very eyes.

“It looks very much like the perfect crime. We’re up against the laws of physics. I saw murder committed with my own eyes and yet—thanks to the limitations of spacetime—I don’t know when the murder was committed or who did it or even who was murdered.”

Foyle got up and walked over to the alcove. Basil remained on the sofa placidly smoking his cigarette. Foyle nodded to the medical examiner and walked around the alcove, tapping the canvas walls, examining floor and ceiling. He came back frowning and stood with his back to the stage fire facing Basil. “It’s funny to think of those flimsy canvas walls being just as effective as bricks and mortar three feet thick!”

“For this purpose they are,” returned Basil. “There’s no way of getting around or under or over them. The canvas is stretched taut and the lath frame nailed to the floor. You couldn’t lift it and crawl under as if it were a tent. It’s a real box set—there are no gaps, except a very narrow one between the canvas wall and the proscenium arch. To reach the alcove doors that way you have to cross the stage just as you do if you come in by the single door at left, and there are no other doors to the set. When they shift the scene, they hoist the ceiling to the flies, push back the furniture, and drop the second act set inside the first act set. The ceilings of alcove and parlor are all in one piece. You couldn’t budge one without attracting attention of actors and audience.”

The fly from the alley buzzed inquisitively around the Inspector’s head. He brushed it away. “Who were these three people who came near enough to Vladimir to stab him during the first act?”

Basil had been waiting for that inevitable question. He answered with a sigh: “Wanda Morley, Rodney Tait, and Leonard Martin.” He liked the two men, and he was beginning to be a little sorry for Wanda.

“Are you sure all three were close enough to Vladimir to stab him on stage in full view of the audience?” pursued Foyle.

“Perfectly sure. Wanda, playing Fedora, was alone with Vladimir in the alcove on two occasions when all the other actors were downstage near the footlights. Both times she threw her arms around Vladimir and clung to him, groaning and weeping in a theatrical frenzy of grief. She could have stabbed him easily without anyone realizing what she was doing.

“It was Leonard, playing the policeman, Grech, who opened the alcove doors on stage the first time after the curtain rose. He went straight up to Vladimir’s bed and stood there for a full minute. His back was turned to the audience, and he was bending over Vladimir. In the play he was supposed to be ascertaining whether or not Vladimir was alive. He did the same thing again just before his exit to search for Vladimir’s murderer.

“Rodney, playing the surgeon, Lorek, was supposed to make a medical examination of Vladimir’s gunshot wound and extract the bullet. Rodney actually brought a surgeon’s bag on stage, took out a surgical knife, and pretended to work over Vladimir with it for several minutes. No one in the audience or on the stage could see what he was really doing.”

The Inspector made a sour grimace. “Then any one of three different people could have committed the murder on five different occasions, and one of them was actually seen with a knife in his hand bending over the murdered man?”

“Exactly. This whole thing was planned by a remarkably bold, clear, and original mind. The bold are so often reckless and stupid; the calculating, timid and meticulous. But this time, we have a justly balanced combination of boldness, calculation, and utter ruthlessness; for two innocent people are going to suffer just as much as the guilty third.”