Cue For Murder полностью

“It’s one thing to be innocent and quite another to appear innocent,” retorted Margot. “I knew the first suspect in the eyes of the police would be whoever inherited the Ingelow fortune. That happened to be I. So I hoped the police would never learn that I had been in the theater last night or even that I knew John was playing Vladimir. I felt sure someone else would identify him in a short while.”

“When did this reconciliation take place?”

“Last night. That’s why I went backstage. I was desperate. I had to do something to keep John from making a fool of himself over Wanda—a woman nearly twice his age. He had refused to see me again, but I knew he was playing Vladimir the opening night of Fedora. I tried to see him when he got back from Panama a few days ago, and I overheard him discussing the Vladimir business with Wanda on the telephone. It seemed a unique chance to have a word with him. I bought a ticket and bribed an usher to show me the way backstage.”

“By way of the fire escape?”

“Of course not! What ever made you think of such a thing? I went through the box-office door and then through the door that leads backstage from the orchestra seats. I waylaid John just as he was coming in the stage door. We stood there talking for about twenty minutes. Then he went on to Wanda’s dressing room.”

“So that was what delayed Ingelow,” said Basil. “And then?”

“He promised to give up Wanda and come back to me. You see how silly it is to talk about my killing John for money. I was to have all the money and John too.”

“But now you have all the money without John. Perhaps you prefer it that way. There are many wives of rich men who would.”

Margot considered this without emotion. “I won’t pretend I was madly in love with him but—I was sort of used to him. I wouldn’t have stabbed him just to get rid of him.”

“And what were you doing on stage when Adeane and I saw you leave the alcove?”

“After John left me, I suddenly decided I wanted him to take me home after the first act was over. The sooner I got him away from Wanda’s influence the better. So I crossed the stage to the alcove and waited for him in there. But when the actors began to gather on the stage I was afraid I might be caught there when the curtain rose. So I left the alcove before he came and crossed the stage to the wings in order to go round in front. That must have been when you saw me.”

“Then according to you, Wanda Morley had no motive for stabbing Ingelow. When he saw her in her dressing room after his interview with you he must have told her that he was going back to you and that his new will would never be signed.”

“No, he didn’t,” put in Milhau. “The police have been all over that with Wanda’s dresser. By the time Ingelow got to Wanda’s dressing room, she was fully dressed and there were several people there—her press agent, some boys from my office, and so on. She was worrying about her sable cloak—it hadn’t been delivered on time—and Ingelow had no chance to talk to her privately. Her dresser daubed his face with that corpse make-up. Everybody assumed he was some friend of Wanda’s playing Vladimir, but nobody knew who he was, and nobody paid any particular attention to him. You know how it is backstage on a first night—regular madhouse.”

“Wanda had every reason to believe he had signed the new will leaving everything to her,” insisted Margot. “And that’s why she killed him. It’s as simple as that.”

“It might be,” admitted Basil. “But of the two motives, yours is the more solid; for you did get the money, and she didn’t.”

“Does a motive have to be solid?”

“Not necessarily.”

“Then it was Wanda.” The pale eyes caught Basil’s and held them. “Dr. Willing, take my word for it. Wanda is the murderer. Everybody on stage saw John enter the alcove. He was alive, and the alcove was empty. The doors weren’t opened again until after the first act had started. Only three people approached John during the first act—Wanda, Rodney Tait, and Leonard Martin. The two men had no motive for killing John—they don’t even know him by sight. I introduced John to Wanda a few months before he went to Panama. He’s only been back three days, and last night was his first visit to the theater. Wanda was his only link with these people. She must have killed him—either because she believed he had signed the new will leaving everything to her, or because she had some reason to think he was tired of her and ripe for a reconciliation with me.”

“You can’t have it both ways.”

“No, but it might be either way.”

“Did anyone overhear your talk with Ingelow back stage?”

“Of course not.”

“Then we only have your word for it that there was a reconciliation. It’s equally possible that Ingelow refused to come back to you and that you waited for him in the alcove and stabbed him before the curtain rose, knowing that if he lived he would sign the will leaving everything to Wanda Morley and you would have nothing but your divorce settlement.”

“But I left the alcove before John entered it.”