‘Not very funny,’ I muttered.
He touched another finger.
‘Ewan hated her. I get the feeling that the two of them have history, although he never talks about it. You saw how angry he was!’ This was addressed to me. ‘But I really can’t imagine him going round there and doing her in. He’s much too civilised. You should have seen him when he was having one of his hissy fits in rehearsals. Sometimes I was afraid he might stab me with his spectacles, but that’s about as far as it ever went.
‘Then there’s Keith on the door.’ Tirian counted him on his little finger. ‘He was here that night and I have a feeling he’s out of his head on dope half the time, but what reason would he have had to kill her? Revenge because she panned Mindgame?’ He sniffed. ‘If we close tomorrow, another play will open the next day. It makes no difference to him.’
He lowered his hand.
‘You’ve missed out Jordan Williams,’ Hawthorne said.
‘Oh. Yes. You’re right.’ Tirian’s face fell. ‘Well, we all heard what he said that night, so I’d imagine that makes him the prime suspect.’
‘He said she deserved to die.’
‘That’s right.’
‘Did anyone else in the room seem to agree?’
I could see where Hawthorne was going with that one, but to my relief, Tirian wasn’t having it. ‘I don’t think so. Nobody said anything. It was all a bit embarrassing.’ He shook his head, dismissing the thought. ‘It’s no secret that Jordan and I don’t get along. But – hand on heart – I don’t think he had anything to do with Harriet’s death. The thing about him is that he’s always sounding off. It was the same during rehearsals. But it was all just a lot of hot air.’
‘Why did he have a problem with you, do you think?’
‘Why don’t you ask him?’
‘It’s your perspective that interests me.’
‘All right. But let me start by saying that I don’t dislike Jordan. My rule in life is to try and get on with everyone. Why not? You’re only in this world once, so you’ve got to make the best of it.’ Satisfied that he had made this clear, he continued. ‘I think he was jealous. That’s the only way to explain it. From the moment I joined the show, he was on my case. I haven’t learned my lines. I’m upstaging him. I’m not giving him what he needs when he’s doing his big soliloquies … you know, like I should be hanging on every word.’
‘He’d heard about your part in Tenet?’
‘Oh, yes. I don’t know why it pissed him off so much. I mean, he had some big parts in American TV before he came here. He could have stayed and had a Hollywood career. Maybe it’s just because I’m so much younger than him. Some of the old-school actors are like that. They think you’ve got to spend years doing walk-on parts in the provinces and bit parts on TV before you get your big break. It’s happened to me faster, that’s all. And he doesn’t like it.’
‘You didn’t go to drama school.’ This was something that Jordan had told Hawthorne. He certainly hadn’t been happy about that.
‘Actually, you’re right. That’s definitely something Jordan resented. I never “learned my craft”。 But it wasn’t my fault! I never even wanted to go into acting. The whole thing was as big a surprise to me as anyone else.’ Tirian had a little travel alarm clock on the table beside him and he twisted it round to check the time. ‘It happened when I was twenty-two. It’s funny, really. I just walked into it.’
‘Tirian is a Welsh name …’ Hawthorne said. It was one of his habits, throwing in observations that seemingly came from nowhere.
Tirian smiled. ‘Yes. I was born in Chepstow, in Monmouthshire. My mother called me Tirian because it means “kind”， which is what I always try to be.’
‘She must be very proud of you.’
His face fell. ‘She’s dead. I lost both my parents when I was very small. They were in a car accident. Their car was hit by a delivery truck just outside London.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘I was only five years old. I hardly even remember them really. I moved up to Harrogate in North Yorkshire. I was brought up by an aunt.’
That explained the sense of otherness I’d felt when I was with Tirian, and perhaps the absence of many cards or flowers in his dressing room. He had no family and I’d never seen him go out with friends.