Hawthorne and I stood up.
‘Can I ask you one thing?’ I asked. Hawthorne glanced warily in my direction. He was always warning me not to intrude. But there’d been something on my mind from the moment I’d met Tirian and although this probably wasn’t the best time to mention it, I might not get another opportunity. ‘Do you remember a TV show called Injustice?’ I asked.
‘A cop show, wasn’t it? About a lawyer …’
‘I wrote it. You were going to play Alan Stewart, the young man who takes his own life in jail. You’d agreed but at the last minute you backed out. I’ve always wondered why.’ Even as I spoke, I realised that I was being ridiculous. I was in the middle of a murder investigation! But it was too late now. ‘I just wondered …’ I added, apologetically.
‘Yes. I remember that.’ Tirian looked uncomfortable. ‘It wasn’t my decision. I thought the part was great. It was my agent who advised against it. There were lots of offers on the table and she didn’t think it was right for my career at the time. I know that sounds a bit rubbish, but I always listened to what she said and she just didn’t think it was right. I’m sorry.’
‘I think he killed Harriet Throsby,’ I said, as soon as we were outside.
Hawthorne looked at me curiously. ‘Really?’
‘Why didn’t you ask him where he was on Tuesday morning when she was killed?’ It was the first time I had ever challenged Hawthorne, but I was tired and irritable. I’d had no sleep the night before and I’d been on my feet almost the whole day. I’d been in prison! My nerves were in shreds.
‘There was no point, mate.’ To my surprise, Hawthorne hadn’t taken offence. He sounded completely reasonable. ‘He’s an actor. He got home late. He was probably in bed until mid-morning.’ He paused. ‘Like you.’
‘Well, he was definitely lying.’
‘How do you work that one out?’
‘When he said his agent didn’t want him to do Injustice – I know for a fact that’s not true. He had the same agent as one of the other actors and I met her quite a few times. She was really angry he turned the part down. It was the exact opposite of what he just said. She told me she thought it was perfect for him.’
‘Maybe she was the one who was lying.’
‘I don’t think so. She dropped him a short while later … or maybe he dropped her. Either way, she would have told me the truth.’ Hawthorne didn’t seem convinced so I went on. ‘I know this isn’t about my work, and I’m not angry with him because he didn’t want to do my series. I’m just saying that you shouldn’t believe everything he says.’
‘I never believe everything anyone says.’
‘Including me?’
He smiled. ‘Why would I believe someone who spends his entire life making stuff up?’
I had an answer for that, I was sure. But before I could come up with it, he had already set off down the corridor, on his way to the third and last dressing room. Shaking my head, I fell in behind.
12
Another Knife
‘Why do I have to talk to you? I’ve already spoken to the police. I haven’t got anything else to say.’
Sky Palmer sucked on her vaping device and for a brief moment the end glowed an angry red. She hadn’t been happy from the moment I’d introduced her to Hawthorne, as if a murder investigation was nothing more than an inconvenience added to her busy diary. She threw down the vape and picked up her hairbrush, scratching at hair, which had gone from pink to her natural colour … a very light blonde.
‘I’m going on stage any minute,’ she went on. ‘I’m still doing my make-up. And I don’t really like to talk to anyone before I start. It messes with my head. I have to think about my character.’
From the first time I’d met her, I’d found Sky difficult to pin down: that mixture of youth and self-assurance, shyness and arrogance. It was even harder now, seeing her sitting there dressed as Nurse Plimpton. Her costume had been designed to turn her into a caricature. It was deliberately tight-fitting around her breasts and hips, with a tear in her black tights … one of the critics had even mentioned it. Tucked under her blouse, there was a plastic bag of fake blood – Kensington Gore – which would burst when she was stabbed （with a scalpel） at the end of Act I. It was all very Rocky Horror Picture Show and she carried it off perfectly on the stage. In the dressing room, though, it was disconcerting. She was trapped between the two characters and I wasn’t sure which was which.