Angel and the Actress by Roger Silverwood Read Free Book Online Page A

can’t control myself. I’ve never been so close to a … to somebody who died.’
    Angel knew the feeling well. After all, over the years he had had to deal with many tragedies involving all kinds of people including mature men, sometimes some of whom broke down in tears, both genuine and false. If the dead person was known to be a villain, of course it wasn’t difficult to remain controlled and level-headed. But sometimes it wasn’t easy for a young woman, not much older than a girl, to control her emotions.
    ‘Well, you’re not to worry, Jane.’
    ‘Well, I do worry, Inspector. I’m afraid. I know that the murderer is here among us. I don’t know who I can trust.’
    ‘ How do you know?’
    ‘Stands to reason, Inspector. Nobody saw a stranger in the dining room or anywhere in the house. Nobody has come forward and said that they saw a stranger. There is no stranger. If there is no stranger, then the murderer must be one of the guests. If a guest wants to murder Miss Minter, an icon and one of the nicest ladies in the world, well, there’s no telling who else he might want to murder. He might want to murder me. Well, I’ve never done anybody any harm … not knowingly, anyway. And ifI had, I would certainly want to apologize and put it right.’
    Angel nodded. ‘At the moment, Jane, it seems that there was a stranger in the house,’ he said. ‘That he crept in behind everybody while you were watching Miss Minter giving her speech from the top of the piano. That he chose his time, switched off the lights, shot her, then let himself out by the front door and disappeared into the night.’
    ‘I think a strange face among that crowd of celebrities would be bound to have been recognized by one of them and reported, Inspector. I certainly didn’t see anybody.’
    ‘Jane, I said that it seemed that a stranger crept into the place. I didn’t say I agreed with it.’
    ‘But, Inspector, I didn’t know until just now that the gun that killed her had been found, and that it had been found on the lawn on the way to the main gate. Surely that’s evidence that it was a stranger making his escape after all?’
    ‘Not at all,’ Angel said. ‘All the murderer had to do was go upstairs to the first floor, go into the bathroom or the lavatory, lock the door and throw the gun out of the window. You wouldn’t have to be a medal winner at the Olympics to manage that. Any old biddy would have been able to do that.’
    She looked at Angel, and sighed. ‘Oh. Oh yes,’ she said with a smile. The smile quickly faded. A hand went up to her face. ‘That means that the murderer is still here. It’s somebody in the house, then!’
     
    It was 5 p.m.
    Angel was still in the small sitting room at the Mansion House. He had let Ahmed cadge a lift to thepolice station in the SOCO van. Angel would like to have called it a day himself and gone home but there was still one interview that wouldn’t wait.
    There was a knock at the door.
    Angel quickly took the small recording machine out of his pocket, switched it to Record and put it on the desk in front of him.
    ‘Come in,’ he called.
    ‘Ah, Mr Trott,’ Angel said. ‘Come in. Please sit down. I understand that you wanted to see me?’
    ‘I’ll stand, sir. If you don’t mind,’ Trott said. ‘Yes, sir. It’s an organizational and financial matter.’
    Angel frowned and looked at him closely.
    ‘Mr and Mrs Jones, the caterers, are still here feeding the guests and they should be paid,’ Trott said. ‘And they need to know how much longer they are required to be here. After all, they were only contracted to supply and serve four meals, three yesterday and one today. They’ve already been here two nights. All the guests are still here and have to be catered for.’
    Angel’s eyes narrowed. ‘ Two nights?’ he said.
    ‘They came Saturday to check out the facilities, the electric sockets for their cooking equipment and hotplates and the layout of the rooms and so on.