B006ITK0AW EBOK by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page A

assembly hall and peeked in through a small window set into the door at about head height. Around two dozen small children were on stage, dressed in black and yellow striped costumes. Dizzy was at the technician’s desk, operating the spotlights, sound effects and backing tapes.
    The parents and siblings of the students were a warm and appreciative audience. At the front, positioned to half-face the stage, half-face the audience – like the Queen at a command performance of the Royal Variety Show – Morgana sat alone between an empty chair that had been meant for Midori, the Japanese DJ with the delicate constitution who had cancelled due to illness, and an empty chair that was meant for Dr. Muriel, the hearty British professor who would rather face death than sit through a musical theatre show by Victoria’s students.
    They started to creep away from the assembly hall towards the door to the playground but hadn’t gone more than two or three steps before Victoria came up behind them and stopped them. She was back in her blue pinafore, though this time she was wearing red Wellington boots rather than sparkly shoes. ‘Funnier, don’t you think? And anyway I’m not going to do the tap routine. Graham’s an incompetent hoofer, though I can hardly blame him. It’s my fault for leaving it so late to rehearse.’
    Victoria’s hair was braided into two plaits again. She had an ‘invisible dog’ lead in her right hand – a stiff piece of red leather that reached almost to her ankles when she held the top loop of it at waist height, with a circle of red leather at the bottom, facing forward, as though strained by the neck of a smallish, eager dog that Emily and Dr. Muriel could not see.
    ‘I’m going to go to the police after the show and confess everything,’ Victoria said. ‘That video has done enough damage. I’ve got blood on my hands. Piers will be relieved, at least. He thinks I spend too much time at Showstoppers and not enough time at home.’
    ‘Where is Piers?’ asked Dr. Muriel. ‘I’d have thought he’d be here to support you.’
    ‘I know,’ said Victoria with cool irony. ‘What sort of man puts Queen and country before his wife’s end-of-term show at her drama school?’
    ‘The sort of man who doesn’t want his wife to have a nervous breakdown,’ said Dr. Muriel.
    Victoria put her right hand to her eyebrows and leaned forward and swivelled a half turn on her right heel as though she planned to dance the hornpipe. But she was only manoeuvring to look through the window in the door to the assembly hall. ‘Ugh,’ she said. ‘Did you notice that? The lights keep dipping, and there’s something not right with the sound levels. If Mr. Barrymore weren’t dead, I’d kill him myself.’
    ‘I suppose you won’t have to move the school now that he’s dead?’ said Emily.
    Victoria twisted her mouth, as if she was slightly ashamed of herself for what she had just said. ‘Yes. I hadn’t thought about that… Poor old Barry. The electrics are playing up, and he’s not even here, so I feel a bit guilty that I ever implied he could be responsible. Though I do have my suspicions that the infant toilets won’t be blocking up again in future… Where are you two going? Don’t let the kids see you if you’re nipping outside for a smoke. And please, please, please make sure you come back for at least part of the show. The finale’s going to be great. I’ve had a brainwave and changed everything at the last minute.’
    ‘We won’t miss your teachers’ skit,’ said Dr. Muriel. ‘What a shame you won’t be tap dancing. That’s always my favourite part.’
    ‘Don’t you worry, we’re all coming on at the end – teachers, tinies, teenagers – and we’re doing a group tap dance then. Samuel has briefed them, and they adore him and listen to what he says, so I hope it won’t be too chaotic. Graham and I will just be singing for our skit, and I’ll do a bit of business with the dog lead,