Baby Doll Games by Margaret Maron Read Free Book Online Page A

stage lights were dim blue except for the baby white following Emmy so it was pretty dark in the wings. We three men were supposed to enter from this side, the other two women from stage left. My place was in the middle between the two curtains. Win was upstage, Cliff down from me; Ginger was directly across and Ulrike was opposite Win.”
“You actually saw them in their correct positions?” asked Sigrid.
“I didn’t look,” replied Kee, frustration in his voice. ‘I was so surprised to see someone on with Emmy that I didn’t notice anything else. I sort of remember looking past Win to see Emmy when I passed his spot but-”
A startled expression swept Kee s face. “It must have been his dummy!” he exclaimed. “Win s never been early for a cue in his life.”
Those goblin dummies were really going to be a problem, Sigrid thought. She’d noticed before that at least one had occupied each wing position, either hanging from a hook on the curtains or slumped on a chair. Unless one looked closely, the poor light would make it difficult to differentiate between a living goblin and a stuffed one, especially if all had their masked hoods in place.
“When Miss Mion fell-”
“When she was thrown," Eric Kee interjected bitterly. “When she was thrown, then,” said Sigrid impassively, “who did you think the other dancer was?”
“There really wasn't time for me to get a fix on him. He didn’t quite move like Cliff but Win would never horn in on someone’s solo.”
“This is hardly a case of someone hogging the spotlight,” Sigrid reminded him dryly. Kee stared back at her stonily as she straightened her notes on the desktop. “Now then, Mr. Kee: what did you do when the lights went out?”
“At first, nothing." The young man abruptly flexed his legs and then re-bent them so that he was sitting on his bare feet. “Everything had happened so fast I couldn’t believe what I d seen. The next thing I knew, I was rushing over to Emmy, the house lights came on, and that cop started yelling at us to keep away.”
“Us who, Mr Kee? Exactly whom did you see when the lights came on?”
“Sergio Avril and Ulrike Innes,” he said promptly. “Cliff Delgado, Ginger, and then Win.”
“Wingate West was the last to arrive?”
Kee nodded. “But that doesn’t mean a damn thing. Win’s always the last to arrive.”
“Were they all wearing their hoods?”
“Just Win. I pulled mine off when the lights went out and I guess the others did, too.”
Sigrid leaned back in her chair and nodded to Albee and Peters.
“Did you happen to notice if any of the others were breathing harder than usual?” asked Elaine Albee.
“No, but by then we were all pumping adrenaline.”
“If it wasn’t you. or West or Delgado,” said Bernie Peters, “could some other dancer from outside your troupe have slipped in?”
“Friends drop by all the time to watch us rehearse, but I don’t think anybody could just walk right on unless-”
He hesitated and then shook his head. “No, he would never hurt Emmy.”
“Who wouldn't?”
“David Orland. He and Emmy used to-well, they lived together for a while till Emmy moved in with me this spring. No hard feelings, though. They were still friends.”
“Then why wasn't Mr. Orland part of the troupe?” asked Elaine, jotting down the name.
“He was working steady at the time. A revival of West Side Story. It closed last month, so he's been around more lately. But it's crazy to think he'd kill Emmy.”
“Yet if this David Orland suddenly appeared onstage,” said Sigrid, leaning forward to rejoin the interrogation, “would she have danced with him?”
“Oh sure,” said Kee. “They were always terrific together.”
He stood up on the table, put one foot on the bookcase against the wall, and bent to unpin a small black-and-white photograph, which he handed to Sigrid.
In it, Emmy Mion was being held high above the head by an unfamiliar but very well-muscled male