There was a big, dramatic pause and then everyone burst out talking. “Her stalker!” “That’s got to be the same guy!” “But how did he manage to…?” “How could he…?”
Peregrine cut through the rising hubbub of voices. “Keep calm, everyone, I’m sure we can get to the bottom of this. Perhaps it’s just someone’s silly idea of a joke. Geoff, would you go and ring the police? They ought to be informed.” He turned to Elizabeth. “Darling, when did you give Tiffany her script?”
“She asked for an advance copy. I posted it out to her agent two weeks ago,” Elizabeth replied.
“And did you check it through beforehand?” Peregrine asked.
“Well, no,” confessed Elizabeth. “It never occurred to me that anyone would tamper with it.”
“It can’t have been done before you sent it,” Tiffany said softly. “I read it as soon as it arrived. I wanted to be prepared, you know?”
“Very commendable,” soothed Peregrine. “When did you last look at it?”
Tiffany frowned. “Let me see… Yesterday, I think. Yes. I read it through in bed. But I fell asleep before I got to the end.”
“So it could have been tampered with before then?” he asked.
Tiffany nodded. “Yes. I’ve been carrying it around with me since I got it. It was all right in the morning because I looked through it before I went out for lunch with my agent. But the restaurant was very crowded. I suppose anyone could have slipped it out of my bag.”
Peregrine looked around at the assembled cast. He was clearly thinking the same as I was – that anyone in the theatre could have done it. I mean, she’d left her bag in the wings while Peregrine had been doing the introductions. While she’d been dazzling everyone with her high-voltage smile someone could have grabbed her script. It would have been difficult to scrawl on it without being noticed: difficult, but not impossible.
So we were all suspects. The thought seemed to occur to everybody at once. Suddenly we were eyeing each other up nervously. Everyone that is except Hannah, who was staring at the floor, and Rex, who was regarding Tiffany with ill-concealed disdain.
“Tea,” said Cynthia briskly. “That’s what we need. Strong, sweet tea. It’s good for shock.”
“Oh, yes please,” said Tiffany weakly. “That would be wonderful. I left my cup in the green room on the way in. It’s the one with my initials on.” It was just as well she was sitting down because she looked quite faint.
A few minutes later Cynthia’s singing (“Tea for Two”) signalled the return of her and Geoff. Both were carrying trays stacked high with tea for the grown-ups, orange squash for the kids and biscuits for everyone. Geoff started to rip open the packets and hand them round. There was a bit of a scuffle for the chocolate ones. The plain wholewheats got left on the table.
Tiffany fetched her bag and groped around inside for her sweeteners. She dropped a couple into her mug – an elaborate pink creation with TW painted in gold on the side – and I noticed how badly her hands were shaking as she stirred her tea. She was trying hard not to show it, but Tiffany was very upset. In fact she was so rattled that when Geoff offered her a biscuit she jumped about a metre in the air and knocked the cup he was holding out of his hands. Scalding hot tea splashed all down his front.
“I’m so sorry!” Tiffany gasped, frantically dabbing at his shirt with a tissue from her bag. “How awful! Here, you’d better have mine.” Flushed with embarrassment, she thrust her full mug into his hand. “I’ll go and make myself another.”
She leapt up and ran off to the green room so quickly that her bodyguards had to sprint across the stage like a pair of bulky shadows.
Geoff watched Tiffany leave then started on her tea. Once he’d drained the last dregs from Tiffany’s cup, he put it down. Two seconds later, he was clutching at his throat and his face had turned a violent shade of purple. There was this ghastly wheezing noise as he struggled for breath. And then he collapsed, crashing onto the table, smashing the cups and saucers, and crushing the unpopular packets of plain biscuits. Cynthia was screaming for someone to do something, but before anyone could even ring for an ambulance, Geoff was dead.