25

Hattie gently closed the door of the office behind her, then looked pointedly at Davina.

‘I think you’d better sit down, my love,’ she said firmly, and Davina quietly complied.

Hattie then turned her attention to Keith.

‘I’m sorry it took me quite this long to put it all together. You know me, Keith. I’m not the quickest, but I am thorough, and I do get there in the end. Still, I’d have got there a lot faster if you’d been more honest with me from the get-go. But that was the problem, wasn’t it? You couldn’t be honest. That’s why you were so desperate to keep the police out of it.’

‘Oh, for God’s sake, Hattie, leave the speeches to the actors,’ huffed Keith. ‘Just tell me what’s going on. You said it couldn’t possibly be Davina before.’

‘Yes, and I was wrong about that. I was wrong about a lot of things. But I think there’s still time to make amends. You really are the most breathtakingly self-centred man, you know that? It blinds you, and it makes you greedy, Keith. You’d have the shirt off poor Frank’s back if you thought you could get away with it.’

Keith snorted.

‘“Poor” Frank is a multi-millionaire banker who wants to pretend he’s a producer.’

‘Poor Frank is mourning his sister,’ Hattie shot back. ‘And all you can think of is whether you can con him into giving you more money.’

‘It’s not a con, it’s a loan,’ Keith snapped. ‘I’ll pay it back.’

‘Will you? How many of the loans from Joan’s friends have you actually managed to repay over the years? Oh, you want to, I’m sure. You’d very much like to repay the loan, because otherwise there’s always the danger that Frank will actually take a closer look at the mask that you offered him as collateral, and if he looks at it a little too closely he may come to realise what someone like Raven saw immediately, that this supposedly priceless piece of theatre history is really just a cheap prop.’

‘Hattie, I don’t have time for this nonsense,’ said Keith.

‘And you roped me into all your lies,’ Hattie continued. ‘Telling me there was some terrible secret about Joan that would hurt Frank so much to find out. But there was no secret about Joan. The only terrible secret was just how much you were trying to rip him off with a worthless fake. How much did you tell Frank it was worth?’

‘Hattie,’ said Keith firmly, ‘you are poking your nose into things you don’t understand. Frank and I have a long-term working relationship, and the financial arrangements we make are no concern of yours. Without Frank, this show would never have even happened.’

‘Yes, yes, I know he’s paying for the damn thing, as it’s his favourite play, and his sister got a guaranteed part in it. Was getting Atlanta to make peace with Joan like that really his idea? Or did you plant that seed as a way of convincing him to fund it?’

‘I’m not prepared to talk about—’

‘But this is all a tangent. The thing that you really should have told me about from the start,’ Hattie ploughed on, ‘was your tryst with Davina. Do you sleep with all your interns, then? Regardless of gender?’

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, must you worm your way into every aspect of my private life?’ Keith snapped.

‘How did you know?’ asked Davina, quietly, from her chair in the corner.

‘I pieced it together. After graduating in the summer you do a spot of work here helping out with a one-off cabaret show, right? But then, according to Mark, you keep coming back, again and again over the course of a summer, although he can’t understand what you’re doing here – it’s definitely not stage management. You’re here enough that you strike up a friendship with Rosie who works behind the bar. Enough that she assumed you were working on the next show that happened here… What did she say it was? Some devised piece about mental illness? But you weren’t technically working on that show, were you? So what were you doing here, night after night? Well, eventually even I worked it out.’

‘I know it was stupid,’ said Davina.

‘Don’t upset yourself, my love. The heart wants what the heart wants, and all that. But it turned sour, didn’t it? He got himself a new intern, and abruptly lost interest in you, just stopped answering your calls… that hurt a lot didn’t it? And at first all you wanted to do was to hurt him back. You knew all about Frank by then, and the mask, knew how much Keith was dependent on it – Keith’s such a blabbermouth, isn’t he? So you thought you could get back at him by taking it. Right?’

‘I… I wanted to provoke a reaction,’ said Davina. ‘I just couldn’t bear being ignored. I assumed, with the note, he’d immediately know it was me, and at the very least he’d call, or come see me, or something. I was always going to give it back.’

‘Oh, for God’s…’ huffed Keith. ‘“Love’s Labours Repaid”? That’s your idea of an explanation? Well I’m sorry, darling, that I didn’t originally take you for the burglarising type, but the number of people who want to hurt me is pretty long and you don’t even make the first page. By the time I got round to suspecting you, this bloody bag lady was assuring me that you couldn’t possibly have taken the thing because you were at the theatre all night.’

‘Well, not all night,’ said Hattie. ‘Just between six-thirty and nine, right? Which is when you told me that the mask was taken, Keith. Unfortunately, you were off by a couple of hours. See—’

Hattie was interrupted by the door slamming open to reveal a red-faced Steve, who stormed in angrily, jabbing a finger in Keith’s direction.

‘I’ve got you now, you bastard. I’ve been through your entire history. Every dodgy deal, everyone you’ve ever screwed, every penny you’ve squandered, I know everything,’ he growled. ‘I know about Frank, I know about the mask, and I know about Atlanta. They’ll throw away the key, they will.’

‘Steve…’ said Hattie, calmly.

Steve, spun round to Hattie.

‘And I don’t know why you’re protecting him. He’s a fraudster and a murderer. That mask is worthless, Atlanta found out and he killed her for it, then he destroyed it and faked the theft to try to cover his tracks. What’s he got on you, eh? Why are you helping him?’

‘I’m not helping him, Steve,’ said Hattie, patiently. ‘He didn’t steal the mask, and he didn’t kill Atlanta.’

‘Nah,’ Steve shook his head. ‘I’ve just been talking to Frank, I know all about this supposed loan. And I’ve been doing my research on that mask. That production of Antony and Cleopatra: Joan Haygarth never wore a mask as part of her costume. The whole thing is a sham! And Hattie, shame on you. Busy doing his dirty work ever since Atlanta died, trying to find witnesses to silence them. Was it you who gave Miguel his black eye? To warn him off?’

‘Oh for goodness’ sake,’ said Hattie. ‘Yes, I’ve been asking a lot of questions and poking my nose in odd places, because I’ve spent the past fortnight trying to work out what the hell is going on. Just like you, it sounds like. The only difference is, and I’m sorry to say it, but I think I’ve got the right end of the stick. Yes, the mask is a fake. But it was actually stolen. By Davina. It hasn’t been destroyed, by the way, it’s in the cupboard over there. She returned it a week ago. I’m guessing when Keith sounded off in the rehearsal room you realised how much trouble you might get in if you were found with it, my love?’

Davina nodded.

‘But by then, having had a chance to get up close and personal to it, you’d realised it was a fake?’

Davina nodded again.

‘And you couldn’t help yourself, you couldn’t just send the thing back, you had to try to get at Keith another way, with that note.’

Davina’s eyes started to fill with tears.

‘I… I’d just found out from Robin that he’d actually blocked my number. That hurt so much… I wanted to hurt him back, that was all.’

Steve was looking increasingly perplexed.

‘Hang on… what?’ he said.

‘The whole thing was just a lover’s tiff,’ replied Keith sourly. ‘Apparently, after making my life a living hell for the past fortnight, Davina here is the one who deserves all the sympathy. Naughty Keith is the villain of the piece, and she’s the real victim.’

‘Well, not quite,’ said Hattie. ‘After all, she does have a bit of a runaway temper. When Miguel worked out what you’d done, and confronted you about it, you were… shall we say emphatic?… in your insistence that he keep quiet. That was a hell of a thump you gave him, but it worked. He clammed up entirely after that. He won’t even give me the time of day.’

‘I’m sorry!’ cried Davina. ‘I was so scared of how much trouble I’d get in if anyone found out, when I realised how seriously everyone was taking it. He kept on telling me he was going to dob me in, and I got flustered.’

‘So flustered that you punched him in the face?’

‘I… I just get very upset sometimes.’

There was a silence. Everyone had a lot to digest.

Hattie eventually looked at Steve.

‘I’m so sorry, Steve. We’ve spent the past two weeks coming at the same thing from two different angles, and every time we’ve crossed paths we’ve got more suspicious of one another. Up until just now I honestly thought you were involved in this whole thing.’

Steve gave her a hard stare, and she returned his gaze, unflinching. Then his mouth slowly formed into a reluctant smile.

‘Well, it sounds like that was the only thing you got wrong,’ he replied. ‘So you’re sure Keith didn’t kill Atlanta?’

Hattie nodded. ‘Pretty positive.’

‘Then I’ve got some egg on my face, eh?’

‘I suppose an apology is out of the question?’ asked Keith, stiffly.

‘I suppose it is, yes,’ replied Steve. ‘You’re still a shifty bastard, and I had every right to suspect you. And your loan scam is shameful.’

‘You can judge me however you like,’ replied Keith with venom, ‘but I do what I need to do to open shows and get everyone paid. You think it’s been easy, keeping the lights on these past few years, through everything? You think that a little rebellious fringe house like ours would survive a month if we played by the rules? I’m trying to do something with the Tavistock, make something that matters, make something to be proud of. And so yes, I squeeze the money men every which way from Sunday. You think Frank’s the only one I’ve used the mask on to get a loan? Half a dozen of them think they have exclusive rights to it if there’s a default. And I found the damn thing behind the dressing room radiator! I lie, I cheat, and I sleep like a baby, because I see what happens down on that stage night after night, thanks to me. And you know what, if it’s all too dirty for you, we’ll shut up the house right now, and you can all hand back all the tainted money I’ve paid you. But if not, I suggest you shut up and put up.’

Steve growled quietly, but didn’t reply.

‘All right,’ said Keith, turning to Davina. ‘I’ve got to know. How the hell did you get the mask, then? And when?’

Davina looked over at Hattie, who looked meaningfully back. She eventually mumbled: ‘It was on the Sunday night, after I’d gone to see Titus at the Menier, just before closing time. You went for your evening drink just before eleven. You always do. I just waited outside till I saw you in the bar, then I went in the side door and grabbed the mask.’

‘And the padlock?’ asked Keith.

‘Gallium,’ muttered Davina.

‘Come again?’

‘Gallium paste. It eats through aluminium. Me and Miguel were playing with it for a show we did at ACDA once, and I’d kept some.’

‘Oh bloody hell,’ said Keith irritably. ‘I knew you were smart, but I didn’t know I’d been shagging Marie sodding Curie. How on earth did you think of that?’

‘I didn’t. It was Miguel. He was just getting into lock-picking at the time,’ said Davina mournfully. ‘When we were messing round with gallium he had this idea that you could use it to break padlocks. But he said no lock artist would use it seriously, because it didn’t take any skill.’

‘“Lock artist”? Christ he’s a weirdo. So this gallium stuff, it just… poof!… and the padlock fell apart? All while I was having a whisky.’

‘Yup,’ said Davina with a nod.

Hattie took a deep breath.

‘Oh, Davina,’ she said, sadly. ‘I really wish you hadn’t said that.’

‘How do you mean?’ asked Keith.

‘I mean that you’re still lying, and that means you’re still trying to hide something, and that only serves to confirm… Well. You see, gallium doesn’t act quickly. It acts very, very slowly. It needed to be smeared on that padlock hours, maybe a whole day, before it would work its way through it. Davina knew that. Which is why she took two trips to the Tavistock over the weekend. Sunday night was the second one. The first was Saturday night.’

‘No—’ began Davina, but Hattie cut her off.

‘Stop. Just stop, Davina. Rosie saw you, didn’t she? As you arrived? She was having a cigarette break, and you bumped into her. You couldn’t get away without a chat, so you told her that the read-through had gone well, and told her that you were going to see a production of Titus the next day. Didn’t you?’

‘I…’ said Davina, and then tailed off.

‘But Rosie being in the alley threw a spanner in the works,’ Hattie continued. ‘You’d wanted to loiter there quietly until you heard Keith come down and go through to the pub, but you can’t do that if she’s nattering to you. So instead you finish off your conversation, head inside early, and need a place to hide until he goes for his drink. The obvious place is the ladies’ dressing room, so you sneak in there. That’s the perfect spot… except it’s rather unexpectedly occupied. Atlanta’s in there, drunk off her head. I’d imagine she yells out “Darling!” or some such greeting, starts making a hell of a racket, and you know that if Keith hears it, it’s game over. You needed her to be quiet, and let me guess… you got “flustered”?’

‘Bloody hell,’ breathed Keith in the silence that followed, looking appalled. ‘You Chicago’d her.’

Davina was shaking her head.

‘No, no, I didn’t, I promise I didn’t. I just left, I went straight through to the other dressing room and I left her behind, I didn’t kill her, I just… pushed past her. That’s all. I had no idea she’d died until you told me on the phone. It wasn’t anything to do with me. I just pushed past her, that’s all. I promise. I promise!’

‘I believe you,’ said Hattie. ‘At least, I believe you didn’t mean to kill her. I believe it was an accident, in that sense. But she still died. And at the end of the day it’s not up to what I believe.’

Kiki’s voice came crackling through the speaker: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, this is a call for Hattie Cocker. Could Hattie Cocker please make her way to the prompt desk.’

‘Oh, bloody hell,’ said Keith. ‘Look at the time. The house should be opening now, but they’ve got no SM, PM or producer to give them clearance. They can’t even send an ASM round to look for you, because she’s here too. Hashi must be having kittens.’

He walked to the office door and opened it.

‘Right, well this has all been fascinating, and I’m sure we’ve all learned something here today, but now that we’ve had our fun, I believe our jobs are calling. OK? All three of you are different varieties of idiot, and Davina, I hope it goes without saying that as soon as the curtain call finishes tonight you’re fired, and also you’re an unutterably awful human being, but can we please get this horrible, horrible show open?’

Steve looked at Keith, then looked at Hattie, and shrugged.

‘He’s right. We’ve got a show to put on. Come on.’

‘All right,’ said Hattie. ‘I’ll do the show. But we need to call the police first.’

‘No,’ said Keith firmly. ‘We shouldn’t. If any of this story gets outside this room, then that’s going to cause an awful lot of people to ask some very awkward questions about the mask, meaning that a whole bunch of financial agreements I have in place are going to fall through, with Frank and several other creditors too. With the immediate consequence that the building owner evicts us for repeated non-payment of the lease. So your play doesn’t get to finish its run, and no one gets paid. No cast, no crew, no one. So we’re not going to do that, are we?’

Steve sighed. ‘You’re a slimy bastard and I hate to say it… but I take your point. We can’t do that.’

‘Well, there you and I must disagree, Steve,’ said Hattie.

Steve turned to look at her.

‘Seriously? Come on, Hattie, you know how it works: we get the job done. Hook or crook. It’s not the end of the world if the police never know a few details about what happened. Either way, it’s a tragic accident.’

‘But it’s not right,’ said Hattie.

‘My love,’ wheedled Keith, ‘are you telling me that you’d rather bring this whole playhouse down around you – with the consequence, by the way that I will personally see to it that you never work in the industry again – than get off your moral high horse for just five sodding minutes?’

‘Maybe,’ said Hattie.

Keith threw his hands up in the air.

‘Hattie, I order you not to tell the police. This is a theatre matter, and you answer to me. And if you don’t answer to me, you answer to Steve, don’t you? So do what we say, do the right thing, let’s get the job done, and we can all get on with our careers. Tell you what, I’ll even hire you on for the rest of the season, to show how sweet and nice I am really.’

Hattie looked over at Steve, who gave a resigned shrug. She then looked across at Davina.

‘I just pushed her,’ the ASM said in a quiet voice. ‘She wouldn’t be quiet when I asked, and then she wouldn’t get out of the way. It was just a little push. Just a push. While I was waiting in the other dressing room I thought I heard her get back up again. I just… I didn’t have time to go and check.’

Hattie thought about how nice it would be for this all to be over, and how painful it would be for the theatre to go bust mid-run. She felt the pull of forty years of experience training her to do what she was told, and never to say no to her superiors. Then she thought about Atlanta, and then she thought about Atlanta’s brother, downstairs, wretchedly blaming himself.

‘Sorry, Davina,’ she said eventually. ‘I would imagine this won’t be easy for you. But DI Burakgazi seems nice, and I’m sure she’ll hear you out. If you want to take the evening off that’s fine. I’ll do the props and quick changes tonight. Now, if you’ll all excuse me, I need to make this phone call before the house opens.’