The police weren’t easy to deal with. They insisted on dragging all the principals down to the station for witness statements. By principals, they seemed to mean “famous movie people,” Viveca and Tessa and Billy Barnett chief among them. They’d have dragged Mark Weldon in, too, but they couldn’t find him. They found that highly suspicious.
The police let Tessa go almost immediately. She was clearly the intended victim, not the perpetrator, and she had cuts and bruises that needed to be attended to. After a few questions, she was released to the paramedics standing by with an ambulance.
Teddy had cuts and bruises, too, but no one seemed to care.
Teddy gave his statement several times. The police kept coming back to what had motivated him to go up on stage and move Tessa’s Oscar acceptance speech from one microphone to the other. His answer did not thrill them, the fact that it was the simple truth notwithstanding. Viveca Rothschild’s young man had moved the microphone stand, and then left the theater just before the award. The cops couldn’t believe that was enough evidence from which to deduce foul play. The fact that no cop on the force would have made that deduction did not help. And Teddy, as movie producer Billy Barnett, could not point to a lifetime of experience in the CIA to explain why his judgment was better.
One thing in his favor was that Bruce was gone; the cops couldn’t find him, and Viveca had no idea where he was. She admitted that he had become obsessive lately about her winning the Oscar, and promised her no one else would win. When he left the theater, she had panicked, not knowing what he might do.
“That’s why I shouted a warning to Tessa. I thought he might do something.”
“Like set a bomb?”
“Good heavens, no. Like drop a sandbag on her head. Because he moved the mic. I come from a theater background, so that was my first thought. Line her up and drop a sandbag on her head.”
“You thought that then?”
“Not when he moved the mic. Later, when he got up and left the theater. I thought he was going backstage to untie a rope and drop a sandbag.”
That statement sent the cops back to Teddy.
“Did you suspect the boyfriend was going to drop a sandbag or set off a bomb?”
“I didn’t suspect either one. I took precautions against any foul play.”
“Why?”
Teddy had had enough. “Because I find it more productive than taking precautions against fair play.”
The officer scowled.
There was a knock on the door, and a young detective stuck his head in. He had a rather frightened-looking young woman in tow.
“Yes?” the officer barked.
“Sorry, sir. There’s a young woman here I think you should see.”