Chapter 5
Imanaged to speak to Dorothea Clare before she left the memorial, but not on her own. She was always surrounded by an admirer or colleague, sometimes several. I took my chance as the memorial drew to a close, when she was with just one other man, the fellow I’d seen crying at the burial.
He introduced himself as Perry Alcott and bowed over my hand.
Like Mr. Culpepper, Mr. Alcott was slickly groomed with an impressive head of hair sculpted into a wave above his forehead.
He was cleanly shaved and wore a fine pin-striped suit with a pink tie and matching pink rosebud in the lapel. The color must be chosen for Pearl.
“I am so sorry for your loss,” I told them both. “It must be very difficult for you.”
“It’s been awful,” Mr. Alcott said. “Just awful.”
“A very distressing day,” Miss Clare agreed. She couldn’t have been more than twenty or twenty-one, with wide gray eyes fringed with dark lashes and full lips. She wore makeup, but it was subtle, and an evening gown of cream silk that seemed an odd choice for the occasion.
“I saw you at the funeral and wondered where you fitted into Pearl’s life,” Mr. Alcott said. It wasn’t posed as a question, but he was certainly fishing for information.
I told them what I told Mr. Culpepper, without mentioning that it was Lord Rumford who hired me. Like Mr. Culpepper, Mr. Alcott guessed anyway.
“I agree with his lordship,” Mr. Alcott said.
“Anyone who thinks Pearl killed herself didn’t truly know her.
She would not do that. Not in a million years.
Pearl had everything to live for. Her career was like a dream, she had an attentive friend in Lord Rumford, and an adoring public. Don’t you agree, Dotty?”
Miss Clare nibbled on her lower lip. When she let it go, a little lip color had come off on her teeth. “She was a little upset lately.”
Mr. Alcott put his hand on an outthrust hip. “Upset? Darling, she was hardly upset enough to throw herself over the balcony.” He turned to me. “Something certainly troubled her, but not enough to take her own life.”
“Dearest Perry, you would defend her.” The acerbic edge to Miss Clare’s otherwise sweet tone was unmistakable. “How can you say that when she never told you what the problem was?”
Mr. Alcott sniffed. “She might not have confided in me, but I don’t believe it was that bad, and you must stop suggesting it, Dotty. Pearl was a dear friend, and I won’t hear a thing said against her now she’s not here to defend herself.”
Miss Clare turned her back on him to face me. “The truth of the matter is, the police think she killed herself and so do I. Nobody wanted to kill her. The suggestion is ridiculous.”
“What about a jealous admirer?” I asked. “Someone she rejected, perhaps.”
“I can’t think of anyone.”
Mr. Alcott barked a laugh. “Can’t you? I can. Men wanted to see her after every performance. She would flirt with them, but that was all. She never accepted their offers. She was content with Lord Rumford and not looking to move on yet.”
“Not until she’d milked him for everything she could get.”
Mr. Alcott’s jaw dropped, and he stared at Miss Clare.
Miss Clare tossed her head, making her blond curls dance jauntily.
“Lord Rumford was good to her, and Pearl was indifferent, at best. I’m not suggesting she entertained other men, but she should never have allowed them into her dressing room after the show.
Someone ought to tell Lord Rumford now that she’s dead, just so he knows what she was truly like. ”
“Looking to step into her shoes in more ways than one, Dotty?” Mr. Alcott sneered.
“I simply feel sorry for him. Pearl had a fickle nature.”
“They’d been together for two years!”
“Did either of you see another gentleman at the burial this morning with warts on his face?” I asked. “He was half-hidden behind a tree and left before the end.”
They both shook their heads.
A gentleman entered and glanced around the foyer. When his gaze fell on Miss Clare, she smiled broadly and excused herself.
Mr. Alcott watched her as she accepted the gentleman’s kiss on her cheek.
“She’s going to be a handful, that one, if she ever becomes a star of Pearl’s stature.
Pearl might have lived a fast life, but she was never mean to others, she never put anyone down.
She was just too carefree and frivolous to be mean.
” He nodded at Miss Clare and the gentleman.
“He hasn’t come to pay his respects to Pearl, he’s come to see Dotty.
Little does he know, he’ll be overthrown by mid-year. ”
“Why?”
“Because Dotty is taking over the lead female role in the play, and her star will rise just as quickly as Pearl’s did. When that happens, Dotty will aim higher than that poor man. He’s not rich enough or influential enough to satisfy her ambition.”
“How ambitious is she?”
His gaze slid to mine, but he took a moment to answer. “Dotty was jealous of Pearl. Pearl had what Dotty wanted—fame, adoration, the best roles.”
I arched my brow, hoping I didn’t have to ask the question outright.
Fortunately he seemed to understand. “Dotty wouldn’t have resorted to violence to satisfy her ambition.
She is young; she simply had to bide her time before Pearl’s star began to fall.
” He did not sound convincing, however. Pearl hadn’t been very old, after all.
Her career and stardom could have lasted several more years.
“You say you were Pearl’s friend, but how well did you know her?” I asked.
“Probably as well as anyone here, except Culpepper.” He nodded at the manager, seeing off some mourners at the door. “They go back quite a few years. She played minor roles in other theaters, until he cast her in her first leading role here at the Playhouse. She worked for him ever since.”
“Were they ever intimate?”
“I don’t know. I often wondered, but I never asked. They had a good working relationship, but they occasionally argued.”
“What about?”
He shrugged. “I’d see her storming out of his office, or hear raised voices but not the words.
I asked her about it once and she said Culpepper was being unreasonable and that was that.
I assume he’d asked her to add an extra performance, or to sing a song that didn’t suit her voice.
She had trouble with the high notes,” he said as an aside.
“Did Pearl ever mention her family?”
“Very rarely and it was usually in casual conversation. Most recently, I asked her what she was doing for Christmas, and she said dining with her sister’s family.
That’s what I mean by casually. I got the feeling she hardly saw them, but I don’t think there was any ill-feeling between them.
Pearl never made a face when she spoke about her sister, for example.
They probably just grew apart. It can happen in our business.
Some family members don’t like our choice of career. ”
“Or lifestyle?”
He gave me a humorless smile. “Quite. Do you know, today at the funeral was the first time I’d ever seen her sister. She looked a little like Pearl, although not nearly as beautiful.”
“Did Pearl ever ask you for money?”
My question seemed to surprise him. “No, but she knew I couldn’t give her any. I only ever get minor roles, you see, and I have expensive tastes in suits and lovers.” His eyes flashed wickedly. “Does that shock you, Miss Fox?”
“Not at all,” I said smoothly.
“Then you’re a woman of the world.” He removed a silver cigarette case from his jacket pocket. “Care to join me in the smoking room?”
It was nice to be asked. When I’d attempted smoking in order to glean information from a suspect in the last murder, the men in the hotel’s smoking room had judged me to be a certain type of woman. It seemed Mr. Alcott was not like other men.
“Thank you, but I must be getting home. If you think of anything relevant, would you please send word to me at The Mayfair Hotel.”
His eyebrows rose. “Rumford’s putting you up at the Mayfair while you investigate? You must be good.”
I almost didn’t tell him, but it seemed wrong not to be honest. “Actually I live there and just happened to overhear Lord Rumford saying he suspected Pearl’s death wasn’t suicide. I offered to investigate.”
He wagged a finger at me. “I know who you are! You’re the niece of Sir Ronald Bainbridge. I’ve heard about you.”
I didn’t know what to say. We’d kept my involvement in the previous murder out of the newspapers, and few people outside the hotel staff and the Bainbridge’s friends even knew I existed.
“You look like a startled deer, Miss Fox. It’s all right. Your secret is safe with me.” He winked.
“What secret?” I asked weakly.
“How you solved the case of that guest’s death. I’ve already been sworn to secrecy by a very good friend of mine.”
“And who is your friend? My cousin, Floyd?”
He laughed. “Lord, no. Your cousin is the sort to be friends with women like Pearl and Dotty, not men like me. No, it was a young friend of mine who works there. Danny. He’s a footman. You probably don’t remember him, but he credits you with getting him off the hook with the police”
I certainly did remember Danny. He’d been the police’s main suspect in the Christmas Eve murder, but all the staff knew he hadn’t done it. He’d finally been freed after admitting where he’d been at the time of the murder—in another man’s bed.
“Danny is very sweet,” I said.
Mr. Alcott’s eyes sparkled with his smile. “Yes,” he said softly. “Yes, he is.”