Page 64 of A Village Theatre Murder

‘I’ll be working at the reception at our local vet. I phoned Dr Ryan yesterday and we chatted and they asked me to come in on Monday. It’s a temp job, really. I’ll be on trial fora few weeks. But if I like it and they like me, we’ll make it official.’

‘That’s absolutely brilliant news!’ said Julia. ‘Well done, Jono.’

‘Well, thanks for the lead. You’re the one who told me they were looking.’

‘Oh, that’s my pleasure. They’re lucky to have you.’ She turned to Sylvia and explained, ‘Jono is an absolute dog whisperer. If he wasn’t here, Jake would be running around whacking our drinks out of our hands with his tail. And look, he’s perfectly calm.’

‘What a wonderful skill to have,’ Sylvia laughed. ‘You should come to my class, see if you can do the same with kids. Perfectly calm sounds nice, at least every now and then.’

Jono blushed. ‘I’m sure small humans are way beyond my abilities. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go and check on the lasagne.’

‘A lasagne whisperer, too? You’re a man of many talents,’ said Laine. ‘I’ll come and help you, shall I?’

Jono practically bounced out of the room, a big grin on his face, with Laine following close behind him. If it was possible, Sean looked even happier than Jono. Julia caught his eye, and they did a small pantomime of microexpressions indicating surprise and happiness and the promise of a full discussion on the matter as soon as they were alone.

‘Now, Hayley,’ Tabitha said, who had clearly been waiting for the opportunity to address the important matter of the day. ‘I heard that you arrested Troilus. Can you tell us any more? Whatever isn’t confidential, I mean.’

‘The press is all over it, as you can imagine. It will be in all the papers tomorrow, so there’s no need for secrecy,’ Hayley said. ‘I can tell you that Troilus has been arrested for both murders. The evidence is pretty overwhelming.’

‘But why?’ said Sylvia. ‘I don’t understand.’

Julia answered slowly. ‘Troilus had a really difficult childhood. His mother died when he was young, and his world has centred around Hector, who protected him and looked after him, not always disciplining him when he should have. They had both lost the person they loved most, and it made them even closer to each other. Too close, some might argue.’

‘But what made him want to kill those men?’ asked Sylvia. ‘Not every traumatised young man ends up murdering people.’

‘You’re quite right. It would probably never have happened if it wasn’t for the show. Troilus saw how desperately Hector wanted a bigger part, and I think that he saw a way he could finally help his father, like his father always helped him. Troilus killed Graham thinking that with him gone, and with Hector himself knowing the lines, he’d get the lead role.’

‘That’s right,’ said Hayley. ‘It seems that he was often around at rehearsals, skulking about the hall, or backstage. Nobody really noticed him after a while.’

‘That’s so true,’ said Julia. ‘When we had to list the people involved in the show, we didn’t even think of Troilus. We all treated him like Hector’s shadow. Maybe if we hadn’t…’ Julia felt herself getting upset again, as she did every time she thought about how their dismissive attitude to Troilus had almost helped him get away with not one, but two murders.

Sean reached out a comforting hand. ‘You couldn’t have known, Julia.’

‘You certainly couldn’t have,’ said Hayley firmly.

‘So, what happened, exactly?’ Sylvia asked Hayley. ‘How did he do it?’

‘He knew that Oscar pulled the trigger in the final scene. He’d seen him do it in the dress rehearsal. He was one of those children who collected odd objects that he found – fossils and broken trinkets and, as luck would have it, an old bullet that he had found in a field. Hector said that it had never occurred to him that it was an actual bullet. He put it into the prop gun. I’mnot sure he actually understood that it wasn’t a real gun, and unfortunately, some models of prop gun sometimes work if they are loaded with a real bullet. It was a tragic set of unfortunate coincidences.’

‘And his father didn’t get the role?’ Sylvia asked.

‘No. Roger Grave, the director, didn’t give it to him, because he knew he couldn’t do it justice,’ said Julia. ‘We heard the audition, Tabitha and I. Hector is a really terrible actor.’

‘Indescribably bad,’ Tabitha concurred.

‘So Troilus killed the director?’

‘Yes,’ Julia nodded. ‘I don’t think Troilus meant to kill him. He just wanted to persuade him that his father was right for the part. Wanted todosomething for Hector. But things got out of hand.’

Hayley nodded. ‘That’s his story, and I believe it. He threw the Shakespeare book at Grave, and Grave fell and hit his head.’

Tabitha shook her head sadly. ‘I just can’t believe that two people are dead over a part in an amateur play!’

‘It was nearly three people,’ Sean said with a shudder. He reached over and took Julia’s hand. ‘He came to Julia’s house. He threatened to…’ He could hardly say the words.

‘Oh, I don’t think it would have come to that. I don’t think he would really have harmed me,’ said Julia, with more certainty than she felt. It had turned out that Troilus had an iron poker in his satchel, which Julia had a horrible feeling would have been a far more effective weapon thanTheComplete Works of Shakespeare. She reminded herself that it hadn’t come to that. ‘Anyway, Hayley showed up just in time, so all’s well that ends well.’

Sylvia looked at Hayley, her eyes wide with admiration. ‘You saved the day?’ she asked.

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