Death at the Opera

by Gladys Mitchell

  Having despatched the letter, Mrs. Bradley took out the small cards and played three varieties of Patience; then she took out a scribbling-block and began to write on it every characteristic of Calma Ferris which had impressed itself upon her mind.

  “She was inoffensive.

  “She had financed the production of The Mikado.

  “She had damaged Mr. Smith’s Psyche.

  “She had annoyed Miss Camden by keeping a girl in instead of allowing her to play in the school netball team.

  “She had been given a chief part in the opera, and, in consequence, Miss Camden had been left out of the cast.

  “She was conscientious.

  “She was hardworking.

  “She was painstaking.

  “She was so colourless herself that she expected other people to be much more colourful than they were.

  “She knew that Alceste Boyle and Frederick Hampstead were lovers.

  “She had seen Hurstwood embracing Miss Cliffordson.

  “It does not appear that she knew of the sittings which Moira Malley gave Mr. Smith for the Psyche.

  “Nobody gained anything by her death, except certain persons above mentioned, who were relieved from immediate embarrassment, perhaps, but who cannot have thought that they would suffer indefinitely if they were betrayed to the Headmaster by Miss Ferris.

  “Apart from the persons above mentioned she had no enemies, so far as I can discover.

  “She was killed during the First Act of the opera, before she had made any appearance on the stage.

  “She was a failure at the dress-rehearsal.

  “She greatly improved at a subsequent rehearsal.

  “At this subsequent rehearsal the actors were not in costume.

  “At the dress-rehearsal Alceste Boyle demonstrated how the part of ‘Katisha’ should be played. On the night of the opera Alceste Boyle took the part which Calma Ferris should have taken.

  “Therefore, in two respects, the dress-rehearsal and the actual performance were alike, i.e., both were done in costume and complete make-up.

  “Therefore, in the same two respects, the dress-rehearsal was unlike any other rehearsal.

  “Both the dress-rehearsal and the final show were performed with Alceste Boyle instead of Calma Ferris in the part of ‘Katisha.’

  “But at the dress-rehearsal Alceste Boyle took the part over when Calma Ferris had done it badly, because she wished to help and instruct her.

  “Whereas, at the final performance, Alceste Boyle took the part because Calma Ferris was not there to take it.

  “And Calma Ferris was not there to take it because Calma Ferris was dead.”

  Mrs. Bradley re-read what she had written, tore off the last sheet, which was still attached to the scribbling-block, clipped the sheets together, and put them on one side. Then she addressed herself to the virgin sheet on the block and began again:

  “Calma Ferris was drowned.

  “The people who knew she went to the water-lobby the first time to bathe her face are:

  “Hurstwood,

  “Miss Camden,

  “Little Maisie Something, the call-boy,

  “Mr. Smith (perhaps. He may not have known which water-lobby she used, as there is another on the same side of the building),

  “Alceste Boyle (perhaps. She does not admit it.)

  “The people who knew she went to the water-lobby a second (?) time to bathe her face were (?)

  “But she must have gone a second time.”

  Mrs. Bradley tore the sheet off, laid it with the others, and began again:

  “The murderer must be

  “1. Prompt to act. This would be so in the case of Hurstwood, Moira Malley, Miss Camden. This would not be so in the case of Mr. Smith.

  “2. Somebody who was offering to render assistance, i.e., first aid, to Miss Ferris. This could have been Moira Malley; Miss Camden; possibly, but not probably, Hurstwood; possibly, but most improbably, Mr. Smith.

  “3. A conversationalist. Something had to be done to distract Miss Ferris’s attention from the fact that the bowl was filling up. Of all the people who appear to be most nearly concerned, I cannot imagine Hurstwood, Moira Malley nor Mr. Smith producing a flow of prattle. Miss Camden might, but somehow I cannot imagine it from what I know of her.

  “4. Somebody who can act a part and preserve a face of brass. There was that dreadful interval to get through. Calma Ferris, dead. The possibility that at any moment the body might be discovered. It must have been a time of dreadful strain. Moira Malley and Hurstwood were both upset. Mr. Smith did not appear to be—at least, nobody has suggested that he was. Miss Camden was in the audience.

  “It looks like Miss Camden, except that, evidence or no evidence, I feel certain she would have given herself away. Smith, of course, is an artist. ‘Art for Art’s sake’ and so on. Oh . . .?”

  Light had come.

  Mrs. Bradley tore the sheet off, and laid it with the others. Then she rang for milk and biscuits, and began to write a letter:—

  “MY DEAR FRIEND,” she wrote,

  “I should like to come and see you if I may. I have solved the mystery of Calma Ferris’s death, and I think you might be interested to hear my conclusions. As I know your motive for removing the poor woman from the cast of The Mikado, I am convinced that you have committed your last crime against society in the interests of your art. I admire an artist, and one who is so consistently and integrally on the side of the Muses as to commit murder in their defence seems to me worthy to have been born in a less decadent and squeamish age than this in which we live. I admit myself to be decadent and squeamish in that, while I appreciate your motive, I deprecate the cruelty of robbing that inoffensive woman of her life.

  “My difficulty in finding a solution to the problem has been the fact that one person besides yourself possesses most of the characteristics necessary for the commission of this particular—I was about to say ‘crime,’ but, perhaps, I had better say ‘wilful act.’ The murderer, it seemed to me, had to possess courage, will-power, initiative and tremendous self-control. I ought to have seen sooner that Miss Camden, whom I suspected for weeks, did not sufficiently possess this last characteristic. She is not particularly self-controlled. She is reckless, extravagant, unstable, and would have given herself away to everybody if she had committed the deed. No. Everything points to you. You killed Miss Ferris—I see it more clearly every minute—because you are essentially an artist. You saw Alceste Boyle perform the part of ‘Katisha’ at the dress-rehearsal. You observed that she is a particularly fine actress. You had already seen poor Calma Ferris bungle the part hopelessly. You are an old woman, and you wanted to see the part played once more—perfectly. You removed Calma. Alceste, as you foresaw, had to take the part.

  “You had not premeditated the crime. Nobody could have foreseen that Mr. Smith was going to charge down the corridor, break Miss Ferris’s glasses and cut her face. You went into the water-lobby after her, I think—nobody appears to have seen you—to see whether you could be of any assistance. You saw her bending over the basin. Then Miss Camden came along the corridor, and you slipped into the nearest doorway, I suppose, and left her to render first-aid. But the little cut was deep, and when Miss Ferris had been attended to, she had to return to the dressing-room so that her make-up could be replaced.

  “You took care to re-open that small, deep cut. She had to go again to the water-lobby to bathe it. This time you went along with her. You had a lump of modelling-clay for the purpose of broadening Mr. Smith’s nose, when you made him up as the ‘Mikado’. This lump of clay you thrust into the waste-pipe. Poor Miss Ferris, blind as a bat without her glasses, did not notice what you were doing. Then you pressed the tap with one hand, dabbed her face (with Hurstwood’s handkerchief) with the other, and kept up a flow of easy, interesting, amusing chatter. Oh, that chatter! How it bothered me to think who, among those teachers or those children, could so easily have held the victim enthralled—so enthr
alled that she did not heed the basin filling . . . filling. . . .

  “It was beautifully done. And I congratulate you. You slipped into your seat—your nice seat in the middle of the third row—and you saw the first entrance of ‘Katisha.’ You felt justified in what you had lately come from doing. During the interval you touched up faces, adjusted wigs, chattered and laughed, an actress in every sense of the word. Then you returned to the audoritium for the Second Act, while that inoffensive woman—you told me yourself that she was an inoffensive woman!—do you remember?—lay out in the lobby dead.

  “But to murder her because she was an inoffensive woman seems to me almost a divine gesture. She was too inoffensive to play the part as you felt it should be played, and so you murdered her, and had Alceste Boyle instead to entertain you in the character of ‘Katisha.’

  “I remain for always your sincere admirer,

  “BEATRICE A. L. BRADLEY.”

  She addressed the letter to Madame V. Berotti.

  APPENDIX

  MRS. BRADLEY’S CONCLUSIONS

  1. SMITH, DONALD.

  Capable of murder.

  Is a teacher.

  Is an artist.

  Loves Alceste Boyle.

  Does not hate Calma Ferris.

  Relieved his feelings by stamping on his ruined clay model.

  Spent a considerable amount of time during Act One of The Mikado in conversing with the electrician.

  The electrician was a bogus electrician.

  He was not sent by the firm.

  He did not understand electrical appliances.

  He may have been Cutler.

  Mrs. Hampstead, a dipsomaniac, is drowned. As soon as Mrs. Hampstead died, Hampstead was free to marry Alceste Boyle.

  Was Mrs. Hampstead murdered?

  Did Cutler murder her?

  If Cutler murdered her, it was for gain.

  Would Cutler consider a promise of £250 sufficient inducement to commit murder?

  If he thought it worth while to steal a watch and a small sum from the school caretaker—yes.

  The Artist. Smith borrowed the money from Alceste Boyle to pay the price of her freedom.

  The Teacher. Smith deputed another a person to perform the messy manual labour of murder.

  Proof presumptive but not proof absolute that Mrs. Hampstead was murdered by Cutler at the instigation of Smith.

  The Murder of Susie Cozens

  Cutler murdered Cozens.

  He did not murder her for pecuniary gain.

  This is extraordinary, therefore she must have been a menace to his safety.

  How could she be?

  When she worked for Miss Lincallow she could have found correspondence relating to the proposed killing of Mrs. Hampstead.

  Was she smart enough to read between the lines of such correspondence?

  Apparently she was, if she had to be murdered to shut her mouth.

  She, then, could have proved that Cutler murdered Mrs. Hampstead. If it could have been proved by Susie Cozens, it must have been a fact.

  Proof. Therefore, Cutler did murder Mrs. Hampstead, and, since he could have had no reason for disliking her, since he did not know her, he murdered her for money.

  The money would have been promised by

  Hampstead,

  Alceste Boyle or Smith.

  Which of them could have known where to write to Cutler? (For the silly story of the advertisement inserted in the newspapers cannot be true.)

  Smith, since he had painted his portrait. I wonder why he presented the portrait to the Headmaster?

  2. BEROTTI, MADAME V.

  Capable of murder. (We all are!)

  Knew of the accident.

  Knew that Calma Ferris went a second time to the water-lobby.

  Was the only person, probably, who did know this, since she and Calma would have been in the dressing-room together until it was time for Calma to get ready at the side of the stage for her first entrance.

  She had the modelling-clay in her possession, since she used some of it in making-up Smith’s nose.

  She was an actress.

  She was the most likely person, therefore, to retain her composure and sang-froid under difficult circumstances.

  This would account for the fact that not one of the suspected persons gave himself or herself away under interrogation.

  True, Smith was ill at ease, but then he had the Cutler-Mrs. Hampstead-murder on his mind.

  True, so was Miss Camden, but she had a guilt-complex over the forgery connected with the headmaster’s cheque.

  True, Moira Malley was nerve-ridden and hysterical, but then she thought Smith had committed the murder.

  Motive. Mrs. Berotti is an artist. Everyone insisted on it.

  She had seen Calma Ferris act very badly.

  She had seen Alceste Boyle act superlatively well.

  She risked her neck to get the part of ‘Katisha’ performed as she knew it could be and ought to be performed.

  I recognize that this motive would be more easily credible if the piece had been grand opera or great tragedy. It seems a slight motive when the piece was comic opera.

  But Mrs. Berotti is a very old woman. She may not see many more pieces performed.

  Besides The murder was a gesture. “Away with incompetents!” she said. “Let us have the thing done as it might be done by the angels.”

  Proof But the proof of her guilt is that she was the only person who must have known for certain that Calma Ferris went to the water-lobby a second time.