The Twist of a Knife

‘You have absolutely no right to bring Stephen into this.’ Longhurst leaned forward in his chair, speaking for the first time. ‘It’s bad enough dragging me into your petty accusations, Mr Hawthorne. But Stephen was the victim in all this and you should leave him out of it. He’s completely irrelevant.’

‘I would have said Philip Alden was the victim,’ Hawthorne replied. ‘He was the one who ended up dead with his skull caved in. And as for relevance, let’s not forget that Harriet Throsby wrote a very nasty book about your parents and what happened in Moxham Heath. You told us that you blame her for the break-up of their marriage and the impact that had on your life. You also blamed Frank Heywood, the drama critic of the Bristol Argus. He knew Harriet and brought her into your lives. He fed her the information she needed. And that brings us to our third death, because he was killed too, apparently by food poisoning in an Indian restaurant. That was a very long time ago and we’ll never be sure, but maybe it wasn’t quite the accident it seemed.’

‘I’ve never heard of Frank Heywood,’ Grunshaw complained.

‘That’s because you haven’t done your job,’ Hawthorne returned. ‘You might have asked yourself why Harriet had her book out on the morning of her death. Bad Boys: Life and Death in an English Village. Maybe she was trying to tell somebody something.

‘You see what I’m getting at? All these complications! Quite frankly, it does my head in.’

Hawthorne fell silent.

When, after a lengthy pause, he still hadn’t continued, it was Derek Mills who called out from the stalls. ‘So if it wasn’t Tony, do you know who did kill Harriet?’

‘Oh yes.’ Hawthorne smiled. ‘That bit is easy.’

25 Final Act

‘You know what I never understood?’ Hawthorne asked. ‘As I’ve said, every single person on this stage had a good reason to kill Harriet Throsby. But why frame Tony? I mean, that’s just stupid. Not only is he completely harmless, but it’s obvious he wouldn’t commit a murder. At least, it’s obvious to everyone apart from DI Grunshaw and DC Mills. If anyone was going to be framed, it should have been Jordan Williams. He was the one most upset by the review and he announced it in front of everyone. “I’ll kill her, I swear to you … Someone should put a knife in her!”

‘And here’s another thing. Why use Tony’s knife? If Harriet Throsby had been stabbed with a kitchen knife, there could have been a million and one suspects. Anyone in London could have killed her. But by using one of the Macbeth daggers, the killer narrowed the number of suspects down to the people who are here today.’ Hawthorne swept his hand across the whole group of us. ‘Only one of you sitting in this theatre could have got your hands on the Macbeth dagger.’

‘I couldn’t have got it,’ Olivia said.

‘That’s true,’ Hawthorne agreed. ‘But someone could have got it for you.’

‘And who might that have been?’

‘Your friend, Sky Palmer.’

‘We hardly know each other.’

‘Really?’ Hawthorne went over to her. ‘When we were at your home, you told your dad he didn’t need to pretend any more.’

‘So what?’

‘So why are you still pretending now? What are you afraid of? Your mum isn’t here to call you out any more.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Arthur Throsby demanded.

It was Sky Palmer who answered. ‘He’s talking about me.’ She stood up and went over to Olivia, resting her hands on her shoulders. ‘You might as well tell him. He knows.’

Olivia glanced briefly at her father, then placed one of her own hands on Sky’s. ‘We’re together,’ she said, simply.

Sky glared at Hawthorne. ‘Who told you?’

‘Nobody needed to tell me. It might have just been a coincidence that Olivia was wearing a T-shirt printed with a well-known gay icon at the first-night party. But obviously the two of you were close. She’d been round to your place loads of times.’

‘I never said that,’ Sky protested.

‘No. But when we met at the theatre you mentioned all the CCTV cameras along the canal, which meant you knew the flat was near one. And you must have been there because you’d seen them.’ Sky said nothing, so he went on. ‘Why else would Olivia have bust into her mum’s computer and sent you the review? I did wonder why you were hiding your relationship – I mean, these days, two girls like you should be out having a nice time – but it all made sense when I talked to Harriet’s old editor in Bristol. He said that Harriet slated the first play she ever reviewed because she hated gay relationships. I could imagine that would have made life awkward for you.’

These last words had been addressed to Olivia, who nodded. ‘I couldn’t tell her. It would have been more trouble than it was worth.’

‘I hate to say this, but it does give you both a real reason to want to do away with her.’

Sky looked Hawthorne straight in the eye. ‘I can’t disagree with that.’ She dragged another chair from the side and sat down next to Olivia.