Free A Medal For Murder by Frances Brody

visiting the sewers, or Hades. At least until dawn, there was nowhere else to go.
    I guessed the time to be about three in the morning. Saturday. Soon the world would be stirring to life.
    At least I was not the only one who could not sleep. Footsteps sounded on the floor above, the captain on the march.
    Well, if sleep would not come, there was something else I might do. Inspector Charles had asked for a statement. He should have one. If, without too much noise, I could light the candle from the mantelpiece, set it on the table, and take my writing case from the bag, then I could get on with it.
    Do it now, I told myself. Hand it in tomorrow on the way to the railway station, and get home in time to make a couple more visits for Mr Moony. The poor man had already given me his cheque, and he deserved priority.
    Enough moonlight came through the curtains for me to see the candle, and matches. Fortunately, Meriel had her back to me. She slept soundly as I took out my writing case. Meriel’s theatre programme lay on the table. I used it as a crib, to remind myself of the names of the cast.
    Mrs Kate Shackleton, Statement, Saturday, 26 August, 1922
I met Miss Jamieson through a mutual friend last December. About three months ago, she asked if I would do her the favour of taking photographs of the cast of
Anna of the Five Towns
. She then invited me to see the play.
At last night’s performance, I sat in the front stalls, next to Mr Burrington Wheatley, a theatre producer from Manchester. Mr Milner arrived about ten minutes into the performance. He took the empty seat on my left. After the interval, I moved to the rear stalls, as did Mr Wheatley. Mr Milner had been rather talkative during the first act.
During and after the performance, Mr Milner expressed admiration for the leading lady, Lucy Wolfendale.
In the theatre bar, Mr Wheatley spoke to Miss Jamieson. He then left for his hotel, The Grand. Miss Jamieson was very much engaged, moving from group to group in the bar, accepting congratulations.
Knowing that I was staying the night with Miss Jamieson, Lucy Wolfendale asked me to remind her grandfather (Miss Jamieson’s landlord, Captain Wolfendale) that she would be spending the night with her friend, Alison Hart. (Alison played the part of Beatrice Sutton in the drama.) While Lucy and I were talking, Mr Milner approached and in a rather insistent way said he would give Miss Wolfendale a lift home. She said that she was not ready to go home. It was apparent from her manner that his attentions were most unwelcome. She went back to be with her young friends: Rodney Milner, Alison Hart and Dylan Ashton. They surrounded her in a protective manner and, as far as I am aware, remained together, and left together, along with another young man whose name I do not know.
Out of sympathy for Lucy, and because I thought Mr Milner was being a pest to her, I kept him talking. I got the impression of a vain man, happy to boast about his success. Mr Milner told me that as a young man he joined the police force in South Africa, and signed on with the army at the outbreak of the Boer War. He rose to corporal. Demobbed at the end of the war, he returned to England, to London. He experienced hardship atfirst, until an old comrade (unnamed) helped him. He came to Harrogate, where he started his business.
We talked until Madam Geerts (she played the alderman’s wife) drew Mr Milner away.
At various times, members of the cast went to collect their property from the dressing rooms, which had to be left clear for the next day. I also went to a dressing room, for my overnight bag.
Unfamiliar with the backstage area, I looked in at the wrong door and saw Madam Geerts and Mr Milner in a compromising and intimate situation. Unseen, I closed the door. M. Geerts was coming along the corridor. I felt sorry for him and tried to divert his attention by asking him to help me find my bag. He did so but did not walk back with me to the bar. It is highly likely