Free The Fourth Wall by Barbara Paul Page B

the last to leave. Every night he escorted Ian Cavanaugh to a waiting limousine that whisked the actor straight home, where another guard was waiting.
    â€œThe problem, of course,” said Sergeant Piperson, “is whether we have one nut loose or two.”
    â€œOr three?” I said dubiously. “Loren Keith.”
    â€œOr three,” he agreed. “It would be easy to assume one person is responsible for both the attacks on Sylvia Markey and the one aimed at Ian Cavanaugh, but we don’t know that to be a fact.”
    The precinct station was familiar to me now; I’d spent hours there on four separate occasions. I’d told Sergeant Piperson everything I knew about Sylvia and Ian—which in the latter case was practically nothing.
    â€œWhy did Sylvia Markey go looking for the cold cream herself? Didn’t she have a maid?” the Sergeant asked.
    â€œNot at the moment. She’d just fired her last maid.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œLord knows,” I said. “She was always firing her maids, or they were always quitting. Sylvia’s not an easy person to work for.”
    â€œDoes the management provide all the make-up? I thought actors brought their own.”
    â€œAbout half and half. Make-up is supplied, but most actors use some substitutes of their own. Different brands they like better or maybe a different kind of make-up. Sylvia Markey always used her own cold cream—the cold cream in the make-up cabinet is a regular theatrical brand. Sylvia wouldn’t have run out of her own cold cream if she’d had a maid to keep track of her supplies.”
    â€œWhat do you think about Phil Carter?”
    The abrupt change of direction didn’t exactly catch me by surprise. Phil Carter, Ian Cavanaugh’s understudy, would be acting in Foxfire right now if Sylvia Markey hadn’t run out of cold cream.
    I shook my head. “Too obvious. He’s the first one we’d all think of. Besides, Phil is just a normally ambitious actor. I can’t see him destroying Ian Cavanaugh’s face just to get a role.”
    â€œCan’t you?” Piperson said dryly. “Can you see this? Say a second-string actor gets tired of waiting for his big chance. But knocking out the star might direct suspicion toward him, so he tries a couple of red herrings first—like vandalizing the leading lady’s home and killing a cat. Then when the glamour boy gets it, that’s just one more ugly thing in a string of ugly things that’ve been happening. He might even try something else, something more to cover his trail. Possible?”
    â€œBut not probable. For one thing, he’d have no guarantee he’d get the role if Ian left the play.”
    â€œSylvia Markey’s understudy’s playing her role, isn’t she?”
    â€œYes, because we think Vivian Frank is right for the part. There aren’t any rules for these things—each case is decided individually. If anything happened to Ian Cavanaugh, Phil Carter would take over the role for a few performances at least. Until we could figure out what we wanted to do. We might decide to give the role to somebody else.” I thought a moment. “In fact, we’d probably give it to Hugh Odell.”
    â€œOdell? But he already has a part in the play.”
    â€œThat doesn’t make any difference. Hugh is a versatile actor and he knows the play—he could handle Ian’s role. He’s got a lot more experience under his belt than Phil Carter, and he’s better known. We’d probably move Hugh to Ian’s role, and then either hire someone new to replace Hugh or give Phil Carter a crack at that role. Phil was hired to understudy both Ian and Hugh.”
    â€œSo he’d still be getting a part, wouldn’t he? Not the lead, but at least he’d no longer be an understudy.” Piperson looked pleased with himself. “By the way, Abby, who’s