Free A Comedian Dies by Simon Brett Page B

the reasons of his own. He was off stealing the dancers’ knickers.’
    â€˜Not far off.’
    â€˜So, what . . . you reckon someone fiddled with the electrics after Peaky had tested them?’
    â€˜Again, it’s possible.’
    â€˜But how?’
    â€˜Haven’t got that far yet.’
    â€˜Hmm. I think you may be on a wild goose chase. That theatre’s electrics were so ropey nothing would surprise me about them. I would imagine whatever the fault was just came and went.’
    â€˜Maybe.’
    â€˜But anyway, your suspicions are heading towards Janine at the moment?’
    â€˜As she had been having an affair with him and had a major row on the day of his death, she would seem to have some sort of motive.’
    â€˜Yes. Mind you, who didn’t? I don’t think there was a single person in that company whose back he hadn’t got up at some point. He was bloody rude to everyone – all the dancers, the pop group lot, that miserable little pianist. Even poor old Walter. He’d been hanging round for some time trying to get a telly show going, but Peaky treated him like dirt, kept saying he was getting better offers from the other companies, that sort of line.’
    â€˜Oh, so Walter had been down to see the show before that day?’
    â€˜Oh yeah, three or four times.’
    â€˜I see. But going back to Janine . . .’
    â€˜Sorry. Don’t think I can help you. Never even knew her address.’
    â€˜She’s moved anyway, but I thought you might know some of her friends or . . .’
    â€˜Don’t know she had any. You could try the rest of the group, I suppose. No, she was a funny little thing. Very quiet. Apparently lived with this boyfriend in London, but nobody never knew his name. I gather the entry of Prince Bloody Charming Bill Peaky into her life really confused her. Should she give up boy-friend? Should she even tell boy-friend? You know how screwed up kids get about that sort of thing.’
    He spoke as if people who got upset about sexual matters belonged to an alien race. The whisky glass was filled again and emptied.
    Charles was back where he started. Barber’s comments had told him nothing new about Janine. They had opened up possibilities for investigation of other characters involved in
Sun ’n’ Funtime,
but Charles found it difficult to concentrate on more than one suspect at a time. Until he had seen Janine, any other course of inquiry seemed a bit futile. Once she had been eliminated . . . Even as he thought it, the word ‘eliminated’ took on sinister overtones. What had happened to Janine Bentley?
    The producer of the show arrived with the dishy researcher. Lennie Barber slumped back into his posture of glazed incapacity.
    â€˜All set?’ asked the producer with imposed joviality. (Incidentally, the producer was not Walter Proud, who, though responsible for the original idea of recreating the Barber and Pole routine, seemed since to have been pushed into the background.)
    â€˜Set? I’m as set as a bloody blancmange, thank you.’ Lennie Barber rose to his feet expansively, then seemed to lose his balance and sank back, arms windmilling, onto the side of his chair. Chair and comedian collapsed in a sprawling heap on the floor. The producer and the dishy researcher hastened forward to scoop Barber up.
    â€˜Are you going to be all right for the show?’ The acid in the producer’s tone was trickling straight down to his stomach to feed his incipient ulcer.
    â€˜No problem.’ Lennie Barber oriented himself towards the door and got through it, hardly hitting the frame at all.
    Ignoring Charles, the producer and the dishy researcher scuttled after. As they passed, he heard them muttering, ‘Thank God we keep that interview with Greg Robson in reserve. Just need a quick announcement from continuity about a change to the scheduled programme.’
    Alexander Harvey’s high