The Colors of Hate - 27

“So that idea is off the boards,” Dean said.

Reid nodded. “A phone call, yes, but it doesn’t preclude someone going to her place to wait for her to come home.”

“I suppose.” Dean frowned. “Carrie, Jim, Mal, anyone of them.”

“And Ms Mars,” Kirby added.

“You’re kidding. Why her?”

“She stood to gain a lot with Ms Westcott’s death. She did end up taking her place in the play.”

Dean smiled slightly. “Carrie and I actually thought of that. But she wouldn’t have had to kill her. If she was that intent on taking over, all she’d have had to do was stage an accident of some sort. A broken bone or three would have been just as effective.”

Kirby tapped his fingers together, nodding slowly. “Very true. So…she sets out to do just that and it goes awry. Same scenario, different player. She didn’t go to the club with the others from what I understand.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Dean said. “I’m sure I’m not the only one who wasn’t there, but that’s as far as it goes.”

“True. She didn’t, Mr Nester didn’t, as well as a few others.” Kirby paused then asked Dean, “Was there any reason you might have mentioned, the next morning, that you didn’t go along with the others?”

Dean laughed. “Who had the time to talk about the ‘party’ or whatever it was. We were getting ready for a major rehearsal and I was more than busy with what I had to do.”

Without replying, Kirby opened the case folder which he’d brought with him. He scanned several pages before coming to the one he wanted. “Is Mr Nester someone who, for lack of a better word, ‘gossips’ with the actors or crew members?”

“Frank?” Dean chuckled. “No. He's all business all the time. Why?”

“When we interviewed him the first time he said, and I quote, ‘I don’t know if you talked to Dean, since he didn’t go out with the others to the club.’ How would he know that unless he’d been there too?”

“Hold on, Kirby,” Reid said. “He’s got an alibi, from his wife. He went straight home from the theater.”

Kirby searched through the papers again. “Which was, according to his wife, around nine p.m. He told her he was tired and headed to bed not much later.”

“He must have had things to finish up after most of the rest of the people left. Was his name on the list from the guard?” Reid asked.

Kirby checked then shook his head. “Just Dean, Mr Olsen and Olsen’s assistant.”

“When did the guard leave?”

“Seven fifty, according to him.”   

“Then Mr Nester has an hour to account for between then and when his wife says he got home. He could have gone to the club.”

“But people would have seen him,” Dean protested.

“If he wanted to be seen. You’ve been to clubs, Dean. You know it’s easy enough to watch what’s going on, without anyone knowing you’re there, if it’s what you want to do.”

“Okay. I guess. But he was home by nine and Ange was still alive then.”