The Colors of Hate – 14

“What do you think?” Reid asked, handing the finished sketch to Kirby.

Kirby studied it, tapping a knuckle against his teeth as he did. “I don’t know. There’s a vague resemblance, but…”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking, ‘but’. It’s in the eyes mainly. The rest could have been altered if you knew what you were doing.”

“It doesn’t make sense though. Why him?”

“Only one way to find out, though not until we’ve finished checking alibis.”

“He doesn’t really have one unless… Tell you what, I’ll check his out, you deal with the others.”

Reid arched an eyebrow then nodded. “Go for it.”

* * * *

“I see. So once everyone is gone, you turn on the security system and take off as well,” Kirby said.

The guard nodded. “Pretty much so, yeah. Sometimes one of the bigwigs stays behind to work on something but they all have the codes so they can get out on their own.”

“Do you keep a record of who does that?” Kirby asked him.

“Sure.” The guard shuffled a pile of papers on his desk, which was situated by the rear door of the theater. He finally found the one he wanted. “Which day?”

“Two nights ago.”

“Okay. Mr Travers and Mr Olsen, and one of Olsen’s crew were here late. There’s no way of telling when they actually left though.” He shook his head in disgust, adding, “Mr Nester didn’t see any reason to have the security company track the times when the system was armed or disarmed.”

“Too bad, because that might have helped us. Olsen’s the lighting tech, right?”

“Yep.”

“Is he here now?”

The guard snorted. “It’s final dress so everyone’s here, and busy. You’ll play hell trying to talk to him right now.”

“Where would I look?”

“In the auditorium or the lighting booth. Try that first.”

“Thanks.”

After the guard told him how to get to it, Kirby made his way to the booth. When he got there an older man shot a look at him, telling his he wasn’t supposed to be there.

Kirby flashed his badge before asking, “Are you Mr Olsen?”

The man nodded, sighing. “Can’t this wait?”

“I just have a couple of quick questions. You and one of your crew were working late the night Ms Westcott was killed, right?”

“Yes. And before you ask, we were together the whole time, making what we hoped were final adjustments on some of the lights.”

Kirby smiled slightly, looking up at lights hanging from the catwalks above them. “Better you than me. What I really want to know though is, did you see Mr Travers at any point while you were here?”

After a moment’s thought Olsen shook his head. “I didn’t, but let me ask Mike.” He crossed to one of the men manning the lighting board. A minute later he was back. “He says he heard someone moving around backstage but didn’t see anyone. I guess it could have been Dean.”

“Thank you. That’s all I needed to know.”