The wrong mark. Part 4

Once more in the pub that evening, the pathologist joined The Inspector and his sergeant and the three police men went over their findings. “Penny was shot with her own rifle that she had permission to take home from the club. The gun was fired by remote control activated by a mobile phone. Nobody in the village was available who had the skill to help her set up the weapon, so she must have done it herself.”

“That implies suicide,” said Sergeant Smith, “but I think it was far too complicated a method for someone with access to firearms, besides she seemed to be enjoying life far too much to go down that route.”

“I don’t suppose she was pregnant or suffered from any fatal condition?” Jenkins asked the pathologist.

“No she was perfectly fit, but you just said she was shot by using a particular mobile phone number”

“True!”

“Well I didn’t mention it at the time, but she was carrying a mobile when she was shot. It appeared so inconsequential, every one carries one these days, I just supposed she’d forgotten it was there when she went on stage!”

Jenkins drew a deep breath and whispered “8, 9, 10,” just loudly enough for the other two to hear.

His colleagues were mumbling into their beer and shaking their heads with embarrassment. “I don’t suppose now we’ll ever find out how or why it happened.”

“Right Smith you can check out Penny’s mobile phone and the activating frequency of the trigger mechanism, that should help you stay awake for a while!”
Jenkins suddenly stopped dressing down his sergeant and looked round as a pub customer approached.

“The barman tells me you’re all policemen investigating the murder of a local girl,” he said, “I think I might be able to help.”

Sergeant Smith raised his head and fumbled in his pocket for a notebook, as the stranger sat down at their table.

“I’m only a visitor on business here, but about a fortnight ago the barmaid in this pub came on to me very strongly. Well she was a gorgeous girl, so naturally I went out with her a couple of times. Then she asked me if I could help her with a play that she was performing in. Of course I agreed and she told me that the producer was always trying to get the actors positioned on the stage to gain the maximum effect from the audience point of view.

Jenkins held up his hand. “Just a moment sir, before you go any further would you please tell me how tall you are?”

“Er about 5 ft 7 or 8 I think” was the puzzled reply.

Constable Smith’s face suddenly broke into a grin as he began turning back the pages in his note book.

“With you permission sir we’ll take you down to the station and interview you on tape”; said Jenkins, this could be the breakthrough we’ve been looking for.”

----O----

Later next morning, Jenkins and Smith each studied their copies of the tape transcript, making their conclusions as they read.

“Our new friend is the same height as Penny and Brian. Since she normally went out with large muscular men, she must have had an ulterior motive for seeing him. I have to admit the next events are conjectural,” continued Jenkins, “but I think we can be reasonably sure they are correct.”

“He was told to stand on a given mark on stage so she could check the effect from the audience’s point of view, but she must have gone off to the woods and sighted the rifle on his head.”

“He admits moving about on stage for a few minutes after she’d gone,” said Smith, “then he went back to what he thought was the correct mark.”

“Now I think this is the crucial part of the whole affair”, said the Inspector. “Let’s listen again to this part of the tape and see if we both draw the same conclusions.”

Jenkins started the recording and both men concentrated on the stranger’s voice.

“Well I must admit I wandered around looking at the other marks, but she’d told me I was to stand on the left hand mark of a pair down at the front of the stage. They were the final positions for the chief characters in the play and were important in the ultimate climax. So after a couple of minutes I went back and at first I couldn’t remember which mark she’d told me to stand on. Then I remembered I was to stand on the left hand one, so I remained there until I saw her coming back, then went over to meet her. She been away about fifteen minutes and thanked me for my trouble and I never saw her again. I thought it rather strange, but after all she was an actress, albeit an amateur and actresses are notorious for strange behaviour.”

“Did you get the implication?” asked Jenkins, as the tape stopped. “She’s an actress and told him to stand on the left hand side of the stage. Stage left is audience right which is where Brian’s mark was, but I’ll bet my pension our friend thought she meant the left of the two marks from the audience’s point of view.”

“When he saw her coming he left the place where he’d been standing and went to meet her,” said Sergeant Smith hurriedly just to show that he knew what the Inspector was talking about. “So she never knew that he’d chosen the wrong spot to stand.”

“Then on cue during the play, she screamed because Rupert had fired his stage gun and at the same time pressed the mobile signal which fired the rifle,” said the Inspector with some relief, “Now we can relax, send the CPS our evidence and let them decide what to do about the whole affair.”

----OOOO----