I’ll want to talk to you about what you saw, but right now I need your help. I understand you two can put the snakes and scorpions that are in the sarcophagus back into their cages.”
“It’s a vivarium,” Maria said. “That’s what you call it.”
“Thanks. I didn’t know that. Are you up to putting the snakes and scorpions in the vivariums so the medical examiner can start to work?”
“Yes,” Maria answered.
“Before you do that, I understand Nancy Porter is missing. Do you know where she is?”
Maria said no and Sheila shook her head.
“Can you remember what she did before and during the Chamber of Death illusion?” Dillon asked.
“We were onstage for one of Bobby’s other illusions,” Maria said. “When he finished that trick, we went to our dressing room and put on these robes for the Chamber of Death while he did some card tricks onstage by himself. When it was time for the finale, we went to the back of the theater so we could push the sarcophagus onstage.”
“Actually, you and I did,” Sheila said, “but Nancy couldn’t find her inhaler. She has asthma. So we left and she joined us a few minutes later.”
“That’s right,” Maria agreed. “Anyway, she joined us just as we started pushing the sarcophagus down the aisle and onto the stage. Then Bobby got in the coffin, and we covered it while Nancy pushed the roller offstage.”
“She’s supposed to come back onstage, but that’s the last I saw of her,” Sheila said.
“Me too,” Maria chimed in.
“Thanks,” Anders said. “Let’s get rid of the scorpions and reptiles so the ME can do her job.”
The women followed Anders and Dobson to the coffin just as a policeman ran out from backstage to say, “I found Nancy Porter.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
While Ragland, Anders, and Dillon followed the policeman, he told them that he had found Porter lying unconscious on the floor of the dressing room that the assistants used. A cloth that smelled of ether was on the floor next to her. When Anders and Dillon opened the dressing room door, they saw a slender redhead clad in a bra and panties sprawled on the floor. Someone had put a pillow under her head, and an EMT was bending over her. Porter tried to sit up.
“Take it easy,” the EMT said.
“What happened?” Porter groaned.
Anders squatted next to her. “I’m Carrie Anders. I’m a detective with the Portland Police Bureau. It looks like someone used ether to knock you out. How are you feeling?”
“Woozy.”
“Can you stand?” Anders asked.
“I think so.”
Anders saw a dress hanging on a rack that looked to be Porter’s size and helped her get it on.
There was a couch in the dressing room, and Anders and the EMT helped Porter walk over to it.
“What do you remember?” Dillon asked when Porter was sitting down.
Before she could answer, the door opened and an officer walked in holding a red hooded robe decorated with hieroglyphics and some other clothes. “I found this near the exit to the loading dock in the back of the theater.”
Dillon took charge of the robe and the clothes. They were similar to clothes he’d seen the stagehands wearing. Then he held out the robe. “Is this yours?” he asked.
Porter studied it. “It looks like it.”
“Do you remember what happened before you passed out?” Dillon asked.
“I have asthma, and I always have to have my inhaler with me if I do something strenuous like pushing the dolly off the stage by myself. Only the inhaler wasn’t where I’d put it. I started looking for it and…” She shook her head. “That’s all I remember.”
“When was the last time you saw your inhaler?” Dillon asked.
Porter was lost in thought for a few moments. “Bobby does a trick where he levitates one of us. Then he does card tricks by himself so we have time to change into our costumes for the Chamber of Death. I’m pretty sure I put my inhaler on my dressing table before the levitation trick, but it wasn’t there when I came back to change into my robe for the Chamber of Death.”
Ragland turned to the officer who’d brought in the robe. “Search this room for Ms. Porter’s inhaler.”
“Did you see who attacked you?” Dillon asked.
“No.” Porter looked around. “Why are all these police officers here?”
“This might be a shock. Are you feeling up to hearing some very disturbing news?” Dillon asked.