knocked you out used your robe as a disguise and followed Maria and Sheila onto the stage. As I understand it, you pretend to push Mr. Chesterfield down while he is crawling over the edge of the sarcophagus and hiding in the dolly.”
“Yes.”
“The killer stabbed him in the coffin when he was pretending to push him down, then he may have left by the backstage exit near the loading dock after discarding your robe.”
“Oh my God!”
Anders held up the robe. It was oversized and bulky. “With the hood up and the long sleeves, no one in the audience would be able to see who was wearing the robe, but what about the other assistants? Wouldn’t they see the killer?”
“There’s a good chance they wouldn’t,” Porter said. “It’s dark at the back of the theater. I usually help Maria push the sarcophagus up the aisle and onto the stage, but Sheila would have helped her if the killer showed up after the finale started. They would be looking forward, so they wouldn’t see someone dressed in my robe if the hood was up and he was standing behind them. The killer would still be behind them when they lifted the coffin lid, and they stare toward the back of the stage. If the killer kept his head down, the sides of the hood would block a view of his face.
“Bobby sits up in the coffin and I pretend to push him down. He would be vulnerable when he sits up. The killer could stab him then, and Maria and Sheila wouldn’t notice, because they’re still staring toward the back of the stage. After that, they lower the lid on the sarcophagus, so they wouldn’t see Bobby inside. Meanwhile, the killer would go behind Maria and Sheila and push the dolly off the stage, so they would never notice that someone else was dressed in my robe.”
“I found the inhaler,” an officer said.
“Where was it?” Ragland asked.
The policeman pointed to a drawer in one of the tables the assistant used for applying makeup.
“That’s Maria Rodriguez’s table,” Porter said.
“Could you have put it in her drawer by mistake?” Anders asked.
“Absolutely not. I specifically remember putting it on my table. And why would I put my inhaler in Maria’s drawer?”
“Do you have another inhaler you can use, because this one is evidence,” Anders said.
“I have extras where I’m staying.”
“Okay. I think that’s enough for now, unless you have some other questions, Peter, Roger?”
Dillon shook his head.
“I’m good,” Ragland said. Then he turned to the officer who had found the robe. “Put this robe, the clothes, the inhaler, and the cloth with the ether in evidence bags and give them to the lab techs. If we get lucky, there may be trace evidence on them.”
“We’re going to have a doctor check you out,” Anders told Nancy, “but we’ll need an official statement later.”
“Of course.” She shook her head again. “I can’t believe Bobby is dead.”
When they were headed back to the stage, Anders said, “One thing we can be sure of, whoever killed Chesterfield knew how the Chamber of Death worked.”
Dillon nodded. “He had to have seen it performed in order to know Porter’s role in the trick and her routine before each performance.”
“He also had to have been in the theater before today,” Ragland said. “The killer got Porter to stay in her dressing room when Sheila and Maria left by hiding her inhaler while she was onstage. Only someone who knew a lot about the assistants would know that Porter had asthma and had to have the inhaler when she worked on the Chamber of Death trick.”
Anders told Dillon and Ragland about her conversation with Robin Lockwood.
“We have to talk to everyone who works in the theater to find out if Turner, Madison, Samuels, and the men who attacked Chesterfield were seen in the theater during rehearsals,” Ragland said.
“Now that we’ve narrowed the list of possible suspects, solving this case should be a snap,” Dillon told Anders. “Maybe I’ll let you crack it, so you can get the credit. You should have it wrapped up in no time.”
“Yeah, if I were a magician.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Norman Chow was still pacing the stage when the trio approached and asked him if they could use his office for interviews. As soon as Chow agreed, Roger Dillon told Tamara Robinson to bring in Joe Samuels.
“I will,” Robinson said, “but he couldn’t have killed Chesterfield. I was standing near him during the performance. He never left his seat during