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“And from there,” said Tom, who was now bending to look into the dead woman’s bloodshot
eyes, “we went together back into the ballroom and did a slow circle of observation. So I can
confirm Emma’s claim that the body was not in its cruel position dangling from the ship’s mast at just
after five o’clock.”
“If you could confirm my timeline, why did you make me start?” Emma said in exasperation.
“I just wanted to hear you tell everyone about how that Siberian got you to close your eyes,”
Tom said cheerfully, gently pushing Mrs. Kirby’s left eyelid closed. “He told her she’d be more
submissive to his burly masculine will if she couldn’t see, and, against all odds, our girl agreed.”
“Moving on,” Trevor said.
“We went up the grand staircase that connects the ballroom floor to the performance level and
spent just at twelve minutes poking around the costume and prop rooms behind the curtain,” Tom
said. “Like Emma, I am quite certain of the time, for I looked at my pocket watch just after we found
the body. Thus it seems that whoever placed Mrs. Kirby in the flag did it with an amazing rapidity,
almost as if he knew that we would be coming back into the ballroom within minutes.”
“Was she killed there in the theater, do you think,” Davy asked. “Or killed and moved?”
“What would your guess be?” Trevor asked mildly.
“Killed and moved,” Davy said promptly. “Obviously Mrs. Kirby was not going to her meeting
with Tom dressed in a gypsy costume. So while he was in the hall waiting for her, she was late
because she was either already dead or was being murdered at that very moment. Then the murderer
dressed her as a gypsy and took her to the theater.”
“Quite right,” Trevor said. “Although it’s nearly impossible to imagine that anyone could
murder a woman, strip her of the clothes she was wearing, and then dress her in this rather complex
and outlandish outfit, and still have the time to hide her body all within twelve minutes. So most
likely she was already dead and dressed when Emma and Tom went up the stairs to explore the
costume and prop rooms.”
“The choice of the costume is bewildering,” said Rayley. “It’s meant as a message, obviously,
the sort that would be impossible to ignore, at least if you were the person to whom it was being
sent. The killer garbs the poor woman as a gypsy and rolls her in a flag, for God’s sake. A flag
placed in a position that is guaranteed to not only be found, but be found and released in a most
spectacular fashion. What we have is the opposite of trying to conceal a murder. Our killer wished