Inspector Alleyn 3-Book Collection 11: Photo-Finish, Light Thickens, Black Beech and Honeydew. Ngaio Marsh

what she felt might be overdone cordiality and asked if his message was for her.

      ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘yes, it is. She – I mean Madame Sommita – asked me to say she’s very sorry but in case you might be expecting her she can’t – she’s afraid she won’t be able – to sit for you today because – because –’

      ‘Because of rehearsals and everything? Of course. I wasn’t expecting it and in fact I’d rather not start today.’

      ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘yes. I see. Good-oh, then. I’ll tell her.’

      He made as if to go but seemed inclined to stay.

      ‘Do sit down,’ said Alleyn, ‘unless you’re in a hurry, of course. We’re hoping someone – you, if you’ve time – will tell us a little more about tomorrow night.’

      He made a movement with both hands almost as if he wanted to cover his ears but checked it and asked if they minded if he smoked. He produced a cigarette case; gold with a jewelled motif.

      ‘Will you?’ he said to Troy and when she declined, turned to Alleyn. The open case slipped out of his uncertain grasp. He said: ‘Oh. Sorry,’ and looked as if he’d been caught shoplifting. Alleyn picked it up. The inside of the lid was inscribed. There in all its flamboyance was the now familiar signature: Isabella Sommita.

      Rupert was making a dreadfully clumsy business of shutting the case and lighting his cigarette. Alleyn, as if continuing a conversation, asked Troy where she would like him to put the easel. They improvised an argument about light and the possibility of the bathing pool as a subject. This enabled them both to look out of the window.

      ‘Very tricky subject,’ Troy said. ‘I don’t think I’m up to it!’

      ‘Better maintain a masterly inactivity, you think?’ Alleyn cheerfully rejoined. ‘You may be right.’

      They turned back into the room and there was Rupert Bartholomew, sitting on the edge of the model’s throne and crying.

      He possessed male physical beauty to such a remarkable degree that there was something unreal about his tears. They trickled over the perfect contours of his face and might have been drops of water on a Greek mask. They were distressing but they were also incongruous.

      Alleyn said: ‘My dear chap, what’s the matter?’ and Troy: ‘Would you like to talk about it? We’re very discreet.’

      He talked. Disjointedly at first and with deprecating interruptions – they didn’t want to hear all this – he didn’t want them to think he was imposing – it could be of no interest to them. He wiped his eyes, blew his nose, drew hard on his cigarette and became articulate.

      At first it was simply a statement that The Alien Corn was no good, that the realization had come upon him out of the blue and with absolute conviction. ‘It was ghastly,’ he said. ‘I was pouring out drinks and suddenly, without warning, I knew. Nothing could alter it: the thing’s punk.’

      ‘Was this performance already under consideration?’ Alleyn asked him.

      ‘She had it all planned. It was meant to be a – well – a huge surprise. And the ghastly thing is,’ said Rupert, his startlingly blue eyes opened in horror, ‘I’d thought it all fantastic. Like one of those schmaltzy young-genius-makes-it films. I’d been in – well – in ecstasy.’

      ‘Did you tell her, there and then?’ asked Troy.

      ‘Not then. Mr Reece and Ben Ruby were there. I – well, I was so – you know – shattered. Sort of. I waited,’ said Rupert, and blushed, ‘until that evening.’

      ‘How did she take it?’

      ‘She didn’t take it. I mean she simply wouldn’t listen. I mean she simply swept it aside. She said – my God, she said genius always had moments like these, moments of what she called divine despair. She said she did. Over her singing. And then, when I sort of tried to stick it out, she – was – well, very angry. And you see – I mean she had cause. All her plans and arrangements. She’d written to Beppo Lattienzo and Sir David Baumgartner and she’d fixed up with Rodolfo and Hilda and Sylvia and the others. And the press. The big names. All that. I did hang out for a bit but –’

      He broke off, looked quickly at Alleyn and then at the floor. ‘There were other things. It’s more complicated than I’ve made it sound,’ he muttered.

      ‘Human relationships can be hellishly awkward, can’t they?’ Alleyn said.

      ‘You’re telling me,’ Rupert fervently agreed. Then he burst out: ‘I think I must have been mad! Or ill, even. Like running a temperature and now it’s gone and – and – I’m cleaned out and left with tomorrow.’

      ‘And you are sure?’ Troy asked. ‘What about the company and the orchestra? Do you know what they think? And Signor Lattienzo?’

      ‘She made me promise not to show it to him. I don’t know if she’s shown it. I think she has. He’ll have seen at once that it’s awful, of course. And the company: they know all right. Rodolfo Romano very tactfully suggests alterations. I’ve seen them looking at each other. They stop talking when I turn up. Do you know what they call it? They think I haven’t heard but I’ve heard all right. They call it Corn. Very funny. Oh,’ Rupert cried out, ‘she shouldn’t have done it! It hasn’t been a fair go: I hadn’t got a hope. Not a hope in hell. My God, she’s making me conduct. There I’ll stand, before those VIPs, waving my arms like a bloody puppet and they won’t know which way to look for embarrassment.’

      There was a long silence, broken at last by Troy.

      ‘Well,’ she said vigorously, ‘refuse. Never mind about the celebrities and the fuss and the phoney publicity. It’ll be very unpleasant and it’ll take a lot of guts but at least it’ll be honest. To the devil with the lot of them. Refuse.’

      He got to his feet. He had been bathing and his short yellow robe had fallen open. He’s apricot-coloured, Troy noted, not blackish tan and coarsened by exposure like most sun addicts. He’s really too much of a treat. No wonder she grabbed him. He’s a collector’s piece, poor chap.

      ‘I don’t think,’ Rupert said, ‘I’m any more chicken than the next guy. It’s not that. It’s her – Isabella. You saw last night what she can be like. And coming on top of this letter business – look, she’d either break down and make herself ill or – or go berserk and murder somebody. Me, for preference.’

      ‘Oh, come on!’ said Troy.

      ‘No,’ he said, ‘it’s not nonsense. Really. She’s a Sicilian.’

      ‘Not all Sicilians are tigers,’ Alleyn remarked.

      ‘Her kind are.’

      Troy said, ‘I’m going to leave you to Rory. I think this calls for male-chauvinist gossip.’

      When she had gone, Rupert began apologizing again. What, he asked, would Mrs Alleyn think of him?

      ‘Don’t start worrying about that,’ Alleyn said. ‘She’s sorry, she’s not shocked and she’s certainly not bored. And I think she may be right. However unpleasant it may be, I think perhaps you should refuse. But I’m afraid it’s got to be your decision and nobody else’s.’

      ‘Yes, but you see you don’t know the worst of it. I couldn’t bring it out with Mrs Alleyn here. I – Isabella – we –’

      ‘Good Lord, my dear chap –’ Alleyn began and then pulled himself up. ‘You’re lovers, aren’t you?’ he said.

      ‘If you can call it that,’ he muttered.

      ‘And you think if you take this stand against her you’ll lose her? That it?’

      ‘Not exactly – I mean, yes, of course,