Cast For Death Read Online Free PDF Page A

– up one minute and down the next. I’d never heard of him – not by name, that is – but I’d seen him on telly. That pays well, I think.’
    ‘I imagine so. But unless you’re in a series, it’s not very steady,’ said Patrick. ‘He wasn’t well known – he just never quite made it. But he was a very good actor.’
    ‘Fond of music.’ The sergeant waved a hand at the equipment and pointed to a long row of records.
    ‘He was a cultivated man,’ said Patrick. It was dreadful to be talking about Sam in the past tense like this.
    ‘We’re having a problem finding out about friends,’ said Sergeant Bruce.
    ‘Can’t they help you at the theatre?’
    ‘Not really. No one saw him much away from there – he used to vanish after performances, it seems. But no one had any harsh words to say about him.’
    ‘I’m not surprised. He was far from harsh himself – he wouldn’t provoke a harsh reaction in others,’ said Patrick. ‘He was a quiet, self-contained man, not at all like one’s notion of an actor, performing both on and off the stage. What was he going to do when the season ended at the Fantasy? It has only a short time to run, I think.’
    ‘Oh—has it? I didn’t know about that,’ said Bruce, making a note. “The superintendent may, of course.’
    So a superintendent was paying attention to this case: well, that was routine, no doubt.
    ‘What do you think happened?’ Patrick asked. He had better keep quiet about what he already knew, since perhaps Colin should not have told him.
    ‘Looks like suicide, on the face of things,’ said Bruce.
    ‘You’re taking a lot of trouble, then.’
    ‘There are some puzzling features,’ said Bruce. ‘Do you know if the deceased could swim?’
    ‘I’ve not the faintest idea, but I’d imagine so. Can’t most people, after a fashion?’
    ‘Not at all. You’d be surprised how many can’t,’ said Bruce. ‘Particularly older people. Most kids get a chance to learn these days.’
    ‘Hm.’ How old was an older person?
    ‘Perhaps you’d tell me how you met the deceased?’ prompted Bruce.
    ‘Oh, it was in Austria, about four years ago,’ said Patrick. ‘In a little place called Greutz. The village got cut off by avalanches from the rest of the world. We both happened to be staying there at the time.’
    ‘Ah yes. Not much you can do, cut off like that, is there?’ said Bruce.
    ‘Not a lot, no,’ agreed Patrick. But the experience had been far from uneventful. Sam, at the time, had shown unexpected resource by playing the piano for dancing when a power failure had put the discotheque out of action. ‘Why should he commit suicide?’ he asked now. ‘Were there bills all over the place? He seems to have been well ahead with the rent.’
    ‘No. There’s no sign of any serious debts,’ said the sergeant. ‘But this isn’t much of a place.’
    ‘Is there just this one room?’
    ‘Yes. He shared a bathroom on the landing below with two other tenants. No proper cooking facilities either – only that ring in the grate.’ The sergeant indicated a gas ring on the hearth. Then he got up and opened a cupboard. ‘He kept his stores here.’
    Patrick saw sugar, a jar of instant coffee, a tin of soup, a packet of Earl Grey tea and one or two oddments. It was not unlike his own small store at St Mark’s.
    ‘I expect he ate out most of the time. He wouldn’t want to cook after the performance,’ he said. ‘And then he was away on tour quite often. Keeping a better place might have been uneconomical.’
    ‘Maybe he toured to get away from it.’
    ‘He toured because he took what work was offered, you’ll find,’ said Patrick. ‘It’s all clean and well kept.’
    The walls were painted grey, and the curtains were a faded jade colour; an elephant-coloured haircord covered the floor, with a worn rug on it in front of the fireplace. The decor seemed more likely to be Sam’s choice than that of his gaudy landlady.
    ‘It’s drab,’ said