Murder Unprompted: A Charles Paris Murder Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page A

there must have been a few thousand weeks when you’ve searched it in vain for any mention of me. ‘Are you still in the business?’
    ‘Oh goodness me, no, Charles. I gave up when I married Lesley’s father. Had my time fully occupied bringing up my baby girl.’
    ‘Yes, I’m sure.’ It seemed a good solution to Charles. Valerie Cass had probably been quite good as a mother; whereas, had she stayed in the theatre, it would only have been a matter of time before her lack of talent had been exposed.
    ‘No, no, Lesley-Jane carries on the theatrical tradition in our family. Of course, I give her any help I can, but . . .’ She shrugged. ‘I’m afraid my career was cut short. So I’m just left with my dreams of what might have been.’
    Charles hoped, for her sake, the dreams weren’t accurate. No, no doubt like his own, they were pure wish-fulfilment.
    He still felt apologetic for not having recognised her. ‘Sorry, it was so out of context. I mean, Lesley-Jane’s name gave me no clue.’
    ‘No, she got that from her father,’ said Valerie Cass rather tartly. Mother and daughter, and Malcolm Harris and his womenfolk eventually left the two actors to change out of their costumes.
    ‘Last one in the bar’s a sissy,’ said Charles, the euphoric giggliness returning.
    They both plunged for the door and, as they collided, Charles felt something heavy in Alex’s jacket pocket thump against him.
    ‘You great fraud! All your talk of “no stimulants” and you’re another of the flask-in-pocket brigade!’
    ‘Oh no,’ said Alex Household gravely. ‘It’s not a flask.’
    ‘Then what . . .’
    ‘I got mugged last year, walking back from the theatre in Birmingham.’ His voice became unsteady. ‘I got beaten up. It won’t happen again. I never go out after dark without this.’
    He withdrew his hand from his pocket. It was clasped around the butt of a Smith and Wesson Chiefs Special revolver.

CHAPTER THREE
    THE LOCAL paper thought
The Hooded Owl
was a success. It even raved about it. The last sentence of the notice read, ‘It is rarely that down here in Taunton we are treated to a show of such excellence. I urge everyone to go and see
The Hooded Owl
now, before you have to pay fares to London and West End prices for the privilege.’
    So, as far as the local paper was concerned, the transfer was a certainty. Unfortunately, it wasn’t local papers that arranged such things. It was London theatre managements and, at the end of the first week’s run, even Paul Lexington’s unpuncturable buoyancy could not hide the fact that no one relevant had been down to see the show. Still, as he kept asserting cheerfully, two weeks to go, and a lot could happen in two weeks.
    The local paper review, as well as backing the whole show, was also extremely gratifying to Alex Household and Charles Paris. The sentence which kept recurring in both their minds for some days was this: ‘After witnessing acting of such power and emotional truth, it is hard to imagine why these two actors are not considerably better known than they are.’
    Exactly, they both thought, that’s what we’ve been saying for years. For Charles, the review was particularly welcome. For one thing, the sort of part he usually played didn’t often get reviewed. And for another, on the past three occasions when critics had deigned to mention him, their comments had been as follows:
    ‘Charles Paris was an odd choice for the part of the solicitor’ –
Guardian
    ‘Charles Paris wandered through the play like one of Bo-Peep’s sheep looking for its tail’ –
Evening Standard
    And – ‘Among the rest of the cast was Charles Paris’ –
The Stage.
    In spite of the fact that nothing was happening on the transfer front, the cast could not keep down their optimism. The experience of playing in a success, endorsed nightly by the audience’s reaction, was an invigorating one, and Paul Lexington’s so-far-groundless confidence was infectious.
    ‘You