* * *
“The chocolates were laced with poison,” Carrie Anders said after the lab tech was done testing a sample.
Robin, Stanley, and Jeff were sitting on the living room sofa, facing the detective. Regina was seated apart from the group in an armchair. She looked agitated. Stanley had tried to calm her down, but she was still confused and anxious.
“You would be dead if you’d eaten a piece,” Anders added.
“Jesus,” Stanley swore.
“That was quick thinking,” Roger Dillon told Robin. “What made you suspect that the chocolates were poisoned?”
“Doesn’t this sound familiar to anyone?” Robin asked.
“The Chesterfield poisoning case!” Roger Dillon answered after a brief pause.
“Exactly. You were one of the detectives who investigated Sophie Randall’s death, weren’t you?”
“Yeah, and it went down just like this. Someone sent Samuel Moser a box of chocolates with no card or return address. He gave the chocolates to his secretary, and she ate some and died.”
“Robert Chesterfield hired me a few years ago and Regina told me all about the case, so I knew what happened to Sophie Randall. If Chesterfield hadn’t been on my mind because of David Turner’s case, I don’t know if I would have remembered the poisoned chocolates.”
“Well, it’s a good thing you did,” Stanley said.
“Can any of you think of someone who would want to do this to any of you?” Anders asked.
“Stanley and Regina have been retired for several years,” Robin said. “I guess a disgruntled client or someone Stanley ruled against could still have a grudge, but it seems unlikely that they were the targets.”
“I don’t know,” Dillon said. “The chocolates were sent here. If you or Jeff were the intended victims, the killer would have sent the chocolates to your office.”
“Or he would have to know that you were eating dinner here, tonight,” Anders said. “Who had that information?”
“Stanley asked us to dinner in a corridor at the courthouse after Turner’s bail hearing recessed,” Jeff said. “I didn’t see anyone around.”
“I didn’t tell anyone we were coming here tonight,” Robin said. “Did you?”
“No,” Jeff answered.
“That means Justice Cloud and Miss Barrister were most probably the intended victims,” Dillon said.
“Can you make us a list of anyone who might have this powerful a grudge against either you or Miss Barrister?” Anders asked Stanley.
“I’ll get on it first thing tomorrow. Right now, I’d like to get Regina to bed. This has really upset her.”
“I think we’re through, so we’ll get out of everyone’s hair. You and Jeff can leave too,” Anders said.
Robin and Jeff stayed for a few minutes after the detectives and the lab techs had left.
“What do you think is going on?” Robin asked when they were headed home.
“Damned if I know,” Jeff answered.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Robin and Jeff walked from their office to the Imperial Theater at four in the afternoon. The theater was closed, but Norman Chow had agreed to let the defense team inside so they could look at the crime scene.
“Ready for your tour?” asked Carrie Anders, who was waiting outside.
Robin nodded. Anders opened the door next to the ticket booth and led them into the lobby where Chow and Horace Dobson were waiting.
“Thanks for meeting us,” Robin said to Dobson.
“The cops said it was okay, or I wouldn’t be here,” said Dobson, who had reluctantly agreed to take Jeff and Robin step-by-step through the Chamber of Death illusion.
“I can tell you that Mr. Turner vehemently denies killing Mr. Chesterfield,” Robin answered.
“Yeah, well, what would you expect him to say?”
“Why don’t we start the tour?” Anders said, and everyone walked through the doors that led into the area of the theater where the audience sat. Dobson stood behind a low barrier that ringed the back row. Several aisles started at gaps in the barrier. Heavy floor-to-ceiling curtains hung along the wall down the farthest aisle on his left as he faced the stage.
Dobson walked over to that aisle. “You were in the theater when Bobby performed the Chamber of Death, right?” Dobson asked.
Jeff and Robin nodded.
“Okay, then. Right before he performs the illusion, Bobby entertained the audience with card tricks. After Bobby finished his card tricks, the lights would go out. Bobby would slip into his priest’s robes while the stagehands set up the pyramid and put a ramp at the end of the aisle the girls used to push the sarcophagus onto the stage.
“There are tunnels under the audience and the stage that I’m going to show you. After the girls changed into their robes, they would go through a tunnel at the back of the stage and end up behind the audience. When the lights went on and Bobby started his spiel, they rolled the sarcophagus down the aisle and up the ramp. As soon as the coffin was on the stage, it was taken off the dolly and placed lengthwise between the walls of the pyramid.”
Dobson led everyone down the aisle and up a set of stairs to the stage. “The dolly would be positioned here,” he said, pointing to a space on the left side of the stage that was very close to the wings. A curtain hung from the ceiling to the floor, blocking the view from the audience. “When Bobby rolled out of the coffin, he would slither into a narrow gap in the front of the dolly. The stage lights were kept very bright, and the rest of the dolly concealed the move from the audience. When Bobby was hidden in the dolly, one of the assistants would push it offstage.”
Dobson led everyone behind the curtain and through a steel door to a set of stairs that led under the stage. Dobson walked down the stairs. A dimly lit tunnel led under the audience toward the front of the theater in one direction and the back of the stage in the other direction.
Dobson nodded toward the tunnel that led to the back of the audience. “When the trick worked correctly, the coffin was opened and the audience learned that Bobby wasn’t in it. By that time, Bobby would have run down the tunnel and up a set of stairs at the end of the tunnel. Then he’d reappear behind the audience.”
“Is there an identical set of tunnels on the other side of the theater?” Jeff asked.
“Yes,” Norman Chow said.
“Where does the other tunnel on this side lead?” Robin asked.
“I’ll show you,” Dobson answered as he led the group through the dimly lit concrete tunnel to another set of stairs.
When Robin reached the top, she saw that she was standing near the loading dock. She stared past it to a narrow hall. “What’s in that hall?” she asked.
“The dressing rooms,” Norman Chow answered.
“So,” Robin said, “the killer could have stabbed Mr. Chesterfield, pushed the dolly offstage, run down the tunnel that goes to the back of the stage, run up the steps, dumped Nancy Porter’s robe near the loading dock, and exited the theater.”
“That’s possible,” Norman Chow said.
“Wouldn’t a stagehand see him?” Anders asked.