The Twist of a Knife

As we sat down, he pulled off his sweatshirt, exposing a well-toned chest and shoulders that suggested a lot of time spent in the gym. There was something about him right then that reminded me of James Dean, who had become a cultural icon when he was just twenty-four and who had died the same year. Tirian had the same careless good looks combined with a sense of disengagement, the rebel without a cause. I was reminded that he had just been cast in a major Hollywood picture that might make him a household name and I could already see that he was halfway there. Star quality is hard to define, but I’ve met many young actors before they’ve become famous and they’ve all had it. It’s not exactly physical. It’s not even a force of personality. It’s just a sense of being different; the prescience that one day, quite soon, they’re going to be loved.

‘I couldn’t believe it when I heard about Harriet,’ he said. ‘It’s the most terrible thing to have happened. That poor woman …’

‘You feel sorry for her?’ Hawthorne sounded surprised.

‘Well, of course I do! She’s been killed!’ He stopped himself. ‘I know she said bad things about the play, and I have a suspicion she wasn’t exactly sweetness and light in real life either, but murder is murder and for what it’s worth, she was actually quite nice about me. She said I was one of the most promising actors of my generation.’ He couldn’t resist an approving glance in the make-up mirror. ‘You don’t think one of us did it, do you?’ he went on. ‘Is that why you’re here?’

‘It’s a possibility,’ Hawthorne replied.

‘Well, I think you’re barking up the wrong tree, if you don’t mind me saying so. I mean …’ he held up his hand and began to count the various names off on his thumb and four fingers ‘… Sky. She couldn’t have been kinder to me when I joined the company and she clearly doesn’t have a bad bone in her. Ahmet and Maureen. They’re just a joke. Do you think they’re having it away? I do. They really are the world’s worst producers, as witness those ridiculous daggers they gave us on the first night. I still have mine, by the way. The police came round to my place asking to see it. It was lucky I hadn’t put it in the skip. Funny, isn’t it. So many murder weapons. All identical.’

‘Not very funny,’ I muttered.

He touched another finger.

‘Ewan hated her. I get the feeling that the two of them have history, although he never talks about it. You saw how angry he was!’ This was addressed to me. ‘But I really can’t imagine him going round there and doing her in. He’s much too civilised. You should have seen him when he was having one of his hissy fits in rehearsals. Sometimes I was afraid he might stab me with his spectacles, but that’s about as far as it ever went.

‘Then there’s Keith on the door.’ Tirian counted him on his little finger. ‘He was here that night and I have a feeling he’s out of his head on dope half the time, but what reason would he have had to kill her? Revenge because she panned Mindgame?’ He sniffed. ‘If we close tomorrow, another play will open the next day. It makes no difference to him.’

He lowered his hand.

‘You’ve missed out Jordan Williams,’ Hawthorne said.

‘Oh. Yes. You’re right.’ Tirian’s face fell. ‘Well, we all heard what he said that night, so I’d imagine that makes him the prime suspect.’

‘He said she deserved to die.’

‘That’s right.’

‘Did anyone else in the room seem to agree?’

I could see where Hawthorne was going with that one, but to my relief, Tirian wasn’t having it. ‘I don’t think so. Nobody said anything. It was all a bit embarrassing.’ He shook his head, dismissing the thought. ‘It’s no secret that Jordan and I don’t get along. But – hand on heart – I don’t think he had anything to do with Harriet’s death. The thing about him is that he’s always sounding off. It was the same during rehearsals. But it was all just a lot of hot air.’

‘Why did he have a problem with you, do you think?’

‘Why don’t you ask him?’

‘It’s your perspective that interests me.’

‘All right. But let me start by saying that I don’t dislike Jordan. My rule in life is to try and get on with everyone. Why not? You’re only in this world once, so you’ve got to make the best of it.’ Satisfied that he had made this clear, he continued. ‘I think he was jealous. That’s the only way to explain it. From the moment I joined the show, he was on my case. I haven’t learned my lines. I’m upstaging him. I’m not giving him what he needs when he’s doing his big soliloquies … you know, like I should be hanging on every word.’

‘He’d heard about your part in Tenet?’