Anders signaled two officers to raise the lid that covered the coffin. She looked inside and saw snakes and scorpions wriggling and slithering over Robert Chesterfield’s body and around the knife that was buried in his heart.
Dr. Grace looked into the coffin. “That looks like a surgical strike right into the victim’s heart. He would have died very quickly.”
“If the audience heard Chesterfield scream when he was stabbed, they’d think that the screams were just part of the act,” Dillon said.
Anders saw the two rectangular glass boxes. “Is there someone who can put these reptiles and scorpions back in their cages so Dr. Grace can examine the body?” she asked Dobson.
“That’s the assistants’ job. I’ll ask them if they’re up to it. They’re both very upset.”
Sheila, who was blond, and Maria, who had glossy black hair, were sitting on bridge chairs just off the stage, still dressed in their voluminous robes. They were talking quietly to each other, but they looked up when the agent and the detectives approached. Anders could see that Sheila had been crying. Maria looked pale.
“I’m Carrie Anders, and I’m one of the detectives who is going to try and find out what happened to Mr. Chesterfield. I’ll want to talk to you about what you saw, but right now I need your help. I understand you two can put the snakes and scorpions that are in the sarcophagus back into their cages.”
“It’s a vivarium,” Maria said. “That’s what you call it.”
“Thanks. I didn’t know that. Are you up to putting the snakes and scorpions in the vivariums so the medical examiner can start to work?”
“Yes,” Maria answered.
“Before you do that, I understand Nancy Porter is missing. Do you know where she is?”
Maria said no and Sheila shook her head.
“Can you remember what she did before and during the Chamber of Death illusion?” Dillon asked.
“We were onstage for one of Bobby’s other illusions,” Maria said. “When he finished that trick, we went to our dressing room and put on these robes for the Chamber of Death while he did some card tricks onstage by himself. When it was time for the finale, we went to the back of the theater so we could push the sarcophagus onstage.”
“Actually, you and I did,” Sheila said, “but Nancy couldn’t find her inhaler. She has asthma. So we left and she joined us a few minutes later.”
“That’s right,” Maria agreed. “Anyway, she joined us just as we started pushing the sarcophagus down the aisle and onto the stage. Then Bobby got in the coffin, and we covered it while Nancy pushed the roller offstage.”
“She’s supposed to come back onstage, but that’s the last I saw of her,” Sheila said.
“Me too,” Maria chimed in.
“Thanks,” Anders said. “Let’s get rid of the scorpions and reptiles so the ME can do her job.”
The women followed Anders and Dobson to the coffin just as a policeman ran out from backstage to say, “I found Nancy Porter.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
While Ragland, Anders, and Dillon followed the policeman, he told them that he had found Porter lying unconscious on the floor of the dressing room that the assistants used. A cloth that smelled of ether was on the floor next to her. When Anders and Dillon opened the dressing room door, they saw a slender redhead clad in a bra and panties sprawled on the floor. Someone had put a pillow under her head, and an EMT was bending over her. Porter tried to sit up.
“Take it easy,” the EMT said.
“What happened?” Porter groaned.
Anders squatted next to her. “I’m Carrie Anders. I’m a detective with the Portland Police Bureau. It looks like someone used ether to knock you out. How are you feeling?”
“Woozy.”
“Can you stand?” Anders asked.
“I think so.”
Anders saw a dress hanging on a rack that looked to be Porter’s size and helped her get it on.
There was a couch in the dressing room, and Anders and the EMT helped Porter walk over to it.