“This is where the star changes,” Norman Chow said.
Robin stepped inside and looked around. The room was large with a dressing table, a couch, and racks for clothing. Robin went into the next dressing room, which was much larger and had several dressing tables.
“This is where Maria, Sheila, and Nancy changed,” Dobson said.
“Where was Miss Porter found?” Jeff asked.
Anders pointed to a section of the floor in the center of the room.
“Where was her inhaler found?” Robin asked.
Anders pulled out a drawer at the end of the row of dressing tables. “This dressing table was used by Maria Rodriguez,” the detective said. Anders moved over two tables and pointed. “Miss Porter used this table. She said she put the inhaler on top of it.”
Robin looked around for a few minutes. “Can you walk me to the curtains where Mr. Turner says he was hiding when he watched the Chamber of Death?” she asked Norman Chow.
Chow led the way to the front of the stage. Robin walked behind the curtains. Then she walked down the stairs at the side of the stage that led down to the audience and stood next to the seat Turner had occupied.
“I’ve seen enough,” she said after a while. “Jeff?”
“I’m good.”
“Thanks again. We won’t keep you any longer.”
Norman Chow headed for his office, and the rest of the group walked up the aisle to the front of the theater.
“Have you cracked the case?” Anders asked Robin when they had returned to the sunshine.
“It’s the butler,” Robin answered, “but don’t tell Peter. I want to do the big reveal during my closing argument, like Perry Mason.”
Anders laughed. “Looking forward to it,” she said. Then she walked away.
“Well, boss?” Jeff asked when they were alone.
Robin shook her head. “You?”
“No big insights, but our guy could have run around through the tunnels on his side of the audience once he got behind the curtains.”
“I thought of that.”
“It doesn’t help us.”
“Neither does anything else we learned today.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Jeff had to talk to a witness in one of Mark Berman’s cases, so Robin walked home alone. There was leftover Thai food in the refrigerator, and Robin warmed it in the microwave. Then she grabbed the remote and found some UFC bouts to watch while she ate.
The matches ended at ten, and Robin switched to the local news. A reporter was standing in the street in front of a driveway that led to a house in Dunthorpe, which Robin recognized instantly.
“Behind me is the home of Regina Barrister, the legendary criminal defense attorney. An anonymous source has told this reporter that an attempt was made to poison Ms. Barrister with cyanide-laced chocolates. More than twenty years ago, the magician Robert Chesterfield was accused of murdering a woman with cyanide-laced chocolates. Mr. Chesterfield was stabbed to death onstage last week while performing his greatest illusion, the Chamber of Death. Are the two crimes linked in some bizarre way? The police and Ms. Barrister have refused to comment for this story.”
The newscast moved on to another story just as Jeff walked in.
“They just had a story on the evening news about the attempt to poison Regina.”
“How did they find out?” Jeff asked as he walked over to Robin.
“The reporter said she got the info from an anonymous source,” Robin answered as she switched off the set.