While the whistles still echoed on the wharf, Holmes dragged two constables into the theatre, leaving Holt to watch Crane by the barge. Backstage a single prompt-lamp burned. Marlowe's chair was empty. The complete prompt book lay open at Scene Five—"Lamp out. A man in the water" freshly thickened in pencil, like an order just written.
Watson lifted the lid of a water butt at the wing: a canvas dummy floated inside, wearing Crane's old coat, its boots packed with dock mud. That slap of water on the river had been a rehearsal—push the "body" in, haul it back. On the dummy's breast was pinned a twin of the red-lead pin.
"An obituary can be written first," Holmes said. "The man can be supplied later." A hurried cab rattled past the side door. Watson ran out and found a slip still wedged in the morning paper's letter-box. The headline was already set: Scene-painter Crane missing—believed drowned last night. The hand was Marlowe the prompter's.
❦ To be continued.
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