Chapter Nineteen
“My God, this is horrible!” Elizabeth said as she opened the door for Sean McGill. “I didn’t really know Loreen Stenke at all, but this new murder is almost beyond belief.”
“Are you any closer at all to making sense of this?” David asked, taking Sean’s jacket and placing it on a hook by the front door.
Sean sighed and silently made his way into Elizabeth’s and David’s apartment, flopping on to the sofa by the far wall as David handed him a glass of wine.
He looked up at Elizabeth and David. “Frankly, I’ve accomplished almost nothing. No witnesses of course, just like the last time. Two people were seen in the area. One is that political protestor—Lemense—whose group likes to picket the orchestra because they receive a few small grants from the city. But there’s nothing to indicate that he was actually in the building, much less in Stenke’s office.”
“Lemense? Is he a likely suspect?”
“No, not particularly. Not the most loveable character in the world…incredibly smug and self-righteous. But without any serious motive and there’s no evidence to place him at the scene of the crime.”
“But Carter was there, right?” Elizabeth said. “That’s what David heard.”
“He was there, probably within a half an hour or so of when she was murdered.”
“So he’s a suspect?”
“Hardly,” Sean said. “Inspector Simmons suggests that I should dismiss that idea right from the start.”
“But you’re not going to, are you?” David asked.
“Of course not,” Sean replied. “But I’ve got to admit his behavior doesn’t seem terribly suspicious. Many people knew he was meeting with Loreen that night. It was even marked on the calendar of the orchestra’s secretary, Linda Eggert.”
“Making it unlikely that he would do anything rash unless he’s remarkably stupid,” David said.
“Which, as Inspector Simmons is quick to remind me, he clearly isn’t.”
“So basically you’ve got nothing,” David said, leaning back to take a sip of wine.
“Which is almost impossible to conceive of,” Elizabeth said, shaking her head gently. “What happens if you just focus on motive? Who is better off with the two conductors of the Philadelphia Philharmonic Orchestra dead?”
“That’s it!” David blurted out enthusiastically. “The famous Philadelphia orchestra…eliminating their competition.”
“Oh, please!” protested Elizabeth, a pained expression spreading over her face.
“Somehow I don’t think their ‘competition,’ as you put it, has anything to do with this,” Sean said. “They’ll survive pretty comfortably regardless of what happens to the Philadelphia Philharmonic.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” said David, a slight smile coming to his lips. “It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there in orchestra land.”
“Get serious, David,” Elizabeth said. “Two people have been murdered and Sean doesn’t know which way to turn.”
“That’s true enough,” Sean said. “And even though Wilfrid Carter and probably others continue to see all of this as somehow an assault on the very existence of the Philadelphia Philharmonic Orchestra, I just can’t see it.”
“But the alternative is that each of the two victims had completely different enemies, or one individual had a personal problem with both conductors…hated them so much that they wanted to eliminate them permanently,” David said. “How likely is that?”
“It doesn’t seem likely right now, but that’s because I’m missing something,” Sean said.
“Have you eliminated all the other staff members?” Elizabeth asked.
“Aside from the complete lack of motive—after all why should anyone act to put themselves out a job?—there’s no evidence that any of them were around when either of the murders took place,” said Sean.
“Yeah, but anyone could have sneaked up to Hauptmann’s office the night of the reception,” David said. “Hell, we could have snuck up there and done the deed.”
“By re-entering the building through the back door?” asked Sean.
“Of course!” replied David brightly.
“But you had no key,” Sean said.
“Maybe they left the back door open,” Elizabeth said.
“Everyone insists it was locked,” Sean said.
“Well,” said David, “in that case somebody has a key you don’t know about, which wouldn’t be that hard to do. The keys are just sitting out there in one of the offices, right? You grab one someday when nobody is looking—which is probably most days—and you have a duplicate made. What could be easier?”
“It’s certainly possible,” Sean said.
“Which takes us right back to the other staff members,” Elizabeth said eagerly. “Who do you trust least?”
Sean shook his head slowly. “I don’t know. Alan Winston, the orchestra’s manager, seemed authentically broken up over both deaths and he seems to have been particularly fond of Loreen Stenke. Clemens, the business manager, was a little more under control, but who knows? But what would he have to gain? Like I said earlier, he’d lose his job too.”
David nodded. “You mentioned Linda Eggert, the secretary.”
Sean grimaced. “Frankly, she strikes me as too spacey to do anything like that. I realize that could be an act and I haven’t completely crossed her off my list.”
“The librarian? Samantha Gibbons? Isn’t she the one that was coming on to you at the reception?” Elizabeth asked, suppressing a smile.
“I’d hardly call it that,” Sean said. “She’s only got a part-time position and isn’t around as much as the other staff members.”
“So…more time to conjure up nefarious schemes,” David said cheerily.
Sean sighed. “She is a bit on the coy side and didn’t seem as upset by the first murder as everyone else. I’ve haven’t talked to her since Loreen Stenke was killed. She’s on my list for tomorrow,” said Sean, rising to his feet and handing Elizabeth his half-filled wine glass.
“Look,” said David, “I know you’ve got to get going and all that, but I just want to suggest that in my opinion, it’s just got to be one of those staff members. Yes, I know that they’d be putting themselves out of a job—at least temporarily—by murdering the two conductors, but I can’t think of anybody else who had connections—more or less intimate ones—with both people. The way I see it is that somehow both conductors managed to uncover some secret or perhaps even illegal activity on the part of one of the staff members and so they had to be eliminated.”
“I’ve thought of that, of course,” Sean said, “but nothing that even hints of anything like that has come to light yet. But I’ll keep investigating that angle of course.”
“If there’s anything we can do,” Elizabeth said.
“Sure,” David chimed in. “I’m great at undercover work…striking up conversations with unsuspecting suspects.”
“Very funny,” Sean said. “But I’ll let you know if I could use your help.”