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“The reason I’m here is, I want to ask you about the Stamford Players.”
“Oh?” He was genuinely surprised. If he’d ever known the detective was interested in community theater, it was a nugget of information that he’d forgotten.
“You’re the director, and author, of the upcoming production?”
“That’s true,” he said. “Although just now I was thinking about that, wondering whether we should postpone. Unless I can get someone else to take over the directing. There are a couple of members of the company I might be able to call on.”
Hardy nodded. “You have a Candace DiCarlo in the production?”
Albert thought, Oh-oh.
“Yes, yes, we do. Very talented actress. Not a professional, of course. She has a regular day job. But like pretty much all of us, we have theater in our blood. We may not be ready for Broadway, but we like to have fun.”
Hardy nodded slowly.
“Was there some reason you brought up Candace’s name?” Albert asked.
“When was the last time you saw or spoke with Ms. DiCarlo?”
“Uh, well, let me think,” he said.
Albert knew exactly when he had last seen or spoken with Candace DiCarlo. It had been the previous evening, at the Motel 6.
“Yesterday, at some point,” he said. “We had a rehearsal yesterday morning, but I had to cut it short when I got the call about my mother.”
Hardy said, “Hmm.”
“I’m still wondering, why do you ask?”
“I think it’s very possible, Mr. McBain, that your actress Candace DiCarlo is the woman you all thought might be Brie.”
Albert feigned surprise. “You don’t say.”
“I do.”
“She told you this? She confessed to it?”
“No,” Hardy said. “She did not.”
Albert felt a slight sense of relief. “Then what leads you to think this?”
“Her car, for one. Her Volvo wagon appears to be the same car from the neighbor’s surveillance video. And there’s a witness, of sorts.”
“A witness?”
“Someone who recognized her from the surveillance image.”
Albert said nothing.
After several seconds of silence, Hardy said, “Aren’t you curious to know why she might do something like that? Get everyone to think she was Brie?”
“Well, yes, of course. If it’s actually true that it was her. Have you asked her? Point-blank?”
“I would if that were possible.”
“And why isn’t it?”
“Because Candace DiCarlo is dead, Mr. McBain.”
