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Carson read the writing on the mirror aloud. “I did it?”
“Yes, while he was on stage, a sign had bloody letters that said, ‘Murderer.’ I believe he may have been responsible for killing three people.”
“Couldn’t take the guilt, huh?”
“Might be. Then again, we’ve gotten some strange forensics at the other murders. I want to know if he did this to himself or someone did it to him.”
“You’ll need the ME for that. I’ve got to bring in more backup. You got like two hundred people down there.”
“Thanks, Carson,” Pro said as they stepped into the hall. “I’ll be right down.”
Carson nodded and headed down the stairs as Pro went into the next dressing room. She walked over to the small bag about the size of a shaving bag and looked in it. There was some crepe hair, which looks like human hair, but was made from wool. Pro knew it was used to make hairpieces. She looked at the bottle of amber liquid, and the label read: Spirit Gum.
“Misdirection!” she bellowed with a vehemence that surprised even her. She turned and ran down the stairs, then went over the stage and stopped herself. She took a couple deep breaths and then walked through the curtain.
The audience had remained in their seats, but it was obvious they were not happy about it. Two more police cars had pulled up outside, and several more uniformed men and women were there.
Carson was beginning to let people move one at a time from the theater to the lobby, where several officers would ask for ID and get the person’s information and ask them questions.
Pro approached Tom and said, “I need to question one of the audience members. Can you and an officer bring him onto the stage?”
Chu frowned. “Which one?”
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“Tall, older guy with the beard,” Pro murmured.
“Okay, we’ll bring him right up,” Chu told her.
Pro went back behind the curtain and pulled out her phone. Using it as a flashlight, she stumbled around until she found a pair of light switches. She turned them on and florescent work lights popped on.
She found three folding chairs backstage and put them all in the center of the stage facing each other. She finished just as Chu came through the curtain. The man with the beard was right behind him and a uniformed officer took up the rear.
“Thank you, officer,” Pro said, and directed the man to sit in one of the chairs.
The patrolman gave a nod and went back into the audience.
“You’re not going to pull my beard again, are you?” the man asked with a slight smile as Pro sat in the chair opposite him.
Chu sat in the third chair, unsure where this was going.
“Well, I might. But it wouldn’t be ‘again’ in your case. Because you’re not the same man.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, young woman,”
the man said.
“When I pulled the man’s beard, I looked into his eyes. His brown eyes. But when I saw you after Adrianna went on, your eyes were blue, like they are right now.” Pro stood. “So, either you pull off the beard, or I will, Max!”
The man looked from Chu to Pro, then with a sigh reached up and gently pulled off the fake beard.
“What the hell—” was all Chu could manage.
Pro went on. “You said it yourself, Max. Look for the misdirection. You sent that guy in the audience to distract me so that I would confront him. But once the show started, he slipped out and you took his place. You had to watch your little blood trick from out front, didn’t you, Max?”
Max pulled the fedora off his head, and he put the beard and the heavy glasses into it. He then plucked off the fake bushy eyebrows. “Yeah, I didn’t know it would look that good, Pro.”
He reached into his mouth and pulled a set of false fronts off his teeth, and then lastly he peeled off the rubber nose.
