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“Never mind,” I said. “I know she’s with child.” I indicated the clothing around the room. “Have any costume items gone missing lately?”
“A hat and coat. Why?”
My pulse quickened. “A brown coat?”
She nodded. “It hasn’t been used for years, but I was looking for it recently to cut it up and use the material for wood nymph costumes.” She looked around. “Is it in here?”
“No, but I know how you can get it back.”
Rosa must have known we would realize Mrs. Warden was the key to linking her to the brown coat, and that it was only a matter of time before we talked to her. She must be desperate to delay her arrest by pretending to rehearse. Arrest was inevitable, however.
Unless she planned to escape
I grasped Mrs. Warden’s shoulders. “Is there a trapdoor in the stage floor?”
“Yes. The performers emerge through it as if by magic during some shows.”
“Can you show me the room underneath the stage, where the trapdoor leads to?”
I followed her along the corridor, down a set of stairs, along another, narrower corridor and through a door. The room was small and windowless, the only light coming from the electric globe in the corridor outside. I didn’t want to turn on the light in the room itself. I didn’t want anyone to know we were there.
Props painted to look like waves and a boat had been pushed to one side, but the only other structure in the room was a set of steps leading up to a raised platform that reached three feet below the trapdoor in the ceiling.
We were just in time. The trapdoor was flung open from above and Rosa jumped onto the platform, landing softly.
Detective Fanning shouted in the distance. “Where did she go?”
Rosa descended the steps without looking, only to stop when she came face to face with me.
“You’re under arrest,” I said.
She shoved me in the chest, but I’d been ready for the attack and braced myself. I went to grab her, but Rosa stepped backward, tripping over the bottom step and landing on her bottom. She held on to the balustrade with one hand and the other clutched at her jacket.
I went to haul her to her feet. At the same time, she lashed out with a small knife. It must have been hidden in the jacket pocket. She struck the palm of my hand.
I hissed and drew my hand against my body to protect it, while kicking with my right foot. I connected with the blade, knocking it away, then I grabbed her wrist to stop her reaching for the knife.
Mrs. Warden grabbed Rosa’s other wrist. Together, we hauled her to her feet.
Detective Fanning’s face appeared through the trapdoor. “Ah, good, you stopped her.”
His face disappeared, to be replaced by one constable dropping onto the platform then the other. They seized Rosa. She struggled and shouted at them in Spanish, then kicked one constable’s shin. He hissed in pain, but held her firmly until she finally stopped struggling.
Detective Fanning joined us. “So you’re guilty, after all, Miss Rivera. You almost had me fooled, but I outsmarted you by letting you think you could escape.”
Mrs. Warden rolled her eyes, saving me from doing it.
“I am innocent!” Rosa spat.
“If you didn’t run, I might have thought so, but now…”
I introduced him to Mrs. Warden, and she told him about the missing coat and hat from the costume department. Their description matched the items uncovered in the woods at the Elms Polo Club.
“Take Miss Rivera away,” he ordered. Once Rosa and the constables were gone, he turned to me. “You’re injured, Miss Fox.”
I inspected the wound. It had already stopped bleeding, but it stung. “It’s just a scratch.”
He touched the brim of his hat. “I’ll need a statement from you both before you leave.” He indicated we should walk ahead of him out of the room. “Clever of you to realize she’d try to escape through the trapdoor. Clever indeed. You have a good brain on you, Miss Fox. I’ll be sure to tell my superiors that you helped. You and Armitage.”
