The Cinderella Killer by Simon Brett

do.’
    Charles was struck by how reasonable Kenny sounded. This wasn’t just an ego trip; he was genuinely trying to come up with a way out of their current impasse.
    â€˜But what about the kitchen slapstick scene?’ asked Danny.
    â€˜We drop the kitchen slapstick scene,’ Kenny replied.
    Danny looked as though he had been shot through the heart.
    â€˜So how’re things going with the dialogue scenes?’ said Bix Rogers.
    Charles found it bizarre that such a question could be asked by the director about his own show. Bix was meant to be responsible for the whole production of
Cinderella
, but he was still focusing all his attention on the musical numbers. Presumably at some point during rehearsals, Charles comforted himself, they’d have to do a run of the whole show, and then Bix would see the uneven quality of the dialogue scenes. How the director reacted then would be interesting.
    â€˜We’re getting there,’ Kenny replied, ‘but there’s a lot of work still to be done.’
    â€˜I’m sure there is.’ But Bix spoke as if, whatever the nature of the work that needed doing, it was somebody else’s problem, rather than his.
    â€˜We’ve been working on the kitchen slapstick scene.’
    â€˜Oh yes,’ Bix responded distractedly.
    â€˜Danny’s very keen to keep it in, but I’m not sure it’s going to play right.’
    â€˜Well, see how you go.’
    â€˜I was suggesting to the boys that maybe we junk the slapstick scene and put in another musical number.’
    Bix’s eyes lit up. ‘Now that is a good idea.’
    Felix was not to be upstaged. ‘I was thinking also, Bix, that I could put in a bit of my stand-up act too … you know, in that bit when I’m alone in the kitchen just before Cinderella goes to the ball. I’ve got a very funny routine about being gay and shopping for vegetables.’
    â€˜Sure. Whatever works,’ said the director.
    A second bullet appeared to have entered Danny’s heart. Charles, who also had great respect for the traditions of pantomime, felt for him. He thought back to the pantomimes he and Frances had taken their daughter Juliet to, back in the days when their marriage and family life had been almost normal. And that of course made him think again about Frances, and the terrible prospect of losing her.
    Rehearsal breaks in the two halls of St Asaph’s Church didn’t always coincide, but they had done that morning, so the musical parts and the dialogue parts of the company were all foregathered in the larger hall. Except of course for a lot of the dancers, who had gone straight outside to light up cigarettes.
    One who hadn’t gone, though, was the dance captain, Jasmine del Rio. Though everyone had been introduced at the start of rehearsals, the dancers hadn’t intermingled a lot with the acting members of the company. It was partly because they always tended to stick together, but also because the intensity of Bix Rogers’ choreographic rehearsals left them little chance to socialize.
    But at this coffee break Jasmine del Rio detached herself from Kitty Woo and came across purposefully to join the sycophantic group surrounding Kenny. Charles was struck again by the beautiful suppleness of her body and by the hardness of her face. He found it impossible to put an age on her. From a distance eighteen, closer at least thirty.
    Jasmine carried a cup of coffee and deliberately took the vacant chair next to Kenny. ‘We haven’t been introduced properly, have we?’ she said. Her voice had that kind of slack American twang affected by some on the outskirts of show business.
    He smiled his Dwight Bredon smile, open and welcoming. ‘No, we haven’t. I’ve seen you across a crowded rehearsal room, but that’s all.’ He held out a hand. ‘I’m Kenny Polizzi.’
    It was a good ploy, which Charles had seen used by a lot