Ellis’s jaw dropped.
Pratt kept his face expressionless. “Tell me about it,” he sighed.
The sergeant flipped open his notebook. “The call came in at ten seventeen, and the nearest squad car was sent over. At ten twenty-six, they called for backup and I was dispatched with two additional men.”
“Let’s get another half-dozen down here. Make a perimeter at either end of the street outside to keep the media away. They’ll be all over this place like a bunch of cockroaches. I want this building wrapped in crime-scene tape.”
“I’ll see to it.”
“So when you got here, what did you find?”
“The body of the conductor in his office, and the orchestra waiting impatiently in the rehearsal room in the basement.”
“How did they find out what had happened?”
Browne cleared his throat. “That was me, I’m afraid. I guess I was more shaken up than I thought. I just sort of blurted it out. Spadafini was our leader.”
Pratt turned to him. “And their response?”
“Why, complete shock, of course. Who wouldn’t have been shocked?”
Now to the heart of the matter. “And this mass confession, how did that come about?”
The sergeant took over again. “I told two of my officers to stay in the room with the orchestra and not let anyone leave. But there was no way to separate that many people to keep them from talking. I guess that’s when they cooked this up.”
Both police veterans knew the ploy was a dodge to protect the real killer-and that was a strange thing to do. There was more to this than met the eye.
Ellis looked as if he wanted to speak, so Pratt nodded to him.
“How many people are we talking about?” the young detective asked.
Browne cleared his throat. “Seventy-six.”
Ellis whistled.
Pratt’s frown deepened. “Who else is in the building today?”
“Just me,” Browne said. When Pratt raised his eyebrows, the orchestra manager continued. “Four stagehands were here at the start of the rehearsal, but there was, um, a problem with Spadafini. They called what they refer to as a ‘study session.’”
“Meaning they’re off somewhere having coffee while they wait for the union rep to appear.”
“Yes.”
Pratt noticed that Ellis had his book out, taking notes. Either someone had told him about Pratt, or he was smarter than he looked.
“Cause of the friction?”
It was Browne’s turn to sigh. “It’s no secret that Spadafini could be quite difficult.”
“But you’re certain the stagehands were out of the building?”
“Yes. Shortly after the rehearsal began. I let them out myself. I was hoping to calm them down.”
Pratt needed time to think. He knew he didn’t have that time.
“I’d better see the body.” He’d only taken two steps when he turned back to the sergeant. “I don’t suppose there’s any security surveillance of the murder scene? No? Well, check whatever security footage there is for anything useful.”
The conductor’s office was one floor above. The door was slightly open. Since the Scene of Crime team hadn’t yet arrived, Pratt took a package containing a pair of latex slip-ons from his coat pocket. He quickly snapped them over his shoes.
“Wait out here,” he told Browne and Ellis.
Spadafini’s body lay near the huge window behind his desk. Sadly, the building was covered in mirrored glass, so no one could have seen in. Pratt stood for nearly a minute, memorizing every detail in front of him. Then he moved toward the facedown body.
Thick wire was wrapped around the conductor’s neck, which was heavily bruised. Fastened to each end of the wire were strange-looking drumsticks. “Do you know what this is around his neck?” Pratt yelled to Browne.
“I, ah, didn’t take a close look. I just saw the maestro, ran to my office, picked up the phone and called the police.”
“Sir, I mean, Pratt,” Ellis asked, “do you mind if I have a look?”
“Do you have something for your feet?”
“Of course.”
The youngster was soon standing next to him. “That looks like a cello string, and those sticks are definitely timpani mallets.”
“How do you know?”
“I played trombone all through high school.”
Pratt remained in the room for several more minutes, then went back out to the hall to wait for the arrival of the Scene of Crime team.
Pulling out his notebook, he turned to Browne. “Could you tell me your whereabouts in the building this morning?”
Browne’s eyes opened wide. “You suspect me?”
“I suspect everyone and no one,” Pratt answered, quoting Sherlock Holmes. Browne didn’t seem to notice. “Just answer the question, please.”
The other man looked up at the ceiling. “Well, I got here well before anyone arrived. I knew it was not going to be an ‘easy’ rehearsal. Everyone was pretty angry. I was present in the rehearsal room when the orchestra arrived. Of course, I had to deal with the stage-crew problem around that time.”
“When was that?”
“Shortly after the rehearsal began. I talked to them for about fifteen minutes before they stormed out. Then I went up to my office to do some work.”
“Is that near this office?”
Browne pointed. “Just down the hall, there.”
“And you didn’t hear anything?”
“I heard him storm down the hall at the beginning of the break. He was muttering to himself in Italian.”
“Then what?”
“Well, I was on the phone to our secretary, looking for a package she was supposed to send out by courier yesterday. The person it was sent to hadn’t received it yet, so I called her to ask what had happened.”
“And?”
“She said she’d left it at the security desk. I went down to see if for some reason it was still there. When I came back up, I noticed Spadafini’s door was open. When I looked in, I could see him lying on the floor behind his desk. I called the police immediately.” He shivered. “I had to have just missed the murderer. I was gone barely five minutes.”
Finally the elevator doors at the end of the hall opened, and the Scene of Crime team stepped out.
“I want a complete workup on this as soon as you can,” Pratt told them. “I need to know what happened in a big hurry. They’re leaning on me downtown.” To Ellis he said, “Call the captain. Tell him I need every detective down here that he can spare-unless he wants us to bring an entire orchestra to him for questioning.” Then he turned to Browne. “Don’t leave the building. I will need to talk to you again later. Now could you show me where the orchestra is?”
“We should take the elevator down. It’s faster.”
As they descended to the basement and his first glimpse of the orchestra of self-confessed murderers, Pratt knew he was in for it.