Page 28 - The Gluckman Occasional Number One

an outsider to settle a terribly serious matter that is troubling us:
murder.”
“Eh? Who was murdered?” Trixie perked up a bit.
“Poor Provornin,” said Stellanova.
“Well,” said the dog with a jagged grin, “that’s one less mouth to
feed.”
“Fool!” squeaked another voice, Raskeloff’s. “Be serious! We must
know if one of us killed him deliberately. We are a close-knit group:
we cannot go on with this awful cloud of suspicion hanging over
each of us.”
“Yes,” continued Karpechki, “our performance is suffering. None
of us is objective enough to figure out what happened. So we are
asking you to look at the case. If there is a murderer among us, he—
or she—must be punished.”
Trixie thought of all the wonderful ways a flea could be punished.
She yawned. “Oh, very well, go ahead. But don’t all talk at once: I’ve
got a hangover.”
Karpechki was the first to speak. “It happened yesterday, at the
first matinee. We each have our own specialty acts, you know:
pushing a tiny baby carriage, juggling bits of confetti, doing
somersaults on a thimble, and so on. Only a couple of numbers
require us to act in concert. It was during one of those that the
tragedy occurred.”
“Wait a minute,” said the dog. “How many of you were involved in
this trick?”
“We all were, either as acrobats or as spotters,” Karpechki replied.
“Here is how it worked: I rolled over on my back and Raskeloff here
tossed a small steel ball onto my feet. It’s painted bright pink and
yellow, so the audience can’t miss it. I started spinning it with my
feet, as fast as I could. Meanwhile Gurmovnik was getting into
position at a pre-arranged spot. As soon as he was ready, his spotter,
Stellanova, signaled Raskeloff, who still stood by my side. Raskeloff,
in turn, made sure that I was in my stride, and gave a sign to the
ringmaster, who blew his whistle. At that moment I launched the
pellet into the air with a mighty hind-legged kick.”
“And that in fact is what happened?” asked Trixie, brow knitted in
concentration.
“Yes, of course. We had done that routine dozens of times before.
This time, however, Gurmovnik was not at the other end: Provornin