Corporal Cheery Longbottom, half of the Watch's entire forensic department covered her eyes as Sergeant Angua changed behind a convenient wagon nearby. Like most werewolves, Angua preferred to do this out of the way of humans and other species mostly for decency's sake but also because the intermediate shapes were not so pleasant. Cheery was only too happy to oblige. From Uberwald herself, she was familiar with werewolves and their different ways.

"Are you ready?" she asked hesitantly. A growl was all she received for an answer. The dwarf took her hands away from her face and watched as the werewolf put its nose to the ground and investigated the alleyway behind the Dysk Theatre. Cheery watched for a minute as dustbins, abandoned fruit and vegetable crates were examined, even bits of scrap paper were given a thorough examination before a sniff of what the dwarf took for disdain and Angua moved on.

"Um, I'll just look over here then, shall I?" Cheery asked nervously. She started to search near a pile of what looked like rags near the back entrance of the theatre that the werewolf hadn't gotten to yet. A glint of gold caught her eye. Closing her eyes and trying not to think about anything, err, unusual that might be down there, she closed her eyes and stuck her arm in right up to her shoulder, hand moving around. Finally, she grasped something with a curved edge and corners and pulled it out.

"I think I have something!" She called over her shoulder. Angua gave an affirmative yelp and trotted over to her side.

In the palm of her hand, amongst some inevitable collected dirt from the rag pile, Cheery held what looked like half of a gold coin with spidery writing around the edge in a strange language. The dwarf frowned.

"We'd better take this to Mr Vimes," she said.

Meanwhile, Mr Vimes was having a lot of trouble getting into the theatre past the crowd of all shapes, sizes and species. Finally, Captain Carrot, under Vimes' instruction managed to plough through the masses leaving many disgruntled people and things in his wake. Vimes smiled and followed the captain through the door into the Dysk theatre.

Mr Vitoller himself came to greet them and shook both their hands vigorously before motioning them into his office and inviting them to sit down. He remained standing, however, and went to look out of the small window that looked out onto the back alleyway.

"I have already told one of your policemen what I remember happened," he said, his back still facing them. "A Sergeant Colon, I believe. Captain Carrot talked to Mr von Uberwald." Carrot nodded although Vitoller couldn't see him. Vimes flipped through his notebook. There were a few notes about the play, a summary of Carrot's interview with the vampire and Fred had given him a leaf out of his own notebook with Vitoller's account on. Apart from that, no clues, nothing worth writing down had been spotted. But it was still early days yet. He made a mental note to ask how the script for the 'The Beauty and the Terrifying Beast' was going and also that the bandage from around the man's head had gone leaving an irrevocable dent in the centre of his forehead that Vimes had noticed when he had come to greet them.

"I need to know, sir, about the people who came for the auditions. How many were there?" Vitoller turned.

"You'd better ask my son, Commander. He was the one who had to usher them in because the watch troll had disappeared."

"Watch troll? This would be – err – Marble?" Vimes consulted Sergeant Colon's notes in his impeccably neat handwriting. Vitoller nodded.

"Yes," he confirmed. "Although he doesn't usually finish work until around ten o'clock. He works a nine hour day. I do remember now that he asked for time off – Tomjohn told me - he wanted to finish around five yesterday evening. This wasn't really possible because we had to set up for the auditions."

"So he just disappeared?"

"Looks like it."

"You don't know why he wouldn't have shown up today?"

"No. He's always been a good worker, Commander. He gets on with everybody – he talks a lot more than is usual with trolls I've dealt with, you see. Even Tomjohn owes him his life. He seems to dote on my son particularly."

"Your son owes him his life?" Vimes frowned and wrote this down. Vitoller sighed and sat down behind his desk.

"Yes. A couple of months ago, due to the Lewton affair, we had to undergo some serious reconstruction. Tomjohn and Marble were on the stage, cleaning up after the workmen had finished when a sandbag fell from the rafters, one of those two- tonne things, straight for my son. Now, a workman who was clearing up also, witnessed the falling bag and cried out to Tomjohn and Marble but for some reason or other, only the troll heard and pushed my son out of the way in time."

Vimes whistled softly. "Was there an investigation into why the bag was falling in the first place?" Vitoller shook his head.

"It was just an accident. You can imagine that I was more concerned for the safety of my son when I heard. Besides, neither the workman nor the troll said that they could see anyone up in the rafters." Vimes nodded. He finished taking down what Vitoller had told him in addition to Fred's notes and shut his notebook.

"Thank you very much, Mr Vitoller," he said. "If we hear anything more, we will let you know – as much as we can, you know."

"Yes. Thank you, Commander."

As soon as Vitoller had shown them out, Vimes turned to Carrot.

"You stayed surprisingly quiet, captain."

"Sir?"

"There's definitely something more to this. I can't shake off the feeling that it's more than someone who woke up the other morning and thought, hmm, wouldn't it be interesting to try and kill someone today? No, something more sinister is going on."

Carrot raised an eyebrow in inquiry. Vimes shook his head.

"Not here," he said. "I'll fill you in on things you may have missed once we get back to Pseudopolis Yard. I want Angua and the others there as well."

"Okay, sir. Should I send a pigeon?"

"No, they should be there already if I think they've found what I think they've found."

And what's that, sir?"

Vimes turned to him with a vaguely surprised look.

"Nothing, of course. You know my views on Clues. Damn things, can't trust 'em."

Carrot inclined his head and spoke in a whisper, just audible to the commander.

"You've found a Clue, sir?"

"Just wait 'till we get back to my office. I'll tell you all together."

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