It's Murder, On a Galapagos Cruise: An Amateur Female Sleuth Historical Cozy Mystery (Miss Riddell C by P.C. James (easy novels to read txt) 📕

“I too think that is most likely,” Nina said guardedly.

“However, I wondered if you’d heard anything among the female crew members that might help us?”

Nina shook her head. “No,” she said. “I don’t think any of us knew him. We’re all very new onboard, you know.”

“I understand,” Pauline said. “If you do hear of anything, I hope you’ll let me know. I can be very discreet.”

“I can be very discreet too, Miss Riddell,” Nina said.

Pauline had hoped a woman-to-woman approach would lower the barriers between them but decided it would take more than that in the case of someone who grew up behind the Iron Curtain. She nodded and returned to the lounge. A different approach was going to be needed to hear the female side of the crew’s story.

Overnight, new information from the mainland had arrived and Ferguson called the two detectives early to his cabin for them to review it while Hidalgo was available to talk. One piece in particular caught Pauline’s attention.

“Señor Hidalgo,” she said, “this newspaper article about the school soccer team and it’s triumph in Lima suggests Pedro almost certainly traveled to the village where Jose lived. Do we have anything that says if Jose was on his school’s team or maybe a village team that could have brought him and Pedro into contact?”

“We haven’t anything like that at this time,” Hidalgo’s reply crackled over the radio making him hard to understand.

“We must find out,” Somerville said loudly, as though volume would make the radio reception better.

“I’d already thought of it and they’re working on that.”

“It really is beginning to look as if Pedro had an earlier relationship with Jose and he might be our man,” Somerville said. “I don’t say murderer but involved in the incident, quite likely.”

“I hope not,” Ferguson said. “He’s one of the nicest young men on board: helpful, kind, and hard-working. I’d be sorry to find he has a hand in this.”

“It’s early days, Captain,” Pauline said. “Jose may not have played soccer and never met Pedro. It may not be likely, but it’s possible.”

“Every boy and man here in South America plays soccer, Miss Riddell, as I’m sure you know. It’s inconceivable Jose didn’t.”

“Captain Ferguson is right,” Hidalgo said. “Another batch of newspaper articles is on its way right now. We’ve just received one that says Jose played for his school and his village soccer teams and would almost certainly have played against Pedro at some time.”

“This is growing more serious,” Ferguson said. “Pedro didn’t tell us this.”

“We still don’t know they actually met, Captain,” Somerville said. “I play hockey and baseball, have done all my life. I barely knew the people on the teams I was on at school, let alone the players on the other teams.”

“But this isn’t Toronto, Detective,” Pauline said. “These are two small villages not three miles apart, and in a region where people must travel to meet each other. Very like the one where I grew up, in fact. You may not have known your neighbors in the city, but I knew people from miles away because they were family, schoolfriends, or others we met in school and village events. There’s much wider interaction when there are much fewer people nearby.”

“Still,” Somerville said, “we need Pedro to explain himself. If he says he didn’t meet Jose while they were each on separate soccer teams, then we’re not a lot further forward.”

“I think we’re closing in on something like a conclusion,” Ferguson said, “and I don’t like it at all.”

“Understandable.” Pauline said. “We need to question Pedro again to arrive at the truth of this.”

“I’ll have him found and brought here right away,” Ferguson said. “If there’s any chance this is something more than an accident, I want it known now.”

The three continued discussing the latest information sent from shore and relaying yet more requests for information to Hidalgo while they waited for Pedro to arrive.

“Ah, Pedro, come in,” Ferguson said, when the young naturalist knocked and requested permission to enter. “Please take a seat. We have more questions to ask.”

Pedro was barely settled before Somerville said, “How is it you failed to mention you and Jose both played on your school and village soccer teams and you must have met at some time?”

Pedro was taken aback by this sudden attack by his inquisitors.

“I didn’t mention playing on the local soccer teams because you didn’t ask me,” Pedro said. “I knew how it would look to you.”

“It looks even worse now we’ve discovered it,” Ferguson said, “and know that you withheld this information.”

“I didn’t know Jose before we arrived on this ship,” Pedro said, “but I did recognize him and him me when we arrived.”

“We asked exactly that and you said you didn’t know him,” Pauline said. “That makes us very suspicious of you, as I’m sure you can appreciate.”

“Of course,” Pedro said, “but I thought it best not to let you waste your time on this because it has nothing to do with his death. I was evasive, it’s true, but for good reasons. I didn’t kill him and the hate he harbored toward me wasn’t behind his death.”

“Why did he dislike you?”

“For the reasons I gave and because I was something of a sports star at school. Our soccer team went to the capital and won a trophy and he didn’t. These were the reasons he gave while trying to intimidate me. They are petty, childish things. Things we all harbor about something or someone in our past but eventually the rest of us grow out of it. He didn’t. I was just unlucky enough to run into him again and he was able to vent his resentment.”

“You have no alibi for the time in question; the victim had a grudge against you; he’d already threatened you once. You can see how it looks,” Somerville said.

“None of which condemns me,” Pedro said, suddenly sitting up and becoming very