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) 📕

“Would that be so terrible?” Somerville asked. “Not being Mexican, I mean.”

“From a personal point of view, probably not, but if something important is based on him being Mexican, his immigration status to the US for instance, it may be crucial to his life going forward.”

Somerville nodded. “What you say is plausible,” he said.

“I think it explains his unhappiness about the whole trip. His wife’s desire to come to South America placed him in terrible jeopardy. He could be unmasked at any time,” Pauline said. “The stress must have been, still must be, excruciating.”

Ferguson nodded. “Is it always like this?” he asked. “Uncovering people’s harmless little wrongdoings and shaming them.”

“I’m afraid it is, Captain. We always learn of people’s small misdeeds, their innermost doubts and fears,” Somerville said. “Sometimes it’s those feelings that are the cause of the crime but often, they’re just why they wouldn’t be honest about what happened and, in doing so, bring suspicion down upon themselves.”

Pauline added. “It’s often an unpleasant experience uncovering the truth,” she said. “Many people have wounds that aren’t fully healed.”

“Well,” Ferguson said, “if your principal candidate is innocent, Miss Riddell, we’re left with only two. Are you ready to provide more evidence against my chief engineer, Detective?”

“Not really,” Somerville said. “I’ve learned more about Gregor, thanks to Señor Hidalgo’s good work pressing the police and others but none of it suggests he would behave as Miss Riddell thinks the possible perpetrator must have acted.”

“I think a number of possibilities, Detective, not just one,” Pauline interjected, annoyed at having her suspicions being narrowed down to one.

“Whatever,” Somerville said, brusquely, “he is another one of the ship’s company who’s had an interesting life. Reading the records, I suspect his involvement in the Hungarian Uprising wasn’t as accidental as he suggested. The Hungarian authorities didn’t think so anyhow, after the revolt was crushed. But I think that makes him a warrior for the good guys, rather than a bully toward new recruits.”

“A warrior doesn’t always understand how intimidating they are to those of us who are not warriors,” Pauline said. “Jose could so easily have been scared into retreating against that gate.”

“So, you still think Gregor is a suspect, Miss Riddell?” Ferguson asked.

“The reason I’ve never thought the chief engineer a suspect is because whoever lured Jose to that place knew what they were doing. If it was premeditated, it was murder. If it was an accident, then the chief engineer is unlikely to be the culprit. He would know he’d be suspected because he, of all people, would have, should have, known about that gate.”

“So, if my bridge crew rule out Mr. Chalmers and you’re both as convinced as you can be it isn’t Gregor, that only leaves Arvin Weiss,” Ferguson said.

Pauline said. “But we haven’t entirely ruled out Pedro, Rod Chalmers or Gregor Mikailovitch. I only said the evidence isn’t there to go further.”

“For my part, Captain,” Somerville said, “I still feel an accident is a perfectly rational explanation. The cut may have nothing to do with the event and we can’t know what Jose was doing when he fell. There’s no reason we know of for him to be there but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a reason. The reason may be something so personal to him we’ve missed it.”

“Such as,” Ferguson asked.

“One I thought of, but it didn’t check out, was he’d hidden something part way down that access ladder, drink or drugs, for example, and he was climbing down to get them when he fell backward off the ladder.”

“You found nothing when you checked, you say.”

“Correct. I got your maintenance guys to let me look and there was nothing and nothing was on or around the body when he was found so it didn’t pan out but that just means that particular explanation wasn’t right. There could be another or even others. We don’t know what Jose was doing there and that’s the truth of it.”

“We’ve investigated Jose’s actions and questioned those who knew him. None of them could explain it,” Pauline said.

“Maybe we haven’t asked the right person or asked the right question,” Somerville said. “I’m ready to call this case complete now, to be honest. I think we’re wasting people’s time and spoiling our own, and others’, vacations.”

“As you might recall, I didn’t want to be part of this investigation,” Pauline said, “but now I am in, I’ll continue to the end. I want to hear what the bridge crew have to say and then anything more that comes in about Arvin. Until we’ve taken the same care to eliminate him from our enquiries, we can’t stop.”

Somerville nodded. “I guess you’re right,” he said. “When can we hear from the guys on the bridge that night, Captain?”

“Before the evening is out,” Ferguson said. “I’ll have the officers join us and Suzanne, our hospitality manager, is also available. If you rejoin your parties, I’ll have someone come find you when I have them here to talk to.”

“Separately, please, Captain,” Pauline said. “I’d like Suzanne’s information to be as private as we can make it.”

The meeting with the bridge crew, when it was held, was brief. The officer of the watch did remember a man smoking a cigar or cigarette pacing back and forth on the foredeck. While he hadn’t noted the time, it was certainly around the time of the incident. He couldn’t say who the man was, it was dark by that time and, even though there is low lighting on the foredeck, he was looking down from the bridge into the semi-darkness across quite a distance. All he could say for sure was a lighted cigar/cigarette moved back and forth across the deck and it was a man smoking it.

This wasn’t conclusive but as no one else claimed to be smoking on the foredeck, it looked like Rod really was in the clear.

After the bridge officer had left the cabin, Suzanne