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) 📕

“But it wasn’t good. My insides hurt. My head hurt. Being carried to the plane wasn’t comfortable and the buffeting in the plane during the flight was worse. By the time I was carried off and back to a new bed, I couldn’t stop weeping. The following days were a blur. The following weeks, mercifully better. One day the pain in my stomach and groin was bearable, I could walk with help. Soon after I could walk unaided, and not long after that I could hardly remember the pain. Only the scars remained to remind me. That, and the bad dreams.

“My wounds, however, turned out to be in my favor. I was accepted as a refugee to Ecuador and I gratefully accepted. I hoped that I would never again see my country or my fellow citizens for if I did I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t try to kill them. It was a relief when I flew out to my new home in Quito.

“My relief, my pleasure, however, drained away as the days became weeks and then months. I knew no one and work was hard to come by. I had no skills that would pay as well as I needed for the medicines I have to take. All that I could find were cleaning jobs in hotels and they were dreary. Then I saw an advertisement for cleaners on a cruise ship and I applied. Sunshine and warmth were what I craved. Quito’s weather, swinging between biting cold and then draining heat made me feel suicidal. And the pay was better, much better on the ship. A month later, just two weeks ago, I joined the ship at Guayaquil as it prepared to take visitors from Europe and North America to the Galapagos Islands.”

“That’s when it happened?” Pauline said.

Maria nodded.

“There was a staff meeting the day before, where we went over our training lessons. Others on the ship had worked for other cruise lines. I was one of the few new staff and didn’t know anyone so I was alone in the group as we walked down the corridor back to our quarters. We passed through an open area where a group of men in coveralls were talking amongst themselves, seemingly innocent but I suspected they were hanging about to check out the girls.

“Suddenly, I found my sleeve being tugged and I turned to face the man who held it. Even with the beard and moustache, I recognized him instantly. My whole body froze and I couldn’t breathe.

“‘You made it too,’ he said, in a conversational tone like we were friends meeting again after escaping a disaster. ‘We must talk.’

“‘Sadly, so did you, I said. We will not talk or meet. Get away from me.’

“‘Go on deck seven, at the port side smoking area. I’ll meet you there,’ he told me.

“‘I will not meet you anywhere and if you come near me again, I will tell the ship’s security and they will inform the police,” I said. ‘Your only hope for a future outside jail is to leave me alone and leave this ship at the end of the voyage.’

“He let my arm go. ‘I’m a refugee also. My story is as good as yours. Deck seven, I’ll meet you there.’

“I returned to my room. I was shaking so hard I could hardly walk, my mind reeled at the shock. I slumped on the bed and tried to plan. Would security even believe me? Then my dismay turned to rage, and I knew what I was going to do. If he’d left me alone, he would have been safe. He wasn’t going to do that, so I would take my revenge. It was simple justice, in my mind.”

Pauline watched her carefully as she spoke, unhappy at the choice before her. If Maria’s story was true, then it was a just ending to Jose’s violent, cruel life. But was her story true? She should ask Freda to examine Maria but, if her story was true, that would be an additional cruelty practiced upon a woman who had suffered, and continued to suffer, more than anyone should have to. “Nevertheless,” Pauline said, “it is not for private citizens to execute others. You should have alerted the captain and had Jose arrested.”

“Perhaps, if I was someone from another country, another world, who had stumbled upon Jose’s secret, that’s what I would have done. But I am not that neutral observer from another world. I was terrified and at the same time consumed with rage. He still had the chance to leave me alone. That’s all I asked. It wasn’t too much to ask, was it?”

Pauline didn’t reply.

Maria continued, “I took a steak knife from the crew’s dining room and met him on deck seven, as he’d demanded but not the place he’d chosen. I waited in a dark corner, this dark corner, where no one would see him with me. I didn’t want anyone to think I would be with such a creature. And I had a plan.

“Maybe my choice of a dark corner was a mistake. Maybe it led him to think I was giving in to him. I don’t know. He grabbed my arms and pulled me to him. I thrust the knife point under his chin. He stepped back. The gate swayed and moved and he toppled. He let go of me and tried to grab the railings, but he was too slow. He seemed to hang in the air forever, his behind resting on the wobbly rail, and then slowly, too slowly to my eyes, slid off and down.” She paused, her expression filled with horror and her eyes focused far away.

“But you knew the place you’d chosen was dangerous, didn’t you? How did you know that?”

“Yes, I knew. During the orientation to the ship, the staff were taken on a tour. It was hot and sunny and on deck seven, where there’s nothing