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) 📕

above, many of us gathered in this corner where there was a little shade from the superstructure. Those of us at the back of the group, leaned against the railing. One of the girls leaned against the gate and it moved. Her neighbors grabbed her before she fell. We giggled quietly for we didn’t want the officer giving the talk to think we weren’t listening. It was nothing. Silliness.”

Maria’s attention once again drifted away to the times before and she seemed lost to her present danger.

“And then?” Pauline asked sharply, to bring Maria out of her trance.

“When he said meet on deck seven, it came back to me. I knew that God, or maybe just natural justice, had created this chance for me to make him pay for his crimes.”

“Go on. What happened when he fell?”

“I looked over the rail when I heard him hit the deck below. He was lying still but I didn’t know if he was just unconscious or really dead. I ran quickly down the steps to where he lay. He was dead. I’d been terrified of him when he was alive and now I found I was equally terrified of him dead. Everything would come out and they would say I murdered him. No one was about. I heard no one coming. I ran back to my room and threw the knife overboard on the way.”

“How did you know he was dead?” Freda asked.

Maria stared at her as if she were mad. “I saw so many dead people on the day he and his friends mutilated me. He was dead. I was only sorry I had killed him, for it put my own life, so recently regained, back in peril. I didn’t think he was dead because I wished it but because I could see it.”

“You may not have killed him directly but you were responsible for his death,” Pauline said. “You told me you had been a believer once, does your conscience not give you pain?”

“When he grabbed me that first day on the ship, my faith had been returning slowly and then he was standing in front of me, laughing at my terror. I thought, why would any just God do this to a follower who had suffered as I had? I don’t know the answer to that. A priest would say the answer might lie beyond this life. But I know in this life I have suffered beyond what anyone should have to and I wanted my life back. You perhaps think I should suffer more. Well, I have told you the truth. I place myself, and my future, in your hands, Señorita Riddell. Choose wisely.”

Maria turned abruptly and walked away, leaving Pauline and Freda to gaze after her.

“Pauline,” Freda said, at last, “you can’t.”

“I believe in the law, Freda. Without it, we return to a world where the strong prey on the weak and might is always right. Sometimes, as we struggle to maintain our laws, things will be other than what we wish. This is one of those times.”

“I will not give evidence against Maria,” Freda said.

“Have you heard Jose’s side of the story?”

“No, but—”

“Then how do you know what we heard is true or, if essentially true, doesn’t have a different explanation?”

“I could ask to see her wounds,” Freda said.

“Do only the innocent have wounds?”

“No, but—”

“It’s not for us to decide. It’s for a court.”

“I’m going to bed,” Freda said icily, and stalked away.

20

Ecuador and Toronto

Captain Ferguson held the cabin door as Pauline walked into his room.

“Good morning,” she said to Ferguson and Somerville. “Did you start without me?”

Ferguson shook his head. “Not at all, Miss Riddell, we couldn’t. You were the one who wanted more time,” he said. “We’ve been discussing nothing more than the cruise and the islands. But, now you’re here, and you both have very little time before disembarking, perhaps you, Miss Riddell and you, Detective Somerville, can give me any last minute, or final, thoughts. Can I tell the owners that all is well?”

Somerville looked at Pauline sternly before saying, “Miss Riddell rightly drew our attention to an injury on the dead man’s chin and suggested that this event was a murder and not an accident. I’ve looked at all the evidence, interviewed dozens of people. We’ve had information radioed and faxed in from the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Police departments and I can see no evidence of any wrongdoing. I have to conclude the scratch under the dead man’s chin has no bearing on his fall and death, however it might look to Miss Riddell. The Ecuadorian Police examined the scene the morning after the incident. They saw no reason to call it murder either.”

Captain Ferguson turned his attention to Pauline.

Pauline waited a moment to get a grip on herself before she said, “And I have no hard evidence to dispute Detective Somerville’s or the Ecuadorian Police’s conclusion, Captain. The company should not be concerned about this incident, beyond replacing that loose gate and I know you’ve already done that.”

“Thank you, both of you. You’ve taken a load off my mind. The thought we had a murderer on board who might strike again at any moment has been a concern to me throughout the voyage, as you may imagine.”

“There never was a murderer,” Somerville said. For a moment it seemed he would go on but he left it at that.

“I think you can be sure there will not be another incident of this kind on the ship,” Pauline said. “Now, I will take your leave for I’ve still some final packing to finish before I put my bags out. Thank you for a wonderful cruise, Captain, and for taking my concerns seriously.” She held out her hand. They shook hands briefly and Pauline turned to detective Somerville.

“Mr. Somerville,” she held out her hand, “it was nice to meet you. I do hope you have a good trip home.”

With that, she left the cabin and strode quickly down the corridor to her room.