Free All Quiet on Arrival by Graham Ison

to have a look at it, and say wow.’
    â€˜
A new kitchen?
’ I’d heard of some strange reasons for holding a party, but that was a new one on me. I went on to a different tack. ‘Were you aware that Thomas Hendry had had sexual intercourse with Mrs Barton?’
    â€˜When? On Saturday?’
    â€˜No. I’m talking about the beginning of this year. That’s why he was sacked as a steward.’
    â€˜Oh that. Yeah, Tom told me about that. I thought you meant last Saturday. He said that when he was on the cruise this woman paid him to screw her. He said it happened about six times. I think it was very unfair of them to sack him for something that was the woman’s fault.’
    â€˜Did you know that that woman was Diana Barton?’
    â€˜No, he never said who she was.’
    â€˜I suggest that he murdered her out of revenge for having lost him his job.’
    â€˜No, of course he never. He was annoyed about getting the push, but he wouldn’t kill no one. That’d be a daft thing to do. Anyway, like I said, I never knew it was Diana.’
    I doubted that somehow, but I nodded to Dave, and let him take over.
    â€˜How long have you and Tom been living together?’ asked Dave.
    Shelley paused for a moment. ‘About a couple of years, I s’pose. Mind you, he’s at sea a lot. Or was.’
    â€˜And you didn’t mind him having sex with other women?’ Both Dave and I knew, from what Captain Richards had said, that Hendry had made a practice of bedding willing women passengers.
    â€˜No, of course I never. He was away for long periods at a time, and you can’t expect him to go without,’ said Shelley with a candid admission of her tolerance. ‘That last cruise he was on, when he got the sack, lasted over a month. So he has it off when he can get it.’ Shelley paused again. ‘And the same goes for me when he ain’t here.’
    â€˜Are you sure you don’t know where he’s gone, Shelley?’ I took the questioning back.
    â€˜No, I don’t.’
    â€˜Does Tom have any relatives, any friends, where he might’ve gone?’
    â€˜I don’t know.’
    â€˜Where was Tom yesterday evening?’
    â€˜He picked me up from the supermarket when I finished me shift, just after four o’clock that was, and took me home. We went out for a pizza at about eight, had a drink at a pub and then went back home.’
    â€˜What time would that have been?’
    â€˜About eleven, maybe quarter past.’
    That might have been the truth, but there again it might not. However, I concluded that there was little else that we could obtain from Shelley Maxwell. I admitted her to police bail, and sent her home. I told her that she should advise the police if and when Hendry returned home. But I doubted that she would.

FIVE
    I came to the conclusion that we had wasted our time talking to Shelley Maxwell. She hadn’t told us anything useful about the party. Furthermore, I had great difficulty in believing that anyone would hold a party to celebrate the installation of a new kitchen. There again, it was Chelsea, and all manner of strange things go on there.
    I could tell that, for the most part, Shelley had been avoiding the truth in an attempt to shield her live-in lover. If that were the case, she hadn’t done a very good job. Even so, I was fairly certain that she knew where Hendry would have gone following his dramatic flight, and I just hoped that one of the Hampshire Constabulary patrols would pick him up. I thought it highly likely he would make for London, there being a fallacy harboured by villains that they can get lost there. It ain’t so.
    We moved on to Tadley Street, which was not far from Birley Road.
    â€˜Are you Carl Morgan?’
    â€˜Yes, that’s me. Who are you? Are you from the company?’
    â€˜No. Mr Morgan, we’re police officers. May we come in?’
    â€˜Yeah, sure.