Free Death in the Middle Watch by Leo Bruce Page A

undertaker consulting the wishes of “the family”.
    â€œOf course. Before the doctor makes his examination.”
    â€œThen I will take you down myself,” said Ratchett. “We all feel the deepest sympathy.”
    Darwin turned to Carolus. “Later I should be glad if we could have a talk,” he said. Again Carolus felt grateful to him for not speaking of “a few words” as Mr Gorringer surely would have done.
    â€œCertainly. Meet you in the Bar Lounge in half an hour’s time,” he offered.
    Darwin nodded and followed the Purser to the door. But he turned back.
    â€œI take it you have examined my wife’s body?” he said to Carolus.
    â€œNo. Not much in my line, I’m afraid. I’ve never learnt anything from a cadaver that was not in the doctor’s report. And I don’t think the puzzle of this crime will be solved by a microscope or any other of the forensic aids.”
    â€œReally?” Porteous intervened, sounding rather hostile. “Then how do you expect to solve it, Mr Deene?”
    â€œCommon sense and perhaps a touch of instinct—for want of a better word.”
    Darwin scarcely waited to hear this.
    â€œI hope you’re not depending too much on instinct,” said Porteous.
    â€œI don’t think so. I’ll find out who killed Cynthia Darwin, anyway.”
    â€œHave you in the meantime found out who was responsible for the threatening letters?”
    â€œI have a pretty good idea. I know who it
wasn’t
and that’s half the battle.”
    â€œNo doubt you will inform me, in that case?”
    â€œAll in good time,” said Carolus.
    Darwin was waiting for him at a table in a far corner of the saloon called the Bar Lounge.
    â€œI’ve seen my wife,” he said. “Seems pretty certain she was strangled. That accords with the fact that the passengers in the next cabin, so the Purser tells me, heard nothing at all.”
    â€œDid the Purser tell you what the girl in the cabin opposite heard?”
    Darwin stared.
    â€œNo. What?” he asked.
    â€œNot a very reliable witness, I’m afraid. One of the saddest good-time girls I have known. She says she heard someone knocking on the door of your wife’s cabin. She looked out but by the time she did so the man or woman had entered the cabin and closed the door.”
    â€œI should have said ‘impossible’ an hour ago. I have learned better than to say that of anything. But I certainly can’t account for it. She surely could not have invited anyone to come to her cabin at one or two in the morning. Unless …”
    â€œUnless what, Mr Darwin?”
    â€œI was going to say unless she asked one of the women passengers. For company or something.”
    â€œIn that case it would suggest that she was strangled by a woman. Not very likely, I should have thought.”
    â€œNot necessarily. She might have expected a woman and left her door unlocked. The woman might have introduced a man.”
    â€œNeedless to say I have gone over the possibilities in my mind,” said Carolus. “Including the possibility that Sir Charles and Lady Spittals, or Miss Berry, the girl in the cabin opposite, are lying. Or that one of them is.
    â€œBut you’ve reached no conclusion?”
    â€œNo. I haven’t. No final conclusion.”
    â€œTo you this is just a puzzling case,” said Darwin rather sadly. “To me it is the loss of my wife. We had only been married six months.”
    â€œSo I understand.”
    â€œDid you meet her?”
    â€œJust for a few moments when she first came on board.”
    â€œI was deeply in love with her,” said Darwin. “I’m sure you appreciate that. I am as determined as you are to discover the truth. Meanwhile I have had time to consider the practical side of the situation. I shall ask Porteous and the Captain ifthe ship can put in at Gibraltar before entering the