Read Online Death in the Middle Watch by Leo Bruce - Free Book Online Page B

when you’re in bed and they come in after you. Anyway, this time it happened to poor Mrs Darwin and she’s not alive to tell the tale.”
    â€œBut her husband is,” said Carolus. “And I rather think he will tell it with some force. He’s due on board any minute now. His plane must have come down nearly an hour ago.”
    Mrs Stick looked rather awed and said nothing.
    â€œDidn’t the lady at the table where you sit know that?” Carolus asked with a touch of banter.
    â€œShe didn’t happen to mention it at lunch,” replied Mrs Stick airily. “She was talking about the young lady who was taken to the fish market this morning, Miss Berry her name is, and got left there, trying to find her way out, and was shouted at by all the Portuguese women walking about with fish on their heads. They say poor Miss Berry came on board smelling something dreadful of fish. and I suppose you can’t wonder, really.”
    Carolus was stung into a retort.
    â€œThat whole story is untrue,” he said. “Miss Berry was left on board this morning and was talking to me. She wanted to see the fish market but never got there.”
    Mrs Stick sniffed. It was evident that she preferred her own authority to Carolus’s.
    â€œThat’s what the lady at the table where we sit said, anyway,” she stated with finality.
    The steward in charge of the Sun Lounge approached and told Carolus that the Captain would like to see him in his cabin, so he left Mrs Stick and followed the steward’s directions.
    He found Captain Scorer with Mr Porteous and the Purser, but this time there was a stranger with them, a clean and spruce-looking man in his early fifties.
    â€œLet me introduce Mr Deene. Mr Darwin,” said the Captain.
    Darwin seemed calm, though Carolus thought at once that it was the habitual manner of a man who did not exhibit his emotions, though he might be feeling great distress. He nodded to Carolus and, after an awkward silence, Porteous, addressing Carolus, said, “We have been breaking our tragic news to Mr Darwin.”
    â€œI hope you have told him the truth,” said Carolus.
    â€œWhat truth?” Darwin almost shouted.
    â€œThe truth that last night, Mr Darwin, your wife was murdered.”
    A cry broke from Darwin but he did not speak.
    â€œI wished to break this as gently as possible to Mr Darwin,” said Porteous reproachfully.
    â€œNo purpose can be served by leaving Mr Darwin to discover for himself from ship’s gossip. I’m sure we all express our deepest sympathy, Mr Darwin, but you had better know the truth.”
    Then Darwin turned to Porteous and asked in a quiet strained voice, “When you received these threatening letters, just what precautions did you take?”
    Porteous cleared his throat.
    â€œYou will understand that the happiness of a large number of people is my responsibility. I did not wish to alarm them. The letters might be a fake or the act of a madman …”
    â€œIn that case was there not all the more need to take measures for the protection of your passengers?”
    â€œCruisers,” corrected Mr Porteous. “Of course there was, and we took those measures. I employed Carolus Deene, a well-known investigator.”
    For the first time Darwin showed some emotion. It was anger.
    â€œWhat the hell is the good of an investigator after it has happened?” he asked. “You needed an armed policeman, not an amateur detective. I mean no disrespect to Mr Deene, of course. But events, tragic events as I understand them, have shown that I am right.”
    â€œI agree entirely,” said Carolus. “I should never have been asked to act as a security guard. But I’m afraid you’re wrong in talking of an armed policeman. It would have been totally impracticable to try that sort of thing to protect every passenger.”
    â€œWas there nothing in these letters to suggest that it