Mersey Murder Mysteries Collection - Books 4-6

Chapter 4-1

Ross and Drake, accompanied by Captain Gideon and First Officer Neary entered the Alexandra Rose"s main saloon, and were immediately impressed. It was clear to the detectives that the ship"s Australian owners had invested a fair sum of money in trying to present and maintain a certain standard of apparent luxury, albeit of a faded variety. The saloon resembled something one might have envisaged on board a cruise liner of the late forties or early fifties, the décor definitely suited to that era, with its polished wood floor, suitable for dancing, a wide stage across one end of the room, where, presumable entertainment could be provided. Ross wondered if they actually had a band on board, but decided this wasn"t the right time to ask. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling at regular intervals, forming a circle around the room, with a larger, more opulent example being situated in the dead centre of the ceiling. The walls were wood panelled, decorated here and there with impressive prints of some of the many ports of call the ship had made in its fairly long seafaring history, and on the darker wood beams that jutted out from the walls every thirty feet or so, elaborate wall sconces held what at first sight appeared to be candles, but Ross soon noticed they were electric light bulbs designed to look like the real thing. Of course, he mused, fire onboard ship would be disastrous, so real candles would definitely be an unnecessary hazard.

Alexandra Rose"sAt the end of the saloon opposite the stage a long bar stood, which the captain had ordered to be opened earlier, in an effort to help towards placating his passengers who had first of all been delayed from entering port, then had since been forcibly evacuated from their cabins with little explanation.

All eyes turned to greet the newcomers with an almost universal air of hostility and perhaps, Drake noticed in the women"s eyes, a little trepidation.

“Once again, ladies and gentlemen, my apologies for the delay you"ve been subjected to, and the further inconvenience of being asked to gather here and wait for the inspector here to arrive,” Gideon spoke eloquently and firmly, as one would expect a ship"s captain to do.

Even so, one of the men, seated at the bar with what appeared to be a large whisky in his hand, decided to pitch in with a comment.

“It is most inconvenient to be thrown out of my cabin just before entering Liverpool, Captain Gideon. I was in the middle of packing when I was instructed to leave my cabin until further notice. Please tell us, what is going on?”

Cleverly deflecting the question by avoiding it completely, Gideon instead said,

“Please may I introduce you to Detective Inspector Ross and Detective Sergeant Drake of the Merseyside Police, Murder Investigation Unit.?”

The mere mention of the word "murder" seemed to have a sobering effect on the man at the bar, who almost dropped his whisky glass in shock, and a general murmur of surprise carried round the saloon like a wave, finally dying out as Gideon spoke again.

“I apologise also for having to keep certain information from you, at the request of the police. I know you"ll understand when the inspector explains things in more detail to you. Inspector Ross?”

Ross walked across the full length of the saloon before speaking. Drake followed him as he stepped up on to the stage, giving them both a commanding view of the room. Once there, Andy Ross paused for a few seconds as the small gathering of passengers waited in anticipation of his words. Ross spent another short space of time looking at a sheet of paper he held in his hand, containing the names and nationalities of the five remaining passengers, provided by Gideon.

“Sadly, I have to inform you that one of your fellow passengers, Mr. Alvaro Gaspar, travelling in cabin 6, has been found murdered in his cabin.”

Once again, mention of the word "murder" was enough to cause the women to gasp and the men to look suitably shocked.

“As I"m sure you"ll all realise, we must investigate this act and bring the killer of Mr. Gaspar to justice. I hope I can count on you all to assist us in our investigation by answering our questions honestly and precisely. The sooner we have spoken to you all, the sooner you will be able to return to your cabins. First of all, I want to be sure of who I"m speaking to. Captain Gideon has provided me with a passenger list so when I call out your names, will you please identify yourselves so Sergeant Drake and I know who we"re talking to?”

“You surely do not think any of us are responsible for this man"s death?” said the man at the bar, who had regained his composure after the sudden revelation of Gaspar"s demise.

Ross guessed this was the only other single passenger, the occupant of cabin 8, identified on Gideon"s list as a Norwegian, Per Erikson.

“You are Mr. Erikson, I presume?” Ross said, and Erikson nodded.

“That is me, you are correct, but I cannot help you, Inspector. I never met with nor spoke with this Mr. Gaspar.”

“Thank you, Mr. Erikson. We will take a statement from you shortly. For now, I merely wish to identify you all.

Erikson almost said something else but the look on Ross"s face made him hold his tongue. Ross instead pointed in the direction of the middle aged couple seated at one of the circular tables situated against one wall of the salon.

“Please can you introduce yourselves?” Ross asked politely. The man rose from his seat and replied to the question.

“Good day, Inspector Ross. I am Armand Colbert, and this is my wife Angelique, known usually as Gigi,” he said, as he indicated his wife with a sweeping arm motion and a smile on his face.

“Bonjour, monsieur et madame, enchanté,” Ross replied, surprising Izzie Drake with his use of the Colbert"s native language.

“Bonjour, monsieur et madame, enchanté,”Angelique Colbert positively beamed from ear to ear at Ross"s words but replied politely in English.

“We are delighted also to meet you too, Inspector. I do not know how much my husband and I can tell you, but we will help you in any way we can.”

“Merci, madame,” Ross replied. “We will speak to you and your husband soon and I hope we won"t have to detain you too long.”

“Merci, madame,”“Thank you, Inspector,” her husband now spoke for the couple. “As my wife says, we are all yours, although like the gentleman at the bar, we barely knew the poor man.”

“Are you from Paris?” Ross asked, immediately feeling stupid, kind of like a foreigner who expects every Englishman to come from London.

“Mais non, monsieur l"inspecteur. Nous sommes de Marseilles,” Madame Colbert spoke again. Her husband looked less than pleased.

“Mais non, monsieur l"inspecteur. Nous sommes de Marseilles,”“I own a small business there, Inspector.”

“Right, I"ll speak to you again soon. Thank you for now.”

Ross was a little embarrassed and wanted to move on quickly to the final couple, who were seated three tables along from the Colberts.

“May I ask your names, please?” he asked the pair, who were quite some years younger than the French couple.

“I am Manuel Ramirez, and this is my partner, Gabriela Delgado. We are from Mexico.”

“Thank you señor. We"ll talk with you soon.” Ross replied.

“Gracias,” Ramirez said before falling silent and taking hold of his girlfriend"s hand in a gesture of reassurance.

Ross gestured to Drake and the pair walked off the stage from the right hand side, where Gideon was waiting in the wings. The captain then showed them to one of the dressing rooms where artists prepared before going on stage. Gideon explained that the ship carried only its resident small band of six musicians on this voyage, providing minimum but good quality entertainment and dance music for the passengers, though Ross failed to visualise the Colberts doing a turn round the dance floor. The young Mexican couple maybe, though they might feel a little self-conscious having the floor to themselves.

“Thank you, Captain Gideon. We won"t be long and then we"ll begin interviewing them, starting with Mr. Erikson, then the Colberts and finally the Mexican couple. First, perhaps you can tell me what you know about them, if anything.”

“Sure,” said the captain. “Erikson loves his drink for certain. Enjoys propping the bar up in the evenings. I believe he"s some kind of mining engineer, between jobs apparently. I"d call it out of work, which may have something to do with his drinking. He took his place at my table once or twice in the first week of the voyage but I think he found the conversation a little bland for his liking. He definitely preferred to eat alone, usually with a book propped up in front of him.”

“Did you get the opportunity to see what the book was about?” Izzie Drake asked.

“I never took much notice, Sergeant, to be honest. I can ask if the dining room steward saw the book if you like. For all I know he may have read more than one during the voyage.”

“That"s okay; we can ask him when we talk to him.”

“Is it important?”

“I don"t know Captain. I"m just interested. Maybe he likes reading novels, or maybe he was studying a tech manual for his work. It might tell us what sort of man he is.”

“Anything you can add to that, Captain?”

“Only that he really doesn"t come across as the sociable type, if you catch my drift, Inspector. But then, that"s not a crime is it?”

“Certainly not,” Ross replied. “Now; how about the French couple?”

“The Colberts? Nice couple in my estimation. Easy to get along with and quite talkative, especially the woman. Monsieur Colbert is a little more reticent, but I"ve found that often when a man is married to a woman who likes the sound of her own voice.”

“That"s a rather sexist remark, Captain, assuming all men married to such women are henpecked and downtrodden by their wives,” Drake couldn"t help saying.

“Far from it, Sergeant,” Gideon said. “In my job I get to see all sorts, as you can imagine. I"m not saying women like Madame Colbert nag their husbands to death, but that men married to women like her tend to find it easier to let their wives do the talking for both of them most of the time. It saves them from engaging in too much useless chit-chat themselves.”

“I found it quite the opposite in my brief conversation with them,” Ross added. “I felt as if he wanted her to say less and wanted to direct the conversation himself.”

“Yes, Inspector,” Gideon agreed. “That"s because when it comes to more important matters, like a murder inquiry, he feels it is his place to speak for them both, and his wife, as you saw, meekly acquiesced. General conversation, she"s in charge, but anything of importance and the old male chauvinistic attitude rises to the surface.”

“Right, I see,” said Ross. “Well, you should know, Captain Gideon. You must be quite an adept people-watcher after all your years at sea. So, again, what can you tell us about them?”