Excerpt from the book called The Frisby Waterless Murders
“Barnesy, based on what you’ve been told what do you make of all this?”
“Well Inspector, everyone’s stories do seem to tally to a great extent.”
“More than you’d expect for twenty-odd people in a confined space?”
“Well that’s the big question – they were together for fifty minutes chugging along a single track railway line watching the world go by.”
“Well not if they were intending to find out the murderer. Surely the people from The Round Table would all have been watching the actors to see which of them were acting suspiciously and wouldn’t those observers all have had a different view? And why was the keenest investigator, Mr Trimble, put at the end of the carriage facing towards the engine?”
Barnes shrugged his shoulders – “We should ask the person who co-ordinated the seating arrangements.”
Knowles nodded his head and wondered who that would be – he’d have to ask Gerald Kennedy who’d provided him with his lovely seating plan on blue paper. It was an artistic touch Knowles appreciated; someone had gone to great lengths to make the plan attractive.
“The first thing we should do now is go and see Dr Crabtree and discover how the Major died.”
“Sounds like a plan, sir,” agreed Barnes as they headed to the Forensics lab.
“What’s your guess, Barnesy?” asked Knowles, “dart or ingestion?”
“I think he ate something poisonous,” said Barnes, “which might be problematic for us as he could have eaten this before he was even on the train.”
“A slow-acting poison, you mean? I hadn’t thought of that – I hope not because I think the murderer is on that train.”
“What about you, sir?”
“A dart in the neck using a blowpipe of some manufacture.”
“Is that your biro idea?’
“I don’t know whether a biro was used; if it was then I have to believe that an actor was the culprit as members of The Round Table wouldn’t have known about the biros until they boarded the train. We might have to collect the biros from everyone. Right, here’s the lab.”
The two officers entered and walked over to the table where Dr Crabtree was standing over the cadaver. Dr Crabtree looked up and smiled before putting on his glasses, which had been lying on the table.
Julian Worker Fiction Writing 