Excerpt from the book called The Frisby Waterless Murders
“It just came to me, I suppose, I was looking through the police log at the station and remember reading about this dispute between two older men over some missing money. It was all handbags stuff. It might have been sorted out by a community constable.”
“Who was the other person?” queried Knowles, thankful that Smythe had remembered this incident, which he’d not even heard about.
“That I can’t recall, but I will go and look for you,” said Smythe.
“Sounds good to me, Linda,” said Knowles, “but after we have finished going through these statements.”
“OK, sir!” replied Smythe.
“So Seat 9 was occupied by John Davis and he was interviewed by you, Linda” said Barnes.
“Indeed he was, Sergeant Barnes, and he seemed rather evasive to me. He was playing the brother of the deceased in the murder/mystery and he didn’t do it, apparently. He went to the far end of the carriage when the smoke came in, along with his girlfriend in real life, Ellie Hammond. They arrived together with all the other actors. He’d never met the Major before. He got the impression that the members of the Round Table who walked past the Major either shook his hand or patted him on the shoulder.”
“Did he now, so that’s two people who have said that, so we need to find out who greeted the Major during the journey. Linda, could you ask Mr Davis who the greeters were? Or at least which seat they were sitting in? Thank you.”
“I think we should concentrate on anyone who shook his hand within half an hour of his demise. Any of those people could have injected him with the curare,” said Barnes.
“Good point, Sergeant, and apologies for the unintentional double entendre of the word point. So, Linda anyone who shook his hand from 9:50 a.m. onwards.”
“Right, sounds good although Mr Davis might not have always been aware of the exact time I suppose,” suggested Smythe.
“He’ll have to do his best, Linda, that’s all we can ask for. So Seat 10, Barnesy, was Desmond Stellen, who I interviewed.”
“That’s correct, sir, so what did he have to say for himself?”
“Well, it was slightly strange, because he was going to be the policeman in the investigation and his wife, Marie Stellen, was going to be the murderer. He told me that the actors had provided the members of The Round Table with biros, so that during the murder/mystery they could write down who the murderer was and three reasons why that person had given themselves away. I suggested one of the biros might have been used by the murderer to blow a dart at the Major. There was a damp patch on the carpet under his seat and he said that was because he spilled his drink when the smoke came into the carriage.”
Julian Worker Fiction Writing 