Excerpt from the book called The Frisby Waterless Murders
“I will be visiting Maudie Trimble who cancelled at the last moment and was originally going to be the occupant of Seat 22 where the Major ended up,” replied Knowles, “I just want to make sure that no one had a grudge against her for any reason.”
“So let’s go to the final three people, The Trimbles, sitting in Seats 23 – 25,” continued Barnes, seizing the moment, “and they were interviewed by Linda.”
“Oh yes, the very keen Mr Harold Trimble and his wife Mavis with little Deidre. Mr Trimble thinks that one of his fellow Round Table people killed The Major, as he kept everyone under observation from his seat and none of the actors mingled very much other than the woman in Seat 12 – Marie Stellen – who walked through the carriage twice. Mr Trimble said that all the Round Table people greeted the Major after he sat down in Seat 22.”
“What did Mavis Trimble say?” asked Knowles.
“She was playing cards with her daughter. Deidre was slightly upset about her aunt’s dog being ill, so Mrs Trimble tried to take her mind off this. Deidre said her dad was kneeling on his seat and looking over the top down the carriage.”
“Was he now, how annoying for everyone concerned.”
“Yes, but useful for us, sir, because he noticed things.”
“Well, he noticed that everyone from The Round Table shook the Major’s hand I will grant you that, but we were going to establish that anyway and, don’t forget, he might be prone to exaggeration. For example, did he shake the Major’s hand or did his wife?”
“He didn’t say, but I think someone else has already said that they saw him doing exactly that when he was walking through the carriage.”
“Yes, they have, sir.”
“So that leaves the two stewards, Eddie Yeates and Bridie Hill-Powell, and Gerald the train manager.”
“Well, I interviewed Eddie, sir,” said Barnes “and he came on duty at 9 a.m. along with Bridie. They let Carly Waferr in to the kitchen/dining car and helped her place all the food into the fridges there as well as set up the tea and coffee machines to start brewing at the flick of a switch at 9:40 a.m. sharp. They then welcomed the guests aboard and Eddie helped the Major sit in Seat 26; about five minutes later Gerald told him to relocate the Major to Seat 22 with the help of Bridie, the Major’s wife, and the Trimble family, who kindly offered to be reseated so that the Major could have more room. The Major didn’t seem too grateful and complained that someone had trodden on his foot. Eddie and Bridie served drinks and muffins from separate trolleys between 9:45 and 9:50. The Major complained that Eddie’s trolley had almost run over his foot, but Eddie insists it went nowhere near it. Eddie at no time opened or closed a window, but thought Bridie did – the one on the other side of the corridor from the Major – then at 10:10 when the smoke came in he helped people into the kitchen / dining car. He said once everyone was out of the carriage Gerald went in to close the windows and Eddie went to tell the driver to move the train.”
Julian Worker Fiction Writing 