Excerpt from the book called The Frisby Waterless Murders
“Exactly Sergeant Barnes, so perhaps you could ascertain who drew up the seating plan and who knew where they were sitting before they arrived on the train.”
“I will do that, sir, the other question I have is why would you murder the Major on a train with lots of people around when there are other quieter places to commit the crime?”
“Well, it must be because the murderer could only get near him on the train or wanted someone else to see the Major’s demise, perhaps to punish them too.”
“His wife?”
“Well possibly – murder her husband because of something her own father did? Maybe. I don’t think so, but perhaps that was the reason. I think the murderer might have helped the Major open the window just after he had been served his coffee. That rules out the stewards who were both helping Mrs Harkness at the time. That’s a shame as they would be the ones who would most likely choose the train for murder as that’s the only occasion they would have any reason to be close to the Major. I wonder where Gerald Kennedy and the Waferr woman were at 9:50 a.m?”
“We could ask them?”
“They’d choose the train too as they wouldn’t move in the same social circles as the Major under normal circumstances.”
“Isn’t that also true of the actors though, sir?”
“It is, Barnesy, I suppose it is, but would they have known the seating arrangements before the trip started? The train staff almost certainly would have, but not the actors. They might have known where they were sitting, but not where the members of the Round Table were to be seated.”
“Do you think the person who threw the meat at Maudie’s dog was the murderer or one of the attempted murderers?”
“Good question; I can’t be sure, but if I were to guess I would say the attempted murderer, who was hoping to kill the Major with a dart shot out of a blowpipe. It’s just a guess though as I am sure you will appreciate. For the dart to be successful the Major would have to be out in the open and not stuck in a remote seat by the window.”
“Right, well I suppose I should try and find out who created the seating plan and how it was arrived at, and more importantly who knew the contents and when.”
“That’s a good idea – so I will visit John Davis, Ellie, and the Trimbles on my way home; I wasn’t doing that much this evening anyway.”
“Right, well all I have to look forward to is a dominoes match at The Lion on Queen’s Square.”
Julian Worker Fiction Writing 