It's Murder, On a Galapagos Cruise: An Amateur Female Sleuth Historical Cozy Mystery by P.C. James

Author:P.C. James [James, P.C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: James Gang Enterprises
Published: 2021-03-12T22:00:00+00:00

12

Morning at Sea

As it happened, she didn’t need to do anything, for Rod did something they would never have suspected of him, though perhaps they should have expected because he was a fitness instructor before he married. Nevertheless, they were surprised when he turned up for the ship’s exercise class at six am the next morning.

As they met him making his way up the stairs on the way to the class, Pauline asked, “I wondered if we might talk privately for a moment, Rod, after the class?”

“What about?”

“About Jose,” Pauline said.

“I’ve already told that detective all I know, which is nothing. And I’ve told him twice. If you’re going to the class, I’m leaving.”

This announcement about Somerville so angered Pauline she was momentarily speechless. Fortunately, Freda was able to step into the breach.

“Please don’t do that,” Freda said, quickly. “We aren’t out to trap you. Just understand.”

They reached the highest deck, where the center was brightly lit, the instructor already waiting.

“My regulars are here, I see. Welcome back, ladies,” she said, with a beaming smile, “and welcome to a new face too, sir.”

Rod’s dark expression seemed even more sinister in the shadows on the edge of the lighted circle but his nodded reply was friendly enough.

All three took up station by one of the mats laid out on the deck. The instructor always laid out six mats but in the three days Pauline had attended, today was the first time there were more attendees than just her and Freda.

The best part of the class, to Pauline anyway, was while they stretched, the sun rose swiftly over a new island each morning. Today was no different. Darkness gave way to a purplish haze in the shadows created by the low mountain, until the island’s features, indistinct at first, were laid bare in the bright sunshine. Today’s island was a dry, dun-colored hill rising out of the sea, lightly covered in scrub vegetation like so many of the islands they’d seen. It was no wonder that, at first, people had thought of them as ‘the land that time forgot’. They looked ancient and primeval, as did the creatures that lived on them. It took a Darwin to recognize they were exactly the opposite of that.

The moment they left the class, Pauline took up her earlier question with Rod. “Someone mentioned seeing you having a quarrel with Jose. What was that about?”

“The detective asked me the same thing. I’ll tell you what I told him. I didn’t have a quarrel with Jose and even if I had, it would still be no business of yours.”

“We’re only trying to set the cruise company’s mind at rest,” Freda said. “They just want to be sure it was an accident.”

“Well, I can’t help you there so if you’ll excuse me, this is where I leave you,” Rod said, gesturing to the door that led to the first-class suites.

When he’d gone, Pauline said, “I’d hoped if we got to him first, we might do better with a woman’s touch.

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