Locked-Room Mystery Box Set by Kim Ekemar

Author:Kim Ekemar [Ekemar, Kim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bradley & Brougham Publishing House
Published: 2020-04-25T22:00:00+00:00

*

Ricardo quickly reread Interpol’s two-page report on Pierre Mohraki before the man limped into the lounge leaning heavily on his cane. Compared to the other briefings, the contents in the one concerning Mohraki mentioned nothing beyond trivial details.

“I hope you now have recovered completely after your unpleasant stomach troubles the other night”, Ricardo offered, as Mohraki sat down.

“Yes, it was quite bad for a while”, Mohraki answered. “Without going into details, I regret to say that I continued to throw up until there was nothing left in my stomach. Fortunately, I had my granddaughter to take care of me. It was a rough night, but I was able to sleep most of the day yesterday.”

A cool, calm man in control of himself, Villaverde concluded, as he listened to and studied the Frenchman. He’s not only in command of himself, but he also gives the impression of being used to commanding others. Yet, with his disability, I wonder why the detective inspector considers him a suspect?

“You told me, during my previous interview with you, that you heard a shot go off at twelve past three yesterday afternoon. Your granddaughter was in the Darwin Lounge. For the benefit of Chief of Police Villaverde here, could you please repeat where you were at the time?”

“As I said then, I was finally asleep in my cabin after a long and sleepless night.”

“What was your reaction to hearing the shot? Your cabin is on the same floor close to the bridge where it was fired.”

“It woke me up”, Mohraki replied. “I remained in bed, however, because I still felt debilitated. Some time later, Leila arrived and confirmed that she had heard the shot, too.”

“You have a French passport, but it indicates that your birthplace was Algeria.”

“Yes, that’s correct”, Mohraki responded. “As you may recall, Algeria was a French colony for many years until my country’s independence in nineteen sixty-two. After the Algerian Civil War started in nineteen ninety-one, I was fortunate enough to obtain a French citizenship.”

“Have you ever travelled to the Middle East?”

“Yes, maybe three or four times”, he replied coolly. “There’s a very complex situation in that region. Fortunately, I live in Marseille and not in some war zone.”

“When you travelled there, what countries did you visit?”

“I don’t see how that could be of any interest to your investigation, Inspector, but give me a second to recall … I went to Lebanon on two occasions‚ I visited Syria a couple of months before that country’s civil war began; I was in Egypt once; and also in Iraq.”

“On those travels, did you come across this man?”

Ricardo showed the passport picture of Adnan Shadid. Mohraki leaned forward and studied it carefully.

“No, I can honestly say I can’t recall ever having met or interacted with this man. Why do you ask?”

“He’s the crew member, born in the Middle East, who may have been murdered yesterday afternoon.”

“Murdered? I see.”

Ricardo could see that Mohraki was unperturbed by the news, as if it didn’t concern him or arouse any curiosity whatsoever.

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