Madeleine L'Engle - O'Keefe 02 by Dragons in the Waters

Author:Dragons in the Waters
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-05-30T21:40:10+00:00

MURDER

For Simon the next minutes were a haze of terror.

Poly pulled him roughly away. "We have to get Daddy—"

"Why is he in the hearse?" Simon asked stupidly. "What is Cousin Forsyth doing in the hearse?"

Charles said, "Cousin Forsyth is dead, Simon. There's a dagger in his chest."

Chronology got all upset. Simon could not remember in which order things happened. Geraldo, trained to obey orders, reminded them that Dr. O'Keefe had told them to stay in the prow of the ship.

"But he doesn't know!" Poly cried. "He doesn't know about Cousin Forsyth! We have to tell him!"

Simon was not sure how he and Poly and Charles got to the O'Keefes' double cabin, who had gone for Dr. O'Keefe, where he had been found. Had he brought them to the cabin? Certainly he had told them to stay there until he came for them. They were to lock the door from the inside, and under no circumstances to open it to anybody else.

"It's sort of locking the stable door after the horse has gone," Poly said.

Charles sat cross-legged on his bunk. "Is it? There's a murderer at large on this ship. Someone has already tried twice to kill Simon."

"But I thought it was Cousin Forsyth!" Poly exclaimed. "I thought he wanted Simon out of the way."

"Somebody obviously wanted Cousin Forsyth out of the way." Charles looked at Simon, who was sitting, still and upright, in the small chair.

They all stiffened as they heard a key turn in the lock. They did not know who had access to the key to the cabin besides Dr. O'Keefe and the two stewards. And although they trusted Jan, either the chief steward or the first officer was lying about the key. Simon realized that everybody on the Orion was under suspicion, even those he thought of as incorruptible and his friends.

Dr. O'Keefe came in, his face markedly pale under his tan; even the red of his hair seemed more muted by grey than usual.

"Daddy!" Poly jumped up. "Please, please send for Canon Tallis!"

He replied, "I have thought about it, Poly. But I'm not sure that it's fair to ask Tom to come running whenever anything difficult happens."

"But, Daddy, this isn't just something difficult. This is murder. And Simon is in danger."

"Poly, we'll have to wait."

"But you'll go on thinking about sending for him?"

"I'll think about it, Poly, but I doubt if I'll do more than that. Now. The captain wants us all in the salon."

"Just us?"

"All the passengers, plus Jan and Geraldo."

"Jan and Geraldo haven't done anything wrong!"

"I doubt if they have, though Jan's story about the key is not very convincing. In any case, we must all be questioned. The captain will speak to the crew and officers separately. Jan and Geraldo are the ones in closest contact with the passengers. Simon—" Dr. O'Keefe held out his hand.

Simon put his hand into Dr. O'Keefe's.

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