Murder on the Mountaineer by Rosatte R. J

Author:Rosatte, R. J.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Short on Time Books
Published: 2019-02-16T00:00:00+00:00

Eight

As they approached the door to the fourth car, Casey hesitated. Amelie Skarsgaard and Madeline Knightly were seated together. Madeline’s head was on Amelie’s shoulder. Tears were on her face. Casey looked at Amelie and encountered a silent plea. Casey nodded and moved on.

“It’s nice to see them comforting each other,” Katie said as the door closed behind them. They glanced down at the corpse of the woman who had been hanging in the restroom. The emergency blanket still covered her. “Knightly’s murder must have been quite a shock to them both.”

“To say the least,” agreed Casey. “Did you see Abigail anywhere?”

“Yes. She was about as far away from Madeline as she could get.”

“Odd that Madeline and Amelie were together.”

“Why’s that, Malone?”

“Amelie never married. She worked for Knightly for years as his right arm. I would have figured that in her day she might have been an Abigail.”

“You think?”

“I think.”

“So, any idea who stuck the knife in his back?” Katie asked. Casey shrugged as they moved into the third dining car.

“The one with the most obvious motive is Madeline. Unless someone else in the car jumped up while the train was in that tunnel.”

“The rest of his staff were all seated nearby. Maybe one of them?”

“Maybe. But that’s one for the police. Our problem right now is Freeman Ondalan.” They heard the door open behind them.

Now that the danger of derailment had passed, the passengers were starting to return to their seats, careful to avoid the area around the unfortunate Natalie.

In the first dining car the corpse of Richard Knightly gently rocked back and forth with the motion of the train. Glancing out the windows, Casey saw that the towering mountains were getting closer together. The valley the train was traveling in was getting considerably narrower.

“Mosquito Mountain,” Casey said over his shoulder. “It should be dead ahead and if the staff spoke correctly, a very long tunnel awaits us at South Molar Pass.”

When they arrived at the door to the engineer’s cab they paused momentarily.

“How do you want to handle this, Malone?” Katie asked.

“I guess we can try to reason with him?”

“And he’ll shoot at you just like he did the last time.”

Casey tilted his head to one side with raised eyebrows. “So maybe the direct approach won’t work?”

“We need a weapon.”

“We don’t have a weapon. Canada frowns on people walking around with loaded guns.”

“So, only whackos like this guy walk around with loaded guns.”

Suddenly, everything went dark and the sound of the engine intensified.

“I think we’re in the tunnel,” quipped Katie.

“One very long tunnel, we were told.”

“How long is very long?”

“From what I saw on the map, at this elevation, South Molar Pass is about ten miles across.”

“That’s long.”

“And that’s providing it goes in a straight line. Apparently, on the main line, there are spiral tunnels inside a mountain on this side of Kicking Horse Pass going up, and another on the other side going down.”

“Inside the mountains.”

“Yup.”

“Good Lord, Casey. Back to our friend running the train. How can we get him out?”

“Short of a miracle, I don’t think we can.

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