Not Wanted On Voyage by Spain Nancy

Author:Spain, Nancy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 1951-07-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Encounter

As it so happened Sir Timothy was mistaken. This was not one of the mornings upon which his darling Natasha remained in her bed until 10 a.m. Elegantly dressed in a gun-metal whipcord skirt and white revealing sweater she was cavorting along the deck when she was spoken to.

‘Pardon me,’ said the murderer, stepping out from behind a stanchion. ‘Are you Miss Nevkorina, the detective?’

‘Well, the answer to this is being yes and no,’ said Natasha, annoyingly. ‘Or even, why? Why did you want to know?’

‘I spoke to your partner last night. Or, rather, very early this morning. Or at least I spoke to that lady who is so ugly that she is almost beautiful.’

The bright waves slipped gaily past the vessel and did not reassure either of them.

‘Oh, Miriam,’ said Natasha. ‘Yes, Miriam is my partner. That is being quite correct.’

He fell into step with her.

‘What is being of the matter?’ said Natasha, kindly. Almost anything that kept her from Timothy and Timothy’s ill-humour and jealousy was a relief.

‘It is something she said to me. Or, rather, two things. One said and the other implied. And I am anxious for a second opinion that would clarify the position for me. It is about murder.’ And the murderer coughed. ‘Purely academic,’ he said, ‘of course.’

Natasha yawned like a pretty cat behind one lovely hand.

‘I do not care ever to be speaking academically,’ she said. ‘For me there must only be feelings and things happening and first-class feelings at that. No other thing is being any use to me. What did Miriam say?’

‘She said,’ remarked the murderer, lamely, ‘that all murderers were mad. And she implied that they are always found out. Even if they make no mistakes. Is this correct?’

‘Oh, absolutely,’ said Natasha. ‘About madness this is to say. And about finding out, well, who knows this? There may be millions of undiscovered murderers marching about in this ship alone…’

A strange flash of light, no bigger than a hair, suddenly seemed to swell and split in Natasha’s brain. She was quite used to it and it often happened, but when it did so, it never failed to disconcert her. It is, of course, called ‘womanly intuition’. And so she remarked, very gently:

‘Even the very best ways of doing this, such as pushing a person under a train in a fog.I could find a person out for this, you know…’

‘How?’ asked the murderer. And he went very still.

And, as Natasha afterwards said, he seized her arm so hard that it left quite a mark.

‘Why, by being talking about it, of course,’ remarked darling brave Natasha. ‘Academically.’

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