by C. A. Larmer
“What are you saying?” he boomed. “What the hell have you done?”
“We… we just thought…” Billie began, darting looks at him and away.
“We were trying to help you,” cried Millie.
“Help me? I never asked you to help me!”
“But you wouldn’t, see?” said Millie. “You were too sweet. We had to save you from that woman. She was no use to anyone, she—”
“She was my wife!” he bellowed. “She was Anita’s friend, she deserved to have a life!”
Van Tussi stood up, still shackled, and Jackson rushed to release the handcuffs—they were only ever for show anyway—then glanced at Alicia with a slim victory smile. They had done it. They had forced the sisters into a confession, yet it felt like a hollow victory somehow. Corrie was still dead, the captain more distraught than ever.
The Groots, Dermott and Anita, meanwhile, were all struggling hard to get to grips with what had just been said, glancing from Jackson to the sisters to the captain and back, looks of confusion clashing with shock and outrage.
“What the hell is going on?” demanded Anita, grappling for her cigarette packet.
“What are you saying, Billie?” cried Dermott. “What is all this? Millicent? Mathilda?”
The younger woman flinched at her name and blinked up at Dermott. “We didn’t expect it to go this far, honestly we didn’t!” She looked towards the captain. “Please, Tonio, you have to understand, we were only trying to help, to show you the loyalty you have shown us.”
“Loyalty? This is how you repay my loyalty?”
They shrank back, but he was not finished yet. He leaned down towards them, his voice shaking with rage. “How dare you rob me of the woman I loved. I know she was flawed. I knew that from the start, but I loved her anyway! Yet you… you three! You discarded her like a piece of garbage into the sea. She didn’t deserve that!”
Anita went to take his arm, but he shook her off and pushed his chair back so hard it toppled over. His loyal staff seemed paralysed now, not knowing how to ease his suffering, how to get their calm and controlled captain back.
Billie held a hand out to him, her voice also shaking with emotion. “We tried to warn her, Tonio. We sent her a message, begging her to see sense, but she would not listen.”
“That letter was you?” said Anders suddenly, his expression shocked, but her eyes never left the captain.
“We would have stopped there if only she had listened! But she laughed at the letter, Tonio, she ignored us. She ignored you! Can’t you see, she trod all over you, she spat in your face. She spat in the face of this ship. She had to pay for that.”
“What?” The captain boomed, dragging in air with raspy, angry breaths. “Who… who the hell did you think you were, punishing her like that? Did you think you were God?”
That final word echoed around the room, and they blinked up at him silent and teary-eyed.
“And Dame Dinnegan!” he boomed. “How could you be so inhumane, so brutal? You stabbed her in the back!”
This was too much for Gunter, and he gasped. “What? Dorothy as well? No! That cannot be! That simply cannot be!” He stared at the sisters, pleading for them to refute this accusation, but they would not meet his eyes. “But… but I thought you liked that dear lady!” The horror in his tone had turned to disgust. “You said you wanted to protect her. Why would you kill her? Why? Because she was stealing some jewels? This is absurd!”
“No!” Billie had found her voice again, and she was almost as angry as the captain. “The stupid bitch! We did her a favour, and that is how she repays us? With threats and blackmail!”
Tillie suddenly giggled, catching everyone by surprise. She was clearly hysterical and was waving one hand in front of her mouth as if trying to control the laughter. Eventually she gulped. “Oh Dame Dinnegan was not happy with us, no, no, no, not at all!” She giggled again. “Turns out the crumbling castle needs her ripe green vine after all, hey Billie? Who knew?”
“Shut up, Mathilda!” screamed Millie, but the captain had heard enough.
He reached for his cap and thrust it onto his head, then he turned to Packer, who had been standing quietly beside him and barked, “Get them out of my sight and off my ship as fast as you physically can! They make me sick.”
Now it was the Solarnos’ turn to gasp, and Billie plunged a hand at her heart as if she had just been stabbed through the middle of it.
“No, Tonio, noooooo!” Millie wailed while Tillie seemed to deflate into herself, her shoulders hunched over, her head flopping down towards her chest.
He gave them a final, disgusted look then turned on his heel and strode out of the room, hands in tight fists by his side. Anita grabbed her things and scurried after him while Pane had a quick word with Packer then promptly followed.
The head of security signalled for several men who had been waiting by the entrance, and they swiftly took the Solarno sisters into custody. The women did not fight, cry or even giggle now, they simply shuffled out, their laughter finally muted, their heads no longer high.
It was a good five minutes before anyone spoke.
Just like Pane and Packer, the six book club friends had been in on the whole charade but were still startled by the turn of events. They had all hoped that Captain Van Tussi’s fake arrest would inspire a confession from the Solarnos, but none of them had expected it to go that well. Nor had they expected it to cut the captain so deeply and Anders wondered whether he should chase the poor man down, and see if was okay.
The Groots and Dermott were the only other civilians left at the table. They had not been privy to what was about to unfold and were still trying to wrap their heads around it.
“I don’t understand… I don’t understand any of it.” Dermott stared at Perry. “How could the sisters have done it? They were on the deck with you when Corrie fell in… weren’t they? Isn’t that what you said?”
Perry nodded. “But that is not when Corrie was thrown overboard. She didn’t fall over at 2:15 a.m. as I was led to believe. It was much earlier than that.”
“More like some time between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m.,” said Jackson, picking up the captain’s chair and dropping into it.
“But how did you work this out?” said Eva. “What is all this? You have to explain!”
Jackson reached for a half-full bottle of champagne and helped himself to a glass. “Actually I think Alicia should be the one to explain. She’s the one who put two and two together, or should I say three and three.”
The group’s eyes swept to Alicia, and she said, “Well, I can try, but I’m not sure I’ve got all the details exactly right.”
“Go on,” said Jackson, giving her a sly smile, “have a crack.”
She sat back and glanced around the table. Anders was looking exhausted, his shirt crumpled, his fringe flopping over one eye, and he gave her the nod while the others all smiled encouragingly.
“Well, the way I see it, we’ve all been completely fooled in almost every aspect of this case, especially the most crucial part, the when,” Alicia said. “I kept coming back to those missing hours. Where was Corrie between 9:45 p.m. and 2:15 a.m.? I also kept wondering why someone would wait until so late to throw her over. Both the Dinnegans could easily have done it much earlier. Most people were well and truly in bed by then, and my guess is the sisters didn’t intend for it to all unfold as late as it did, but Perry refused to leave the dance floor, and he was their alibi.”
Perry shrugged almost apologetically behind his wine glass.
“I’m not sure why they decided on you, Perry. I guess it’s because, like Anita said, you were the biggest party boy amongst us.” She glanced at Lynette. “If it wasn’t for my drunken antics that night, Lynny, it could easily have been you.”
Lynette grimaced at the thought.
“Here’s what I think happened,” Alicia continued. “I think the sisters planned to kill Corrie early in the evening yet make it appear as though she had died so
much later. That’s why they hung out in the Grand Salon after dinner, as they always do, and made sure they spread themselves wide, sitting at different tables, dancing at different times. It would have been hard to keep up. There’s no way anyone could say for sure that all three sisters were in the bar at that really busy time between ten and midnight.” The Gunters were nodding in agreement. “In fact, one of them, Billie I suspect, carefully snuck out some time before 10:30 p.m. and made a fateful visit to Corrie’s cabin and threw her over.”
“But how on earth could Billie overpower Corrie?” said Dermott. “She’s half her size!”
“Ah, that’s where her background comes in.” She turned to look at Lynette who took up the story.
“That’s right. I know from chatting with the ship’s chef that two boning knives went missing from the galley—they’re very thin and very sharp and are perfect for cutting meat.” She grimaced again. “Well guess who has a background in cutting meat?”
Dermott flung a hand to his mouth, and Lynette nodded.
“Yep, the famous ‘Salami Sisters’, heirs to a British butcher’s fortune.” She glanced at Jackson. “You’ll probably find at least one of the sisters was taught the tools of the trade and knew exactly where to stab a knife to ensure maximum impact with as little noise and blood loss as possible.” She grimaced at the thought. “I agree it was probably Billie and not just because she’s the scariest of the sisters. She was also the one who went on the galley tour I did three days ago. She could easily have stolen the knife when no one was watching.”
“In fact,” said Jackson, “we suspect she stole both knives then—the other one turned up in Dame Dinnegan’s back yesterday morning.”
“In any case,” said Lynette, “Billie could easily have hidden the knife in her dress when she went to Corrie’s cabin around 10:30 the night she fell over. She somehow talked her way in, convinced Corrie to take a stroll on the balcony, then probably pointed out something in the ocean below and stabbed Corrie just as she was leaning over the railing. That’s my guess anyway. Whether she killed her outright or just disabled her enough to cause her to fall over, I don’t know, and I guess you’ve got all that to look forward to in your interrogation, Jackson.”
He didn’t look too enthusiastic at the prospect.
“Nobody heard her go over then because everyone was in the music bar at that time,” added Alicia. “Then Billie would have been able to just sneak back into the bar and pretend she had been there all along.” She paused. “But she wasn’t counting on Dame Dinnegan.”
Gunter’s eyebrows rose high, and he glanced at Jackson.
“Yes,” the detective said. “We suspect the Dame was on one of her thieving missions, disguised as Corrie, when she spotted Billie coming out of Corrie’s cabin at that time. Or perhaps the Dame was on her own balcony, which is right next door to Corrie’s, and heard the scuffle out there. You can’t see across to the next stateroom balcony, but she may have heard something.”
“In any case,” said Alicia, “Dame Dinnegan must have been thrilled! It was a total win-win for her. Not only was her husband’s mistress dead, but now she had a new income stream—the Solarno sisters. She just had to pretend to be outraged to ensure they paid up.”
“She blackmailed them for her silence?” Gunter said and they nodded.
Dermott visibly shivered. “I was so fooled by her, by them, by everyone! I never would have guessed.” His eyes squinted. “I’m still confused though. Why did the Solarnos go to all the trouble to reenact Corrie’s fall later? Why bother? You said yourself, they moved around in the bar, no one would suspect Billie didn’t have an alibi.”
“Ah yes,” said Alicia now, “but I reckon they wanted as much distance between Corrie being thrown overboard and the ship turning back to find her. Remember you said how it had happened once on board another ship in the Bahamas? How the guy had been rescued? They couldn’t risk that.”
“Ghastly!” said Dermott. “So why raise the alarm at all? Why not just let the captain discover his wife missing the next day?”
“Good question,” said Jackson. “I suspect it’s because they needed to firmly establish an alibi for themselves and for the captain. By reenacting Corrie’s fall at 2:15 a.m. with Perry as their witness, it not only ensured Corrie was less likely to be found, but it also gave them a firm alibi—Perry. Most importantly, however, it put Captain Van Tussi in the clear. Think about it: if no one knew Corrie had fallen over until the morning, then no one had an alibi, including Van Tussi who was safe from suspicion while he remained on the bridge, which he was known to do each evening after dinner until dawn. And there were witnesses there to prove it.”
“Hence the reason you all pretended he had left the bridge at two?” Dermott said to Jackson, who nodded again.
Alicia said, “You have to keep in mind, the Solarnos were under the delusion they were doing all this to save the captain, so the last thing they wanted was to land him in it. That’s why,” she glanced at Jackson, “Jackson and Packer had to pretend to arrest the captain. They made up the story of him visiting Corrie’s cabin around the supposed time of her disappearance. We all figured it would force the Solarnos to confess, which they did. I mean they had to! Otherwise what was the point of the whole, murderous exercise?”
“You know Billie was very lucky for a little while there,” said Missy, who had been uncharacteristically quiet throughout, her eyes shiny with excitement nonetheless. “The captain really did leave the bridge to check on his wife, but it was at 11:00 p.m., which is when he first noticed she wasn’t there. If he had gone just half an hour earlier, he may have been able to stop the whole thing.”
Anders’s mobile beeped suddenly, and he pulled it out then pulled himself up.
“I need to get back to the surgery,” he said. “I’ll catch you all up on deck when we dock, yes? You’ve got less than two hours, people, so you might want to wrap it up.”
He glanced across to Alicia, but his eyes were flat, his smile forced, and she felt a deep sadness she couldn’t quite articulate yet.
Dermott was still looking puzzled and said, “Before you all run off, I still need to get my head around this. So Billie kills Corrie, throws her overboard before eleven and then, what, returns to the bar and waits it out?”
Alicia helped herself to a glass of iced water. “Something like that. Around 2:00 a.m. she finally convinces Perry to desert the dance floor and head to bed via the upper deck stairway.”
“She said we needed the fresh air, but really what she needed was to place me on the deck just above Corrie’s stateroom, the evil wench!” he said. “Billie pretended to be all cranky and told us we were taking too long, so she raced ahead. I thought she was going down to her room, but we now realise she must have gone up the side steps to the deck above the upper deck, the private promenade deck where—lo and behold—there’s a full set of weights. She grabbed a dumbbell and threw it over just as she faked a blood-curdling scream.”
“The gym instructor has confirmed that a dumbbell went missing the night Corrie fell over,” added Jackson, more to Alicia who had not yet heard this verified.
“Okay,” she said, “so, while Perry was busy trying to spot whoever went over, Tillie pretended to run downstairs to get Billie back, but really they must have come from the direction of the promenade deck. I mean, you wouldn’t have noticed, Perry, you were genuinely flustered.”
“So were they, I thought! They were hysterical.”
“Just acting,” said Jackson.
“And maybe, hopefully, a little shocked by what they’d done,” said Claire now. “Because I think they must have realised how horrendous it was, and it may explain why they didn’t do the same thing to Dame Dinnegan. Rather than throw her over, they decided to kill her quickly. Better to get it over with.”
“Nah,” said Lynette. “More like they were terrified Corrie would be found, alive, and they would be up the proverbial creek, so they stabbed the old lady to make s
ure this time.”
Claire scowled at that. She liked her theory better. So did Alicia. It would help her sleep better that night.
“But why would they do this?” Gunter demanded now. “I cannot believe they could be so cruel. They seemed so sweet, so pious, so moralistic!”
Claire began nodding along with him. “That’s the bit I’m stuck on too,” she said. “Why kill Corrie? Why not just tell the captain what she’s been up to and initiate a divorce? Why go to such horrendous lengths?”
“Ahh,” said Alicia, “that’s where we come back to Agatha Christie.”
And she pulled the battered book out from under the table.
Chapter 14
As the Groots and then Jackson quickly skimmed the book’s back blurb, Alicia brought them up to speed on the basic storyline, abridging Murder on the Orient Express as best she could. She told them of the evil Mr Ratchett and his plot to kidnap and murder a beloved little girl called Daisy.
“Ratchett had escaped justice for the hideous crime, so Daisy’s distraught family and friends colluded to avenge her death,” Alicia explained. “They plotted and planned so that they would all be on the infamous Orient Express at the same time as Ratchett. Then, while he was drugged asleep, they each took turns to stab him in the chest. There were twelve of them, and what did Poirot call them?” She retrieved the book from Jackson and turned to a page marked with a ship’s postcard. “A ‘self-appointed jury’ that’s right.”
She cleared her throat and began to read from the book: “‘I visualised a self-appointed jury of twelve people who condemned him to death and were forced by the exigencies of the case to be their own executioners.’”
She glanced up with a shiver. “I think that’s exactly how the Solarno sisters saw it. They believed they had the right to play the role of judge, jury and executioner on this ship. They had shares in it, they even helped design it, remember? So they felt entirely justified to do what they needed to do to protect the ship and its captain.”