13
It appeared impossible to me that so cumbrous an article as a corpse could be removed out of this cruiseshuttle, with no trace, no hint, no clue as to the time or the manner of the performance of the deed.
“The entire crew will be fired for this!” my father said coldly with severe angry after the first moments of shock had passed.
“Pops, you aren’t thinking clearly. It is doubtful any of the crew had a hand in this, but if they did it certainly would not have been very many.”
“I’ll get to the bottom of this disgrace. Vixie, arrange for me to personally interview every member of the staff in my office. Today!”
“Pops, there are 1,273 staff members on this ship including you and me. There is no way you can get through them all today. I will begin with those who would have had the access to this area. If you want to take the Inspector and Detective Marshaggins to your quarters, I will begin sending them to you. But please, let them take the lead in questioning. They have much more experience in this than you.”
My father looked defeated, but complacent as he left the morgue, and I hurried off to examine crew records, make lists, and summon crew to my father for questioning. I firmly believed not much would come of the questioning. There was, I believed, only one person who really needed to be questioned: Jublo. In addition to my father and I, he was the last person to see Mr. Lodimmick alive. Further, he was on the ship last night. I just could not figure out how he would have stolen the body when my father and I escorted him off it.
I created a list of the nightwatchmen, the housekeeping staff, and everyone who had been on duty on Deck 6 last night, including the Gendarmerie. I particularly was interested in the doctors and their support staff in Sickbay since the morgue was next to it. After summoning those at the top of the list and informing them to wait outside my father’s suite until called and after sending the list to my father with strict instructions to let me know after each person was finished, I decided to head off and do a little of my own investigation.
“Excuse me, Jamus,” I said as I approached one of the Gendarmerie waiting to see my father. “I just have a few questions before you go in there, would you mind stepping into the office with me?”
“Of course,” he grinned arrogantly. It was all I could do to keep from rolling my eyes. I could tell he thought I was interested in more than information. However, I felt it was best to take advantage of his willingness—whatever the reason—without crushing his spirit.
“Do you remember when Julbo entered the ship last night?”
“Uh,” he was clearly thrown off guard, “As I already explained to Baron Thomatian, he said he had been invited to that ball. I would have never let him on if I had known the Baron had banned him altogether.”
“I know, and I am truly sorry we were unaware of how to update the banned list until last night. However, I was asking if you remembered when he came onboard—did he have anything unusual with him?”
“He said he was going to a ball. I would have questioned him if he had tried to bring anything on the ship with him.”
“Aside from when he first got here, did he leave the ship? Or did he try to come back after we escorted him off it?”
“No.”
“Thank you so much for your cooperation. Now, I think my father has a few other questions he would like to ask you.”
“Any time. In fact, if you want to learn more about what I do on the ship and some of the adventures I’ve had, I would love to meet you after work sometime.”
“That sounds very interesting, but unfortunately, I couldn’t make a commitment like that just now. I have a lot of new tasks I have to learn with running this ship.”
“Well, if you ever need help just call.”
As he headed out the door, I thought of one more thing. “Actually, if I needed to get a rather bulky piece of furniture off the ship, what would be the best way to do it?”
“Go to the shipping clerk, of course,” he chuckled. “He helps all the guests with their bulky items.” With that, he shot me a half grin and a wink before darting back out into the corridor.
I quickly sent my father some more crew to investigate before heading off to the shipping clerk. Again, I was disappointed. He had not seen Jublo in days and today he was only dealing with incoming packages from the newly boarded guests. After that, I brought lunch to the investigative team and stuck around for a bit so they could interview me. I acquainted them with the facts, answered their queries with a patient weariness, and expected nothing whatever from that quarter. At the end of the day, the only conclusion they had drawn was that the corpse of Cagginald Lodimmick had vanished utterly—disappeared like a fleshless spirit.
From this, I held the Majriti authorities and our detective in sorry esteem. My father informed me they had interviewed General Ribereus, and he found him to be suavity itself and beyond doubt genuinely concerned about the fate of his dead attendant. At the same time, my father told me he felt the General was keeping something back.
“It is my firm belief,” he told me, “that the death of Cagginald Lodimmick was only a minor event. I rather believe his death occurred on the fringe of some far more profound mystery.”
“If that’s the case, Pops, we must wait with our eyes very wide open until something else happens that throws light on the business.”
“I did take a very important measure—I arranged that the theft of Lodimmick’s body will not appear in the news. I am a boss in Hraindoral, men tremble before my name. But here, I am not quite the same ma,” he frowned and refused to meet my eyes. “I dominated Hraindoral; when I wished a thing to happen—well, it happened; if I desired to know a thing, I knew it. But here, for the most part, my employees seem not to take much interest in me. People like your General are perfectly capable of snapping their fingers at me—at Theodorick Thomatian!
“However,” he said raising his head again, “it is astonishing how well a secret can be kept when the possessors of the secret are handled with the proper mixture of firmness and persuasion. That much has not changed, and I believe I managed this very neatly. It was a complicated job that involved making sure the authorities did not reveal the truth during their questioning, but my success is perhaps the only thing that has pleased me today.”
“Ah, Pops, I am surprised you didn’t tell the police about Julbo being here last night,” she said.
“That’s just it, Vixie, I did tell them. They said I shouldn’t jump to conclusions since I didn’t see him leave with a body. Still, I feel as if I am being temporarily worsted by an unknown group of schemers, and I am convinced that Julbo is an important member of them.”
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