The Studied Financier (11)

 11

“It could have been a madman—” my father suggested doubtfully.

“With a lot of method in his madness. He hasn’t made a mistake—not one, unless leaving soap in the corpse’s mouth can be called a mistake,” I countered. “Well, anyhow, at least we know the body isn’t Nuavy. We don’t have much of a clue to go upon finding him, do we? And there don’t seem to be any motives knockin’ about in that case either.”

“I’d say we seem to be two suits of clothes short in last night’s work,” my father replied. “Nuaban makes tracks without so much as a fig-leaf, and a mysterious individual turns up in a pince-nez, which, in my opinion, is quite useless for purposes of decency.”

Just then, I got a message.  

“It seems the incomparable Marshaggins has made a discovery and arrested the young Cullchipps,” I told my father with a frown. “The detective is convinced, despite your negative identification, that the body is Nuaban. Although he doesn’t fault Cullchipps for killing a naked man who mistakenly walked into their room, he says it's still manslaughter. The grandfather is quite put-out by it.” 

“Is that all that surprising, Vixie?” 

“Of course not,” I said. “The authorities from the planet already removed the body a few hours ago, and the bathroom and the whole cabin had been examined, sampled, photographed, and videoed. He says he will send us a copy of everything in a day or two. He also says we are welcome to send in a cleaning crew and return the suite to use at our leisure.” 

“Well, I suppose that is all we can do tonight. Maybe a good night’s rest will help us see things clearer tomorrow.” 

With that, Pops left me sitting at the table and headed to his cabin. 

My mind was too busy going over facts to sleep right away, so I decided to make a diagram of the other cabins around the one with the body. Aside from 14104, where the professor stayed, they had been occupied respectively by a family of five who were touring the universe, an elderly major of ferocious manners, who lived alone with one servant and had business on Themisto, and a highly respectable family who had been outraged to the last degree by all the activity going in and out of the cabin today. The husband, indeed, showed a little human weakness. However, the wife had made numerous complaints while at the same time refusing to be transferred to another cabin.

“I am sorry,” she had said, “We have always found it better not to be mixed up with the authorities. Of course, if the people are innocent, and I am sure I hope they are, it is very unfortunate, but I must say that the circumstances seem to me most suspicious. Still, they need to be done going in and out of that room. Simply arrest whomever was there and close the case.”

I had to tell Berdelia I was busy for the rest of the day and push the lady onto her.