The Studied Financier (12)

 12

The nest day, my father met me for lunch in a dither. 

“That silly detective is determined to prove that the dead person in found in the Cullchipps’ bathtub is Nuaban Nuavy. His line of reasoning is: We’ve lost a middle-aged gentleman without any clothes on Deck 18; we’ve found a middle-aged gentleman without any clothes on Deck 14. Therefore, they’re one and the same person, Q.E.D., and put poor Cullchipps in jail. The DNA testing won’t be back for a week.”

“Why should Mr. Cullchipps be arrested even if they are the same?” I asked.

“Marshaggins must arrest somebody,” my father said, “but there is one odd little bit of evidence come out which goes a long way to support Marshaggins’ theory, but I know it to be no good by the evidence of my own eyes. On the night of Nuaban’s disappearance at about 21:15 a young woman was wandering around Deck 14 purportedly looking for the Virtual Escape Room, when she saw a gentleman in a fur coat and top-hat, lookin’ at the numbers on all the cabins. He asked her if she knew which way to the 14000’s. She said she did and pointed him toward them because she had already looked down those halls, but she admitted to Marshaggins that she found him attractive and asked if he wanted to go to the Escape Room with her. Anyway, the man said he couldn’t go with her just then as he had an appointment. Then, he walked the direction she had shown him. Just then, a friend of hers joined her and said: ‘It’s no good wasting your time with him—that’s Nuavy—I met him in the Dark Adaptation a few nights ago. He’s married.’ 

“She thought no more about it until she saw the man was missing on the news feed this morning. Interestingly, she told Marshaggins the man her friend said was Nuavy had a beard and glasses—but the body only had the glasses since it had been shaved. That’s her story. Marshaggins is delighted, of course, and that’s why Cullchipps is in jail.”

“But they weren’t even in the room that night!” I argued.

“Cullchipps went and did a silly thing. I got that out of Marshaggins, too, though he was sitting tight on the information. Seems Cullchipps got confused about when he arrived. He first said they came here at 10:30, but the records show they did an early check-in and got here at 8:00. Then, when Cullchipps was asked to explain the discrepancy, she stammers and bungles and says, first, that she must have looked at the clock wrong. Then she keeps stammering and tells him that she can’t say what time she did get here—can’t explain how she got a bruise on her forehead. In fact, can’t explain herself at all. Then, her grandfather was questioned and he gets all mixed up on everything, too, and contradicts himself. Needless to say everyone is upset and Marshaggins is going to keep both of them until the authorities can unravel it.”

“I wonder what they did do that morning. Certainly it wouldn’t have taken that long to unpack,” I said thoughtfully. “I really don’t think she was committing and hiding a murder. Besides, I believe the fellow has been dead a day or two or even longer. It’s an entertaining little problem.”