The Studied Financier (3)

 3

Within five minutes, I found myself on the way to the room in question with the detective and four of his crew. I had briefly contemplated why the detective assumed it was murder. I mean, perhaps the former room lodger had fallen asleep in the tub and drowned. Or maybe he or she had a heart attack. Or maybe it was a plumber who slipped and whacked his or her head. My heart was pounding. Although I did not want someone to have been murdered exactly, there was nothing like trying to solve a murder to add a little excitement to your day.

The bathroom of cabin 14105 was spacious and only slightly smaller than mine. The body which lay in the bath was naked and semi-covered in ice. It was that of a tall, stout man of about fifty. The hair, which was thick and black and naturally curly, had been cut and parted by a master hand. The smell was putrid for the most part with undertones of a faint violet scented perfume. The features were thick, fleshy and strongly marked, with prominent dark eyes, and a long nose curving down to a heavy chin. The clean-shaven lips were full, and the dropped jaw showed teeth stained with tobacco. 

On the dead face the handsome pair of gold pince-nez mocked death with grotesque elegance; the fine gold chain curved over the man’s chest. The legs lay stiffly stretched out side by side; the arms reposed close to the body; the fingers were flexed naturally. The detective lifted one arm, and looked at the hand with a little frown.

“Hmm, violet scented hair gel and a manicure.” 

I looked over at the man’s fingernails and saw they were in fact manicured.

“At least we know he’s probably a guest. Although, that doesn’t make me feel any better about it.” My stomach was starting to turn from the smell, so I covered my nose and mouth with the sleeve of my shirt. 

The detective dropped the hand and slipped his hand beneath the corpse’s head. This dislodged the pince-nez, and it fell onto the ice. The detective ignored them and finished lifting the body quickly and cautiously, causing the ice to shift loudly. He turned it over and inspected it, and I tried to get close enough to see what he was looking at. 

He then laid the head over his arm with the mouth open and bringing out a small light shone it in the corpse’s mouth. 

“Hmm…” he said.

“Those are the nastiest teeth I believe I have every seen,” I commented. The dead body had no effect, but between the smell and the teeth, I was definitely not hungry. 

He picked up the odd pince-nez, looked at it, put it on his nose and looked through it.

“Hmm…” he said before readjusting the pince-nez upon the nose of the corpse and rearranging the body as it was.

“Okay, we’re going to need the photographer in here,” he said as he walked to the bathroom door and consulted with the gendarmes. 

My first thought was to go to the mirrored wall behind the tub and start pushing on and around the panels to search for a secret passage. I was disappointed when none appeared. 

“There’s a door between the rooms, if you’re looking for another way in,” Detective Marshaggins said staring at me from the doorway. 

I pulled out my com-tab and quickly looked up who had been in the adjoining room last. It was a Dr. Juliangan Pakefre, a neurologist and the newly elected director of the Themisto surgical training center and teaching hospital. I shared this information with the detective.

“Perhaps it was some medical student from the training center who brought the corpse around for a joke. I’m sure they always have bodies lying around the dissecting rooms.”

I didn’t think it was a very funny joke to sneak a body onto a luxury cruise ship and leave it in the tub. 

“Okay, you two stay here and guard both doors. You get a photographer up here and call Juliangan. Ask him if any bodies are missing, then get him back up here and see if this matches the description of anyone they had recently,” he said. At first, I was a little shocked he would have the person who had been most likely to have accessed this room to try to identify the body, but after I thought about it, I supposed it made sense. 

“I hope it isn’t one of the recent hospital patients either,” I added. The detective looked at me blankly. 

“Check into that also,” he said under his breath and the gendarme took off to do the assigned task.

“Now, Miss Thomatian, if you will come with me, we’ll go interview the lady who allegedly found this.”