The Studied Financier (6)

 6

“Marshaggins reminds me of the bumbling detective in a novel to some extent. I’ve seen the body, but I don’t know anything about Nuavy. Do you know how he went missing?” I asked.

“I’m afraid I don’t have much of a story about it,” my father said. “It’s just one of those mysteries that have nothing to grab onto. Nuaban Nuavy dined last night with three friends. I happened to see him in our main dining room. After dinner, the friends went to the Emperor’s Theatre on deck five, but he refused to go with them on account of an appointment. I haven’t yet been able to trace anything about the appointment, but he returned to his cabin—at 0:02.”

“Did anyone see him?”

“A waiter from the Exosphere Kitchen, who had just left work, saw him let himself into his state suite. His greatcoat is still on the peg in the entryway. This morning, he wasn’t there,” he said abruptly with a wave of the hand. As we entered the main dining room, I led my father to a table on the third-floor balcony.

“That can’t be all! Pops, go on, that’s not half a story,” I pleaded.

“But it is all. When one of his servants came to awaken him for the meeting he had today, he didn’t answer. The bed had been slept in. His pajamas and all his clothes were there. The only odd thing was that they were thrown rather untidily on the ottoman at the foot of the bed, instead of being neatly folded on a chair, as was Nuaban’s custom. From that perspective, it looked as though he had been rather agitated or unwell when he went to bed. No clean clothes were missing, no suit, no boots—nothing. The boots he had worn were in his dressing-room as usual. There was evidence had brushed his teeth and done all the usual things. One of our maids were cleaning the main area at 06:15 and can swear that nobody came in or out after that until it was noticed he was missing. The only thing I can suppose that a respectable middle-aged financier either went mad this morning and walked quietly off this cruiseshuttle in his birthday suit or else he was spirited away, body and bones, leaving only a heap of crumpled clothes behind him.”