Janet said: ‘Oh, come on Archie, you can see that their noses are bandaged up. Could you smell anything with a handkerchief to your nose?’
‘You’re just half right, Nurse,’ Bowen said. ‘I did smell it but it was very faint. The trouble is that there are so many medical and antiseptic smells in a ward that I paid no attention to it.’
‘Well, he wouldn’t have gone back to the mess-deck with a sponge reeking of chloroform. Hands too, for that matter. Back in a moment.’
The Bo’sun unhooked an emergency light, went into the recovery room, looked around briefly, then passed into the operating theatre where he switched on the lights. Almost immediately, in a bucket in a corner, he found what he was looking for and returned to Ward A.
‘A sponge – duly reeking of chloroform – a smashed ampoule and a pair of rubber gloves. Quite useless.’
‘Not to Flannelfoot, they weren’t,’ Sinclair said.
‘Useless to us. Useless as evidence. Gets us nowhere.’ McKinnon perched on the Sister’s table and looked in slight irritation at Oberleutnant Klaussen who was muttering away to himself, unintelligibly, incessantly.
‘Is he still like this? Always like this?’
Sinclair nodded. ‘Goes on non-stop.’
‘Must be damned annoying. To the other patients and to the sister or nurse in charge. Why isn’t his bed wheeled into the recovery room?’
‘Because the sister in charge- that’s Margaret, remember? – doesn’t want him removed.’ Janet was being cool and patient. ‘He’s her patient, she wants to keep a close eye on aim and she doesn’t mind. Any more questions, Archie?’
‘You mean why don’t I be on my way or keep quiet or go and do something. Do what? Do some detecting?” He looked gloomy. ‘There’s nothing to detect. I’m just waiting till Margaret comes round.’
‘Signs of grace at last.’
‘I want to ask her some questions.’
‘I might have known. What questions? It’s as certain as can be that the assailant crept up behind her unseen and had her unconscious before she knew anything about it. Otherwise she’d have reached for the button or called for help. She did neither. There are no questions you can ask her that we can’t answer.’
‘As I’m not a gambler I won’t take your money away from you. Question number one. How did Flannelfoot know and he must have known – that, apart from Captain Bowen and Mr Kennet who are effectively blind at the moment, everyone else in Ward A was asleep? He would never have dared to do what he did if there was even a remote possibility of someone being awake. So how did he know? Answer, please.’
‘I – I don’t know.’ She was obviously taken aback. That had never occurred to me before. But I don’t think it occurred to anyone else either.’
‘Understandable. Such questions occur only to stupid old bo’suns. You’re just being defensive, Janet. Question number two. Who told him?’
‘I don’t know that either.’
‘But maybe Maggie does. Number three. What solicitous member of the crew or passengers made solicitous enquiries about the state of health of the patients in Ward A?’
‘How should I know?’
‘Maggie might know, mightn’t she? After all, she would be the obvious choice to be asked that question, wouldn’t she? And you said you could answer any questions that she could. Bosh! Question number four.’
‘Archie, you’re beginning to sound like a prosecuting counsel. I’m not guilty of anything.’
‘Don’t be daft. You’re not in dock. Fourth question and the most important of all. Flannelfoot, as we all know to our cost, is no fool. He must have taken into account the possibility that someone would ask the question of Maggie: with whom, Sister Morrison, did you discuss the state of health of your patients? He had to assume that Maggie was in the position to put the finger on him. So my question is why, to protect his anonymity, did he not, after rendering her unconscious, slit her throat? A nice sharp knife is just as silent as a chloroform sponge. It would have been the logical thing to do, wouldn’t it, Janet? But he didn’t. Why didn’t he murder her?’
Janet had gone very pale and when she spoke her voice was barely above a whisper.
‘Horrible,’ she said. ‘Horrible, horrible.’
‘Are you referring to me again? Goes well, I must say with what you last called me – a heartless fiend.’
‘Not you, not you.’ Her voice was still unsteady. ‘It’s the question. The thought. The possibility. It – it could have happened that way, couldn’t it, Archie?’
‘I’m more than mildly astonished that it didn’t. But I think we’ll find the answer when Maggie wakes up.’
The silence that fell upon the ward was broken by Bowen.
‘Very gallant of you, Bo’sun, very gallant indeed. Not to have reproached the young lady for being unable, as she had claimed she could, to answer the questions you asked. If it’s . any consolation to your friend Janet, not one of those j questions occurred to me either.’
‘Thank you, sir,’ she said. ‘That was very kind of you. Makes me feel more than halfway better already. See, Archie, I can’t be all that stupid.’
‘Nobody ever suggested you were. How long will it take her to come round, Dr Sinclair?’
‘Five minutes, fifteen, twenty-five? Impossible to say. People vary so much in their recovery times. And even when she does come out of it she’ll be fuzzy for some time, not mentally clear enough to remember and answer what might be difficult questions.’
‘When she is, call me, please. I’ll be on the bridge.’
ELEVEN
Half an hour later McKinnon joined Margaret Morrison in the small lounge off the mess-deck. She was pale and unsmiling but looked composed enough. He sat down opposite her.
‘How do you feel now?’
‘Bit sick. Bit nauseated.’ She half-smiled. ‘Dr Sinclair seemed to be more concerned about the state of my mind. I think that’s well enough.’
‘Fine. Well, not fine, it was a damnable thing to happen to you, but I feel less like commiserating with you than congratulating you.’
‘I know. Janet told me. I’m not one for mock shudders, Archie – but, well, he could have done, couldn’t he? I mean, cut my throat.’
‘He could have done. He should have done.’
‘Archie!’
‘Oh God, that wasn’t very well put, was it? I meant that for his own sake he should have done. He may just possibly have given away enough rope to hang himself.’
‘I don’t understand what you mean.’ She smiled to rob her words of offence. ‘I don’t think anyone understands quite what you mean. Janet says you’re a very devious character.’
‘Be you white as snow, etcetera. Only the truly honest get maligned in this fashion. A cross one has to bear.’
‘I have difficulty in seeing you in the role of martyr. Janet said you had lots of questions to ask me.’
‘Not lots. Just one. Well, a few, but all the same question. Where were you this afternoon before we stopped?’
‘In the mess-deck. Out there. Then I went to relieve Irene just before the lights went out.’
‘Anyone enquire about the health of the patients in Ward A when you were out there?’
‘Well, yes.’ She seemed faintly surprised. ‘I often get asked about the patients. Natural, isn’t it?’
‘This late afternoon, I meant.’
‘Yes. I told them. Also natural, isn’t it?’
‘Did they ask if anyone was asleep?’
‘No. Come to think of it, they didn’t have to. I remember telling them that only the Captain and First Officer were awake. It was some sort of joke.’ She broke off, touched her lips with her hand and looked thoroughly chagrined. ‘I see. It wasn’t really such a joke, was it – it let me in for half-an-hour’s involuntary sleep, didn’t it?’
‘I’m afraid it did. Who asked the question?’
‘Wayland Day.’
‘Ah! Our pantry boy – ex-pantry boy, I should say, and now your faithful shadow and worshipper from afar.’
‘Not always as far away as you might think, gets a little embarrassing at times.’ She smiled and then was suddenly serious. ‘You’re barking up the wrong tree, Archie. He may be a bit of a pest, but he’s only a boy and a very nice boy. It’s unthinkable.’
‘I don’t see a tree in sight. Agree, unthinkable. Our Wayland would never be a party to anything that might harm you. Who were the others at your table? Within hearing distance, I mean.’
‘How do you know there was anyone else at my table?’
‘Margaret Morrison is too clever to be stupid.’
‘That was stupid. Maria was there -‘
‘Sister Maria?’ She nodded. ‘She’s out. Who else?’
‘Stephen. The Polish boy. Can’t pronounce his surname – no one can. Then there were Jones and McGuigan, who are nearly always with Wayland Day — I suppose because they are the three youngest members of the crew. Two seamen by the name of Curran and Ferguson – I hardly know them because I hardly ever see them. And, yes, I seem to remember there were two of the sick men we picked up in Murmansk. I don’t know their names.’