Remember how our passengers reacted to the customs and american navy
going through their cabins? the board of directors are going to love
this.” he looked up wearily. “I suppose you are referring to the
passengers’ quarters?”
“We’ll do it quietly, sir. They’re still at dinner. And howie
here can fix anything that comes up.”
“Twenty minutes then. You’ll find me on the bridge. Don’t tramp
on any toes if you can help it.” we left, dropped down to “a” deck, and
made a right left turn into the hundred-foot central passageway between
the cabin suites on “a” deck: there were only six of these suites, three
on each side. White was about halfway down the passageway, nervously
pacing up and down. I beckoned to him and he came walking quickly
towards us, a thin, balding character with a permanently pained
expression who suffered from the twin disabilities of chronic dyspepsia
and overconscientiousness. “Got all the passkeys, white?” I asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“Fine.” I nodded to the first main door on my right, number one
suite on the port side. “Open it, will you?” white looked at cummings.
It was an understood thing at sea that deck officers never, never went
into the campari’s passenger accommodation except by passenger
invitation, and even then only by kind permission of the purser and head
steward. But to burgle the passenger accommodation. “You heard the
chief officer.” I wondered when i’d previously heard a harsh note in
howie’s voice and decided never; he and banana-legs benson were pretty
good friends. “Open up.” he opened up. I brushed past him, followed
by the purser. There was no need to switch on the lights-they were
already on; asking the campari’s passengers, at the prices they were
paying, to remember to turn off the lights would have been a waste of
breath and an insult. There were no bunks in the campari’s cabin
suites. Fourposters, and massive four-posters at that, with concealed
and mechanically operated sideboards which could be quickly raised in
bad weather; such was the standard of modern weather reporting, the
latitude allowed captain Bullen in avoiding bad weather, and the
efficiency of our denny-brown stabilisers that I don’t think those
sideboards had ever been used. Seasickness was not allowed aboard the
campari. The suite was composed of a sleeping cabin, an adjacent lounge
and bathroom, and beyond the lounge another cabin. All the plate-glass
windows faced out over the port side. We went through the cabins in a
minute, looking beneath beds, examining cupboards, wardrobes, behind
drapes, everywhere. Nothing. We left. Out in the passageway again I
nodded at the suite opposite. Number two. “This one now,” I said to
white. “Sorry, sir. Can’t do it. It’s the old man and his nurses,
sir. They had three special trays sent up to them-when, now -let me
see; yes, sir, about six-fifteen to-night, and mr. carreras, the
gentleman who came aboard to-day, he gave instructions that they were
not to be disturbed till morning.” white was enjoying this. “Very
strict instructions, sir.”
“Carreras?” I looked at the purser. “What’s he got to do with
this, mr. cummings?”
“You haven’t heard? no, I don’t suppose so. Seems like mr.
carreras-the father-is the senior partner in one of the biggest law
firms in the country, cerdan and caireras. Mr. cerdan, founder of the
firm, is the old gentleman in the cabin here. Seems he’s been a
semi-paralysed cripple-but a pretty tough old cripple-for the past eight
years. His son and wife-cerdan junior being the next senior partner to
carreras-have had him on their hands all that time, and I believe the
old boy has been a handful and a half. I understand carreras offered to
take him along primarily to give cerdan junior and his wife a break.
Carreras, naturally, feels responsible for him, so I suppose that’s why
he left his orders with benson.”
“Doesn’t sound like a man at death’s door to me,” I said.
“Nobody’s wanting to kill him off, just to ask him a few questions. Or
the nurses.” white opened his mouth to protest again, but I pushed
roughly past him and knocked at the door. No answer. I waited all of
thirty seconds and then knocked again, loudly. White, beside me, was
stiff with outrage and disapproval. I ignored him and was lifting my
hand to put some real weight on the wood when I heard a movement and
suddenly the door opened inwards. It was the shorter of the two nurses,
the plump one, who had answered the door. She had an old-fashioned
pull-string linen cap over her head and was clutching with one hand a
light woolen wrap that left only the toes of her mules showing. The
cabin behind her was only dimly lit, but I could see it held a couple of
beds, one of which was rumpled. The free hand with which she rubbed her
eyes told the rest of the story. “My sincere apologies, miss,” I said.
“I had no idea you were in bed. I’m the chief officer of this ship and
this is mr. cummings, the purser. Your chief steward is missing and we
were wondering if you may have seen or heard anything that might help
us.”
“Missing?” she clutched the wrap more tightly. “You mean -you
mean he’s just disappeared?”
“Let’s say we can’t find him. Can you help us at all?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been asleep. You see,” she explained, “we
take it in three-hour turns to be by old mr. cerdan’s bed. It is
essential that he is watched all the time. I was trying to get in some
sleep before my turn came to relieve miss werner.”
“I’m sorry,” I repeated. “You can’t tell us anything then?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Perhaps your friend miss werner can?”
“Miss werner?” she blinked at me. “But mr. cerdan is not to be
“please. This might be very serious. One of the crew is missing, and
delay doesn’t increase his chances.”
“Very well.” like all competent nurses she knew how far she could
go and when to make up her mind. “But I must ask you to be very quiet
and not to disturb mr. cerdan in any way at all.” she didn’t say
anything about the possibility of mr. cerdan disturbing us, but she
might have warned us. As we passed through the open door of his cabin
he was sitting up in bed, a book on the blankets before him, with a
bright overhead bed light illuminating a crimson tasselled nightcap and
throwing his face into deep shadow, but a shadow not quite deep enough
to hide the hostile gleam under barstraight tufted eyebrows. The
hostile gleam, it seemed to me, was as much a permanent feature of his
face as the large beak of a nose that jutted out over a straggling white
moustache. The nurse who led the way made to introduce us, but cerdan
waved her to silence with a peremptory hand. Imperious, I thought, was
the word for the old boy, not to mention bad-tempered and downright
ill-mannered. “I hope you can explain this damnable outrage, sir.” His
voice was glacial enough to make a polar bear shiver. “Bursting into my
private stateroom without so much as by your leave.” he switched his
gimlet eyes to cummings. “You. You there. You had your orders, damn
it. Strictest privacy, absolutely. Explain yourself, sir.”
“I cannot tell you how sorry I am, mr. cerdan,” cummings said
smoothly. “Only the most unusual circumstances “rubbish!” whatever
this old coot was living for, it couldn’t have been with the object of
out live his friends; he’d lost his last friend before he’d left the
nursery. “Amanda! get the captain on the phone. At once!” the tall,
thin nurse sitting on the high-backed chair by the bedside made to
gather up her knitting-an all but finished pale-blue cardigan-lying on
her knees, but I gestured to her to remain where she was. “No need to
tell the captain, miss werner. He knows all about it-he sent us here.
We have only one small request to make of you and mr. cerdan “and I have
only one very small request to make of you, sir.” his voice cracked
into a falsetto, excitement or anger or age or all three of them. “Get
the hell out of here!” I thought about taking a deep breath to calm
myself, but even that two or three seconds’ delay would only have
precipitated another explosion, so I said at once, “very good, sir. But
first I would like to know if either yourself or miss werner here heard
any strange or unusual sounds inside the past hour or saw anything that
struck you as unusual. Our chief steward is missing. So far we have
found nothing to explain his disappearance.”
“Missing, hah?” cerdan snorted. “Probably drunk or asleep.”
then, as an afterthought: “or both.”
“He is not that sort of man,” cummings said quietly. “Can you help