The Moonlit Murders: A historical mystery page-turner (A Fen Churche Mystery Book 3) Fliss Chester (most read book in the world txt) 📖

but were lingering within earshot of Mrs Archer, who was still in full flow and providing considerably more entertainment than a few pucks and a shuffleboard court.

‘Excuse us,’ James gently asked as he approached them, ‘is there any way I can assist you?’

‘Oh, Lord Selham,’ Mrs Archer reached out an arm to him. ‘The most dreadful calamity, nay, a disaster has befallen me.’

‘Your jewels?’ Fen said, coming to stand next to James.

‘Yes, how did you know?’ Mariella Archer’s eyes pinned Fen to the spot, her seemingly uncontroversial question met with one laced with an accusatory tone.

A strong gust of wind dashed rain and salty water across them and Bisset suggested they take the conversation into the saloon bar where they could dry off. And calm down too, Fen thought, judging by the weary look on the first officer’s face. His charm had got him nowhere this time.

Once they were inside, Fen answered Mrs Archer’s question.

‘I’m afraid I overheard you on deck,’ Fen explained. ‘I’m so sorry to hear of your loss.’

‘Loss? Loss!’ Mrs Archer sounded exasperated. ‘This is no mere loss. I didn’t fling them overboard or lose them at baccarat, you know. They were stolen!’

Fen stayed quiet, feeling it best to let Mrs Archer vent her spleen until she was able to hold a proper conversation.

Gradually, more people started to surround them and it was as if every face who joined the crowd girded Mariella Archer more, until she was practically calling for the ship to be turned around and for them all to head straight back to Southampton, where a detective from Scotland Yard could be summoned to look into the theft. Bisset had been bolstered by the appearance by his side of Captain Lagrande himself, and it was the latter who was now bearing the full force of Mrs Archer’s vitriol.

‘Let us help.’ James’s voice sounded authoritative and it did the trick of stopping Mrs Archer mid-flow.

‘Lord Selham,’ she turned to him. ‘You are kind to offer, but, pray tell, how could you possibly help?’ Mrs Archer raised a pencilled-on eyebrow at him.

‘Miss Churche and I have a little experience in solving mysteries.’

It was Fen’s turn to raise an eyebrow, but she listened as he further convinced Mrs Archer to let them handle everything and stop haranguing the captain into the bargain.

‘The ship won’t dock into New York for another three days, not including this one, isn’t that right, Captain?’ James asked, and the captain nodded. ‘Which means the jewels will be here on board until the moment the gangplank drops onto the quayside. Items of such value wouldn’t have been thrown overboard, unless the thief wasn’t aware of their true value, but if that’s the case, what would be the point of returning to England? They would be lost forever by now anyway.’

Mrs Archer let out a sort of low groan, but, in general, James’s words were having the desired effect of calming her down.

‘We have a few days with no other stops,’ James continued. ‘I think we’ll find the thief long before land is sighted, don’t you agree, Captain?’

Again, the captain nodded at James and looked rather pointedly at his watch. With Mrs Archer now calmer, he made his apologies and left them to it, with the promise of letting them have full access to all parts of the ship, should they need it for a search party. He beckoned Bisset to follow him, and Fen thought she noticed a look of relief fleetingly occupy the first officer’s face before he saluted and followed.

‘Search party,’ hissed Mrs Archer. ‘As if someone will have just left them lying around. And I think we all know perfectly well who stole them. Bisset said there was a thief on board, some souvenir of his has gone missing too.’ She huffed and drew breath before starting again. ‘That strumpet showgirl and her actor lover. Not even married and sharing a cabin! What does that tell you about their morals?’

‘Mrs Archer, I don’t think—’ Fen tried to defend Genie, but Mrs Archer was having none of it.

Luckily, James stepped in again. ‘Mrs Archer, we’ll question Genie and Spencer. As we will any other suspects. Leave it with us.’

21

The authority of a man with a title seemed to hold sway, although it wasn’t without a certain amount of grumbling that Mrs Archer retired to one of the café terraces to await updates on her stolen jewellery.

‘She took you at your word, didn’t she,’ Fen observed as they sat at one of the tables in the saloon bar drawing up a list of places to search.

‘I hope you don’t mind that I’ve rather saddled us with a bit of sleuthing to do while we’re on board,’ James replied, holding the pen poised to write.

‘Speaking of which, I’m not sure I remember agreeing to this.’

James grinned at her. ‘Come on, you love your puzzles. Don’t say you’re not already trying to work out who stole the diamonds? Plus, I might have offered our services, but we both know you’re the brains of the operation.’

‘Flattery will get you everywhere, James,’ Fen sighed, then looked at the blank piece of paper in front of her, which was meant to be her jotting pad for thinking of places to search for the jewels. The sheet looked altogether too blank, unlike a fresh crossword, which at least had the spaces for the words mapped out for you. ‘We’ll have to approach it like that, then.’

‘Sorry?’ James asked, and Fen apologised for thinking out loud.

‘I think it might be one of those puzzles that we have to approach like a crossword. There will be clues around as to who did it, and some of those clues might be very cryptic indeed.’

‘Whereas some might be quite obvious.’ James followed her logic.

‘But sometimes the obvious answer isn’t the right one. Take Mrs Archer, for example. She’s determined that it’s Genie because she has “loose morals”. So, we’d better put Genie on the list—’

‘But that’s just rank snobbery,’ James protested.

‘I