The Moonlit Murders: A historical mystery page-turner (A Fen Churche Mystery Book 3) Fliss Chester (most read book in the world txt) š
- Author: Fliss Chester
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A flash of inspiration hit Fen as she thought back to finding the passenger lists in the captainās office. And then, staring at the words in front of her, words that would float around and merge and mingle if she hadnāt anchored them to her grids, well they started to tell Fen a story.
The passenger listā¦ Ernst Fischer had appeared on one and not the other, and one name had been its opposite number on the printed list they all received in every cabin; it had appeared there and not on the official one Fen had found in the filing cabinet. Wracker-Naymanā¦ That had been the one. Not a common name at all.
She reached down into her bag and pulled out the small German-English dictionary that sheād found in cabin thirteen. Wrackerā¦ nothing. Wrack means wreck thoughā¦ very apt for being on board ship, but it wasnāt the ship that had been targeted. She said it out loud again. āLike a homophone in my crosswordsā¦ā she murmured. āWrack, wreckā¦ with an ārā perhapsā¦ ah, rache.ā She looked at the word that when said out loud sounded like the more English pronunciation of ārack-erā. āRache means revenge.ā She circled the word sheād already written on her grid. Sheād known there was something about the way the flag and knife almost decorated the body of the German man; it was a message, of course, a vengeful one.
āNow for Naymanā¦ā She flicked back through the dictionary to the Ns. āNaymanā¦ sounds like naiven which means naiveā¦ not quiteā¦ā She ran her finger down the NAs but couldnāt find anything that fit with the word revenge. On the next page, she found it though. āOh dear. Nehman meaning to take. Take revenge, thatās the message in this passenger list. Thatās why Ernst was so upset. I am foreignā¦ noā¦ why would he say Ich bin in German and foreign in English?ā She looked again through the dictionary for a word that could sound like the one she had heard.
Minutes later, as she was on the verge of giving up, she found it. āIch bin verloren. Thatās what he was saying. I am doomedā¦ Oh dear,ā she whispered to herself, seeing now almost plainly what had been such a muddle before. āOf course, if he hadā¦ thenā¦ and thought she wasā¦ā Fen ticked off words as she thought through them, and although it didnāt all make perfect sense, it was like a crossword clue that she knew the answer to, she just didnāt know why yet. Sleep would help and she pulled the chain for the light beside her bed and slipped down under the covers. Tomorrow they would be in America, but before that, she knew she had a murder, or two, to solve.
Morning came and Fen awoke early to the sound of the foghorn. Thoughts that had swum around her before sheād fallen asleep and manifested themselves as dreams of stockings and boas, mirrors and knives, came back to her and she sat bolt upright, suddenly realising that someone elseās life was quite possibly in danger and they needed to be warned.
Dressing quickly, Fen glanced at her watch. Eight oāclock, seven oāclock, she didnāt know what hour it was meant to be, but she knew Dodman would be up and on duty. She pulled her cabin door closed and went in search of him, finding him polishing the banisters of the grand staircase.
āDodman!ā Fen called and then waved to him.
Once up closer, she whispered her thoughts to him.
āThatās very irregular, miss,ā he pulled his ear as he thought. āI could get into a lot of trouble if youāre wrong.ā
āAnd you could save a life if Iām right. If Iām wrong, Iāll take the rap, I promise. Please, Dodman, youāre one of the only people on this ship I think I can trust.ā
The young steward blushed a deep pink at this and Fen knew, once again, that she was possibly wrong to use her womanly wiles on him like this. But she also knew, when sheād dashed out of her cabin only a few moments earlier, that it had been worth the delay of a second more to make sure her hair was just so and her lipstick applied.
āIām not sure thatās how the company policy works, miss, but as itās for youā¦ā He saluted and hurried off.
Fen then turned to head back to her cabin.
āWhat ho!ā James waved from the other side of the grand staircase. He walked around the galleried corridor and met her. āYouāre up early this morning.ā
āSlept badly.ā Fen fidgeted. She wasnāt sure what she needed to do or how she should do it, but James might well be the chap to help. She explained her theory to him and watched as the dawn light seemed to reflect his expression.
āI see,ā he said at the end.
āI think we have to get Spencer out of the brig,ā Fen said matter-of-factly. āThereās something about his confession, the way it was written and how he looked when I saw him ā itās not right. And, James, if heās sobered up now, he will be raging I bet, so take care.ā
āHe wonāt have any gripe with me, but it might be hard convincing the steward on watch that he should let him out.ā James rubbed his hand across his slightly stubbly chin.
āIf anyone can, you can. Go on, use that title of yours and give it some welly.ā
āHow rudeā¦ā James winked at her, but then squeezed her shoulder and headed off down the stairs to the lower decks.
Fen, happier now that safeguards were in place, decided that the only thing left to do was to confront the person she believed to be the murderer.
āMy grids though,ā she murmured as she quickly turned back towards her cabin. She didnāt want to start accusing someone, someone very important, without all her thoughts jotted down in front of her.
Walking swiftly down
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