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HESTER FOUND ORME VERY willing to show her the guest list for the party on the Princess Mary, and also the rest of the passenger manifest. It had been a long trip, all the way from Westminster Bridge to Gravesend and back again; so all places had been reserved, and names written down.
A great deal of work had already been done to identify most of the passengers and eliminate them from suspicion.
“What are you looking for, ma’am, exactly?” Orme asked as they sat together in Monk’s office. Monk was still in court, as she had known he would be, so at least for the moment, they were uninterrupted.
“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “I think it is possible that the Princess Mary was sunk not to have some kind of revenge, or create a political horror, but to kill one person …”
Orme could not conceal the look of disbelief on his face. “Who’d do a thing like that?” he asked, shaking his head.
“I don’t know. It’s just an idea William had, after he was hit by Sabri’s boat when he was on the ferry. It’s possible, isn’t it?”
“I suppose it is,” Orme agreed reluctantly. “But how would we find such a person? It could be anybody.”
She had been thinking about it on the omnibus while coming here.
“If you needed to get rid of someone, you would pick the best way you could to do it. One that was certain, and that did not make you a suspect. One that looked like an accident would be best, but if that were not possible, then at least one that hid your involvement in it.”
He pursed his lips, but nodded agreement. “This was no accident, but I see what you mean. With near two hundred dead, we don’t look for one that matters more than the others.”
“Exactly. We look for a really big motive, probably political, or with a lot of money involved, fortunes made or lost.”
“So how do we look for one?” he said grimly.
She had given that some thought also. “Someone who had to be killed this way because no better way was possible. And perhaps someone who had to be killed urgently, and was vulnerable right there and then.”
Orme began to smile. “I see. And it needed to be certain; so the person would have been at the party below deck. That must exclude a lot of people.”
“Also anyone who went as a last-minute decision,” she added.
He nodded his head. “The sinking must’ve taken planning. That dynamite stuff isn’t that easy to get hold of.”
“Where did it come from?” she asked quickly.
“Stolen from a quarry twenty miles away, we reckon.”
“Reckon?”
“You can’t tell one lot of dynamite from another. But there isn’t that much of it around.”
“So we can narrow it down by taking out all the people who were not at the party below deck because they wouldn’t be certain victims.” She winced a little at the thought.
She was doing it logically, deducing the one intended victim as if she were speaking of something quite casual, not mass and indiscriminate death.
“We must think of who was vulnerable only this way,” she continued. “It was dangerous. Either Sabri was paid a lot, or else he cared about it enough to take the risk for his own reasons.”
“We looked at that,” Orme told her. “We couldn’t find any connection between Sabri and anyone on the Princess Mary.”
“I know,” she said quietly. “I’m only doing this because if we don’t find a motive I think Pryor’s going to win. Sabri will get off and the verdict against Beshara will stand. And, maybe even worse, whatever corruption or incompetence there was will be covered up, and for all we know, could happen again. And the very worst of it is that most other people will know it too. And when the law is held in disrespect, we don’t know what other things we trust may also fail.”
Orme’s wind-burned face was pale beneath the superficial color. “Then we’d better be getting on with it,” he said quietly. “We’re looking for a victim who couldn’t be killed any other way without it being obvious who did it. In fact someone who had to be killed then and there. Maybe this was the only way the killer could eliminate his victim without casting suspicion on himself. That cuts it down a lot. Let’s go through that list again.”
An hour later they had reduced it to a dozen people, excluding anyone who had booked passage after the dynamite was stolen, or who would have been just as vulnerable in a less dramatic and dangerous way.
“Soldiers,” Orme said, looking at her carefully. “Men on their way home on leave, celebrating with a party on the river. An’ most of them were here anyway. Could’ve been got at other ways.”
“I know. I’ve got six names to follow up. Thank you very much, Mr. Orme.” She rose to her feet, realizing how long she had been there only when she felt the stiffness in her back. “I’ll start tomorrow morning.”
He stood also. “You’re welcome, ma’am. If I can do anything more, please tell me.”
