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Only Letty hadn’t spoken. Victoire nudged her. ‘Letty?’
Letty had turned so pale she matched the bloodless corpse on the floor. ‘I... yes. All right.’
‘You can go, Letty,’ said Robin. ‘You don’t have to hear—’
‘No, I want to be here,’ said Letty. ‘I want to know what happens next. I can’t just let you all... No.’ She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, then reopened her eyes and announced very slowly, as if she’d just come to the decision, ‘I’m in this. With you. All of you.’
‘Good,’ Ramy said briskly. He wiped his hands on his trousers, then resumed his pacing. ‘Now, here’s what I’m thinking. We aren’t supposed to be on this packet. We were originally scheduled to return on the fourth, remember? No one’s expecting us back before then, which means nobody will be looking for him when we disembark.’
‘Right.’ Victoire nodded, then picked up his train of thought. It was quite frightening, watching the two of them. They grew more confident as they spoke. It was as if they were simply collaborating on a group translation, playing off each other’s brilliance. ‘It’s clear the easiest way to get caught is for someone to glimpse the body. So our first priority, as I said, should be to get rid of it as soon as possible – as soon as it’s dark outside. Then, for the rest of the voyage, we’ll tell everyone he’s ill. No one’s more afraid of foreign diseases than sailors, isn’t that right? The moment we let slip that he’s down with something that they might catch, I guarantee you no one will approach that door for weeks. Which means all we’ve got to worry about is getting him into the water.’
‘Well, and cleaning up all this blood,’ said Ramy.
Madness, Robin thought. This was madness, and he couldn’t understand why no one was laughing, why everyone seemed to be very seriously contemplating the idea of dragging their professor’s body up two flights of stairs and hurling it into the sea. They were all past the point of incredulity. The shock had worn off, and the surreal had become the practical. They were speaking not in terms of ethics, but of logistics, and this made Robin feel as if they’d stepped into an upside-down world where nothing made sense, and no one had a single problem with it but him.
‘Robin?’ Ramy asked.
Robin blinked. They were all looking at him with very concerned expressions. He gathered this was not the first time he’d been addressed. ‘I’m sorry – what?’
‘What do you think?’ Victoire asked gently. ‘We’re going to drop him overboard, all right?’
‘I – well, I suppose that works, I just...’ He shook his head. There was a very loud ringing in his ears, and it made it hard for him to collect his thoughts. ‘Sorry, I just... aren’t any of you going to ask me why?’
Blank stares all around.
‘It’s just – you’re all signed up to help me conceal a murder?’ Robin couldn’t help all his statements becoming questions. The whole world right then seemed like one great, unanswerable question. ‘And you’re not even going to ask how, or why?’
Ramy and Victoire exchanged a look. But it was Letty who answered first. ‘I think we all understand why.’ Her throat pulsed. He could not decipher the expression on her face – it was something he’d never seen on her before, some strange mixture of pity and resolve. ‘And to be honest, Robin, I think the less we say about it the better.’
Cleaning up the cabin went faster than Robin had feared. Letty secured a mop and bucket from the crew by claiming she’d vomited from seasickness, and the rest of them contributed several articles of clothing to soak up the bloody water.
Then there was the matter of disposal. They decided that shoving Professor Lovell in a trunk was their best chance at getting his body to the upper deck unquestioned. The migration upstairs was a game of bated breaths and progress in inches. Victoire would dart forward every few seconds, check to make sure there was no one in sight, and then motion frantically for Robin and Ramy to drag the trunk up another few steps. Letty kept guard on the top deck, feigning a nighttime stroll for some fresh air.
Somehow they got the trunk to the edge of the railing without attracting suspicion.
‘All right.’ Robin slid the lid off the trunk. Originally they’d considered throwing the whole trunk away, but Victoire had astutely pointed out that wood would float. He was afraid to look down; he wanted, if possible, to do this without looking at his father’s face. ‘Quickly, before anyone sees—’
‘Hold on,’ said Ramy. ‘We have to weight it down, otherwise it’ll bob around.’
Robin had a sudden vision of Professor Lovell’s body floating in the wake of the ship, attracting a crowd of sailors and seagulls. He fought a wave of nausea. ‘Why didn’t you say so before?’
‘I was a bit panicked, all right?’
‘But you seemed so calm—’
‘I’m good in emergencies, Birdie, but I’m not God.’
Robin’s eyes darted around the deck, searching for anything that might serve as an anchor – oars, wooden buckets, spare planks – damn it, why was everything on a ship designed to float?
At last he found a pile of rope knotted through with what looked like weights. He prayed it wasn’t needed for anything important and dragged it over to the trunk. Securing the rope around Professor Lovell was a nightmare. His heavy, stiffening limbs did not move easily; the corpse seemed in fact to be actively resisting them. The rope, horrifically, snagged on exposed and jagged ribs. Robin’s hands, sweaty with fear, kept slipping; several agonizing minutes passed before they got the rope snugly around the professor’s arms and legs. Robin wanted to tie a quick knot and be done with it, but Ramy was adamant they take their time; he didn’t want the ropes to disentangle as soon as the body hit the water.
‘All right,’ Ramy whispered at last, yanking at the rope. ‘That should do it.’
They each took an end of the corpse – Robin the shoulders, and Ramy the feet – and hoisted it out of the trunk.
‘One,’ Ramy whispered. ‘Two...’
On the third swing, they lifted Professor Lovell’s body over the railing and let go. It seemed an eternity before they heard the splash.
