The Riverboat Mystery (Jenny Starling #3)(36)

Jenny, very well aware that she had spent valuable minutes thinking all this through, and was consequently dithering like somebody’s idea of a dotty maiden aunt, firmly marched out through the games room and onto the port deck, and from there made her way forwards to the bridge. She knocked firmly and opened the door, not waiting for a summons.

By the wheel, Tobias looked around in surprise. He looked disconcerted at her abrupt entrance, but nothing more than that, as far as Jenny could tell.

But the murderer must know that it would be the Swan’s cook who discovered the body, and would therefore be prepared, when first spotting her, to act as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

‘Cook, I don’t think Lucas would like—’

‘You have to dock at once,’ Jenny interrupted rudely. ‘Is there a phone on board?’ Not waiting for an answer, she continued, ‘If not you’ll have to send someone, Brian O’Keefe, I suppose, to the nearest village to telephone for the police.’

Tobias stared at her as if she’d suddenly acquired several bats in her belfry.

‘Dock? Here?’ He glanced automatically towards both banks, his trained eye instinctively looking for the best place to berth, even as he shook his head. ‘There’s no phone on board — Lucas insists on it. And we’re down in the valley here, in a bad reception area. Most mobiles wouldn’t work anyway. But—’

‘Gabriel Olney is dead,’ Jenny said shortly, and was very careful to state nothing more than the bare truth. She’d watched a lot of police activity around murder cases in her time, and one thing she’d noted was that they never gave information away. And it was, she had always thought, a very good policy to mimic.

Tobias’s leonine head abruptly swung her way. His eyes went wide, and he went just a touch pale. ‘Dead?’ he echoed blankly.

Jenny nodded. ‘We must dock and send for the police. At once.’ She repeated it all patiently, knowing that — if genuine — shock could momentarily befuddle the clearest of minds.

It had befuddled hers. But never for long.

Tobias nodded, seeming to grasp the seriousness of the situation at last, and began to push and twiddle various levers and knobs, slowing the vessel down and heading her towards the right-hand bank. Satisfied that he was doing as he’d been told, Jenny nodded and left, determined to stand guard in front of the galley door.

Just in case.

In the main salon, Lucas Finch stepped in from the direction of the rear corridor. ‘Hello, love. The boat’s stopping, did you notice? I wonder what Toby’s up to.’

The parrot on her shoulder, spotting his master, gave a little wriggle and was quickly airborne, flying back to Lucas. It settled on his shoulder and began, very gently, to gnaw on a claw.

Jenny walked steadily to the chair in front of her galley and very firmly sat down on it. It would take a better man than Lucas Finch to shift her now.

‘I told Captain Lester to dock,’ she admitted coolly. ‘Gabriel Olney is dead. Do you have a map of the immediate area?’

Lucas stared at her. His face seemed to shut down — only his eyes glittered. And in that moment, Jenny could clearly see the man who profited from war. The man who’d earned himself (by fair means or foul) a considerable fortune. He didn’t say anything for quite some time. When he did, it was to ask a question.

‘Why do you want a map?’

‘You must send Brian O’Keefe to the nearest village to ring for the police. To do that, we need to know where the nearest telephone is likely to be. I understand mobiles don’t work very well here, and that you don’t allow any on board anyway?’

Lucas looked at her levelly, perhaps a little surprised by her cool-headed logic, but nodded acquiescently. ‘I have a full-length map of the River Thames in the drawer somewhere.’

He turned to a large, all-purpose set of drawers set flush to one wall, and riffled through the top one for a map. Once it was found, he carefully unfolded it and spread it out on the dining table. ‘I’ll have to go and get Tobias. He’ll know best what our exact position is.’

Jenny nodded. By now, the boat was almost at a complete standstill.

Out on the starboard deck, although they must have noticed that they were docking, David and Dorothy Leigh never came to investigate. Outside, on the rear deck, Jenny heard rapid footsteps and saw the engineer heading quickly towards the bridge. No doubt he too wanted to know the reason behind the unscheduled delay.

As he passed the French windows that led to the games room, through the open inner door Jenny clearly saw Jasmine Olney suddenly rear up from her position on a deckchair and grab Brian’s arm. What she might have been about to say to him, however, was never uttered as Lucas and Tobias chose that moment to step out of the wheelhouse.

‘Ah, Brian, secure the boat then come into the salon will you?’ Tobias ordered, making Jenny blink a little in surprise, for he had assumed command with an ease and natural affinity that halfway stunned her. And yet she knew that it shouldn’t have done: Lester was a very competent man. Very competent indeed — hadn’t she herself instinctively gone to him when times had got tough? Somehow, she seemed to have forgotten that. He was such a modestly unassuming man, he made it easy to forget how capable he must be. It was a trait that could come in very handy.

Had Gabriel Olney, too, forgotten that?