All Quiet on Arrival by Graham Ison Read Free Book Online

to head office. I made a point of seeing him later and I told him that Hendry would be paid off, dishonourably discharged if you like, at the end of the cruise.’
    â€˜And was he satisfied with that?’ I asked.
    â€˜Seemed to be,’ said Richards, ‘but reading between the lines, I think that his wife made a habit of going over the side. Not in a nautical sense, of course,’ he added, and smiled at his little joke. ‘She probably enjoyed a bit of rough, if you take my meaning. Hendry was certainly a bit rough, but he knew how to turn on the charm if there was a big enough tip on offer. Anyway, Mr Barton said that he wasn’t going to take it any further, and that was that. Case closed.’
    â€˜Do you have any idea where Hendry might be now, Captain Richards?’ asked Dave.
    â€˜I’m afraid not. But he’s bound to be a member of the RMT: that’s the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers Union. They might be able to help. Hendry could have given up the sea, of course. It’s a black mark to have got the sack, and he could’ve had some difficulty in getting another seafaring job.’
    â€˜Would your company hold a photograph of Hendry, Captain?’ asked Dave.
    â€˜It’s possible, I suppose. All crew members are photographed when they join the company, mainly for their dockyard passes and the ship’s records, and a copy’s held at head office. But it might have been destroyed once Hendry was dismissed.’ Richards wrote the address of the shipping company on the back of one of his visiting cards, and handed it to Dave. ‘Worth a try, I suppose.’
    Dave examined the card. ‘Well, at least it’s in London,’ he said.
    â€˜It looks like this Hendry guy might be a suspect, guv,’ said Dave, as we journeyed back to London.
    â€˜Maybe, unless he’s back at sea, and was at the time of the murder,’ I said, ‘but from what James Barton said about his wife having casual affairs, our killer could be just about anyone. He was only able to name Hendry and Potier the Frenchman, but he was convinced there were others he didn’t know about.’
    â€˜Needle in a haystack job, guv,’ said Dave. ‘So what’s next?’
    â€˜Two things: find Hendry and find Potier.’
    â€˜What about Carl Morgan, the guy who answered the door to Watson? And Morgan’s playmate Shelley. She of the thong.’
    â€˜That could be difficult, but we’ve got to have a go at finding them, Dave. After all, they could be material witnesses.’
    â€˜Or one of them might’ve topped Diana, guv.’
    â€˜Yes, even that,’ I said.
    This particular enquiry seemed to be generating nothing but bad news. And when we got back to Curtis Green, there was even more.
    â€˜The report from the lab has arrived, sir,’ said Gavin Creasey, the moment I stepped into the incident room.
    â€˜What does it say?’ I poured myself a cup of coffee from the machine in the corner. We’re not supposed to have private coffee machines, and every so often some spotty-faced civilian jobsworth turns up from an obscure department at the Yard attempting to find and confiscate such little luxuries. But he’s on a hiding to nothing in attempting to outwit CID officers about such simple matters as misusing the Commissioner’s electricity.
    â€˜The semen found in Mrs Barton’s vagina doesn’t match any DNA on the database, sir.’
    â€˜Wonderful!’ I said. ‘I wouldn’t have expected anything else.’
    â€˜There’s also the report from the fire brigade, sir,’ continued Creasey. ‘Their investigating officer found traces of an accelerant in various parts of the ground floor rooms. Likely to be an alcohol-based liquid, but he can’t define it any closer than that. But he’s confident that it’s arson.’
    â€˜No surprise there,’ I said.
    â€˜What do we