Excerpt from the book called The Frisby Waterless Murders

“Carly,” he said in his best inspector’s voice, “who hired you to do the catering at this event?”

“That would be Gerald from the Round Table; said he had twenty five to feed a lunch to and could I help him out? I could, of course, although I had to get a bigger mixing bowl for the salad – I thought about using an old horse trough, but I didn’t of course cos that would have contravened health and safety rules.”

“It would Carly, surprisingly enough it would, for many reasons.” Knowles nodded his head to emphasize the point. Carly Waferr smiled as she had been half-joking, though there was a small horse-trough in her shed, which would have done the job as long as she’d removed all the rust beforehand. What would she have mixed the salad with though?

Her thoughts were interrupted by Inspector Knowles’s next sentence – “Carly, who is Gerald from the Round Table, and where is he now?”

“He’s the train manager; he’s the one who was co-ordinating the entire event; I expect he’s still on the train.”

“Yes, that’s probably the best place for a train manager. Now, had you served your delicious meal to the clientele?”

“No, the lunch I described was for when everything was over. I had just served a beverage and a muffin, Inspector, and most of the plates that came back were wiped clean.”

“Is it possible that the death was down to something you served? I am not suggesting you are responsible for the death, of course, but could there have been an allergic reaction to something you served?”

“I doubt that, Inspector Knowles, the victim was found dead in his seat without any outward signs of distress, as though he had been poisoned. Allergic reactions are usually more noticeable and people enquire regarding your health.”

“Well that is something we will have to establish when we examine the body, but thank you for the information, Carly. Please don’t leave the scene until we have agreed it’s OK to do so.”

Carly Waferr nodded her head in a slightly dejected fashion – there was no point in going home because Inspector Knowles knew exactly where she lived and would come and fetch her; he had done that before a few weeks previously in connection with another matter.

Knowles smiled and then turned around to look at the steam train in the station. The carriages were chocolate and yellow with numbers painted in white on each of the doors. As he walked along the platform he saw the locomotive had two small wheels at the front and then two larger wheels after, which Knowles thought made the train have a 4-4-0 configuration. The rain was evaporating in small puffs of steam as it hit the green engine. Knowles could see his reflection in the polished surface and wondered if that’s what an alien version of himself from another galaxy would look like. He hoped not.