The Case of the Circus Murder

IX

I gasped as soon as I saw it. The ringmaster's body was slumped over his seat, a bloody knife led on the table in front of him. The body was bleeding. I rushed out of the tent immediately, cutting my knee even more on the way.

"Are you alright?" asked Amelia as I got to them, a heaving, panting figure.

"Your knee is cut terribly!" exclaimed Daisy, staring at my cut in shock. "What happened?"

"There's a body!" I shouted, panting. "Ringmaster's! In the tent!"

"Body?" Daisy eyes snapped up to look at my face. "You mean - somebody's dead?"

"Somebody's dead." I nodded. "It's like I said - the ringmaster's body was in the tent."

"Right, Watson, think carefully." Daisy instructed me, ignoring Lavinia and Amelia's desperate questions. "Tell me all the details."

I took a deep breath. I was still horrified, but I have learnt never to ignore a serious order of Daisy's. "So, I walked into Collette's tent."

"Collette's?" repeated Daisy. 

"Yes, Collette's." I said, rather impatiently. "The horse-rider. I walked into her tent. I looked at the things on the table - books, tea, paper - and then I looked in the corner of the tent and he was there."

"The body?" asked Lavinia. 

I nodded. "He was slumped over the seat, with something - something on the table."

"Something on the table!" screeched Daisy into my ear. "That's not enough, Hazel! Give us details! Was it food? Drink?"

"Neither." I murmured, and suddenly I felt rather wobbly. "Daisy, it was a knife."

"A knife!" Daisy exclaimed triumphantly. "My favourite method of murder, other than drowning."

"Daisy!" I exclaimed. "No - it's simply not on to have a favourite method of murder."

"We're getting off topic!" cried Lavinia suddenly, and we all glanced at her in surprise. Daisy scowled - I could see that she did not like getting scolded by someone other than me. 

"Yes, we are." said Daisy in a funny sort of voice that I had never heard her use before. "Right, Watson. The knife. Describe it."

"It was... a knife?" I said uncertainly. I saw Daisy glancing at me expectantly and continued. "Well, it was quite long. Not very sharp, but sharp enough to kill, as the murder has shown. It had a smooth black handle with funny dots and lines on the side and a silver blade. It was bloody."

"Funny dots and lines?" repeated Amelia. "Is - is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking."

"Morse code!" Daisy, Lavinia, and I exclaimed.

"Hazel, retrieve the knife." Daisy ordered me.

"Oh, no! The body." I said, rather in-detective-like.

"I can do it." Amelia volunteered. Daisy nodded and she rushed off.

Amelia returned carrying a bloody knife, which actually looked quite threatening considering she was running.

"Give it here!" Daisy demanded, snatching it out of Amelia's hands.

I examined it. I have become quite a master at morse code since I began writing letters to Alexander.

.--. .. . .-. -.-. . 

- .... . / --- -. . / - --- / --- .-- -. / ... .... .- .-.. .-.. / -... . / - .... . / --- -. . / - --- / -.. .. .

"What does it say?" asked Lavinia.