Death Waits for Some Men

Chapter IV: In Which a Boat Sinks

Adventure! People talked about the idea as if it was something worthwhile, rather than a mess of bad food, no sleep, and strange people inexplicably trying to stick pointed objects in bits of you. -- Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times

Louise's boat was delivered two days later.

Ruth and Nancy had both stopped their redecorating efforts. They'd started spending most of their time outside, exploring the shore around the lake. Nancy got up early in the morning and prepared picnics. That way there was much less danger of being poisoned or having chandeliers dropped on their heads.

The lake was fairly popular with boaters. At least three sailboats could always be seen somewhere on the water. Motorboat engines rumbled in the distance. They even saw a few rowing boats and a canoe club.

"How will we ever stage an accident here?" Ruth grumbled, lowering her binoculars. She was sitting on the rocks just above the water's edge, watching a pair of motorboats racing each other to the harbour. "The first sign of a boat sinking and there'll be twenty people out to the rescue."

Nancy had her own pair of binoculars trained on the house. "Here comes Louise's boat now."

Ruth looked. She almost dropped her binoculars. "Good God! It's... It's purple!"

To be accurate, the top half — the part that would be visible above the water once it was off the delivery lorry and in the lake — was bright magenta. On its own that wouldn't have been so bad. Tasteless, but not terrible to an eyewatering degree. No, the worst part was the keel. The magenta paint had obviously been added by a previous owner. A strip of the boat's original white paint remained between the end of the magenta and the start of the blue paint on the bottom of the boat.

It looked like a toddler had been asked to decorate it.

"On second thoughts," Ruth said, "I don't think anyone will go to any trouble to stop that thing sinking."

~~~~

They didn't dare go near the boat until Louise had taken the car and gone into town. Even when she was safely out of sight, they approached the dock warily in case she'd rigged the boat to explode.

It was even uglier up close. The magenta paint had been applied unevenly. Hints of the original white colour showed through.

Ruth climbed onto the deck. Thank god, the boat wasn't quite so ugly from here. It had a narrow walkway around the sides of the cabin, which widened into a larger triangle-shaped area at the front. Indoors, one wall of the cabin was taken up by a large sofa. The other wall was a row of cabinets beneath the windows. A small table was placed close to the sofa, allowing people to squeeze past to the steering wheel — or whatever it was called on a boat.

By boat standards, it was probably very comfortable. Ruth looked at it more as a potential murder weapon, and was very disappointed. How could she drill a hole in the floor all the way through the hull? It would be obvious at once!

Some thought was required.

~~~~

Ruth thought for the rest of the day. She drew complicated plans of how she could cut a plank out of the hull and let the boat slowly fill with water. Then she threw them in the fire.

Louise went out to the boat as soon as she got back. Strange hammering and thumping noises issued from inside.

Was it possible? Was Louise going to very helpfully sink the boat herself? More importantly, would she have the good sense to sink herself with it?