“How do you know?” Mason asked.
“I talked with the girl who shares her cabin. She said Miss Fell had hysterics and the doctor had to give her an opiate. The doctor advised her not to talk with anything about what she saw, but she talked to her roommate before the doctor came. She’s pretty nervous. Personally, I think she’s crazy.”
Mason said musingly, “Let’s see, She’s about thirty-four or five, has funny eyes and a muddy skin. That the one?”
“She gives her age as twenty-nine,” Hungerford said. “She’s peculiar, you know — always walking around deck by herself.”
Mason said, “Yes, I’ve seen her a number of times. She wears flat-heeled shoes, a short walking skirt, and forges determinedly around the deck every night after dinner.”
“That’s right — always walking by herself. They say she walks two miles every night.”
Mason said musingly, “I know the type, finds out how many laps to the mile, religiously counts every lap... Did she really see Mrs. Newberry on deck?”
“She swears she did. She was standing just below the boat deck, huddled up in a dark ram coat. The door opened, and Mr. and Mrs. Newberry came out. They walked past her without seeing her. She was within three or four feet of them and heard Newberry say something about it being necessary to handle things his way. He told Mrs. Newberry to keep her fingers out of his affairs, and started for the boat deck. Mrs. Newberry followed, and he kicked at her and yelled, ‘Keep back!’ but she went on up behind him.
“After a little while Aileen Fell heard a scuffle on the deck above. She climbed the stairs to the boat deck. She told her roommate she heard a pistol shot as she was climbing the stairs. When she got on deck, she claims she saw Mrs. Newberry leaning over Newberry’s body, and then saw Mrs. Newberry drag the body toward the rail. Just about that time, the ship gave a big lurch to port, and Aileen Fell took a spill. She thought she was going overboard. Somewhere in there she heard a second shot. She started to scream and kept on screaming. After she got to her feet, she saw Mrs. Newberry running along the deck. Newberry had disappeared.”
“So she kept right on screaming?” Mason asked.