“Report,” he looked at Werner.
The latter was about to speak, but John Finn beat him to it.
“Someone killed a member of my crew. We must find out who did it and why. What is going on here?”
Edward Trevor pressed a button and gave an order into the intercom, addressing the security service chief.
“Vincent, you there? Come here now, we have a murder.”
“This is a very unpleasant incident, Mr. Finn,” he continued, looking straight into our commander's eyes. “It has never happened here before. And I want to understand what happened as much as you do. Werner, are you sure this is a murder, not an accident?” Trevor asked.
“Yes. Definitely. She was strangled,” he replied calmly.
“Where were you when it happened? I asked you to help our guests.”
“I was literally five minutes late. Just exchanged a few words with someone. I could not have possibly imagined such a thing happening inside their compartments,” Werner blurted defensively.
Maybe it wasn't him after all, I thought when Vincent Taney came in. He walked forward and sat down on Trevor's right, giving us a gloomy look.
“Tell me everything,” he asked Finn.
“What is there to tell?” the usually phlegmatic Englishman started to steam up. “After lunch, we gathered to discuss the sudden turn in the fate of our expedition and found that Cheng did not show up. She was our astrophysicist.”
“I remember,” Taney replied.
“Lisa,” Finn nodded at Lisa Small, “went to check up on her and found her dead, strangled. We all saw the body. Now it's your turn to tell everything!”
“I don't quite understand…” the head of the security service was confused.
“What is this place and who kills my crew members?”
“Okay, just calm down, please,” Trevor raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “Why do you think it's someone from the base?”
"Who else? We were all together.”
“But,” Taney intervened, “when you returned from lunch, you were all alive. And you didn't get together right away, did you? Only after a while? Was anyone around?”
“I was the first to come, and the body had already been found,” Werner said.
“Did you meet anyone in the corridor?” Trevor asked.
“No,” Werner replied.
“So, Captain Finn, it turns out that your crew has to answer some questions,” Taney eyeballed Finn, who fell silent. “Including you.”
“You should include Werner as well,” I ventured. “At least Werner, he might be lying.”