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“Tell me what you know.”

There was an audible sigh. “I was afraid of that. I think we all knew that one day someone would start asking questions. It should never have been allowed to happen.”

“What?”

“The bringing up of the mail before the bodies. They did go back down for the bodies, eventually. But then one of the divers died. Fell and got trapped. Drowned. After that, it was decided to leave the bodies down there.”

“Why did Thomas Morrow have the mail brought up first?”

“No one knows, but we can all guess. There must have been something of value in there.”

“And you have no idea what that could have been?”

“No. I wish I did.”

“Have you seen his records?”

“I have. Every subsequent Receiver has read through them in hopes of figuring out what really happened. It’s always a tragedy when a ship goes down, and there was no greater tragedy than the sinking of the Empress of Ireland.”

“There was some suggestion that she carried in her mail room documents that would prove important for the war effort. That they were entrusted to a McGill professor named McDonald and the ship was sunk on purpose.”

“I’ve heard those rumors too, though not the name. But no, the notion that the passenger ship was rammed on purpose is ridiculous.”

“Why? It can’t have been courtesy on the part of the Germans. They sank the Lusitania, after all, killing more than a thousand civilians. If the Germans were willing to sink the Lusitania, why not the Empress?”

“Well, for one thing, the Empress was just about the safest ship afloat. With all those watertight compartments. Short of torpedoing it, which didn’t happen, there would be no guarantee she’d go down. In ramming the Empress, it would be far more likely the other ship would sink. No, it was an accident. Perhaps avoidable, but still unintended. One thing I can tell you is that the diver who died in the salvage was the same one who brought up the mail. It was covered up for a long time. The family was paid off.”

“Are you suggesting that was no accident?”

“I’m just stating a fact. You’re the head of homicide.”

“And there’s absolutely nothing in the records, or in Morrow’s own notes, to indicate what he was looking for?”

“Not that we ever found. We have his official ledger. It all looks legit. But then, it would.”

“You said ‘official,’ are you trying to say there’s an unofficial one? A second ledger?”

Another laugh. “Caught me, Chief Inspector. I was trying to be discreet. Could there be? I can just about guarantee it, given what Morrow was up to. If you find one, I’d love to see it.”

“If we find it, sir, you will be one of the first we show it to.”

“Can you tell me what you’re investigating? Not his murder. That goes too far back.”

“His murder?”

“Yes. Didn’t you know?”

And then there was the murder …

“What happened?”

“Well, okay. No one knows for sure that they were killed, but it did seem suspicious. There was a cabin fire in the backwoods. Some old, abandoned settlement.”

“Lost Nation?”

“Lost Nation? Never heard of it, but could be, I guess. All I know is that the log cabin burned down, and Morrow and someone else were inside. This was not long after the Empress went down.”

“Were there rumors about who did it?”