Mystery Part IX

Them bones them bones...

Here is the next post of Jayne Barnard's "The Evil Eye of Africa."

The first post is here.
A list of all the characters is here.

You can get all the posts by clicking on the mystery tag.

Remember that if you think you have solved the mystery email your deduction to:  madamesaffron at gmail.com.
Madame will be drawing from all the correct solutions for some prizes from Tyche Books!

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts 

Act I: The Headlines Thicken

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The Cornwall Cog and Goggles

August 3, 1898

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BODDY’S BODY FOUND – MYSTERY DEEPENS

The mortal remains of Baron von Boddy, thought lost over the English Channel after his airship was abandoned, have washed ashore in Cornwall, only a few miles from isolated Boddy Manor. The remains, much diminished by the action of waves and sea creatures, were lashed to a small, but weighty, White Star Line trunk. Coast Guard say the body may have been in the water only a couple of weeks, as the shad were running in their millions and could have picked the body clean quite quickly.

Those who discovered the body immediately opened the trunk, hoping to be the first to see the fabled Nubian treasure the baron sought in Africa, but were disappointed to find only books and papers, some of them damaged by water seepage. Coast Guard officials say the trunk could not have floated and was probably dragged inshore by the tide. Why Boddy should have elected to abandon ship with a heavy trunk is un-guessable, but local sea-goers, familiar with the baron’s eccentricities in pursuit of his various quests, believe he might have bailed out at low altitude over shallow water and hoped to drag the trunk ashore safely. Whether the tide set against him or the wind was offshore cannot be known unless the time of his entering the sea can be determined by other means.

Click here for the next installment.