Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect

Ernie searches the internet for information on the accident and learns that the bus driver was named Troy Firth, but he can’t find any evidence that connects McTavish with Firth. Ernie runs into Wyatt, who tells him that he found Simone’s scarf. Wyatt says that he’ll give the scarf to Simone, who he believes is upset about losing McTavish as a potential client. He tells Ernie that he has already given Simone “a consolation prize. Not that she’ll be signing anyone with it” (174). Ernie doesn’t understand the joke. Wyatt tells him that Simone did try to pitch McTavish and that he refused her. When Wyatt calls Jasper over to drink with him, claiming that they have much to celebrate, Ernie leaves.

He next talks with Simone and Wolfgang. Wolfgang complains that McTavish overused commas, particularly the Oxford comma. Ernie asks him about The Death of Literature, which he refers to as a painting, but Wolfgang clarifies that it’s an experience, not a painting. Wolfgang cautions Ernie to be careful because someone on the train is killing bad writers. Ernie insults him back, and he stalks off. Ernie asks Simone how she met McTavish, and she says that she worked for Gemini and then as McTavish’s assistant after his books started selling well. She complains about how predatory the men in publishing were then, acknowledging that it still happens. Ernie understands her tough attitude a little better. When Ernie says that Majors told him about McTavish’s sexual encounter with Fulton, Simone says that Majors has had a grudge against Fulton ever since she failed to stick up for Majors in her dispute with McTavish over the book idea he allegedly stole. Simone says that McTavish regularly sent awful emails to people like Fulton, adding that the “firecracker in the sack” comment was from one such email (179). Simone says that she herself shouldn’t be considered a suspect because McTavish wasn’t much of a prize as a potential client; she’d rather sign someone like Erica Mathison, whose sales are astronomical, even though her work is an example of a trend Simone ridicules as the “first-name-last-name book” (181). Simone advises Ernie that his new book needs some romance.

Ernie, mindful of Simone’s advice about romance and conscious of the engagement ring in his pocket, finds Juliette. He apologizes for getting carried away about McTavish’s death. Juliette tells him that she’s happy he has something to write about but that she also wants him to stay present with her. They acknowledge their mutual love, and Ernie gets down on one knee and begins to propose. However, he suddenly wonders about Juliette’s actions the previous night and chooses this moment to question her. Furious, she points out that his vision of himself as an untouchable narrator is self-centered and dangerous. She was actually the writer the festival wanted to invite, she reveals, but she asked Majors to give Ernie the invitation instead because she was worried about his survivor’s guilt and the way he seemed to center his identity on his first book. She tells Ernie that he knows almost nothing about how she’s coping with their experience on the mountain because he treats her like a side character in a story about him and that throughout this trip, he has remained ungrateful for her and her support of him. She reminds him that he also just essentially accused her of being a suspect in McTavish’s murder and asks what possible motive she might have had. When Ernie says that she might have been angry about McTavish’s bad review of his first book and wanted to help him write his second book, Juliette becomes even angrier. Ernie begs her for a chance to start his proposal again; when he pulls the ring box out of his pocket, the crowd cheers.

Chapter 20 is one sentence: “She said no” (190).

Conscious of their excited audience, Juliette puts on the ring and kisses Ernie theatrically. She tells him quietly that she’ll leave the train, get a motel overnight, and then fly home. She says that she’ll only consent to marry Ernie once he understands “whose story this is” (191). Dazed, Ernie allows Jasper to corral him for a celebratory drink. Ernie compliments Jasper’s understanding of romance, mentioning the flower petals he saw on the floor outside Jasper and Harriet’s compartment. Jasper laughs about how they triggered Wyatt’s allergies and says that the flower petals were actually Harriet’s doing. He mentions that he met Harriet because of a critical review she wrote of his work and then offers Ernie advice about writing for audience enjoyment rather than for fame. Some of the clues fall together for Ernie. He realizes that Jasper and Wyatt have a preexisting relationship because Jasper is writing for Gemini under someone else’s name. Jasper confirms this and asks Ernie to keep the information to himself. Jasper reveals that he and Harriet have been arguing because she wants him to write under his own name. Ernie reveals that things aren’t going as well with Juliette as it seems to everyone else, and Jasper urges him to go sort that out. Ernie extends a hand, saying, “It’s been a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Mathison” (195). Jasper laughs.

Ernie is unable to catch Juliette before she leaves, and she doesn’t answer her phone. Not wanting to spend the night knocking on every motel door in Alice Springs, he chooses to stay with the train. Ernie intrudes from his perspective in the future, writing in an Adelaide hospital room. Choosing to stay with the train, he notes, like some of the deductions he has made by this point in the story, was a mistake.

In Royce’s room, Ernie finds the paper that Royce pocketed in McTavish’s carriage and takes it to the smoking platform at the back of the train. It’s a partially burnt check for $25,000. Fulton steps onto the platform, and Ernie notices a bruise on her right arm. He mentions that he’s aware she and McTavish once had a sexual relationship, and she tenses and tells him that it was brief. Taking the burnt check out of his pocket, he accuses her of bribing McTavish for his blurb. She tells him that she doesn’t have that kind of money: “I didn’t kill him,” she blurts out, “but tomorrow you’re going to think I did” (201). She tells Ernie that she assumes he’s writing a book about McTavish’s death and that she wants him to replicate her words exactly as she has just spoken them. He asks what will happen tomorrow, but she deflects the question, saying that she was in McTavish’s room when Royce heard them talking but that she simply went to thank him for the blurb. Ernie asks if she hit McTavish, thinking of both the bloodied tissues and the bruise on her arm. She denies it. He lies and says that Majors characterized Fulton as a jilted lover, which has the intended effect of provoking a response: Fulton says that Majors simply has it in for her, despite knowing that Fulton was powerless to back her up about Off the Rails. She jokes that since everyone aboard the train has a motive, maybe everyone killed McTavish.

Ernie returns to his room. He’s disappointed when he receives a text from Andy, not Juliette. Andy has been unsuccessfully using ChatGPT to help him solve the botanist mystery. Ernie searches an online forum run by Morbund fans and finds a post by the Australian administrator, MongrelWrangler22, bemoaning the end of the series. Another comment by the same person claims that McTavish’s mysteries feel “like they are written just for [them] […] A bedtime story or a special treat” (207). The most recent post tells the other forum members not to worry about the series’ end and mentions Archie Bench. The date of the post makes Ernie sure that it was Brooke, posting before boarding the Ghan. Just before he loses service, he looks up Harriet’s long-ago review of Jasper’s work and sees that her criticism specifically compares him to a less talented McTavish.

At three o’clock in the morning, Ernie wakes to a pounding on his door. Royce is there with the other writers, Simone, and Harriet. Royce claims to have solved the case and is gathering an audience for a classic, golden-age mystery denouement. As Royce launches into a clichéd introductory speech, Brooke enters and sits down next to Fulton. Royce reviews everyone’s motives; the writers heckle him, but he plows ahead. When they start insinuating that he might be the killer, he gets flustered, insisting that they should follow the script for such encounters. Royce finally explains why he believes that Wyatt is the most likely killer; however, Ernie sees several flaws in Royce’s argument, and the others begin disputing the theory too. Just as Royce furiously reasserts that Wyatt is “definitely the killer” (217), Jasper enters and announces that Wyatt has been killed.