My story

My name is Helena André and I going to tell you a story about a train trip. This was not a normal train trip, somebody got murdered one of the nights. 

It all started on a cold December morning, me and my husband jumped on the Taurus Express train that was going to take us home to England were we lived. I was only 19 when I married my husband Rudolf Andre but I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. Rudolf André works as a diplomat and has been in Istanbul at the Hungarian embassy. I enjoy traveling with him in his job. I married my husband a year ago and now we are on our way home to London where we both are living together. 

When we first jumped on to the train I got surprised, I didn’t know that there would be so many people on the train. I got a little bit scared because I didn’t feel comfortable around all this individuals. I think it is because Im coming from a upper class family. I’m a very shy person and I don’t say that much if I don’t have to. The conductor escorted us to our compartments. I slept in number four next to my husband in the compartment number five. When we walked by all the rooms I noticed that there was a post-it the door to compartment number two. The post-it said ’’DO NOT ENTER’’ with big letters. I felt that the message was weird and I wondered who lived there. Did the person who lived there have something to hide?

About 7 o'clock we went to the dining car. I was so hungry, I hadn't been eating anything since breakfast. We sat down next to Mr. Ratchet and he talked for a long time about how good his company in America was and the fact that he was on his way home to America. He told us that when he would come home he was going to buy a new car that he had always wanted all his life but couldn’t afford to it till now. Mr. Ratchet and his wife would travel the world in this car he told us. He got married two years ago with his love of his life. He seemed very happy. Mr. Ratchet told us that his brother Coluner Arthur also was on the train trip, but that he felt tired and decided to stay in his compartment, which was number two all day. It was the room that had the post-it which said ’’do not enter’’. Mr.Ratchet told us that he had had his door closed the whole time they've been on the train. Mr.Ratchet and his brother jumped on this train about tree days ago. I wondered why he had not wanted to go out for three days. Was he mad or something? 

After we had been talking for almost two hours, Mr.Ratchet told us that he ware very tired and that he had to go to bed. At this point there were just me and my husband at the table. We played some cards for a wile, until we got tired and decided to go to bed as well. While the conductor made up our beds I took a sleeping drought. I usually do this when I’m on train trips. It’s just because i’m not used to all the noised. Home in London it's still and quiet all the time. I gave my husband a goodnight-kiss and went to bed. 

Suddenly I looked up, the alarm clock showed 1.56 am. I wondered why I had woken up, maybe the sleeping drought wasn’t that strong? I needed to go to the toilet, so I put on my robe and my slippers and walked down the hallway. It was quiet and dark, but I could still see where I went because it was a few lights along the hallway. All the doors ware closed but the post-it on Coluner Arthur's door was still there. I went out from the toilet and realised that the lights were switched off in the hall now. I couldn’t see anything so I decided to walk faster towards my room. Suddenly I noticed that the room number two was open. I started to walk faster and faster, I still couldn’t see anything. When I finally made it to my door I could swear that I heard footsteps in the Hallway. I didn't give much thought to the steps tho, and went back to sleep again.

I woke up because I heard lots of noise in the hallway, people were talking to each other. 

I went out to hallway and was greeted by a large gathering of people who stood talking and some was crying. Mr. Swanson came up to me and told me what terrible thing had happened during the night. She told me that the conductor found Mr. Ratchet murdered this morning when he was going to clean his room. He had been stabbed with a knife and was found in his bed killed.  Mrs Hubbard's found the bloody knife in her beauty bag early this morning, she go so frightened that she passed out. Mr. Swanson said that on the dead body, there was a piece of paper with a note on it. 

It stood ’‘you were the only one that knew my secret, this was the only way...’’

I ran to compartment number two and slammed up the door. The window was opened and  Coluner Arthur was gone...