Jakkelsen Is Murdered and Hidden in a Diving Equipment Case

Jakkelsen Is Murdered and Hidden in a Diving Equipment Case is a turning point aboard the ship: the narrator discovers Jakkelsen’s body concealed in a case among the diving equipment, then identifies Verlaine as the killer and explains the plan to dispose of the body at sea.

Discovery Among the Equipment

The discovery comes in a space crowded with the equipment of an expedition. Nearby are pressure gauges, wrist compasses, goggles, flippers, inflatable collars, wetsuits and dry suits, safety lines, and battery-powered lamps. Against the bulkhead stands a case resembling an oversized instrument case. Jakkelsen has been placed inside it, folded into a position the case can barely accommodate. The narrator recognizes him beneath her jacket.

The case has been made to pass as cargo, but its awkward dimensions and concealed contents transform it into evidence. Jakkelsen’s presence among the diving gear is not accidental: the equipment provides cover for moving his body aboard without drawing attention.

Evidence of Murder

The narrator checks the breast pocket where Jakkelsen had kept a syringe and finds it missing. Instead, a small metal triangle protrudes from his chest. Unable to turn him over in the case, she traces the metal behind his back and discovers a short, flat blade between his shoulder blades. Its placement reveals the method: it had been driven between two ribs and upward toward the heart, then its handle was removed while the blade remained. The concealed fragment accounts for the otherwise puzzling metal in his pocket and shows that the case hid not merely a body but the evidence of a carefully disguised killing.

The narrator estimates that Jakkelsen must have been killed only shortly before she reached him, perhaps while she was crossing the square. His body is still warm, and the murder’s recency changes the discovery from a search for what happened earlier into an immediate threat aboard the ship. She concludes that the killing took place on the Greenland Star, just as she arrived there.

Identification and the Disposal Plan

After examining the body, the narrator turns off the light and leaves the room with the mechanic. On the deck, he asks who killed Jakkelsen. She names Verlaine, identified as the bosun, and places the murder on the Greenland Star, just as she and the mechanic arrived. The identification is presented not as a witnessed act but as the narrator’s conclusion, which she must persuade the silent mechanic to accept.

She reconstructs the next steps as a practical concealment plan. Jakkelsen followed Verlaine onto the docks and was caught; the solution, she says, was to make room in the equipment cases, put him into one, load it aboard, and wait until the ship was clear of the platform before letting the body slip overboard. The story she offers connects the case’s presence among the diving gear to a planned removal at sea, rather than treating it as a hiding place intended to last.

The narrator and the mechanic climb steps welded to the external bulkhead and settle on a dark half-deck between a motorboat resting on wooden trestles and a large rubber raft. From there they can see the quarterdeck while remaining shielded from its light. She tells the mechanic that the ship is now far out at sea and that Jakkelsen’s continued presence aboard is a risk for those responsible. She expects them to come for the body within minutes; with no other way to dispose of it, they will have to bring it up on deck and throw it over the side. Their concealed position makes them witnesses waiting for the proposed plan to unfold, while the narrator’s account of the murder becomes an attempt to turn the mechanic’s silence into shared vigilance.

Narrative Consequences

The discovery changes the meaning of the equipment case from a place of concealment into a danger that may soon have to be confronted. The narrator tells the mechanic that the ship is far out at sea and that every moment Jakkelsen remains aboard increases the risk to those who arranged his concealment. She predicts that they will come for the body within minutes and, unable to remove it by another route, will carry it onto the deck and cast it overboard. The scene therefore turns on a precarious shift: the hidden killing has been uncovered, but the people responsible may still control what happens next.

To watch for that next move, the narrator and the mechanic climb steps welded to the outer bulkhead and settle on a dark half-deck between a motorboat resting on wooden trestles and a large rubber raft. The position gives them a view of the quarterdeck while keeping them shielded from its light. The mechanic has asked who killed Jakkelsen; the narrator’s answer and reconstruction of the disposal plan are not a witnessed confession or an independently confirmed account. She is trying to persuade him to believe her, turning his silence into a test of whether he will share the risk of watching. The body in its case thus becomes both evidence of a recent murder and the focus of an imminent attempt to erase it at sea.