Grantville Gazette 37

'Where did we go wrong?' Meinhard asked.

'I don't know,' Georg muttered.

They kept staring at the blood stain. At length, Georg observed, 'It's not just dried. It's clotted.'

'Well, yes,' Meinhard agreed. 'Blood clots.'

'The larger bloodstain isn't clotted like this.' Georg sounded excited. 'It's not older. This one is two different blood types!'

'What?'

'The first man and the second man were both wounded at the edge of the street. This is blood from both of them. It clotted because they're different blood types,' Georg pointed. 'See the arterial spray there? It's not clotted because it's from only one of them.'

'Two men were injured here?'

'Since they were both hurt and left walking side by side, I don't think they could have carried a body,' Georg said slowly. 'One of them is bleeding badly. He's needs help, and soon.'

Meinhard slapped his forehead. 'That's why they went back into the alley. The clinic is this way.'

Dr. Zapf spoke up. 'The university medical faculty is the other way.'

Meinhard shook his head. 'We've been seeing more and more sick and injured people being taken to the clinic. It's just a couple of nurses. They're not really doctors. But a lot of people don't care.

'Jost, we're going to follow the blood trail. Go back and tell everyone else that if they come, they have to stay back and they have to use a different alley. Georg, let's go find these two men.'

They followed the blood drops to the other end of the alley and out onto the next street.

'It's getting hard to see,' Georg noted.

Meinhard grunted. 'Less blood, too.'

Halfway down the block they lost the trail.

'I don't see any more blood,' Georg said.

'Me, either.' Meinhard turned around. 'Form a line.'

He put Schwarz, Huber, Neustatter, Johann Gerhard, Niclas Zapf, and Jost in a line across the street, and they started slowly moving forward.

'Blood!' Dr. Gerhard called.

Several yards farther along Schwarz found another drop. After another twenty yards, they heard a hubbub as the crowd caught up to them.

Meinhard made a decision. 'Jost, let's just check the clinic. If they're not there, we can come back with lanterns and look for the blood trail.'

They were almost to the base when they met Watchman Heinkel coming the other way with three up-timers in tow, two men and a woman. The younger man was wearing USE feldgrau. That probably made him Eric Hudson, although Astrid didn't recognize any of them.

Katharina did, though. 'Guten abend, Gena,' she called.

'Kat Meisnerin? Georg? Horst? What are you all doing here?'

'The Bibelgesellschaft came to Erfurt to meet with the university theology faculty. But people think that Herr Neustatter and his security service have killed someone.'

Gena gave an unladylike snort. 'That's ridiculous.'

'Gena. Sergeant Hudson. Herr Kroll,' Neustatter greeted them.

'What's this about, officer?' Gordon Kroll asked.

Meinhard gave him the short version.

'Wait, wait, wait,' Sergeant Hudson drawled. 'You think Neustatter and one of his men would attack someone in an alley? And then hide the body? Seriously?' He laughed.

'Why is this funny?' Watchman Jost asked.

Eric Hudson jerked a thumb at Neustatter. 'The idea of John Wayne here using a partner to ambush a guy.'

'But . . . why is it funny?' the watchman pressed.

'C'mon. Neustatter goes to the movies to watch John Wayne, Harrison Ford, and Arnold Schwarzenagger. He wouldn't knife someone in an alley. He prefers a straight-up fight to all that sneaking around.'

Neustatter grinned.

'Plus, since you came and got us,' Hudson continued, 'you already know that Gena's been teaching him martial arts. Now if you had someone who'd been blown away on Main Street or had a broken neck, Neustatter'd be a suspect. But a stabbing? Uh-uh.'

'That's . . . an interesting insight,' Meinhard acknowledged. He glanced at Georg.

Georg shrugged. 'Don't look at me. That's not forensics. I think they call that profiling.'

'Let's go check the clinic before it gets completely dark,' Meinhard directed.

****

Lorrie Gorrell was finishing up with a couple sick kids while Maurine Kroll tried to keep the day's paperwork somewhat current. Someone banged on the door of the clinic. Maurine pushed back from the shelf pegged to the wall that served as a desk. Being on paperwork made her the receptionist, too. She opened the door to find her husband, daughter, and, well, probably not half of Erfurt standing there, but it seemed like it.

A quick glance didn't reveal anyone obviously in need of medical care. 'What's going on, Gordon?' she asked. 'Can I help you?'

'We hope so,' said a man wearing the armband of the city watch. 'There is a lot of blood in an alley near the university. We believe there were two men injured, and the blood trail led in this general direction. One of them would have been bleeding badly.'

'Lorrie!'

The door to the examination room opened. Lorrie Gorrell ushered a woman and her two boys out. She was carrying the younger, who looked about six. The older was probably nine or ten.

'Keep giving them purified water and an aspirin morning, noon, and night,' she directed, then asked, 'What's going on, Maurine?'

'They're looking for a couple injured men, one bleeding heavily,' Maureen told her. 'They must mean Griesser and Unsinn.'

Lorrie nodded. 'Hans Griesser and Gerhard Unsinn came in this afternoon. Griesser had a deep laceration to his right arm, and Unsinn had a broken nose. I stitched up Griesser and did what I could for Unsinn's nose.'

'Did they say what happened?' Meinhard asked.

To his surprise, Watchman Jost laughed softly. 'I can guess. I know Unsinn, by reputation at least. He is a klutz.'

'Yes,' Lorrie confirmed. 'Hurrying to bring a knife to his master.'

Meinhard nodded. 'I can see it. Not quite running, but moving fast. He slipped in the blood and stumbled forward just as . . . Griesser, you say? . . . came around the corner.' He paused. 'Where are they now?'

'They both lost a lot of blood,' Lorrie said. 'This isn't Leahy or Magdeburg Memorial. We don't give transfusions unless it's really life or death. I can't even give Sergeant Nagel's kids as much aspirin as I'd like to. I stitched them up and sent them to a tavern. At least they'll get some fluids back in their systems that way.'

Maurine took a deep breath. 'And I gave them some marijuana for the pain.'

Gordon Kroll blinked a couple times. 'You prescribed beer and pot?' he asked his wife.

'Yes. I told them to come back tomorrow. If they need it, we'll give them a pint of O negative and some chloram.'

Kroll winced. 'Let me talk to Dennis Stull and some others. We've got to see about getting you more medical supplies, especially if you're becoming the walk-in clinic for the city.'

'Thanks, honey.'

Meinhard cleared his throat. 'Any idea which tavern they went to?'

'Probably The End of the Woad. It's closest.'

'Thank you.'

Maurine exchanged glances with Lorrie.

'Go with them,' Lorrie said. 'I'll close up here.'

****