London decided she needed a fresh cup of coffee—and besides, inthe Habsburg Restaurant she might even find a moment to chat with ship’s chefand sometimes medic, Bryce Yeaton.
Just a brief friendly visit, she told herself.
She took the stairs down to the Adagio deck, but when she entered therestaurant, she saw no sign of Bryce. To her surprise, the room was quitecrowded, and the festival seemed to already be under way there inside the ship.
A middle-aged honeymooning couple,Gus and Honey Jarrett, were dancing a sort of ragged polka among the tableswhile other customers watched in amusement. The overweight Gus was wearingharness-style suede suspenders, a green felt Alpine hat stuffed with feathers,and leather lederhosen pants that exposed quite a lot of his broad,hairy legs.
His wife, Honey, was dressed in a dirndlwith a white puffy blouse, a low-cut bodice that made the most of herconsiderable bosom, and a colorful dress and apron that were way too short tobe considered traditional. She was wearing a feather-laden headband over herheavily dyed red hair.
Gus and Honey stopped dancing assoon as they caught sight of London.
“Hey, London!” Gus exclaimed. “Whyaren’t you in costume?”
“I—I don’t have one,” London said.“Where did the two of you get yours?”
“We brought ours with us,” Honeysaid with a snap of her chewing gum.
Gus added with a laugh, “Afterall, we knew we were going to be traveling in Bavaria. We figured sooner orlater we’d want to blend in with the locals. We didn’t realize we’d have achance to take part in a festival like this one. What luck things worked outhow they did, huh?”
London doubted very much that Gusand Honey would succeed in “blending in with the locals,” especially since shewas pretty sure neither one of them spoke any German.
The couple took up their polkaagain, whirling back toward their table where they sat down. London thoughtthey looked a little winded, but she was sure they would soon revive and have agood time joining the party that was going on outside.
London noticed that Emil wassitting alone at a table off to one side, sipping a cup of coffee. As sheheaded in his direction to discuss revising their plans for the day, herattention was caught by a gleam of morning sunlight reflecting off a pair ofmirror glasses. She saw that Bob Turner was sitting at a nearby table and thathe had two unusual companions there with him.
One was Sir Reggie, sitting on achair and listening intently to the ongoing conversation. She’d left the littleYorkshire Terrier sleeping when she’d left her room, but he’d obviously madeuse of his doggie door and come out looking for companionship.
And probably for treats, she thought.
The other chair was occupied by anelderly man with squinty eyes and a hawklike nose. It was Stanley Tedrow, anaspiring mystery writer who was so reclusive that he rarely came out of thisstateroom.
“I’m glad to see you out andaround,” London said to Mr. Tedrow as she approached them. “But maybe I shouldn’tbe surprised, since you’ve finished writing your novel.”
“Oh, that,” Mr. Tedrow said with adismissive wave. “I tossed it.”
“You what?” London said inastonishment, remembering how intently he’d been working on his book, which he’dbeen sure would be a bestseller.
“I trashed it. Threw it out. Irealized I got the whole thing wrong.”
London stared at him. When she’dseen Mr. Tedrow just the night before last, he’d been so excited aboutfinishing his novel that he’d told her the entire plot, spoilers and all.
Pointing at Bob, Mr. Tedrow saidto London, “Do you know this guy? He’s Bob Turner, the ship’s crack securityexpert. Did you know he solved a real-live murder mystery pretty muchsingle-handedly when we were back in Salzburg?”
London couldn’t help but smile.
“Yes, I heard something aboutthat,” she said.
She already knew that Bob had beentaking full credit for solving the mystery of the tour guide’s death. Now itappeared that he wasn’t even mentioning her much more considerable role indiscovering the killer. She reminded herself that Bob actually had rescued herwhen she’d almost gotten killed while confronting the man.
In his usual monotone, Bob said toLondon, “I’m giving him a few tips about the art and science of criminalinvestigation.”
Nodding toward Sir Reggie, Bobadded, “And my canine partner might learn a thing or two as well.”
“This guy is telling me all kindsof stuff I didn’t know,” Tedrow said to London. “That’s how I found out that mynovel was junk. I need to start the whole thing over from scratch. I can’t waitto get back to work.”
London tried not to laugh. Duringthe short time since she’d first met Bob, he hadn’t struck her as much of adetective in spite of his earlier years spent in criminal investigations. Butshe figured no harm was going to come from this budding relationship.
It might even be a good thing, she thought.
At least it meant that thenormally dour and solitary Mr. Tedrow was out of his room and enjoying himself.It also gave Bob something to occupy himself with other than prowling aroundand taking unnecessary notes and photographs of other people’s business, whichhe tended to do otherwise.
And of course, Sir Reggie seemedto be fascinated by the conversation as he sat there between the two men. SinceLondon didn’t plan on taking him out on today’s tour, it was good to know hehad something to keep him entertained.
“Enjoy the day,” she told them,then continued on her way toward Emil, who was staring moodily into his cup ofcoffee. She ordered coffee for herself from a passing waiter and then took theliberty of sitting down with the ship’s historian.
“Did you have any idea all thiswas going on?” London asked Emil.
“I should have,” Emil said with agrowl of dismay. “I have heard about this festival. I just had not thoughtabout the date. It was not on our schedule.”
“You don’t sound very happy aboutit,” London said.
“Are you?” Emil asked.
London didn’t know what to say.She hadn’t had a chance to consider the ramifications of this new development.
“Tell me about the festival,”London said. “The captain called
