Something was floating there.
She couldn’t quite see what it was.
Suddenly there was a blast of trumpets, and London was engulfedin blazing light.
The stage curtain opened, the oompah band struck up ajaunty tune, and the audience went wild.
She shielded her eyes and looked out into the square.
Sure enough, a man wearing a big cat’s costume was being led tothe stage, accompanied by blaring music and confetti.
“Who is that?” someone yelled in German.
“Get out of there, lady,” another voice complained.
London realized they were talking about her. She wanted toscramble down and get out of sight in a hurry, but she turned and looked againinto the barrel.
In the blazing light, she could now see what was inside the hugevat.
Someone was floating face-down in the beer.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The shock was stunning when London plunged into the vat. Suddenlyshe was over her head in chilly, smelly beer.
Paying no heed to the voices from the crowd, she had dropped SirReggie and her shoulder bag onto the platform and leaned out over the vat. Shehad tried to get hold of the floating figure, apparently a man, from theplatform. But she couldn’t reach him. So she’d kicked off her shoes and gone infeet first after him.
With a strong kick, London bobbed back to the surface, gaspingand coughing from swallowing some of the cheap lager. Her eyes and nostrilsstung from the pungent carbonated liquid. Paddling furiously to stay afloat,she saw that now the man was within reach.
London took hold of his arm and struggled to turn him overwithout sinking again herself.
It wasn’t working.
Then she heard sounds from above. A familiar voice was callingher name, accompanied by the yapping of her little dog.
She glanced upward, and was flooded with relief to see Bryce’sface looking over the top edge of the beer vat. He must have been nearby andseen her plunge inside.
Sir Reggie was also peering into the vat, but Bryce pushed himback with a sharp command to “Stay.”
Then Bryce yelled, “I’m coming, London,” and scrambled down theladder attached to the inside of the vat.
He held out a hand toward London.
She grabbed the floating man with one hand and Bryce’s hand withthe other. Together they maneuvered the man closer to the ladder and got himturned face up.
London gasped when she saw that face.
How very strange, she thought.
It was the very same rude, mustachioed man who had thrown beer onAudrey and on her. He had somehow lost his monocle down on the stage and woundup here, floating in the very same kind of liquid he had been so rudely slingingabout.
His eyes were squeezed shut, and his mouth gaped open.
Bryce got his shoulder under one of the man’s arms and began todrag him up the ladder. London grasped the ladder and pushed from below. Asthey struggled, two townspeople arrived to help, leaning down beside Bryce andhelping to lift the limp man.
Working together, they all got him up onto the platform and thendown the steps to the stage.
As London watched, Bryce checked for breath and pulse, then shookhis head and immediately started on chest compressions.
People were now crowding around them on the stage. London pushedthem back.
“Gib uns Platz!” she kept saying—“Give us room!”
The two local helpers pushed the stunned spectators back, andthey all formed a circle around them.
“I’m afraid he’s gone,” Bryce said breathlessly as he continuedthe CPR.
In a matter of seconds, London heard the sound of a siren.
An ambulance, she realized with relief.
Someone in the crowd must have called the official emergencynumber the moment they realized what was happening.
The crowd parted, and three paramedics with a gurney came rushingonto the stage.
“Are you a doctor?” one asked Bryce.
“Just a ship’s medic,” Bryce replied. He got out of their way asthe professional paramedic team tore the man’s clothing loose from his chest,efficiently dried his skin, and applied defibrillator pads.
But even their efforts didn’t revive him.
“It’s no use,” the head paramedic said. “He’s dead.”
*
Soon a group of police officers was pushing the crowd farther backand setting up a perimeter of red and white police tape printed with the wordPOLIZEIABSPERUNG—”police cordon.” Meanwhile, the paramedics put the body on thegurney, covered it up, lowered it off the stage, and wheeled it to the waitingambulance.
Overwhelmed with the sensation that she was stuck in what seemedto be a recurring nightmare, London sat down right there on the edge of thestage.
How could this be happening—again?
She had discovered bodies at two earlier stops on the Nachtmusik’sEuropean tour, and both of those had been the result of foul play.
At least, she thought, this one must have been anaccident.
Obviously aware of her concern, Bryce sat down beside her andpatted her hand.
“I’d just come within sight of the stage when the curtain openedup,” he said. “Imagine my shock when I saw you up there!”
“Thanks for coming to help me,” London said.
“What else was I to do?”
Sir Reggie came up on her other side, wriggling anxiously, butthe little dog just sniffed them both and decided not to climb into her wetlap.
Then a uniformed policeman approached them.
“Are you the people who found the body?” he asked in German.
London nodded and said, “I found the … the man in the beer vat.Bryce came to help me get him out.”
“Kindly wait here for Detektiv Erlich,”the policeman said, then walked away.
A paramedic brought London and Bryce blankets to wrap aroundthemselves, but London’s blanket didn’t make her feel any better. She was stillsoaked to the skin and shivering and reeking with beer.
She looked out into the crowd on the other side of the policetape. Among the many gawkers she saw several familiar faces, including Letitia,Cyrus, and Gus and Honey.
What must they be thinking? she wondered. And what willhappen now?
“So much for getting everybody back to the ship on time,” shesaid to Bryce. “I’d better call the captain.”
She tapped Captain Hays’s contact number and quickly heard hisjovial voice.
“Well, hello there, London Rose. Jolly good festival, wasn’t it?I certainly thought so. I do hope you’re calling to tell me you’ve goteverybody herded up and ready to head back here. We don’t have much time tospare.”
London replied sadly, “Captain, I … I’m afraid we
