The customer may not always be right, but the customer isalways the customer.
London smiled her brightest smile.
“I’d be glad to,” London said. “Which would you like?”
Audrey Bolton’s eyes narrowed grimly over her tilted-downsunglasses.
“Why, The New Yorker, of course,” she said, sounding as ifLondon ought to have already known that.
“Right away,” London said. She walked over to the rack and tookout a copy of The New Yorker, then walked back and handed it to thewoman.
Audrey scowled at the magazine and held it back out toward London.
“This issue is quite out of date,” she said.
London looked at the date on the cover. This was obviously themost recent issue of the weekly magazine they would have on board. For amoment, she didn’t know what to say.
Just take a deep breath, she told herself.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you,” London said. “We’ll pick up thelatest issue at the very next opportunity.”
At least I’m being truthful about it, she thought. Sheknew the staff would pick up publications and other paper mail when they werein port.
“Well, that won’t do,” Audrey growled. “That won’t do at all.”
Then the woman stared off into space as if deep in thought.London wondered whether she should just apologize again and try to excuseherself and leave.
Finally Audrey Bolton said, “Bring me the latest issue of Cosmopolitan.”
Feeling a little worried now, London walked back over to the rackand took out the latest issue of the monthly magazine. She glanced at the coverand saw that this one was definitely not out of date.
She handed this magazine to Audrey, who frowned at the cover.
“These articles look boring,” she said.
London had to swallow back a laugh. Was she really being heldresponsible for the editorial content of the magazines in the rack?
“I’m sorry,” she said again, as seriously as she could manage. “Wouldyou like me to look for something more … to your liking?”
“No, you’d never get it right.”
Glancing at her wristwatch, the crotchety woman added, “Anyway, Ihaven’t got time for that sort of thing.”
Haven’t got time? London wondered.
She asked cautiously, “Do you have somewhere you need to be?”
Audrey smiled condescendingly.
“Regensburg would be nice, wouldn’t it?” she said.
London squinted curiously.
“I’m not sure I understand,” London said.
“Well, Regensburg is where we ought to be today, isn’t it?”Audrey said. “If we weren’t so desperately behind schedule, I mean. Instead, we’rejust now sailing past Passau, which we should have done yesterday.”
London winced again. Hardly any passengers had complainedoutright about the recent delays in the boat’s itinerary. Clearly, AudreyBolton was going to be an exception.
London said, “Ms. Bolton, on behalf of the staff and crew of the Nachtmusik,and also on behalf of Epoch World Cruise Lines, I apologize for our delays. Dueto circumstances beyond our control—”
“You mean people getting murdered left and right?” Audreyinterrupted.
CHAPTER TWO
London breathed slowly, trying not to get agitated. This womanwas definitely testing the limits of her professional poise.
The Nachtmusik’s passengers weren’t getting murdered “leftand right.” One passenger, the elderly and ill Mrs. Klimowski, had been killedin a cathedral back in Gyor, Hungary. Her death had hardly been a case ofcold-blooded murder, just an attempted robbery gone horribly wrong. Still, ithad resulted in a full day’s delay in Gyor until the killer had beenapprehended, mostly through London’s own investigative efforts.
Then of course there had been that incident in Salzburg, Austria,when the Nachtmusik had been delayed again over the suspicious death ofa local tour guide. It was true that London had come all too close to gettingkilled herself while solving that mystery. But nobody aboard the Nachtmusik hadbeen at fault.
London was sure that it would be useless trying to explain allthat to Audrey Bolton.
“Our trip has been disrupted by a couple of unfortunatetragedies,” London said.
“That’s one way of putting it,” Audrey replied.
“We’ve done what we can to make upfor lost time,” London continued. “For example, we spent only one day inVienna—”
“A very poor decision,” Audreysaid, interrupting again. “Vienna has to be savored to be enjoyed. I for onefelt terribly cheated. Surely there were—and are—better ways to make up losttime.”
Like what? London almost blurted.
But she didn’t dare ask thequestion. Besides, she knew that Audrey was going to answer it anyway.
Audrey steepled her fingerstogether and looked thoughtfully over the Danube.
“For example,” she said, “why didn’twe skip Salzburg altogether? We would have avoided getting mixed up in thathorrible mess there.”
Skip Salzburg? London thought with disbelief. Mozart’s hometown?
It would have been unthinkable, ofcourse. For most of the passengers, that visit had been richly rewarding. Thedelay had just presented them with more opportunities to enjoyeverything—ranging from music and history to the wonderful foods of that city.And anyway, there had been no way to foresee the trouble they were going to runinto there.
Still glaring up at London, Audreyshrugged.
“Well, it’s not too late to try toget things back on track,” she said. “Why don’t we just do Regensburg asplanned tomorrow and skip Bamberg the following day? It sounds to me like aperfectly boring place. That will save us another whole day. Then we can arrivein Amsterdam right on schedule.”
Skip Bamberg? London thought.
Was it really feasible to pass by one of Germany’s most beautiful towns, with a medievalcenter that was a UNESCO World Heritage Site?
Not that the choice was up toLondon, anyway. Bamberg had been scheduled by Epoch World Cruise Lines, and thenecessary adjustments to the timing of their visit had already been made.
And that choice certainly wasn’tup to this woman either.
But Audrey made an authoritativenod.
“Yes, we should skip Bamberg. We mustskip Bamberg. I insist upon it. Be sure to tell the captain.”
London’s mind boggled at thethought of suggesting to the sturdy and good-hearted Captain Hays they had tocancel their stop in Bamberg, solely on the whim of a single grumpy passenger.He’d surely scoff at the very idea.
Right now, though, London foundnothing amusing about it. She had to wonder what Audrey Bolton did in everyday life that gave her such an assumptionof authority.
“You will tell the captain,won’t you?” Audrey demanded.
London stammered, “I—I’ll be sureto convey your opinion to him.”
Audrey frowned again. Apparentlyshe’d wanted London to make more
