“A phone call from whom?”
“The ship’s concierge. She told us it was time for us to startrounding up passengers.”
Erlich thumbed through his notes again, then looked at thecaptain.
“Audrey Bolton hasn’t responded to your call,” he said.
“No, sir. She has not,” the captain said.
Erlich tapped his pencil against his notepad again.
“Fräulein Rose, you told me yesterday that Herr Forstmannsplashed you and this other woman—Audrey Bolton is her name—with beer.”
“That’s right.”
He turned a few pages back in his notebook.
“I don’t believe you’ve been completely forthright with me,” he said.“I talked to some witnesses who say that you and Audrey Bolton had a secondaltercation with Herr Forstmann.”
London felt suddenly puzzled.
“Uh, I don’t think so,” she said.
“Are you quite sure?”
London thought for a moment, then realized something.
“Actually, I happened to encounter Audrey after she’d run intoHerr Forstmann again. I only saw him walking away from her and I didn’t speakwith him. She didn’t tell me what had happened, but she said everything wasfine. Whatever had happened between them was apparently over with.”
The detective shook his head critically.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this second encounter when we spokeyesterday?”
London was startled and a little angry.
“Well, it didn’t occur to me to mention it, and frankly …”
“Well?”
“You didn’t ask.”
London was a little shocked by her own sharp tone of voice. Shehadn’t meant to be rude. She just thought there was something truly unfairabout the question. But judging by Erlich’sfrown, he didn’t like her tone.
Even so, she didn’t feel likeapologizing.
Finally Erlich said, “I mentionedyesterday that I would want to talk to this Audrey Bolton.”
London’s stomach sank as sheremembered knocking on Audrey’s door a little while ago and getting no reply.Apparently Audrey hadn’t even responded to the captain’s announcementrequesting her to come to his stateroom.
None of that boded well.
“I’ll try to reach her,” Londonsaid.
She found Audrey’s number on hercell phone and made the call. After a couple of rings, she heard a familiarcheerless voice.
“Hello. You know who you’vereached. And you know what to do when you hear the tone.”
After the beep, London steppedaside and said in a low voice, “Audrey, you need to call me. I told youyesterday a detective wants to talk to you today. He’s here in the captain’sstateroom right now. You’ve got to get back to me right away.”
She ended the call and looked atthe detective.
“You couldn’t reach her, I takeit,” Erlich said.
“I left a message,” London said.
“I’m afraid we need to do betterthan that,” Erlich said. “Take me to her room.”
London stifled a groan of despair.
“I knocked on her door thismorning,” London said. “No one answered.”
“We will try again,” Erlich saidfirmly.
London, Captain Hays, Detektiv Erlich,and Sir Reggie walked up a flight of stairs to the Adagio deck, andLondon knocked on Audrey’s door again.
“Audrey, it’s London,” she calledout. “The police detective is here with me. If you’re there, please come to thedoor.”
The group waited for a moment fora reply.
“Audrey, it’s important,” Londonsaid.
There was still no reply.
“I like this less and less,” DetektivErlich said in a tone of ironic understatement.
London felt the same way, althoughshe didn’t say so.
Where is that woman? she wondered.
“I’m sure she’ll turn up soon,”Captain Hays said.
“I wish I shared your naïve faithin human nature,” Erlich said, stroking his well-kept beard. “In my experience,people seldom avoid talking to the police unless they are guilty of something.And in this case, we’re talking about something very dire.”
Detektiv Erlich stood staring atthe door silently for a moment.
“I want you to open the door,” hefinally said to London and the captain.
The captain snapped, “You’ve gotno business invading my passengers’ privacy.”
“My business is to solve a murder,”Erlich said dryly. “I have no intention of conducting a thorough search thewoman’s room. I only want to know whether she is in there or not. I don’t thinkthat’s too much to ask. Of course, if you want me to go through legal channels,this whole thing could become much more difficult than necessary. And a lotless pleasant.”
As London looked at the captain,he nodded his head in reluctant approval.
London took out her master keycardand opened the door.
The window curtains were open, and morning sunlight pouredinside. The room was neat and clean, and the bathroom door was open. As Londonand the others went inside, they could easily see that no one was here. Evenso, the detective checked the closet and glanced under the bed.
Detektiv Erlich’s lips twisted into a smirk.
“Well, it appears that our suspect has—what is the Americanidiom?—‘given us the slip.’”
“I wouldn’t jump to conclusions, Detektiv,” the captain saidsternly.
“What other conclusions are there to come to?” Erlich asked.
London wondered that herself. But she figured there was one wayto find out. She went to the still-open closet, which was visibly full ofAudrey’s clothes and shoes.
Pointing out a couple of empty suitcases, London said, “Wherevershe went, it doesn’t look like she plans to go very far or for very long.”
“Indeed, it does not,” the captain said with a snort ofsatisfaction.
Detektiv Erlich frowned again.
“I want you to give me a full description of the woman,” he saidto London and the captain. “I’ll order a team to search for her. If she isanywhere in Bamberg, we’ll find her.”
The captain scoffed indignantly.
“See here, now you’re just being melodramatic. What do you planto do, set up some kind of police dragnet?”
“Do you have another suggestion?” Erlich said.
“Not at all, if you don’t mind this turning into a nastyinternational incident. Which I assure you is what will happen if you pushthings too far. Regarding your murder case, I’ve come up with one or twotheories of my own. Would you care to hear them?”
The detective nodded.
In a knowing tone, Captain Hays said, “From what you’ve told mealready, Herr Forstmann was almost universally disliked here in Bamberg. Whichmeans that just about everybody in your lovely town is a viable suspect. That’srather inconvenient for you, isn’t it? Especially since Herr Forstmann was aprominent personage from Munich.”
Captain Hays’s manner grew more daunting as he continued.
“I imagine you’re under rather a lot of political pressure, aren’tyou? You’d like this whole case to just go away without a lot of fuss—andcertainly without accusing anyone locally. That
