Who would believe her? Surely they would take his word over hers.
And of course, if he did something truly extreme, maybe shewouldn’t even be able to contradict him.
London shushed another soft growl from Sir Reggie.
She stood frozen with alarm, unable to think of anything to say.
To her relief, the guard seemed to have second thoughts aboutwhat he was doing.
He hesitated with his hand on the holster.
London’s mind raced. What could she do?
She managed to speak in a nearly normal tone of voice.
“I should get back to my errand,” she told him. “The captain willbe expecting me back at the ship. And Detektiv Erlich is there with him. They’rewaiting for me to find another passenger and come right back. I wouldn’t wantthem to send out anyone looking for me.”
“Yes, you should go on back,” the security guard said, lettinghis hand fall away from the holster. “Do your job and go back to your shipimmediately. And you must stay there. All of you Americans. Stay put aboarduntil you leave Bamberg.”
London was sure Oberhauser had no authority to give such acommand. Even Detektiv Erlich hadn’t ordered her or anyone else to stay aboardthe Nachtmusik and not come into Bamberg. But the last thing she wantedto do right now was to argue.
Even so, she wasn’t going to make any promises about stayingaboard the Nachtmusik.
“I’m sorry to have troubled you,” she said instead.
London turned away from the confrontation, and the security guardactually held up the tape for her as she ducked under it and climbed down fromthe stage.
When she walked by the front of the stage, she saw that the KatersMurr was indeed still there, begging the surrounding spectators to vote forhis beer. The crowd was still grabbing at fake money floating through the air.
As far as any of them knew, nothing at all had happened.
Hurrying away with her dog still in her arms, London didn’t lookback, but she thought she could feel Oberhauser’s eyes following her.
She felt a wave of discouragement. She’d come ashore with onesimple purpose, to find Audrey Bolton. She had circled the festival area beforegoing to look at the crime scene and hadn’t seen Audrey anywhere. She had onlypicked up some useless gossip and managed to annoy the security guard, who wasclearly suspicious of her. She really had no idea who to ask or where else tolook.
The Maximiliensplatz was getting more crowded now, andLondon realized that she wasn’t likely to run into Audrey even if she were heresomewhere.
She figured she’d make one more pass amid the revelers …
And then what?
If Audrey wasn’t anywhere near here, where might she be?
And how could London possibly hope to find her?
As she tried to consider her options, she was stopped by thesound of a familiar voice speaking loudly.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
“I am a detective …” the man was saying in deliberatelyover-simplified English. “That means, uh, I solve mysteries … Catch criminals …A man died here yesterday …”
The confused-looking German woman he was speaking to shrugged andsaid, “Entschuldigung, ich verstehe dich nicht.”
Although the woman had just told him, “Sorry, I don’t understandyou,” the man clearly wasn’t able to manage the translation.
He was nearly yelling, “Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Some members of the small crowd that had gathered around themlooked quite amused, but a few looked annoyed.
London sighed.
“I guess I’d better help with that,” she told Sir Reggie.
She headed toward Bob Turner, who was for some reason stilltrying to describe his qualifications to the uncomprehending woman.
Stanley Tedrow was standing beside Turner, holding his notebookin his hand. London was sure that the would-be mystery author was just as ineptwith the local language as Bob was.
What kind of notes could he be taking? she wondered.
Just as London reached them, the woman said, “Warum sprichstdu mit mir auf Englisch?”
When Bob just stared at her without replying, she shrugged andwalked away. The small group of people who had been standing around andlistening also dispersed.
“What did she say?” Mr. Tedrow asked Bob Turner.
“I couldn’t catch all of it,” Bob said, scratching his head. “Butshe says she doesn’t have any information.”
London couldn’t hide a giggle at Bob’s less-than-forthrightreply. Of course he didn’t know what the woman had really said. But London hadunderstood her final question perfectly.
“Why are you speaking to me in English?”
Bob gazed all around, as if looking for someone else to question.
London quickened her step toward him. The ship’s overconfidentsecurity man had obviously been wandering around for a while now, struggling tomake himself understood as he carried out his idea of an investigation. Sheknew that his German was limited to a few touristy words and phrases, so howcould he really hope to solve the mystery of Sigmund Forstmann’s death? Still,he seemed to be valiantly trying. And Bamberg was a very multilingual town, soit was even possible that he had run into some Germans who happened to speakEnglish and actually tried to answer his questions.
As London approached, Bob turned and spotted her.
He said to Mr. Tedrow, “Hey, Stanley! Look who’s joining us.”
“Hi, London,” Mr. Tedrow said, barely looking up at her. Heappeared completely absorbed by whatever he was scribbling in his notebook.
Bob said to London, “How’re you doing, missy?”
London cringed. She hated it when Bob called her “missy,” whichhe tended to do when he felt overconfident.
Then Bob scratched Sir Reggie under the chin.
“I’m sure glad you brought along Sir Reggie the wonder dog,” hesaid. “Stanley and I could use his help right now.”
He peered into Sir Reggie’s face and added, “So what do you say,pal? D’you feel riled and raring for the hunt? Yep, you’ve got that ferociouswild animal vibe about you, I can feel it. Practically frothing at the mouth,aren’t you? Come on, I could use a snout for crime like yours. Let’s go sniffourselves out a killer.”
Apparently not interested in Bob’s invitation, Sir Reggie nestledback down into London’s arms. Meanwhile, Mr. Tedrow kept right on takingnotes—although London couldn’t imagine why, at this particular moment.
London knew she’d better get right to the point.
“Bob, you’ve got to stop this,” she said.
“Stop what?”
“Whatever you’re doing. Running around
