She began to read loudly from her cell phone, in exact unisonwith what Helmut was telling his audience.
“The secret, I believe, is for west to meet east, so tospeak—through a judicious use of spice combinations common to Chinese cooking …”
The crowd murmured with surprise, looking back and forth atLondon and Helmut as they continued to speak exactly the same words.
“The spices I speak of are, like anise, common to Chinese ‘fivespice’ …”
Helmut fell silent, staring at London in horror. But as Londonmounted the steps to the stage, she kept right on reading.
“… fennel, cinnamon, Szechuan peppercorns, and cloves.”
London was standing on the stage now, staring at Helmut with an accusingexpression.
“Would you like to continue?” she said to him. “Or would you likefor me to say the rest of it for you?”
Helmut’s face had gone white, and he seemed to be in a state ofshock.
London said to him, “Can you deny that your new beer is stolenfrom a hundred-year-old recipe created by the Leitner beer dynasty?”
Helmut silently turned and walked down the steps off the stage.
London called after him in a trembling voice.
“And can you deny that you yourself are the murderer of SigmundForstmann?”
The crowd gasped loudly.
Helmut staggered for a moment, then began to push his way intothe crowd.
The Lord Mayor leaped up from his chair and pointed to Helmut andyelled out.
“Police! Somebody! Stop him before he gets away!”
Helmut broke into a run, pushing people aside and even knockingsome of them down. London charged after him, weaving her way through thescattering crowd.
Yapping ferociously, Sir Reggie broke away from Bryce and plungedon ahead of her, his leash flapping behind him.
Up ahead, London saw the brassy gleam of an enormous musicalinstrument. It was the tuba player from the oompah band that had beenplaying in the square a little while ago. Helmut collided with the musician,sending him spinning around.
Barely able to skid to a halt in time, London managed not tocollide with the tuba player herself. But her momentary delay was costly. Sheno longer saw Helmut anywhere.
He must be out of the square by now, she realized.
How could she possibly find the man in Bamberg’s maze of narrow streets?But then she heard the unmistakable racket of Reggie’s barking somewhere upahead and realized that her little dog was still hot on Helmut’s trail.
Following the sound of barking, London kept running through thenarrow, crooked streets. She could tell that she was on the right track by thetrail of dazed pedestrians Helmut left in his wake. Dashing past fallennutcrackers, mice, fairies, and owls gave her the weird feeling that she wasrunning through some bizarre dream. She was glad to see the most of thecharacters were getting back to their feet, not badly harmed.
Finally, Reggie’s barking led London to the river, not far fromwhere the Nachtmusik was docked. London could see Helmut running alongthe riverfront walk as Reggie kept barking and snipping at his heels.
Obviously winded, Helmut was moving more slowly now, which cameas a relief to London. Her lungs were burning painfully from the chase.
Gasping for breath, she managed to call out to the man, “Helmut,why are you running? Do you really think you can get away?”
Helmut staggered to a halt at the river’s edge and turned towardLondon. Sir Reggie took up a post in front of the man, as if daring him tomove.
Helmut called back to her in a hoarse, panting voice thatexpressed a feeling of utter defeat.
“You’re right. It’s no use. The time has come for me to …”
But before he could finish his sentence, a gangly figure flewlike a blur out of a side street. The tall, gangly newcomer smashed right intohim, sending him hurtling off the sidewalk all the way into the river, where hefell with a mighty splash.
“Oh, dear!” Audrey Bolton exclaimed, looking down into the water.“I hope I didn’t hurt him!”
“So do I,” London said, as she trotted up to Audrey and SirReggie, then looked down at Helmut. Fortunately, a couple of police officershad already arrived and were dragging him out of the water. He appeared to belimp but fully conscious.
Audrey plopped down on a nearby bench, and London sat beside her.A bit winded himself, Sir Reggie jumped up between them.
“Where did you come from, anyway?” London asked Audrey.
Audrey looked at her with an irritated expression.
“Well, that’s a fine greeting,” she huffed. “I was only trying tohelp.”
London felt slightly amused to hear a bit of Audrey’s formercrankiness creep back into her voice.
“You did help … I guess,” London said.
Although the truth was, Helmut seemed to have given up his escapeat the very moment before the collision.
“I just want to know how you got here,” London asked again.
For a moment, Audrey got a faraway look in her eye, as if shedidn’t quite know the answer to that question.
Finally she said, “Oh, I remember. I was back there in theaudience watching the awards ceremony when … well, the thing happened.You know what I mean. That whole weirdness about the beer recipe.”
“Yes, I know.”
“I understood right away. Obviously, Herr Preiss was the realmurderer. And as soon as you gave chase, so did I. I stayed pretty close behindyou for a block or two. Then I saw a side street that I thought might make agood short cut and I ran that way and …”
Audrey shrugged.
“I guess I headed him off,” she said.
“I guess you did,” London said with a chuckle. “And thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
Meanwhile, a police van arrived, and Detektiv Erlichhimself got out. The officers who had pulled Helmut out of the river had alsoput him into restraints, and they now escorted him toward the vehicle.
“Well, London Rose,” Erlich said, crossing his arms. “You seem tostill be up to your old tricks.” He glanced at Audrey and asked, “How manyculprits are you ladies planning to bring to justice today?”
Sir Reggie let out a soft woof as if he didn’t want to beignored, but Audrey was being uncharacteristically silent.
“Uh, I don’t know,” London began.
“You don’t know?”
“I mean … I still don’t understand. We thought Willy Oberhauserwas guilty, and you even arrested him, and
