“Your Leberkässemmel and lager, fräulein?”
London turned and saw Elsie’s smiling face. London’s friend hadarrived with a tray carrying her sandwich and a glass of beer.
“Thanks,” London said. “Care to sit down for a moment? I seem tobe alone all of a sudden.”
“So I noticed,” Elsie said, putting London’s meal in front of herand then sitting down where Amy had been sitting. “Things didn’t go well withthe River Troll, I take it.”
“Things went … very oddly,” London said. She took a sip of thedelicious lager, then looked at Elsie intently.
“Elsie, do I strike you as … well, hopelessly unobservant?”
Elsie laughed with surprise.
“Unobservant? Quite the opposite, I’d say. I doubt that you couldhave solved two murder cases if you’d been unobservant. Is that what Amy toldyou?”
“Amy didn’t tell me much of anything.”
London hesitated, then said, “Elsie, tell me the truth. Are therethings going on aboard the Nachtmusik that everybody knows about exceptme?”
“I … don’t think so,” Elsie said.
“You’d tell me about something like that, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course I would,” Elsie said. “Don’t get paranoid on me, OK?And don’t let whatever Amy said get to you. Enjoy your Leberkässemmel. I’vegot to get back to my customers.”
Elsie got up and headed back to the bar.
London turned her attention to her meal—a simple sandwich servedon a halved, hard wheat roll of semmel—“smallbread.”
She mentally teased out themeaning of the German word Leberkäse to be “liver cheese.” London couldsee the thick slice between the buns looked something like ordinary meatloaf.
London took a bite. The meat wasmore finely ground than American-style meatloaf, but its crunchy brown crustaround its edge was similar. London’s happy taste buds didn’t detect eitherliver or cheese, but she hardly missed them. Instead she relished a mixture ofground pork, bacon, and corned beef, all pleasantly flavored with coriander,marjoram, thyme, and other seasonings.
Real German comfort food, she thought.
And exactly what she needed aftera long, hard day that hadn’t ended especially well. She finished her sandwichexcept for a morsel of meat, which she wrapped in a napkin.
By then Letitia was wrapping upher performance with a delightful rendition of another Cole Porter tune, “You’rethe Top.” London waved goodnight to Elsie, then left the lounge. Feeling a bittoo tired for the stairs, London took the elevator down to the Allegro deck. When she opened the door to herstateroom and switched on the light, she was glad to see Sir Reggie lying fastasleep on the bed. If he’d been out at all tonight, he’d made use of his doggiedoor to return and make himself comfortable.
“Wake up, sleepyhead,” she said,holding out the piece of Leberkäse. “I’ve got a treat for you.”
Sir Reggie suddenly leapt to attention. London tossed a bit ofthe treat into the air, and Sir Reggie deftly caught it and ate it. Londoncrouched down beside the dog and helped him to the rest of the treat.
“So how was your evening, buddy?” London asked.
Sir Reggie let out a yap that seemed to indicate he’d been havinga good time. Of course London had no idea where he’d been or what he’d been upto.
Just something else I don’t know, I guess, London thought.
London took a good hot shower and climbed into bed. As he alwaysdid, Reggie crawled under the covers and snuggled up beside her. London feltmore and more relaxed as she lay there petting him. Still, she couldn’t shakeoff a nagging annoyance at the way Amy had behaved tonight and that questionshe’d kept asking.
“You don’t know, do you?”
Amy had seemed awfully gleeful about something she was keepingsecret from London. Or was Amy keeping a secret at all? Had she just found anew way to push London’s buttons?
Don’t let it get to you, she told herself.
That’s exactly what she wants.
Soon London heard the comforting rumble of Sir Reggie’s softsnoring. And yet she still couldn’t quite get to sleep. Finally, she realizedwhat was on her mind.
Mom.
London’s mother had left her father and sister and her back whenshe was fourteen. She’d said she was going on a trip to Europe, but shedisappeared without a trace. Whatever had happened to Mom had been a familymystery for years. But the day before yesterday, back in Salzburg, somethinghad changed.
A woman named Selma had said she’d gotten to know Mom while she’dbeen living in Salzburg, working as a language tutor. According to Selma, whenMom left she’d said she was on her way to Germany. The woman hadn’t heard fromher since.
And now I’m in Germany, London realized.
Not that it really made any difference. London had no idea wherein Germany Mom might be—or if she was still in Germany at all. She might beanywhere in the world as far as London knew.
She remembered what Selma had said when London asked if Mom hadever talked about her family.
“Whenever she tried to talkabout you, she’d look like she was about to cry.”
So why had Mom left in the first place—and why hadn’t she comeback, or at least told somebody where she’d gone and why?
It was late now, and London reminded herself that she needed hersleep. The Nachtmusik would arrive in Regensburg early tomorrow, and sheand Emil would be leading a tour for the passengers.
She had to wonder, were she and the historian even still friends?
How would he behave when they were working together tomorrow?
CHAPTER FIVE
“It’s been said that the devil himself has snatched certain soulsfrom this very bridge,” the ship’s historian declared.
London joined in the general gasp of surprise. She and Emil werebeginning their tour with twenty passengers from the Nachtmusik, and hiswords were quite startling on such a pleasant morning in this charming city.She looked over the faces in the group, some more familiar than others. Walterand Agnes Shick, a kindly elderly couple, were among them, as well as the lessfriendly Audrey Bolton. They were all about to step onto a wide stone structurebuilt across the Danube River.
London herself didn’t happen to know anything about the devil andthis ancient bridge.
“And so, ladies and gentlemen,” Emil continued, “you might wantto exercise some caution before