I knew that he was right. We had considerably more than when we set out that morning. We now had information on both Szábo and Bruhl, as well as someone who might be able to provide additional information.
I shook my head. There was another worry.
“Wot is it?”
“Except for that first case that involved Linnie, I have always tried to keep my family out of what we do.”
“Her ladyship?”
I nodded. “She is, after all, eighty-six years old.”
He looked at me and I could have sworn there was amusement in that dark gaze.
“And ye thought to protect her.”
“It was a simple request to contact Lucy Penworth, nothing more, and now she’s involved in this...What are you looking at?”
“Lady Antonia Montgomery,” he replied. “And ye forget I have had some experience working with her in the past. She does exactly as she pleases…”
I understood his meaning quite well.
“Ye are exactly alike.”
It was just like him to get the last word in.
We returned to our hotel. I had the clothes I had worn the day before out to be cleaned, and had hand-washed my shirtwaist and what was left of my slip, then hung them to dry on hooks.
Having traveled in some uncertain areas on my adventures had prepared me to take care of many things myself. I had also hand-laundered Brodie’s shirt from the day before.
As yesterday, Brodie had placed a piece of paper in at the door against any unwanted visitors. It was still there when we returned.
Whoever that little man was who had attacked Alex, it did not seem that he had followed us back to our hotel.
With the information I had from Templeton, that Angeline traveled in the company of a small man, it seemed possible that, whoever he was, he might very well have taken himself off to Frankfurt.
What was he to her? Bodyguard? Lover? Fellow thief? And now murderer?
It was possible, given the weapon he had used against Alex, that he might very well have murdered Sir Collingwood. But for what reason?
As part of the scheme to obtain those highly secret drawings of the air ship as Sir Avery had learned? And then eliminate anyone along the way who might be able to identify them?
“I know that frown,” Brodie commented as he returned from a walk about the street where the hotel was located, and a conversation with the manager for a substantial amount of compensation. He had been gone an extremely long time.
However, that gave me the opportunity to make the latest notes, and I had then destroyed both telegrams, the paper smoldering in the ash dish on the table before the hearth in the sitting room. No need to leave them lying about for someone else to read.
I went back over everything we’d learned, including that information that Alex had brought with him, along with the information Munro had learned from Schmidt. His brother-in-law worked in one of the outer districts of Frankfurt. It was a city he knew well. There had also been the name of an inn. Cober Haus Inn, very near Kaiserstrasse in the main part of the city.
“Based on the information Munro brought from Herr Schmidt, it would seem that his brother-in-law might be quite motivated to assist us.”
“Aye.”
“And with the name we now have from Sir Laughton, we have someone else we can contact.” I thought of the attorney in Frankfurt
“Perhaps.”
I heard the hesitation in his voice. “You are doubtful.”
“We will see. We will call on the man. It could be useful. While he may be an associate by profession, it would be good to remember that he may very well have interests of his own that lie elsewhere. We are foreigners, asking his assistance. We need to be careful.”
