Johnnie (17 page)

“I know. It did seem like a good idea when Furry first told me of it. Before someone tried to kill Rudolph.”

“You know,” Ruprecht smiled winningly, “I can think of a lot of persons who would like to kill Rudolph for any number of reasons. But there isn’t a one of them in this house. That’s what I don’t get. On the face of it, everyone here should want Rudolph to be king. It’s the only way for Magda to get in the ranks. If Furry was losing money on such a deal, he might do it, but in the long run he isn’t. Or if Otto were going to get kicked out on his pratt, but Rudo wouldn’t dare.”

“That’s the way I figure,” Johnnie interrupted. They still weren’t paying any attention to him. Ruprecht was tugging her curly yellow hair and she was rubbing his knee.

“Someone doesn’t,” Trudy said. “And that’s why I don’t think we ought to let him leave. If he isn’t even safe here with his friends, he certainly won’t be in Europe.”

“What’ll we do with him?” Rupe brightened. “Maybe Edna would like to hide him.”

“Who’s Edna?”

“Madame La Riggens. My Conga teacher.”

“She stinks.”

“But sweetly. What do you think we ought to do with him?”

“We could turn him over to the state department.”

Ruprecht scowled. “I don’t think he’d want to be interned.”

Trudy shook her head. “He’d love it, Rupe. The best food and wine. Nothing to do but play cards and gossip in a beautiful hotel. I think it’s a perfect solution.”

Ruprecht bit her cheek absently. “Maybe you’re right. But come the revolution, who gets to be king?” He kissed her just as absently. Johnnie made a face. If a guy was going to kiss a honey like Trudy, he ought to have his mind on his work.

“That’s just it,” she said briskly. “I don’t think there’s going to be any revolution. Not until after the war. I think Dorp’s lying about Rudamia turning on Hitler. They wouldn’t have the nerve. I think that’s all a part of the gag to get rid of Rudolph. But if it should be true—” She took his hand, patted it. Her voice was sugary. “Why not let Kraken be president?”

“What!”

“Why not, Rupe?”

“What about me?”

She stuck out her chin. “You don’t want to be king, do you?”

“God, no! You know I don’t.”

“You don’t need to be king. You have plenty of money without being king. There’s all that money your Uncle Isaiah from Chicago left you.”

“It’s in trust until I’m thirty. I only get the income. It’s not enough to keep me in champagne.”

“Too bad,” she scowled. “Well, if you had to, you could go to work at some more pleasant job than kinging, couldn’t you?”

“Ye-es.”

“Then why not? If Rudolph gets back on the throne before he’s assassinated, you’ll have to be king. You’re it.” She coaxed pretty again. “But if neither of you go back then Kraken will take over as soon as Rudamia can run the Nazis out.”

Ruprecht said, “I don’t like Kraken.”

“How do you know you don’t? You never exchanged a word with him except, ‘Saddle the black mare’ or ‘Curry the stallion.’ You might like him a lot if you ever stood him a beer at Hans!” She quirked a smile. “I always thought he was sort of cute.”

Rupe grabbed her shoulders. “Trudy! You didn’t ever go out with him?” He shook her. “That night I met you coming in about one o’clock—the night you went to bed early with a headache—”

“Don’t be silly,” she said sweetly, and eagerly, “How about it, Rupe?”

Maybe Ruprecht believed her; he gave her a cigarette. Johnnie wasn’t such a dope. She hadn’t denied it; she’d wiggled.

“What about you?” Rupe demanded.

“What about me?”

“I always thought—I mean—I rather took it for granted you’d marry me some day.”

Johnnie’s eyes blinked. He’d never sat in on a proposal before. It was kind of embarrassing. Only the others seemed to have forgotten that he wasn’t just a decoration on the door.

“How sudden,” Trudy blew out smoke.

“Don’t be an ass.”

“I won’t.” She sighed. “But if you ever do want to propose, that won’t make any difference. Mum and I aren’t going back to Trudamia.”

“No?”

“No. Mum’s bought an inn in Switzerland. She’s running it and making pots of money. There’s a dairy farm went with it and she’s having the time of her life making butter and cheese. You know she always liked to churn. I sort of think she’s going to marry the former innkeeper. She says he has the sweetest whiskers. Anyway she’s not going back to Trudamia. And neither am I.”

“What are you going to do?”

She said, “I don’t know,” but he didn’t take the hint. “I know one thing though. I’m going to be an American. After all, my father was a naturalized one. So you see you won’t have to be a prince when you get around to marrying me. And we can keep Rudolph from being king.”

Ruprecht nodded somberly. “Maybe,” he said. “Have you thought of consulting Rudolph on this?”

She shook her head.

“You know of course that he may want to be king.”

“He does, drat him. That’s why you had to come here. You’ve got to change his mind.”

“My God, Trudy,” he groaned. “Change Rudolph’s mind?”

“Well, maybe not that,” she admitted. “But you have to think of something to delay him, to keep him from going on this Clipper. You do that much and leave the rest to me.”

He rumpled her hair. “That bodes no good, fair one. The first time I left all to you I lost my eyebrows. Remember that infernal chemical set you had when you were sweet seven? And the last time as I recall, I was fired out of Yale for leaving all to you. Why did you tell the Proctor you were a bubble dancer?”

“He wouldn’t believe I was Crown Princess of Trudamia.”

Johnnie was on his feet, his back against the door. “I hate to interrupt but someone’s just started up the stairs. Two people.”

Ruprecht kissed Trudy on the mouth. There was nothing casual about that one. “I’ll get the papers and bust in. Clean this room fast as you can.” He was behind the wall like magic.

Trudy beckoned to Johnnie. “Come over here and hold my hand.”

He made it in two and a half strides. He didn’t waste time hand-holding though. He went into a clinch. He deserved a kiss himself. He didn’t break it until he heard the door open.

Trudy said under her breath, “Why, Johnnie Brown!” Her eyes were laughing.

Magda and Mike stood on the threshold. Magda’s eyebrows were up like flags. “Have you found the body?” She inquired with a leer in those green eyes.

“Not yet,” Johnnie admitted.

Trudy spoke pertly. “We haven’t looked in your room, darling.”

“Why not,” she countered.

“I’m always afraid of what I might find there.” Trudy cooed. She slid from the table. “Come on, Johnnie, let’s go down and have a drink.” She said regally to Magda, “You may have the sofa now.”

Magda disdained. “I don’t want it. Mike and I were merely curious, you were gone so long. He didn’t know you’d—taken time off.”

Mike was panting to ask questions. It was all over his face. Johnnie tried to give him the high sign. He hoped it caught. He urged, “Come on, Mike. Trudy’s been telling me about Trudamia. Sounds like a swell country. You ought to tell Mike about that time you were caught sneaking in the palace after hours.”

Magda’s mouth narrowed. “Instead of such fantasies, Trudy, you might be trying to locate Ruprecht. There isn’t much time before we must leave for the Clipper.”

“He’ll be here.” Trudy managed to shoo everyone out ahead of her, close the door with a double bang. “I told you—or were you and Rudolph too busy talking?—that woman said she’d send him right over.”

“What woman?” Magda demanded.

Trudy smiled. “His dance teacher, darling. She has the loveliest dyed red hair.”

“You’re making it up.” Magda banged through Theo’s room, started down to second.

“Oh no, I’m not,” Trudy yelled after her. “I could do a lot better than that if I were making it up!”

Ferenz met them at the throne-room door. “I wish you girls would stop running all over the house with these strange young men. Rudolph feels neglected.”

Johnnie and Mike swelled out their chests.

“Besides it’s getting late and we still don’t have those papers. Where is Ruprecht?”

“He’ll be here any minute now,” Trudy assured him.

Rudolph was off the throne. He sulked at Magda. “It took you long enough to find her.”

Johnnie looked quick at Mike. Mike winked. Johnnie grinned. But it occurred to him he might have played the wrong number tonight in Trudy. She was in love with Ruprecht. Whereas Magda wasn’t in love with Rudolph, and she wasn’t that in love with Ruprecht. Only trouble there was that Magda scared him off. It took a real New Yorker like Mike to handle that babe, somebody used to swell dishes.

Dorp pattered through the inner doorway. “I have made liverwurst sandwiches and some coffee as you suggest, Ferenz.” He spied Trudy. “And where have you been, Miss? It gets later and where is Ruprecht?”

“He’ll be here any minute,” she likewise reassured him.

“What do you say we all eat?”

Rudolph said, “I want a bowl of chile.”

“We’ll get that for you at the airport.” Ferenz patted him. “Let’s have some nice sandwiches and coffee now.”

“And cake,” Dorp added.

Rudolph stuck out his lip. “I don’t want sandwiches and coffee. I don’t want cake. I want chile.”

Ferenz’s eyes glittered. “There is no chile.”

“Some house with no chile,” Johnnie put in. Evidently he’d missed one of the prince’s tantrums. One good break. “Back home in Texas you’d as lief run out of soap as chile. Liefer.”

“Texas,” Rudolph breathed. “Did you say Texas?”

“Yeah,” Johnnie defied him. “I said Texas.”

“I was in Texas,” he sighed. “Days and days—”

“I said Texas.” Johnnie walked right up to him. “I come from Texas. You want to make something out of it?”

“Not now!” Ferenz shrilled.

Ottomkopf glowered, “Why is this man loose again?”

“Ask Trudy,” Magda smiled.

“Why shouldn’t he be?” Mike joined Johnnie.

Johnnie swung to him. “I didn’t tell you they tied me up twice tonight, did I? That’s the kind of a bunch this is, tying a soldier of Uncle Sam’s. Would you have believed that?”

“Officer, can’t you take this man into custody?” Ferenz begged. “He is definitely insane. A persecution complex.”

“Why don’t you throw me out?” Johnnie demanded.

“Why don’t you?” Rudolph urged.

Ferenz didn’t answer those.

“Why don’t you, Rudolph?” Ruprecht drawled from the doorway. He was tight again or acting tight. He’d put on his top hat and he had one hand stuck behind his tails. In his other hand he held out an envelope, a fat white envelope blobbed with red sealing wax.

“The papers!” Ferenz gurgled. “Ruprecht, I could kiss you!”

“Not without getting your teeth knocked out,” Ruprecht grinned. “You mean this?” He waggled the envelope out of reach.

“Yes, dear. We’ve been waiting for that. Where did you get it?”

“Found it,” Rupe teetered.

“Where?” Dorp demanded.

“Under Magda’s pillow.”

“That’s a lie!” she cried.

“That’s a lie,” Rudolph echoed. “You’re just trying to make me jealous.”

“I didn’t say Magda was under the pillow,” Rupe grinned. “Just this.”

“It isn’t true!” she said. “If it was there, someone put it there. And what were you doing in my room?”

Rudolph echoed again, “What were you doing in her room?”

“I always go first to Magda’s room. Just to see what’s going on. Dull tonight. Who wants this moldy old envelope?” He held it out of reach from the advance.

“I will take it,” Dorp decided firmly. He did.

Ruprecht brushed off his hands, stuck them into his pockets. “Hello, Gorgeous,” he greeted Magda.

“It’s been opened,” Dorp said softly.

“Sure, it’s been opened,” Ruprecht admitted. “Wanted to see what was inside.”

The fat man’s voice was dangerous. “What did you do with the rest of it?”

“What rest of it? That’s all there was, there wasn’t any more.” He winked at Trudy. “Hello, Snookums.”

Ferenz began softly, “Concentrate, Ruprecht. Please, dear.” He put his hand on Rupe’s arm. “For old Furry. Think hard. What did you do with the rest of it?”

“Nothing else.”

“Let me see it.” Ferenz tore it away from Dorp, ruffed through the papers. “What is it missing?”

“Should I know?” Dorp shrugged. “I saw only the outside of it. But when I received it from Herr Ottomkopf, it was more thick, more heavy.”

Ottomkopf didn’t stir a bristle on his head.

Janssen chimed in. “Yes it was. Herr Ottomkopf, you look. What is it missing from the envelope?”

Ottomkopf said, “I did not prepare the envelope. I received it. I passed it on. That is all.”

“What’s supposed to be in it?” Trudy asked.

Johnnie spoke out of the corner of his mouth to Mike. “There’s coffee going to waste. I could use a cup.” He edged away from the group. Mike followed. No one yapped at them.

They went down the room and into the next. It was the swellest dining room Johnnie had ever seen. The walls were all tapestry, guys in wigs and skirts hunting with spears. The table and chairs must have been built right here. They were too heavy to carry around. The swellest part was the big coffee pot with steam and smell exuding from it, the platter of sandwiches, the dish of cakes. Johnnie stuffed a pink one into his mouth while he poured two cups. He said, “I’m dead on my feet. No sense of our listening to that ring around the rosy. The guy who really knows what was in the envelope isn’t going to talk.”

Mike double-decked a sandwich. “What do you suppose is missing?”

“I know what’s missing,” Johnnie said. “And I’m the only one knows except the guy who put it there.”

“What is it?”

“A bomb.”

Mike swallowed half a sandwich without chewing. “A bomb!”

“Shshsh.” Johnnie went to the door, peeked out. The whole bunch was arguing now. “Don’t let them hear you say that. I might get in trouble.”

“How do you know it’s a—cupcake?”

“Because I’m the guy who opened the envelope. Trudy passed it to me after she lifted it. I’m the guy who took out the—cupcake.”

“What did you do with it?”