Read Online The Copernicus Legacy: The Forbidden Stone by Tony Abbott - Free Book Online Page B

held up a hand with all his fingers outstretched, which she did not look at. “Um . . . five,” he said.
    “Fife! Ah. Zo. You have question marks?”
    “Yes,” said Wade, glowering at Darrell’s hand, which was still in the air. “Can you tell us how Dr. Vogel died?”
    “Wade, perhaps . . . ,” his father said.
    “No, no. Is fine,” Frau Munch said, drawing her eyebrows together in a fierce scowl. “I vas not working two night ago. He vas alone and must have gone out. Ze Polizei discovered him on ze Strasse behint ze buildink. He vas joked.”
    “Joked?” said Lily.
    “Ja!” Frau Munch wrapped her hands around her neck. “Kkkk! Joked!”
    “Choked,” Lily said softly. Her face was white. So was Becca’s.
    Wade seemed to be teetering on his feet. “Do you mean he was . . .” He swung around. “Dad . . . Uncle Henry was . . . ?”
    “Are you saying he was murdered?” Dr. Kaplan asked.
    Darrell felt suddenly weak. He slumped into the chair by the window next to the dusty table with the pitch pipe on it.
    “Ze Polizei are searching for his killer. Zey believe it is a rubbery gone rong and zat ze killer iz a seef.”
    Darrell wondered for a second if Frau Munch was using Uncle Henry’s code to talk. “Excuse me? A . . . seef ?”
    “ Ja. You know. Seef. Rubber. Burk-a-ler!”
    The words stuttered in his mind, until he finally understood. “Thief, robber, burglar!” he said.
    “Zat iz vut I set. Und, like I set, I klean apartment sree times week. I vas not here two night ago ven he died.”
    Lily nudged Darrell and whispered in his ear. “For a lady who can’t see too well, she sure keeps the place spotless.”
    It was true. Except for the extremely dusty table next to his chair, the place was immaculate. He peeked under the furniture to see if she vacuumed as well as she dusted.
    “Is there anything more you can tell us?” asked Lily.
    “No,” Frau Munch said. “I em done. You go now.”
    Dr. Kaplan rose haltingly to his feet, though the old lady didn’t. “Well, thank you. Herr Vogel was a dear old friend. I was one of the group of students he called Asterias—”
    All at once, Frau Munch stiffened in her chair. “Asterias? Asterias! Ja, ja! ”
    She rose awkwardly from the chair and limped directly toward Darrell, though she didn’t appear to see him. She stood squarely in front of the dusty table by his chair, raised a thin hand, and with her fingernail began to spell out words in the dust. It took minutes, as she carefully formed each letter. When she was done, she spun around, holding the pitch pipe in her hand. “Who is moosical here?”
    Everyone looked at Darrell. He raised his hand.
    No response. She couldn’t see him.
    Finally he said, “Uh . . . I’m musical. I play the guitar—”
    “Zo!” Frau Munch pressed the pitch pipe into Darrell’s hand, and breathed out a long breath. “Now, I hef told you vut Heinrich asked me to memorize. I leaf ze rest to you now.”
    She made her way to the door and down the stairs.
    Clack. Thump. Clack. Thump.
    They all stared at the dust marks on the table, except Darrell. Something glinted on the floor under the desk, and he got on all fours to examine it. “It looks like Frau Munch doesn’t vacuum as well as she dusts. Dad, did Uncle Henry have a starfish paperweight?”
    Roald nodded. “As a matter of fact, yes. He said it was what gave him the idea to call us that.”
    Darrell delicately tugged a V-shaped shard of glass from under the desk. “This looks like one arm of a starfish. It’s sticky with something red.”
    Becca stared at the fragment of glass. “One of the guys at the funeral had a bruise on his forehead that kind of matches that shape. Did anybody else notice that? It was all red and swollen.”
    “I saw it too,” said Wade, studying the piece of glass. “It was nasty, as if he’d been bashed with something. Dad, is this . . . this isn’t blood, is it?”
    Dr. Kaplan examined it under the