“Good morning, Constance,” said Reynie.
They were all hungry — famished, in fact — and in the dining car they ordered so much food that their waiter raised his eyebrows and asked to see their money first. They had more than enough to stuff themselves silly, however, and so they did. Afterward Sticky said he had something to do and would join them later.
“He’s looking for someone to show off to,” said Constance as they returned to their compartment.
“Go easy on him,” said Kate. “He can’t always help himself, you know. I imagine if you know as much as Sticky does, it’s hard not to let some of it slip on occasion. Don’t you think, Reynie?”
Reynie was at the window, deep in thought. “Hmm? Oh, yes, probably so.”
“Okay, what’s on your mind?” Constance asked him. “You look funny. I mean more than usual.”
“I’ve been feeling uneasy about something,” Reynie said, “and I just realized what it is. If Captain Noland heard you on the radio, Kate — which we can’t be sure about — then it wouldn’t take much detective work for him to figure out where we’re headed. You said we were at the train station. If Captain Noland described us to the ticket agents, they could tell him we bought tickets for Thernbaakagen.”
Kate shrugged. “So? I know you don’t trust him, Reynie — and maybe he isn’t the most reliable person we know — but he’s Mr. Benedict’s friend. He has no reason to try to stop us.”
“Maybe not,” said Reynie, who couldn’t shake the worry that the captain’s loyalty might be swayed — for the right price. “But even if he wants to help us, can we trust him to make the right decision? What if he decided to tell the police? He might think we need protection. For all we know, the police are waiting at Thernbaakagen to take us into custody. If that happens, we’ll never be able to help Mr. Benedict and Number Two.”
“You have a point,” Kate admitted. “What are you suggesting?
“We should get off the train,” Reynie said. “Just to be safe. We get off at the next-to-last stop, before we reach the main station.”
Kate and Constance thought this a sensible plan. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to be cautious. But they still wanted to know why Reynie was so doubtful about Captain Noland.
“It doesn’t matter now, does it?” said Reynie, who felt sad, and not a little guilty, for mistrusting Mr. Benedict’s friend. Maybe he couldn’t help how he felt about the captain, but he could at least avoid speaking ill of him.
“I suppose it doesn’t matter,” said Kate in a stern, unforgiving tone, “seeing as how you chose to cut off all contact with him.”
Reynie looked at the floor. “I really am sorry for behaving that way. I know it was inexcusable, and —”
Kate snickered and slapped his arm. “Good grief, Reynie, I was just giving you a hard time! As if anyone could hold a grudge against you!”
“I could,” said Constance, glowering at him. Then she, too, slapped his arm, apparently for the fun of it.
Reynie hurried out to find a train schedule, and consulting it together the three of them determined to get off at a town called Naansemegen, which lay just at the outskirts of Thernbaakagen. From there they would take a bus or taxi to their hotel. They still had enough money for that, Reynie said, and he was about to suggest they buy a street map of the area when to their great surprise Sticky arrived carrying just such a map.
Apparently — or so Sticky reported when they pressed him — he’d written out a request in every language common to western Europe (despite his slight misrepresentation to the captain, he truly did know how to read most languages, if not how to speak them) and shown it to passenger after passenger until someone finally gave him the map. “I promised to return it before the next stop,” he said. “Meanwhile I figured we all could take a look.”
Reynie noticed that Sticky did not say what he might have said, which was that he could easily memorize all the streets and intersections on the map by himself. No doubt he intended to do just that — or had already done so — but was trying to be careful about how he presented himself.
“I also learned something else,” said Sticky. “There’s a science museum in Thernbaakagen. I can show you where it is on the map.”
“Outstanding!” Reynie cried, eagerly spreading the map on the floor. “You’ve been busy, haven’t you?”
“I did have to ask a lot of people,” Sticky said.
“You think it’s the same museum Mr. Benedict was going to?” asked Kate, peering over his shoulder at the map.
“It seems pretty likely,” Reynie said. “Why else would he lead us to this particular city?”
After Sticky had shown them where the museum was located — it lay near the outskirts of the city — he traced his finger along a main thoroughfare, then tapped it at an intersection near the middle of the map. “Our hotel is here. Downtown.”
Reynie nodded. “So we should go to the museum first.”
“What’s all this stupid talk about the museum?” Constance snapped. “What about the next clue?”
“For all we know,” Reynie replied, trying hard to be patient, “Mr. Benedict never had a chance to leave the next clue. Maybe there’s something for us at that hotel and maybe there isn’t. We have no idea when or where he was captured. The museum is a lead, Constance. We need to go there, and because it’s closer we should go there first, to save time.”
Constance blinked a few times as Reynie’s words settled on her. “I see,” she said. “That hadn’t occurred to me.” And with a quivering lip she shuffled to her bunk and lay down with her eyes closed, her fingers wrapped around her pendant.
The others looked at one another in confusion. What was so upsetting about having a lead? Wasn’t that good news?
“Constance, what’s the matter?” Kate asked. “We’ll be there soon, you know.”
“I know,” Constance murmured.
“So what’s the problem?”
“The problem is what if there isn’t anything at the hotel?” Constance cried. “And what if we can’t find out anything at the museum? Then it’s all over! We’ll be at the end of the road, and we won’t have saved them!”
Reynie felt like kicking himself. He should have been more careful choosing his words. Constance had been worried enough as it was.
“Listen to me, Constance,” said Kate in a commanding tone. Constance fell silent at once and listened with grave attention — as did the two boys. It wasn’t like Kate to speak so seriously.
“Look at Reynie,” said Kate.
Constance looked at Reynie, who wasn’t sure why he was being looked at but did his best to appear confident and resolute.
“Look at Sticky,” said Kate.
Constance did, and under her searching gaze Sticky felt a tremendous urge to polish his spectacles. He resisted, instead giving her a small, sober nod.
“Now look at me,” said Kate.
Constance did — and was almost startled by what she saw. Kate seemed to have doubled in size. She had drawn back her broad shoulders and set her jaw, and something in her stance called to mind the contained ferocity of a lioness. But it was the fierceness in Kate’s bright blue eyes that had the most striking effect. The sort of look that made you thankful she wasn’t your enemy.