Aeronaut Gone Read online

  “Do you really?” she laughed and then asked, “And how do you feel about pieds de porc?”

  He grinned and then admitted, “I was in the war, did you know?”

  Hettie shook her head.

  “Learned to eat just about anything. You want to feed me pig’s trotters? I’ll eat them. I’ll eat andouillette or even snake and crocodile.”

  “Would you?” she laughed and then asked, “What is andouillette?”

  “Pig intestine sausage. Sweeter than you’d imagine.”

  Hettie scrunched her nose and then admitted, “I prefer the simple things. Like pastries.”

  “I could go for a pastry. Perhaps a croissant with chocolate?”

  “Mmm, yes,” Hettie agreed. “So Paris then. We’ll let Ro and Truman come. We’ll find a Turkish bath since I think you both will need a massage after carrying all the burdens of this trip, let alone not having a reasonable bed aboard.”

  “Too true,” Neville agreed, pointing at a pair of eyes spying them from the water.

  The yellow eyes watched them coldly, and Hettie could easily guess it was determining how to grab one of them and drag them under the water to be drowned.

  “I believe the rest of my life I’ll have nightmares about crocodiles.”

  “I may as well, though I think you’ll feature in them given how they seem to fixate on you.”

  “They’ve probably never seen a redhead before,” she told him lightly, shuddering when the golden eyes disappeared under the water. Where was it going? What was it planning?

  Neville stopped suddenly and pointed. This time it wasn’t to a bird or to a snake or even to a sloth, it was to footprints near the water.

  Truman’s gaze fixed on them and even Hettie noticed that they looked fresh. Suddenly, Truman called, “Oy! Herzfeld! Herzfeld!”

  They seemed to hold their breath as one while they waited for an answer. To everyone’s shock, they heard, “I’m here!”

  It sounded a bit weak, and they started to rush ahead, but Truman stopped them. “It won’t do us any good to fly ahead and miss any dangers. He’s made it thus far, we can find him the rest of the way.”

  The headlong flight stopped suddenly and they slowed down. They weren’t walking any longer, but they were moving with a careful speed. It took a few minutes to reach him, but when they did Hettie wanted to weep.

  He looked bad. There was no other way to say it. His face and arms were covered in bruises, and he’d used his tie to make himself a sling and he was walking with a stick. He stared at them, a bit of alarm on his face and they stared back, utterly relieved to see him.

  “It’s a miracle,” Hettie breathed. Neville had handed her the gun and rushed forward. He pulled his pack off and then pulled a deep green metal case from it. He assessed Benedikt Herzfeld with a professional eye and then carefully removed the sling from his arm.

  “It’s broken,” Herzfeld told Neville who nodded.

  “It is indeed. Looks like a clean break, however, so that’s a blessing. We’ll get you set, and it’ll be fine.”

  Herzfeld shook his head and then he asked slowly, “How did you know I lived?”

  Ro was the one who answered. She’d crossed to him and knelt nearby. “I’m so sorry. Whatever happened?”

  Herzfeld glanced between them and there was an air of distrust in his gaze. It was Truman who allayed it.

  “You’ve every right to be concerned. We are as well,” Truman told him clearly.

  “Someone pushed me over the side of the airship!” Herzfeld snapped. He was holding his side after that and Neville carefully reached out and felt his ribs.

  “They’re broken.”

  “Yes,” Herzfeld agreed. “I’m broken and near-ruined.”

  “You are neither,” Ro told him. “You might not trust everyone, but do you trust me?”

  Herzfeld examined Ro’s face for a long time and then slowly nodded. “Why would you help my dreams come true and then try to kill me? Especially since we discussed so many times how dangerous the jungle is. Ro, the fact that I’ve lived is a sheer act of God. But who’s to say whoever decided to murder me won’t strike again?”

  Ro shook her head, glancing at Truman.

  “It doesn’t make sense that you were the victim. It happened at night. All of us knew we needed you for the airship.”

  “Then why?”

  Hettie’s head tilted and she elbowed Ro. “We noticed how much he looks like Douglas and Frederick. The same coloring, the same build.”

  Ro gasped and went to clutch Herzfeld and then thought better of it. “You got pushed over at night.”

  He nodded slowly and then admitted, “I kept wondering who I had infuriated enough to want to kill me. I could only come to the conclusion that you had a madman or woman among you.”

  Truman shook his head. “We’d have heard of something like that with this family. Let’s be real here. It’s about money and one of those twins.”

  “If one dies,” Hettie said, suddenly remembering, “the other inherits double. Grandfather Longmont is giving half to Peter and half to the twins, split evenly.”

  “Douglas has had a large number of misses,” Neville said as he mopped at one of the wounds on Herzfeld’s head. “We need to get the captain back to the ship. He needs better care than I can give him here.”

  “We need to stay together when we get there,” Truman said. “Always together, never leave Herzfeld alone, keep an eye on everyone. One of those fools shoved Herzfeld over and one of them is going to be alarmed at his return.”

  Neville handed Truman his pack and asked Hettie to take the gun while he helped Herzfeld up. Neville pulled the man’s good arm over his shoulder and told him. “We’ve got you now. We’ll get you home.”

  Truman went first, followed by Herzfeld and Neville and then by Hettie and Ro.

  “You got trusted with a rifle,” Ro told Hettie as though it was a joke.

  “I’m more reliable than you,” Hettie told her.

  “He likes you and wants you and is flattering you with weapons.”

  “Romance via rifles,” Hettie laughed and then pointed to a monkey with a baby clinging to her. “It’s the way to a girl’s heart.”

  “It isn’t the rifles,” Ro told her precisely. “He trusts you to guard his back in a jungle while he flexes those doctor muscles of his.”

  “They are nice, aren’t they?” Hettie agreed and then giggled at the look on Ro’s face.

  Ro scoffed and then nodded towards Truman’s wide shoulders. “They aren’t so bad.”

  The two of them burst into laughter and neither Truman nor Neville scowled their way. Instead, they got a quick glance back, the quirk of a smile, and an approving look in kind eyes. For both of them.

  “Nothing is more attractive,” Hettie told Ro, “than a kind man, and that applies to both of them.”

  “Agreed,” Ro said, linking her arms with Hettie. “Unless there was a man bearing a cool breeze, a cold drink, and a platter of cold meats and cheeses with ripe grapes and juicy strawberries.”

  “A cool breeze?” Hettie laughed and then admitted, “I would fall for that without a moment’s delay.”

  Their laughter escaped again and somehow despite the humid, hot, stressful trek through the jungle, they were having fun.

  Chapter 15

  Grandfather Longmont ordered the twins and Will to get the water loaded the rest of the way and to prepare the airship for flight. Hettie and Truman went to Hettie and Ro’s compartment to retrieve some supplies Dr. Hale asked for, including stockings to bind the Captain’s broken ribs.

  While they went together, since they’d vowed not to leave anyone unprotected, Ro kept the Captain talking of anything she could think of to distract him from the discomfort of Neville’s ministrations. Setting a bone made cracking and crunching sounds that were just not right and made her a bit dizzy. At the latest crunch and subsequent wince from the aeronaut, Ro found her focus and asked him a question,


  “Captain Herzfeld, do you recall much from last night? Besides being pushed? Was there anything that seemed odd that might help us narrow our search for the killer?”

  He smiled but the pain was still visible at the corner of his eyes. “They aren’t quite a killer since I seem to still be living.”

  “It seems to me they’ve walked a very fine line between attempted murder and mass murder. Pushing you off the ship could have led to all our ends. We’re all quite fortunate to be breathing still.”

  Truman and Hettie returned with the supplies Neville asked for and then they also settled in. Staying together was surprisingly comforting to Ro. She’d thought she’d be annoyed with constant chaperones, but it turned out safety in numbers was a real consideration. Whoever was trying to kill Douglas and possibly the aeronaut, they’d have trouble infiltrating Hettie and Ro’s self-made family.

  Another crunch sounded as the doctor used Hettie’s stockings to bind the Captain’s ribs. “Yes, fortunate. I couldn’t agree more.” There was a touch of sarcasm in his voice but he did appear to be mostly sincere in his expression of gratitude.

  “How did you survive, Captain? I’ve been wanting to ask you that since we found you by the river.”

  “It was a near miss. I was adjusting the ropes and riggings to prepare for lowering our altitude when I found myself tangled in the ropes. Sloppy work, really, but I was tired enough to make a mistake.”

  “A mistake that saved your life. I think we might need another word. Perhaps it was serendipitous. I for one am quite happy that you lived to tell the tale.”

  “That does sound more positive.” He grimaced again and Ro gave Neville a dirty look.

  “Neville, are you nearly finished? The Captain looks as pale as a ghost and this is hurting him.”

  “Nearly, but not quite. I’m afraid the process of getting bones into the right position to heal and to be supported isn’t a painless one. You’ll have to distract him a bit longer.”

  The captain smiled. “Thank you, Doctor. I’m in your debt for the care you’ve shown me today.” Then with his attention back on Ro he said, “Whoever pushed me did so without making any sound that I can recall. I do recall the scent of jasmine just before it happened. One moment I was standing there, wondering where to begin untangling the knot I’d inadvertently tied around myself and the next, someone had shoved me—hard—so that I tipped right over the railing. Somehow, the rope that held me was tangled enough to keep a hold on me as we traveled over the jungle. I didn’t dare move or call for help. I was certain that any movement, even a deep breath, would loosen the rope and I’d plummet to my death.”

  “Were you hanging upside down for all that time before we landed? How did you avoid passing out?”

  Ro shivered at the terrifying thought of being suspended haphazardly by rope while traveling over the treetops of a jungle, knowing that at any minute she could fall to her death. She imagined the terror of the fall and had to concentrate to avoid sicking up. How the captain was sitting here so calmly was beyond her.

  He shook his head. “No, the ropes held me sideways, almost as a rolled up carpet would be tied up. I was concerned as our altitude dropped that I’d be crushed by the weight of the ship when it landed so when I thought we were close enough to the ground that I’d survive a fall, I worked myself free and risked tumbling through the canopy. The branches broke my fall, I startled quite a few monkeys and birds, and I survived. I tried calling at that point, but you had sailed on, and I was quite a ways down. I wasn’t sure if it would be better to find you or to find my way out of the jungle.”

  “You must have been so frightened,” Ro said gently, noticing that Neville was nearly done working on his patient.

  The captain nodded. “At first I was; it’s quite a miracle that the crocodiles didn’t get to me before I was able to drag myself from the bank of the river into the jungle.”

  “Or piranhas,” Ro said nervously.

  “Costa Rica has the machaca—cousin to the piranha—but they are largely vegetarian so I don’t believe I was ever in danger of being fish food. Crocodile food, yes. I could feel their eyes on me. It was the most terrifying part of the complete ordeal, actually.”

  Ro nodded. “I can quite imagine. We had a very close up view of one eating a deer and scaring the life out of the doctor and Hettie. I think I’ll not stop seeing them in my nightmares for some time. And snakes and spiders and an unmanned airship. Oh, Captain, how can you be so calm?”

  He shrugged, but perhaps it was the bottle of rum in his hand. “I suppose I’m just feeling gratitude that—for some reason—I was spared. It was lucky that your party found me before something else did.”

  “You’re all patched up,” Neville said. “It will suffice at least until we get back to the hotel. You need to take it easy, not lift anything heavy, and stay with us. Just in case. There won’t be another successful attempt on any of us.”

  Truman and Hettie had returned as Neville was advising the captain. When Neville finished, Truman cleared his throat. “We need to decide how we are going to catch the person responsible before we return. If we don’t, I fear Douglas won’t live to see summer. Whoever is so determined to remove him from life isn’t going to stop just because we leave the jungle.”

  “I think we need to set a trap and draw him out,” Neville said.

  “I agree that we shouldn’t turn back until he’s good and caught,” the aeronaut said. “To be honest, I’ll be damned if we don’t at least try to find the person who shoved me over the side. They might well have ruined my joy in my ship and that I can never forgive.”

  Ro felt her eyebrows climbing her face. They wanted to keep going in order to catch Douglas and the aeronaut’s attempted murderer. “Are we going with the assumption that Frederick is the one?”

  Hettie nodded thoughtfully. “It makes sense I suppose. He stands to inherit more money with Douglas gone, less competition for wealth seemed like a good thing. And he has additional motives. His brother was having an affair with his wife. That was motive for murder if ever there was one. A twin! Sleeping with the other’s wife! Is there more of a betrayal? To top it off, Douglas also appeared to owe Frederick money, if what we found among his belongings is any indication.”

  Truman spoke softly. “We’ll need to set a trap for Frederick then. Give him the chance to kill Douglas again, but this time we’ll catch him in the act.”

  Ro picked up the thread that Truman started. “How should we trap him?”

  The aeronaut spoke through strained lips now that the doctor was finished setting his injuries. “I think we need to press forward in our adventure. Only the person responsible for pushing me knows that my falling wasn’t an accident. I suggest we play it off as an accident to the rest of them. They all seem to think that Douglas just has impossibly bad luck—or karma perhaps—as the reason for his multiple near misses.”

  Hettie nodded in agreement. “You’re right, Captain. Let’s use their foolishness against them to catch Frederick in the act. We should pretend to want to go on in our adventures. It should drive them all even more mad while delighting the killer because they’ll have more opportunities to finish what they started.”

  “So, our adventure continues—this time to solve this mystery before we return and the killer goes free.” Neville shook his head. “I feel like we’re tempting fate, but I’m not sure we wouldn’t be doing otherwise if we left and just escaped ourselves.”

  “On the off chance that someone was actually trying to kill you, Captain, I think you need to remain with one of us at all times. In fact, as we’ve been doing, so we go on,” Truman announced. “The five of us trust each other, everyone else is a suspect. Even Jade and Will. We stay together, never separated.”

  They all glanced at each other and nodded.

  “I vote we live,” Hettie said merrily, but she shivered as she said it.

  “I also vote to live,” Ro repeated. “And to win against this fiend.”


  Truman chuckled. “I’m glad we are all in agreement. I’d rather not have to captain the airship again.”

  “You both did a marvelous job with it, I must say,” Captain Herzfeld said. “If you are ever interested in a career change…I know a woman who helped finance mine. Perhaps she’d be generous again?”

  They all laughed at that.

  “Now to set our trap,” said Truman. “First, let’s alert the Longmonts we intend to continue the trip.”

  Chapter 16

  “I think we should carry on,” Grandfather Longmont said, agreeing immediately. “We’ll never have another chance like this again.”

  Hettie frowned. Nevi had spent rather a lot of time cleaning up poor Benedikt Herzfeld, binding his ribs (using her stockings), and setting his arm. It had taken a lot of their water to fully clean up the poor man who was muddied almost from head to toe and incredibly hungry. While Neville had seen to the aeronaut, Truman had secured the ship, refilled the water, and worked to make their food.

  “Carry on?” Truman asked, subtly beginning the first part of their plan to lure Frederick back to killing Douglas. He paused and then his gaze flit over the party, lingering first on Ro and then on the twins.

  “No,” Daisy said immediately. “No. We have come close enough to destruction as it is. The captain is only with us through sheer good luck. Next time it might be Douglas, or…or…Jade…or any of us. It’s time to call it quits!”

  “Where’s your mettle, girl?” Grandfather Longmont demanded. “Where’s your strength of will?”

  “What strength of will?” she wailed. “I don’t want to be here. I never wanted to come. It’s hot and there are bugs and crawling things can kill you and I want a hot bath, a cool cocktail, and a maid. Not dried meat and berries and near-certain death.”

  “We’ll stay if Grandfather wants to stay,” Frederick told his wife. “Whatever you want, sir.”

  “Currying favor will get you nowhere with me, boy.” To that comment, Douglas snorted happily.

  “Father,” Mr. Longmont cut in. “Let’s just consider here. Perhaps we ought to head back.”