by Susan Finlay
She nodded. “Go on.”
“Well, Karl wasn’t exactly telling the truth. Not the whole truth, anyway. Vikktor actually came back the first time—at least the first time that I know of—in 1977.” She stopped and looked directly at Sofie.
“Two years earlier? Why would Karl lie about that?”
She shrugged. “Vikktor was acting strangely and said we mustn’t tell anyone that he was back. Karl had brought him to my house. Vikktor had been gone for twenty-eight years by then. During that time, I’d married and had a son. That fact may or may not have been a surprise to him. I’ve often wondered if Vikktor had been going back and forth over the years. If he knew, he didn’t let on.”
Sofie nodded again. If Vikktor pretended he didn’t know, it wouldn’t surprise her.
“Anyway, my family situation didn’t keep him from asking if he could stay in our home, mine and Emil’s. Emil and he seemed to get along reasonably well. Ja, but I should have paid more attention to the fact Vikktor and my son, Helmut, took an instant dislike to each other.” She paused, and stared ahead as if remembering.
“Why did they dislike each other?”
“I never found out.”
“How long did Vikktor stay with you?”
“Three or four months. Not long. But it was a difficult time for all of us. I was still working at the university part-time, Emil was working as a professor full-time, and Helmut was a student at the gymnasium.” She wrung her hands together and hung her head down. “Instead of taking care of my home and family, when I wasn’t working, I was obligated to help Vikktor with some things he needed to do. He was so secretive. He would ask for favors, for help, giving me instructions, but never really telling me what any of it was about.”
“That sounds like Vikktor,” Sofie said, barely able to keep disdain from her voice.
“I will never forgive myself for failing in my duties. I’ve tried to tell myself that I was just being the good sister, but because of my focus on Vikktor, I was too busy to notice that Emil’s health was deteriorating. By the time I noticed and took him to the doctor, it was too late. He was diagnosed with late stage pancreatic cancer. Not operable. He was gone within two months.”
“I’m sorry. That’s sad. I knew he died, but you never told me what happened. It must have been difficult for all of you.”
“When the diagnosis came in and everyone was upset, Vikktor suddenly spent most of his time away from the house, coming back only to eat and sleep. He told us he didn’t want to intrude in our personal lives. Hah. That was when we could have used his help.”
Sofie leaned closer and patted her hand.
“Helmut blamed me and Vikktor for his father’s death. If Vikktor hadn’t taken so much of my time, I might have noticed earlier. I might have got him to the doctor and he might have lived longer.”
“That’s why he left home?”
“Oh, that’s part of it. But I’m sure Vikktor had something to do with it as well. The two of them argued all the time. I figured they got into it when I wasn’t around, too. I always thought we both contributed to Helmut leaving.”
“But now you think Vikktor sent him here to get rid of him?”
“I don’t know. I always thought Helmut was in our time and that he just didn’t want to see me. It wasn’t until I found out that Karl and his daughter got stuck here, that I began to wonder. When I asked Vikktor, he wouldn’t tell me anything. It also bothers me that Vikktor could have sent Karl and Monika back home to their time but didn’t. Why not, why would he keep them here? Then Vikktor told me he was sending me back to the future, but changed his mind and decided he would be safer with me here in the past. It got me wondering if he’d done something to Helmut.”
“Hmm. What is Karl’s involvement? Do you think he is working with Vikktor?”
“I wish I knew. I have my suspicions.”
Sofie studied Ingrid’s face and thought about everything she’d told them. “So, let me get this straight. You’re saying Helmut and Vikktor disliked each other many years ago and you suspect that in 1977 Vikktor sent him into the past to either get him away from you or to protect himself from something Helmut might have known.” Ingrid nodded. “Now, when we asked where to find Vikktor, Karl sent us here to Dinkelsbühl, and then the priest sent us to see Herr Stumpf, who just happened to get murdered an hour before we got there.”
Ingrid winced. “Ja, that doesn’t sound good, does it? Perhaps Vikktor killed him to make everyone think we did it?”
Ryan, who had been listening without comment, said, “Or maybe he killed him because Herr Stumpf knew something that Vikktor didn’t want us to find out.”
“That’s also a possibility,” Sofie said. “I can’t help but wonder why Karl sent us here to find Vikktor. He’s been—I don’t know—protective of Vikktor, hasn’t he? He’s always covering for him, acting as if he doesn’t know much about Vikktor’s business. Did something change between them recently?”
Ryan said, “So this could be a set-up. Either we are being set-up, or Vikktor is. Or maybe something else is going on that we don’t know or understand yet.”
Ingrid said, “If Vikktor wanted to pin a murder on us—on me—why couldn’t he get someone to tell the Feldgendarms where to find me and get me arrested for Birgitta’s murder? That would be easier to do than kill someone else and try to make everyone believe I did it.”
“Ever hear the phrase ‘kill two birds with one stone’,” Ryan asked. “It could be that he figured he could get rid of you and Stumpf at the same time.”
CHAPTER TEN
AT DAWN INGRID was seated in the gasthof dining room with Sofie and Ryan, finishing breakfast in silence, none speaking. Ingrid glanced at her two companions out of the corner of her eyes as she scooped up her last bite of food. They looked as groggy as she felt. It seemed by their look they hadn’t slept any better than she had. She’d tossed and turned all night long, her mind replaying their late night conversation.
Before going to bed, the three of them had sat in their attic room and discussed what they feared: would their relationship with Helmut and his family land them all into trouble? One hint of the name Lotte Furst was all it would take to land them into hot water with the law. Apparently it would be her fault yet again, since Sofie had told the Feldgendarms they didn’t know anyone in town. And now suddenly they were related to the Furst/Stumpf family? It was the truth, but it sure as hell sounded suspicious. Why am I always to blame for everything?
They’d gone to sleep well after dark, and not in unanimous agreement about whether they should leave in the middle of the night and forget about Helmut and his kids.
Ryan, of course, had wanted to leave. He told them Ingrid could stay if she wanted. It was ‘no skin off his nose’, whatever that meant. He wanted Sofie to leave with him and cut their risk. Well, and why not? He didn’t have anything to gain by staying. No, he couldn’t possibly stay and help out an old woman. Typical teenager. That was the same kind of attitude that had created friction between herself and her son all those years ago.
Sofie had been torn at first, not wanting to risk them all getting into trouble, and that was understandable. Ingrid was scared, too. But as Sofie had pointed out, Ingrid had practically raised her. She couldn’t just abandon her, could she?
Ingrid had felt happy that Sofie still cared at least a little bit. Up until then, she’d had her doubts about Sofie.
But then the conversation had shifted into a discussion of Vikktor and his knowledge of the time portals, which spoke volumes about why Sofie really wanted to stay. That discussion had also slightly swayed Ryan, enough that they had stayed and gone to sleep in tentative agreement.
The dining room was empty except for the three of them and one server, a matronly woman with mousy brown hair, who glanced over at them several times as if wanting them to leave so she could clean up the table.
Ingrid pushed her plate away, but Ryan was still eating and showed no sign of stopping.
&
nbsp; The door of the gasthof opened, and Ingrid heard voices coming from the hallway. Her body tensed. When she glanced at Sofie, Sofie was biting her lip the way she always did when she was nervous. Ryan had stopped eating in mid-bite. They were all wondering if the Feldgendarms were there to arrest one or all of them.
Moments later, Helmut strode into the dining room, carrying his hat. He nodded to their table. “Sorry I didn’t come yesterday afternoon,” he said. “We had the funeral late in the day, and I could not get away.”
“No need to apologize,” Sofie said. “Again, we offer our condolences for you and your family. We have heard good things about Herr Stumpf.”
“Danke. I did not get a chance to talk to Peter and Johanna about what we talked about yesterday, until this morning. What they know is the bare essentials. Perhaps we can tell them more when we are together. Both of them are eager to meet their grandmother and their cousins and talk with all of you.”
Ingrid clapped her hands together and smiled. Maybe everything would be okay.
“If you are ready, you may come back to the house with me. We are all taking a day off from chores.”
“We would love to,” Sofie said.
Ryan, speaking in English, said, “Uh, we need to get our things from our room and check out of the gasthof, first. We don’t have enough money for another night.”
Sofie blushed, then told Helmut what Ryan had said.
“That is not a problem. You may stay the night at our home. I am afraid I cannot offer private quarters—the room in my father-in-law’s house is unused now, but it would be awkward to let you stay in it so soon after his passing. The best I can offer is blankets and the floor, but if you do not mind that—” His voice trailed.
“You are very kind. We would be honored to stay at your home.”
At the house, while Helmut and Ryan carried their belongings inside, Helmut’s two children studied their grandmother from a distance.
Ingrid smiled and waved at them, and the girl shyly smiled back. How lovely she was. The boy was quite handsome, too, but the girl was breathtaking.
After Helmut introduced his children, seventeen year old twins, Johanna and Peter, to the three, Sofie introduced herself and her stepson, then pulled Ingrid forward and introduced her as the twins’ grandmother, Ingrid Wagner.
Twins! Goodness, my Helmut has twins. Her grandparents had two sets of twins, her parents one set of twins, and if she remembered right, her aunt also had a set of twins. Must run in the family. A lot of handshaking, greetings and smiles followed, after which Helmut suggested they all sit in the parlor to talk.
He attempted to tell the twins about time travel, but failed utterly, then practically pleaded, using his eyes, for someone else to take over the story.
Ingrid waded in and did a fair job of explaining time travel and where they had come from in the twenty-first century. She also told them that their great-uncle and his friend had traveled back in time when they were around the twins’ age.
By the time she got to the part about their own father having lived in the twentieth century until thirty-two years ago when he time traveled, leaving his home in the year 1977 and arriving in the year 1757, their eyes were glazed over, and skepticism was evident in both faces and demeanors.
“This is a fairytale, is that not so, Papa?” Johanna asked. “Oma is trying to entertain us with stories to take our minds off Opa. That is it, ja?”
Helmut looked at Ingrid and then back to his daughter. “I am afraid the story is true, liebkin. It sounds preposterous, but I am afraid it really happened.”
“Why have you never told us before?” Peter asked. “If it is true, why did you keep it from us? Did Opa know? Was he from the future, too? Was Mutter?”
“Nein. They were from this time. Opa did know, and so did your mutter.”
Johanna turned to Ingrid. “Why did you not come here sooner?”
She told them the rest of the story, leaving out the part about Karl’s wife being murdered four months ago.
As they struggled to absorb it all, Ingrid cautioned them both. “You must not speak of this with anyone. No one outside of this group. Do you understand? We could all be in danger if anyone found out.”
Both teens nodded.
Johanna said, “Do we have more family? Are Sofie and Ryan related to us?”
Ingrid and Sofie exchanged glances. Should they keep up the pretense that Sofie was her granddaughter, or admit that they were unrelated? Ingrid couldn’t tell what Sofie expected her to do, and Sofie wasn’t saying anything. The grandfather clock in the parlor ticked loudly, or maybe it only seemed loud because everyone was waiting for an answer. Hadn’t they all had enough lies?
She took a deep breath and let it out. “My brother adopted Sofie when she was young. I helped raised her as my great-niece. Ryan is her stepson. She has a ten-year-old son named Tobias. He is with his stepfather, Sofie’s husband, Max. I guess they are your family, in a way.”
Johanna looked at Ryan and smiled shyly.
Oh, Gott! Ingrid thought. She likes him.
Helmut said, “So she is not your granddaughter?”
Ingrid shook her head. “Sorry for telling you she was.”
“So, you do not have other children, Mutter?” Helmut asked.
“You are my only child. I never remarried after your father passed.”
Helmut ran his hand through his blond hair and paced. What was he thinking?
“How can I know if you are telling me the truth now? You are not making it easy?”
“I know. We were using that story when we first arrived in Dinkelsbühl because a family—grandmother, granddaughter, and great-grandson—traveling together wouldn’t seem suspicious, or so we thought. Then, when we met you, we stuck with it until we knew for sure who you were. Do you not see? I am trying to start our relationship anew and with complete honesty.”
The grandfather clock’s ticking, the only response, suddenly sounded very loud.
“We have much more to discuss on this topic,” Helmut said, slapping his legs, seeming to make a decision, “but first we need to figure out who killed my father-in-law. Will you help me? I think we may be looking for the same man.”
“Vikktor?” Sofie asked.
Helmut nodded.
“Why would he kill Herr Stumpf? Did they know each other?”
Again, Helmut nodded. “Many years ago, while I was searching for Vikktor, I tracked him down in a small town, talking with a man I’d never seen before. I watched them for a few minutes. After Vikktor left, I approached the man. We introduced ourselves. He was Johan Stumpf. I asked about Vikktor. He said he did some occasional work for him—carpentry work—building wagons and crates and other things.”
“Did he know about Vikktor’s business?”
“Not exactly. He knew him as an importer/exporter. He showed me his workshop and introduced me to his daughter, Anna, who later became my wife.”
“So, he kind of worked for Vikktor, but was not part of the business?” Sofie asked.
Helmut didn’t answer right away. “I think Johan did small jobs for him, like I said, but Johan did not know details. Vikktor keeps people in the dark about most of his activities, as far as I can tell.”
Ingrid nodded. “That sounds like Vikktor.”
Ryan said, “Will someone tell me what’s happening? I can only understand a little of what you’re saying.”
Sofie took pity on poor Ryan, summarized what had been said, and promised to translate going forward as Helmut continued.
“Sometimes, Johan would not see him for several years and would think something had happened to Vikktor. Then he would show up. Never when I was present. I would have killed him, given the chance.”
“Papa!” Johanna said. “You would not kill anyone.”
“No one except for Vikktor Sonnenberg. He is an evil man and he has no problem killing people. Sorry, Mutter, I know he is your brother, but I cannot abide the man.”
Ingrid
nodded. She, too, had suspected that Vikktor was a criminal, for years now, but did not have any proof. It was more of a gut feeling.
Sofie said, “How did Johan get into the business of building wagons?”
“Johan, in his early days, drove wagons transporting goods and passengers. Then he met a young woman and fell in love. They married, and she wanted him to go into her father’s profession—carpentry—and stay home, rather than travel. He became an apprentice under his father-in-law.”
“So he switched from driving wagons to building them?”
Helmut shrugged. “He started with building wagons, but later he made furniture and built houses, too. Johan was a talented man.”
“Why would Vikktor kill him?” Sofie asked.
“I have thought much about it. Johan seemed nervous for the last few months. Maybe Vikktor wanted Johan to become more involved in his business. Or maybe Johan found out more about Vikktor’s criminal activities and threatened to put an end to them.”
“You think Vikktor knows you are here and are related to Johan?” Sofie asked.
“He does, but Vikktor and I have not spoken to each other in thirty years, though I have caught glimpses of him, and he may have caught glimpses of me.”
Sofie again translated for Ryan.
“A game of cat and mouse?” Ryan asked.
Sofie translated that into German.
Helmut glanced at his mother, then back at Sofie and Ryan. “I studied English in school. Mutter insisted I learn other languages, since she was a linguistics teacher. I am out of practice speaking it, but I can understand some English.” He stopped, then switching to English, said, “You do not always have to translate to German for me.” They smiled and nodded. He added, “That is a good comparison, what Ryan said.”
Ingrid looked around, assessing the room in which they were sitting. Much nicer looking than Karl’s home in Riesen, and bigger and more elegant than Monika and Gerhard’s farmhouse in Senden. Apparently, carpenters were well-paid in this century, or Johan was getting paid well for the work he did for Vikktor.
