Gretel and the Case of the Missing Frog Prints Read Online Free Page A

she does not appear at Kingsman Headquarters by five o’clock today a warrant will be issued for her arrest,” he paused for effect and then leaned further through the door and added loudly, “. . . arrest for murder!”
    So saying he turned on his heel and marched away. Gretel’s calves were cramping up horribly as she struggled to emerge from her hiding place.
    Hans swung the door shut and turned to her, beaming.
    â€œWell, that went rather well, wouldn’t you say?”
    â€œA hike, Hans? A hike ?”
    â€œAh.”
    â€œNever mind, the notion seemed to stun him into cooperation. But we’ve only bought ourselves a couple of hours. There is action to be taken, Hans, there are plans to be set in motion.”
    â€œAny of those involve me stopping off at the inn for a stiffener?” Hans asked.
    â€œCertainly not. You will be far too busy buying tickets for the stage to Nuremberg.”
    â€œI will? Oh! Did you say ticket s with an ‘s’—as in, one for you, one for me? Or perhaps you’re planning to take someone else. Didn’t hear you say I was going with you. Would have remembered that. So, you’re taking someone other? Hang it all, Gretel, I did ask first.”
    Gretel snatched up paper and quill from the chaos on the desk and beckoned to Hans. “Don’t talk nonsense,” she told him, “there simply isn’t time. Here, scratch out a letter to your good friend Wolfie Pretzel. Inform him we are coming to visit and should be there by Friday lunchtime at the latest.”
    â€œWe are? We will?” Hans bent to his task, tongue out, forming each word with maddening slowness.
    Gretel couldn’t watch. “Post that on your way to buying the tickets,” she said, extracting a slim roll of notes from her corset and handing it to him. “You’ll need this. Now, just to make quite sure we are planning the same trip, what are you going to do? To whom? With what? And when?”
    â€œOh good, a quiz! I like quizzes. Let me see, now. I’m writing to Wolfie to tell him we are coming to stay—he’ll be thrilled skinny, you know, loves company does good old Wolfie. Not that many people bother with him, can’t think why . . .”
    â€œAnd then . . .” Gretel prodded.
    â€œAnd then I’m posting the letter when I go out to buy two tickets to Nuremberg on the evening stage.”
    â€˜Very good, Hans. And . . .”
    â€œ. . . and then I’m . . .” he hesitated. His eyes darted back and forth and finally crossed as he tried to recall his instructions. He shook his head. “No, it’s no good, it’s gone. What am I doing next?”
    â€œWhat I always tell you to do when you’ve bought tickets, remember? You come straight home. Got that?”
    â€œHa! Of course. I come straight home.”
    â€œRight. I’ll pack.” Gretel headed toward the stairs. She had not got half way up when Hans’s plaintive question reached her.
    â€œSo I don’t stop off at the inn for a fortifying glass of something, just to set me up for the journey and whatnot? Do I not?”
    â€œHans!” Gretel snapped. “Post letter. Buy tickets. Return home! Do not stray from the path!”
    â€œBut . . .”
    â€œI’m relying on you, Hans. You have to get back in time to pack provisions for travelling—black bread, bratwurst, glühwein. You know I’d make a mess of it. We don’t want to be hungry on that stagecoach now, do we? It’s a long way to Nuremberg.”
    Hans brightened. “If there’s a snack to be packed, I’m your man! There is an art to it, you know. Can’t just throw together any old thing at the last minute. Recipe for hunger and disappointment, that is.”
    â€œHans, please . . .”
    â€œRight you are. Letter. Tickets. Home. Snack!”
    Gretel watched him pluck his hat from the hall stand and leave through the