The Fall Of White City (Gilded Age Mysteries Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

expressing the contradictions battling in his brain. He didn’t look up until Evangeline stood directly before him.
    Uttering a cry of surprise, he leaped up when he saw her. “ Fräulein! Mein Gott! What are you doing here? How is it you came to hear about this?”
    Looking him full in the face gave Evangeline a shock. Franz and Elsa Bauer were twins. Elsa had been no more than medium height. She would have been described as delicate, in form and in face. To see the girl’s features and mannerisms, the same green eyes and flax-colored hair in a masculine form, was disturbing. To now link those same features to such unfortunate events—the sister dead and the brother in prison—only increased the uneasiness of the encounter for her. She finally composed herself enough to reply, “Half the city heard about this before I did, Franz.”
    “And aren’t you afraid to be locked in a cell with a dangerous criminal like me!”
    “Is that what you are? I would never have thought it possible when you were taking English classes from me at the settlement. Never would have thought it from the way Elsa talked about you with such pride—her brother, the writer on the German newspaper the Sozialistische Tageszeitung . She always said her brother was going to be known as a great writer someday.”
    “Her brother is going to be hanged for murdering her, and there is no one in this city who will doubt that he did it!”
    “You are hasty in your judgment, my friend. Perhaps there is one person in this city who is disposed to keep an open mind.”
    Franz Bauer looked closely into Evangeline’s eyes. “You are willing to listen to the truth?”
    She half-smiled. “Why else would I have bothered to come here? As you already know, I rarely take other people’s opinions as gospel. I prefer to see for myself.”
    “Yes, yes, you are Fräulein Klarheit still. You want to get to the truth of things.” Franz used the nickname he had given Evangeline when taking his first English class from her years before—a German variation of her surname.
    She settled herself unceremoniously on the cot and looked up at Franz. Her face was expressionless, detached. “Please begin.”
    He paced toward the opposite end of the narrow cell, his hands now clasped behind his back, head bent once again in concentration. He turned and seemed on the point of speaking several times, but the memories flooding his consciousness overwhelmed him. He sighed and muttered to himself and cursed and paced until Evangeline walked over to where he stood and put her hand on his shoulder.
    “Franz!” She shook him. “This does no one any good! Please try to calm yourself.”
    He threw his head back and took a deep breath. Evangeline could see that his eyes were red from suppressed tears. “You are right, Fräulein , I must try. Even though I believe it is useless, I must try to act as if this nightmare will end, and I will somehow wake up from it.” He walked her back to the cot and seated her. Still standing and occasionally pacing fretfully, he began.
    “I was foolish to think I could prevent anything. I should have known on the night she was killed. Perhaps there is such a thing as fate— schicksal —after all.”
    Evangeline tried to bring him back to the point. “Facts, Franz, we must deal in facts if anything is to be done. What happened the night Elsa died that put you here?”
    “ Ja, ja Fräulein, das ist sehr zutreffend , ” he lapsed into German.
    “ Sie müssen Englisch sprechen, Herr Bauer. Sie sind nicht in Deutschland jetzt , ” Evangeline cautioned.
    “If I was still in Germany, this would not have happened to me.”
    “That is what we were speaking about, Franz. What did happen?”
    He shook his head, as if to clear away the multitude of images crowding his brain and to select the one that mattered. “Elsa, she had been acting strange, merkwürdig , for many months before. First singing and humming to herself, laughing too easily—too