She asked, ‘What’s wrong with this boat?’
‘Too many things to name,’ Jones cracked.
‘I meant in terms of Ludwig.’
Jones smiled. ‘In that case, not much. It fits him perfectly.’
‘I would agree with you, except for one tiny detail. Do you see it?’
Payne, Jones, and Ulster stared at the antique boat, trying to figure out what she was alluding to. At first glance, the boat seemed to fit Ludwig’s lifestyle. It was ornate, whimsical and somehow innocent – like something out of a child’s dream. Even the carved figurehead, a naked cupid shooting his bow, seemed appropriate for a man of his ilk.
Sensing their confusion, Heidi gave them a hint to speed up their search. ‘Think about the boat in terms of the riddle. Where would a swan go on his journey home?’
A few seconds later, Payne figured it out.
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Payne grinned with pride when he solved the riddle. ‘That’s really clever.’
‘What’s really clever?’ Jones asked.
‘The riddle. We were thinking about it all wrong.’
‘Wait! You figured it out?’
Payne nodded. ‘Yep, I figured it out.’
Jones turned towards him. ‘Well?’
‘Well, what? Figure it out for yourself.’
Jones shook his head. ‘You’re so full of shit! You don’t know the answer.’
Payne raised his right hand. ‘I swear to Ludwig, I figured it out. Like I said, we were thinking about it all wrong.’
‘In what sense?’ Ulster asked.
‘The swan isn’t the one going home. So stop thinking about nests and lakes. Think about it from a different perspective.’
Heidi nodded her approval. Until that moment, she wasn’t sure if Payne had actually worked it out. ‘Jon’s right. The “his” in the riddle does not refer to the swan. Someone else is making the journey. Focus on the words. Where would a swan go on his journey home?’
Jones was getting more and more confused by their clues. ‘Wait! What are you talking about? Who’s making the damn journey?’
Ulster broke into a wide grin. Thanks to Heidi’s hint, he had solved the riddle. ‘Lohengrin! Lohengrin is making the journey!’
Jones grimaced at the clue. ‘You mean the Swan Knight? How in the hell am I supposed to know where he’s going? I’m not a travel agent!’
Payne laughed at Jones’s frustration since he was always bragging about how much smarter he was than Payne. ‘You don’t have to know where the knight is going. That doesn’t matter. The question is, where would the swan go on the knight’s journey?’
‘Don’t ask me. I’d never take a bird on a fucking trip.’
Payne and Ulster laughed so loudly tears formed in their eyes.
Meanwhile, Heidi managed to bite her tongue and stifle her laughter. Feeling bad for Jones, she put her hands on his shoulders and gently turned him towards the boat. While standing next to him, she simplified the riddle so he could solve it. ‘Lohengrin used to travel in a cockleshell boat pulled by a swan. In that scenario, where would the swan go?’
Jones shrugged. ‘In the front?’
‘Exactly! The swan would go in the front, or else it couldn’t pull the boat.’
Jones, who was doing his best to ignore Payne and Ulster, pointed at the boat. ‘But I don’t see a swan. I see a fat-ass cupid.’
She nodded. ‘Which is the problem I mentioned earlier. Why would Ludwig build an exact replica of the Swan Knight’s boat in his private grotto but omit the most important part? He wouldn’t – unless the added feature was more important than a swan.’
Suddenly excited, Jones turned towards Payne and smacked him in the back of the head. ‘Are you listening to this?’
Payne’s laughter stopped immediately. ‘Listening to what?’
‘I figured the riddle out yesterday, and you guys made fun of me.’
Payne stared at him. ‘What are you talking about?’
Jones refreshed their memories. ‘Petr said Ludwig had hidden the secret document in his gartenhaus, and I said I had done the same thing while crossing the Afghan border. Remember?’
Payne nodded. ‘What’s your point?’
Always the showman, Jones used his hands to explain the process. ‘According to Heidi, Ludwig took his secret document and stuffed it right up cupid’s gartenhaus. Probably did it in the dark while listening to opera.’
She blushed at his description. ‘I never said that.’
‘That’s because you’re a lady. But that’s what you meant, right?’
‘Not at all! I simply think the document is inside the cherub.’
‘Yeah,’ Jones said, still pleading his case, ‘which is what I said yesterday. The secret document is inside the cupid’s – wink, wink – cherub.’
Payne rolled his eyes at Jones’s antics. His friend would do just about anything to avoid being wrong. ‘As far as I’m concerned, I don’t care who solved the riddle. The only thing that matters is what happens next. How do we retrieve the document?’
Ulster made a suggestion. ‘Why don’t we pull the boat over and examine it from shore?’
Heidi shook her head. ‘We can’t. It’s on a metal stand to keep it from rotting.’
Ulster squatted and stared at the lake. For the first time, he realized the boat was being held just above the surface of the water. ‘Now I feel foolish. I didn’t even notice the stand.’
‘No one does,’ she admitted.
Payne studied the lake. ‘How deep is the water out there?’
‘Thigh-high at most. Back in Ludwig’s day, he used to invite opera singers to perform on this side of the grotto. Once they arrived, he made them sing while standing in the water.’
‘Why is that?’ Ulster wondered.
She pointed to the alcove at the far end of the lake. It depicted a scene from one of Wagner’s operas. ‘He used the mural as their backdrop. It helped set the mood for their performance.’
Ulster chuckled. ‘He really was an interesting chap.’
‘Wasn’t he? I’ve been a fan of his for a very long time.’
Payne cleared his throat to get their attention. ‘As far as I’m concerned, we have two viable options. If you want, I can hop in the lake, rip cupid off the boat, and bring it to shore …’
She shuddered at the thought. ‘Or?’
‘Or you can wade over there and examine it yourself.’
She shook her head. ‘I vote for option three.’
‘Which is?’
She poked him in the chest. ‘You get in the water, and I climb on your shoulders. Then you walk me over there like a tamed hippopotamus.’
Jones laughed. ‘I vote for that one.’
Ulster nodded. ‘Me, too. It’s the chivalrous thing to do.’
‘Screw chivalry. I want to see Jon treated like a hippo,’ Jones cracked.
Payne shrugged. He was more than willing to take one for the team. Before climbing into the lake, he took off his shoes and emptied his pockets. He set everything on the path near a fake stalagmite, then stepped over the safety rail where Heidi was waiting for him.
‘How do you want to do this?’ he asked.
‘You step in, then I’ll climb on,’ she replied.
Unsure of the water’s depth, Payne sat on the stone ledge that surrounded the lake and slowly submerged his feet. The water was cold, but bearable. The underwater lights and the reflection of the colourful mural on the rippling surface prevented him from seeing the bottom, but he sensed it wasn’t very deep. Five seconds later, he was sure of it. Hopping in with both feet, the water stopped just above his knees. ‘Now it’s your turn. Climb aboard.’