1636- the Flight of the Nightingale

by David Carrico

  Carl whistled. “Wow. If Lady Beth is acting like that, she’s seriously pissed. That’s not good, man. She’s Mary Simpson’s right-hand woman, and has a lot of influence with Mary.”

  “I understand,” Johann said, “but how can I apologize if I cannot make contact with Staci?” He spread his hands in helpless hopeless frustration.

  Carl snorted. “Dunno, man. You put yourself in this mess, you’re going to have to get yourself out.” He started to turn toward the pipe closet, where it looked like the count was about done, then froze. After a moment, he looked back at Johann. “Actually, there may be one thing you can do.”

  “Name it. Anything.” Johann stared the up-timer in the eyes.

  “Talk to Mary Simpson. If you can convince her of your sincerity, she can probably bring about a meeting.” Carl’s mouth quirked, and he held both hands before him and did a balance-weighing motion. “Of course, if you can’t convince her, having attracted her specific attention may be the end of your career.”

  “I understand,” Johann murmured as they turned together to face the closet. “But do I have any choice?”

  He closed up with the rest of them in time to hear Christoph announce, “The good news is we appear to only be missing four pipes: numbers six fifty-seven, six fifty-nine, six sixty, and six sixty-two. A few of the others have been dented from being knocked around, but I am not certain that will affect the tuning. Even if it does, Master Luder should be able to restore them fairly easily.

  “The bad news is…” Christoph turned to Johann, “…the missing pipes were some of the larger pipes. If the thieves were looking for material to resell, that was the most metal available.”

  “Probably,” Johann said. He found that his temper had cooled some as a result of his conversation with the up-timer. This meant he could more easily see the reality of the situation. “And unless the Polizei could catch them quickly, they’ve probably been fed into crucibles already and we won’t be able to prove anything.”

  “You made reference to someone,” Sergeant Peltzer said, looking up from his notebook, “someone you thought might be involved?”

  And so Johann found himself explaining how there were two different organ projects in progress in Magdeburg, and how he had found himself competing with the Compenius family for both resources and workers. “So you think this Compenius, or someone who works for him, might have directed or instigated this robbery?” Peltzer observed.

  Johann sighed. “Honestly? Despite what I said earlier, I do not really think that Herr Compenius would have ordered it or participated in it. That does not mean that someone else in the community or in his associates does not see a way to profit from something like this. Can I accuse anyone now? Not really. And as I said, unless you can catch someone with the pipes, it is all supposition. But I will say that if something like this happens again, either here or in connection with Master Luder and the work he does for us, then there will be reason to ask some very pointed questions of Herr Compenius.”

  Peltzer nodded. “I have the Kelly Construction mark that is on the tools; I have the numbers that were on the pipes. Is there a maker’s mark on the pipes?”

  “Yes,” Heinrich said. He picked up one of the smaller pipes and showed the mark to the sergeant, who pretty carefully sketched that into his notebook as well. Johann looked at the sketches over the sergeant’s shoulder—the man was decent at it. Much better than he himself was, Johann admitted.

  Peltzer closed the notebook and put it back in his jacket packet. “We may be able to find the tools,” he said. “The pipes…” he shrugged, “…that is more iffy. If they were stolen as a matter of opportunity, perhaps. But if they were stolen for the value of the metal, then most likely, as you said,” he nodded toward Johann, “they have already been cut up and fed into a crucible to be turned into some other item or into anonymous ingots. We will look, but I cannot promise anything.”

  “Understood,” Carl said. “Let me know if anything comes up or if you find anything.”

  The detective nodded and touched a finger to the band of his hat. “This way out?” he said nodding back down the hallway.

  “Yes,” Carl said. “Let me show you.”

  “No need,” Peltzer said. “I can find my way. Good day to you, meine Herren.”

  As the detective walked away, Carl looked at the Bachs. “Well, I suppose it could be worse,” he said.

  “Indeed,” Johann said. His brothers nodded in support. “But it is bad enough. Replacing the stolen pipes is going to eat into both our schedule and our finances, as Master Luder will probably have to buy more ore.”

  “He told me recently that he has quite a few of the tin cakes that the local miners produce when they partially smelt the ore.” Heinrich sounded confident about that, Johann noted. “So he can probably get the pipes replaced fairly quickly. What that does to the long-term schedule, though, he will have to address.”

  “Right.” Johann nodded, then looked at Carl. “Meanwhile, can we find another storage location for these pipes that is perhaps a bit more secure just in case our visitors come back?”

  “I was about to suggest the same thing,” Carl said. “Leave me your brothers, and we’ll get that taken care of. I’ve already sent a preliminary report to Lady Beth about the theft, but I suggest you go turn in a personal report on it. She’ll appreciate it, and right now you need all the brownie points you can get in that court.”

  An idea that had slowly been growing in the back of Johann’s mind for some little while that morning finally arrived. He paused with his mouth open just before his response to Carl came out for an awkward moment, then turned to his brothers. “How soon can we have enough ranks of pipes set up in the pipe lofts that we could give a…what do they call it…a demo of the organ?”

  Both of his brothers stared at him in confusion. “We do not have anywhere near enough installed to provide the full voicing,” Christoph said. “You know that.”

  “We barely have a thousand pipes yet,” Heinrich said. “You know that. We are a long way from being done with this build.”

  “Yes, yes,” Johann said with a wave of his hand and an unfamiliar smile on his face. “But do we have enough that we can have most of the tonal ranges covered, even though we do not have all the voices or stops or registers covered yet?”

  The two younger Bachs looked at each other. Christoph shrugged. “You are the pipe man,” he said as he pointed an index finger at Heinrich. “You get to answer that.”

  Heinrich’s brow furrowed in thought, and he turned to stare at the pipes in the closet for a long moment, then his head swiveled and tilted up, brow still furrowed. He was obviously considering the installations that had already occurred. Johann and Christoph waited. Surprisingly, so did Carl.

  Heinrich finally brought his eyes back down to their level and his brow smoothed. “With what is here,” he gestured toward the closet, “and what is already in place, I think we might.”

  “Will Master Luder need to replace the stolen pipes for that?” Johann asked.

  “Probably,” Heinrich said.

  Johann nodded. “Well enough, then. Get these pipes to a more secure location, then you get to Master Luder’s shop,” he pointed to Heinrich. “Tell him what has happened, and warn him he might ought to take some precautions around both the pipes in progress and around the stock of his ore. Thieves might not take the cakes, but if he has refined ingots or bars, those could be targets for anyone looking to seize an opportunity.”

  “And you?” Christoph said.

  “I,” Johann said with a deep breath, “am going to go face Frau Lady Beth Haygood.”

  “Good luck with that,” Carl muttered.

  “Indeed.”

  * * *

  “Herr Bach,” Lady Beth Haygood said in a decidedly frosty tone of voice. That, combined with the fact that she was using his surname when she had previously called him “Herr Johann” or just “Johann” in conversation, was an indication of just how
—one hesitated to use words like “upset” or “irritated” with Lady Beth—angry she still was with him.

  “Frau Haygood,” Johann replied formally, following Lady Beth’s lead. He gave a slight bow, and remained standing before her desk. She pointedly did not invite or direct him to sit in the visitor’s chair.

  “You said this was official business,” Lady Beth said, voice still cold. “Get on with it.”

  “You had word from Herr Schockley earlier today I believe, about a theft at the opera house construction site.” Johann paused long enough to allow Lady Beth to nod, then continued with, “After some investigation of our own and by Sergeant Peltzer of the Magdeburg Polizei, it was determined that the crime appears to be limited to breaking into two storage closets on the lower level of the building.”

  “Lower level?” Lady Beth said. “That almost makes it sound like someone knew what they were looking for.”

  Johann gave a small shrug. “Quite possibly, but there is no way to prove it at this point.”

  “What did they take?”

  “From one of the closets they took several hand tools belonging to Kelly Construction.”

  “I can imagine how happy Carl was with that.” A very small smile flitted across Lady Beth’s face.

  “Indeed.”

  “Since you are here, am I to assume that this has affected your project?”

  Johann nodded. “From the other storage closet they took four of the larger pipes that had been formed and were waiting to be installed in ranks up in the pipe lofts.”

  “Four pipes?” Lady Beth was surprised by that.

  Johann nodded again.

  “Why on Earth would they do that? What good can they get out of four big pieces of tin pipe?” Now she sounded irritated. Her voice had warmed to reach that level, at least.

  “Our guess, which Sergeant Peltzer agrees with, is that they stole the pipes to either melt down themselves and sell the resulting ingots or to sell to someone who will melt them down and either reuse or sell them.”

  “Ah.” Lady Beth reached up and tapped her right index finger against her lips a few times. After that moment, she focused on Johann. “Is there a connection with the Dom organ project here?”

  Johann nodded in respect of her quick perception. “It is possible, but unless the Polizei actually locate the pipes, it is impossible to prove. Once it is melted down, how can anyone tell where an ingot of metal came from?”

  “Yeah,” Lady Beth said. “We had some troubles like that in the up-time, where folks were stealing copper wiring and stuff from construction sites. Once they got off the sites, one piece of wire looks like another, and it was very hard to prove anything.”

  She sat up straight. “But only four pipes. That’s not too bad, I guess. It could definitely have been worse. But what does that do to your project and your schedule?”

  “Nothing good, obviously,” Johann said. “They took four of the larger pipes in the closet. It will take some time and a noticeable amount of the ore stock to replace them. The time may not be too bad, as Master Luder is actually a bit ahead of schedule.” Lady Beth looked surprised and pleased at the same time at that news. “But the impact on the ore stock cannot be worked around, I am afraid.”

  Lady Beth’s mouth quirked. “I have a certain amount of cushion built into the project plan, so this won’t kill it. And it doesn’t sound like it would take a lot of money to buy the material to replace whatever gets used. But I really don’t want to hear about any more of a delay than absolutely has to happen. We’re already three weeks behind schedule. I don’t want any more.”

  Johann nodded at that.

  After a moment, Lady Beth said, “And tell Carl this is why he has insurance.”

  “I will do that,” Johann said.

  Johann started to turn, when Lady Beth said, “Hang on a moment.”

  He turned back and faced her. She leaned back in her chair and steepled her hands in front of her, the tips of both forefingers resting on her lips and touching her nose. After a moment, she lowered her hands. “I’m pretty pissed off at you, and you know why.”

  Johann took a deep breath. “Yes, I do. And you should be.”

  Lady Beth’s eyebrows rose. She obviously hadn’t been expecting that response. “Then why?”

  “Rigidity. Pride. Lack of understanding. Stupidity. A down-timer caught in an up-timer world for a moment. And probably not least, disregard for the worth of another person when her passions conflicted with mine.”

  Johann clenched his hands tightly behind his back, strong organist fingers clamping and compressing flesh and bones almost to the breaking point. Lady Beth folded her hand across her stomach, and stared at him for a long moment. Johann bore that stare as best he could, even though he most wanted to evade her gaze and look anywhere but in the eyes of this powerful and influential woman.

  “What are you going to do about it?” Lady Beth at length asked. “Staci won’t see you.”

  Johann sighed. “If I were her, I would not see me, either. I suspect her conversations about me are rather unflattering.”

  “Oh, she says nothing about you,” Lady Beth said, the corner of her mouth quirking up after she spoke. “Her friends, on the other hand…the mildest word I’ve heard is ‘jerk,’ and they go downhill rapidly after that. Some of them are using German words that I don’t know…yet.”

  Johann winced. “Not undeserved, I am certain.” He brought his hands before him and held them out. “I have an idea that I am going to pursue. To that end, would you please tell Frau Simpson that I will be doing a ‘demo’ of the organ in the near future, to which I would like to invite both her and yourself?”

  Lady Beth considered that, then nodded. “I will pass the word. I assume you’ll let us know a specific date and time before long?”

  “Yes,” Johann said.

  “Very good,” Lady Beth replied, sitting up again. “Thank you for bringing me the news yourself, Herr Bach.”

  Her voice still wasn’t very warm, but it was much more so than it had been at the beginning of the conversation. Johann counted that as a gain.

  “You are very welcome, Frau Haygood. Good day.”

  “Good day, Herr Bach.”

  * * *

  Christoph watched Johann stride away confidently the next morning after they left Frau Zenzi’s bakery. “He seems to be in a better mood,” he remarked to Heinrich.

  “Umm-hmm,” Heinrich mumbled around the mouthful of bread he had just taken out of his roll. He chewed manfully, and swallowed the lump before it was half ready to be swallowed.

  “Do not do that,” Christoph said, looking at the lump moving down his brother’s throat. “That hurts to watch.”

  “He does seem a bit happier,” Heinrich responded, ignoring Christoph’s interlude. “Or at least is less desperately unhappy. If I did not know better, I would say he has thought of a way to address his problem.”

  Christoph shrugged. “Possibly. But what?”

  “You know Johann,” Heinrich said. “He will have a plan. He has a plan for everything, even using the chamber pot.”

  Christoph snorted, and took a bite out of his own roll.

  October 5th, 1635

  As it turned out, it was a bit over two weeks before Johann could issue his invitation to the Fraus Simpson and Haygood. It had taken Master Luder a bit longer than expected to replace the missing pipes, and it turned out that the missing pipes were definitely required to finish the ranks that Heinrich had determined were necessary for the “demo.” Then, once they had the pipes, it had taken a bit longer to install the ranks in the pipe lofts than Heinrich had anticipated. One of the fittings on the air flow pipe from the second wind-chest didn’t seal correctly, and it took another day or so to come up with a solution to that, by which point Johann was rather grateful for the presence of Melanie Matowski, as she was the person who made the suggestion that provided the fix.

  Johann sent his invitation to Frau Lady Beth’s office,
and the next day received a reply that the two women would be available in two days after the noon hour. So he made his plans.

  When the appointed day arrived, Johann was almost shocked to discover how nervous he was. He hadn’t had fluttering stomach as a performer for years, so it was definitely different to feel it on this day. Maybe because this would be judgment on his craft as an organ builder rather than as a performer. Or maybe because more than just his reputation rested on how he would be received today.

  Johann had wrestled with where to be to welcome the ladies upon their arrival. His first inclination had been to allow Christoph or Heinrich to greet them at the doors and escort them to the auditorium, where he would meet them before he took his seat at the console. But after consideration, he decided he should meet them when they arrived, and personally escort them. Given that he was in serious need of support from both of them, both personally and professionally speaking, he didn’t want to risk alienating them by appearing to be standoffish or reserved or, God forbid, proud or arrogant. It was a time to treat them less as garrulous and gregarious up-timers and more as the patrons that they truly were.

  And so, he found himself standing on the front portico of the opera hall between Christoph and Heinrich. They were all dressed in their best clothing, which had been recently cleaned. He’d even made his brothers get their beards trimmed, while he had opted for the clean-shaven look that was becoming more of a thing as the up-timer influence continued to spread in little ways.

  “Where are they?” Heinrich muttered. “When are they going to get here?”

  Johann gave a strained chuckle. “Lesson number one in dealing with patrons: Their time is more important than your time. They will usually be late. Assuming they show up at all, that is.”

  “But are the up-timers really patrons?” Christoph asked. “And do they act the same way?”