Maybe he knows I saw him go into the tunnel with her, she thought. He knows, and he wants to kill me.

But what if Henry was telling the truth, and the Gemini were real, and he was a detective, trying to track down whoever killed Abriana and Elsie and the girl in Hell Gate?

She ran a hand through her cropped curls, looked up to see Henry muttering to himself and punching at the air. If Henry was a detective, she could help him find the killer. If Henry was the murderer, she would need more proof of that.

She closed her eyes for a moment. Taking a deep breath, she walked to his side and pointed to the Lagoon.

“We can look over there,” she said.

They continued without speaking. Henry seemed subdued and nervous. She saw him watching her from the corners of his eyes as he kept touching the pocket that held his wallet. As they passed the elephants lined up alongside the Waterdrome, she asked him, “Did you really know Elsie Paroubek?”

“We were very great friends” was all he said.

Chapter 43

Chapter 43

HE PAID HIS entrance fee and made his way through the crowd. A hot breeze carried the smells of burnt sugar and the yeasty scent of beer. A group of boys scampered along the path, shouting as they kicked up dust. The strains of a polka vied with the ballyhoo from the Great Train Robbery.

“See the bloodthirsty crime! Your only chance to see Tom Mix, the star of the moving pictures live and in the flesh!”

A warm lassitude filled him, a sense that his flesh melted into the air like wax into a flame. Sweat trickled down his neck; he thought of Maria, the girl’s head replaced by a doll’s. So pretty.

He made a detour around the dunk tank, arriving at a broad avenue that surrounded green lawn and trees. An organ-grinder strolled across the grass, trailed by half a dozen children waving balloons on sticks. A Chinese woman selling paper fans from a tray was doing a brisk business. He stopped and bought one for a penny, but it was useless against this infernal heat. He decided on the German beer garden, which had electrical fans inside.

It was crowded in the beer hall. He went to the bar and ordered a pilsner, drank it, and set down another nickel, waiting as the bartender refilled his glass, then walked slowly through the room.

Couples sat at tables, laughing and talking in German, Italian, Polish, and Greek and Czech. Jungle noises. The girl in Indiana had squeaked some foreign nonsense before she fell silent.

He found an empty table and sat. Waiters in long white aprons carried trays filled with steins. From the garden erupted waves of music from the oompah band, singing, and the thunder of hobnailed boots pounding the wooden dance floor.