Chapter 21: The Speakers in the Square

At noon the whole valley stood in the village square.

Paper flags hung from the lamp posts, and the ski school children lined up for the race with numbers pinned to their jackets.

The stage stood in front of the Gasthaus with two big speakers on stands at either end.

Konrad Seidl waited beside the mayor with a microphone in his hand.

He had put on a fresh loden coat.

I walked into the square with all four of them around me.

Tobias was on my right and Jonas on my left, and Stefan carried a flat brown envelope under his arm.

Felix walked behind us with the bank manager, who had come in his own car and said very little.

Every head turned.

I heard the whisper run through the crowd, low and fast, and I kept walking.

Seidl saw me.

He smiled and lifted the microphone.

"Good people of the valley," he said, and the speakers boomed it back over the snow. "Thank you for coming to the festival."

A small cheer went up.

"Before we begin the races, I have a short matter of public concern." He turned his head toward me. "It touches one of our oldest families."

The mayor looked at his shoes.

"Herr Seidl," I said, loudly, and my voice carried across the whole square. "Go ahead."

He stopped.

I had spoiled his pause.

"Play it," I said. "I'll wait."

He glanced at the man standing by the speakers, a young technician with a laptop on a folding table.

The technician looked at him blankly.

"Now," Seidl said, sharp.

The speakers crackled.

Keep reading free with an account. Start They Thought I Was Out Cold, So I Let All Four Keep Going from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.