Chapter Eleven
The Spy
As everyone in the inn was woken by Polka's screams Ballad re-entered Claves' room and threw a sheet over her body. Viola was the first person to reach the room.
"What happen- Oh! Oh, oh, oh..." She put her hands up to her mouth.
"Get Polka out of here!" Ballad commanded, waving Viola away. The two girls left as everyone else in the inn, nearly 50 people, tried to see what had happened. Jazz became even paler than Polka and began to shake uncontrollably when he learned what had happened. The innkeeper sent for the police and Beat ran to get Cello.
"How do you think this happened?" Melody asked Ballad as they waited for the constables.
"I don't know. You're the smart one, you figure it out." Ballad grumbled. Melody glanced around the room. She walked over to the window and looked to the cobblestones two stories below.
"No murderer would try to jump out the window, there's no good landing spot. Anyway, the window's locked."
"You think Claves was murdered?" Allegretto asked. He was standing in the doorway to make sure no one came inside.
"What else could it be?" Melody replied. "She couldn't have stabbed herself in the back."
"Good point." Frèdèric suddenly poked his head in.
"Where's Falsetto?" He asked. Ballad ran his hand through his hair in frustration.
"She was running outside. Right before Polka shouted." Allegretto's eyes grew wide.
"Do you think..." He began. Everyone knew what the boy would say next, "... Falsetto killed Claves?"
"We can't rule it out." Said Melody. "How is Jazz doing, Frèdèric?" Chopin shrugged.
"Viola is trying to comfort him, but I don't know how well it's helping. Polka is doing good though." Chopin headed back downstairs as Cello and the police reached the inn. It seemed like an eternity for the police take the body away and clean the room after they inspected the area. They came to the same conclusion as Melody; Claves had been murdered. Most likely by a loyalist to Waltz who learned that Claves was part of Andantino. No one told the police about Falsetto. After lunch Jazz, his eyes red and his hands still shaking, sat down next to Ballad.
"Pack your bags," Jazz said in a flat, almost bored tone, "we don't want to miss our ship to Baroque." Ballad nodded and told everyone else. He knew better than argue with his leader right now.
As Frèdèric, Polka, Allegretto, and Beat waved goodbye from the shore Jazz slowly crawled into his assigned bunk in the ship and fell asleep. When he woke up he was standing at the edge of a rocky cliff and the wind was so strong that it nearly knocked him over. The ground was just loose stones and red dirt, no grass or plants were anywhere. Someone touched him on the shoulder and Jazz turned around. It was Claves.
"You're supposed to be dead." He said surprised. Claves laughed.
"I am dead. This is a dream."
"Oh." Jazz whispered. Claves hugged him.
"It's alright," she said, "but I have something to tell you."
"What?" He asked as the wind died away.
"I... I worked for Count Waltz as a spy." Claves looked down at her feet as she said this. A sword appeared in Jazz's hand and he rose it to strike her, but then dropped it.
"Everything you ever told was a lie, wasn't it? That night when we first met Frèdèric and the others; they told us Legato thought they were Andantino. You told Waltz we were coming, didn't you?!" Jazz demanded. Claves nodded, a tear falling down her cheek.
"I quit though," she sobbed, "that's why she killed me. I wouldn't give them any more information. I... I didn't want to hurt you. I love you." Jazz held Claves close.
"I forgive you." He whispered into her ear. "But who killed you?" Claves had begun to fade away like a ghost and her voice was nearly impossible to hear.
"Falsetto knows..." She said. As she faded Claves had walked out over the cliff edge and was now floating in the air.
"Wait!" Jazz cried, leaping towards her. But she had already disappeared and Jazz found himself falling... falling... falling...
"Jazz! Jazz! Wake up!" Melody was shaking his shoulders roughly. He sat up and Melody breathed a sigh of relief. "You were screaming," she explained, "probably because of a nightmare. How do you feel?" Jazz told her he felt fine and told her his dream.
"Do you think it means something? Could Claves have really talked to me?" He asked.
"I don't know." Melody admitted. "But I know a way we can find out."
"What?"
"We find Falsetto and ask her what she knows."
------
Legato burst into Waltz's private chambers.
"You killed her!" He shouted. "You killed Claves! We needed her!" Waltz was sitting on the throne, slouched over as if he was vegatable. He giggled.
"Oops. Guess I forgot to tell you about that. Must have slipped my mind, ha ha." The blonde-haired ruler sat up, becoming more serious. "Anyway, I didn't really kill her. Rondo did the actual killing part, I just told her to do it. Don't look so glum! I have other spies." Waltz stopped talking a moment to sip a glass of wine. "Mmm, that's good. Do you want some? No? Oh well."
"Who are the other spies?" Legato asked.
"Oh ho! He asks who the other spy is! Well, I shall not tell him. Even Claves did not know who the other spies were."
"There's more than one?"
"Yes, yes. There's two actually, but one of them is in Baroque. The other... Well, you'll meet them eventually. Right now the other is traveling with the Andantino leader, like Claves would have been if she hadn't refused to do her job. Oh, Legato?"
"Yes, my lord?"
"Would you get me Rondo? I need to tell her something."
