Postcard killers

Chapter 12

Saturday, June 12

Sylvia Rudolph tilted her head to one side and smiled beautiful y.

Her eyes lit up.

"You have to let us show you our very favorite place in Stockholm.

They've got the most wonderful cakes, and their hot chocolate cups are as big as bathtubs."

The German couple laughed, their mood lightened by the thick joint the four of them had just shared.

"It's on Stortorget, the square in the Old Town that's got a ridiculously dramatic history," Mac said, putting his arm around the German woman. "The Danish king, one Christian the Tyrant, had the whole of the Swedish nobility executed there in November fifteen twenty."

"More than a hundred people lost their heads," Sylvia said. "The mass murder is stil cal ed 'the Stockholm Bloodbath.'"

The German girl shuddered.

"Ugh, how horrid."

Mac and Sylvia exchanged a quick glance and smiled at each other.

"Horrid?" This from someone whose forefathers started two world wars?

The Rudolphs held each other's hand and walked quickly up toward Borshuset, the old Stock Exchange Building, and the Nobel Museum located in it. The Germans fol owed them, giggling and stumbling.

In the cafe, actual y cal ed Chokladkoppen, "The Chocolate Cup," they ate cinnamon buns and drank homemade raspberry juice.

Sylvia couldn't take her eyes off the German woman. She real y was incredibly beautiful. Unfortunately she was light blond, almost platinum, but that could be sorted out somehow.

"Oh, I'm so glad we met you two," Sylvia said, hugging the German man. 20 "I have to have a souvenir of today! Mac, do you think the jeweler in that department store is stil open?"

Mac sighed, raising his eyebrows as he always did at this point in their script.

"Oh, dear," he said. "This is going to be expensive."

The German took out his wal et to pay for the pastries, but Mac stopped him.

"This is on us!"