Gaby Book 28 ~ Balancing Trick ~ Chapter *21*

Gaby Book 28  Balancing Trick by Maddy Bell Copyright© 2023 Madeline Bell

 
"Did you hear the news,” Max asked as I strapped myself into my seat.
"What news?”
"They got someone for killing that taxi driver,” Freddie put in from the front seat.
"Didn’t know one had been killed,” I admitted.
"It was a couple of years ago,”Olaf mentioned.
"You remember Gab, everyone at school was paranoid about it,” Freddy supplied.

I wracked my brains, nothing immediately came to mind, so much was going on in my life that I can’t remember the half of it.

"Vaguely?”
"It was all over the news for weeks,” Max added.

I did have a vague recollection of seeing posters up, a picture of a woman with ‘Mord’ at the top, you know the sort of thing, if you have any information contact the Polizei. I don’t recall any hysteria but something like that probably did put people on edge.

‘And breaking news this Friday morning,” the voice on the radio started as Madonna’s Material Girl faded to its conclusion.

Olaf reached over and turned up the volume.

‘A man has been arrested in connection with the murder of Angelika Lindt in two thousand and five. The thirty five year old taxi driver was found in woodland near Rech in the Ahrtal, the victim of a frenzied attack after picking up a fare at Remagen bahnhof. It is understood the man arrested in Mannheim yesterday is also expected to be charged with several assaults on women across the Mittelrhein dating back more than ten years. More on this story in the main bulletin at seven thirty. Next up, its Michael Bublé and Everything’.

"Guess you can sleep better now Gab,” Freddy suggested as Olaf turned Bublé down to a less painful level.
"I guess,” I allowed.

Well it hadn’t exactly kept me awake nights, least not that I remember and certainly not recently.

"Fancy going to the Karneval in Adenau tomorrow?” Max proposed.
"Yes but I can’t.”
"Make your mind up.”

There were suppressed sniggers from the front seats.

"I have, yes I’d like to go, but no I can’t because I’m racing.”
"You could’ve just said.”
"I did.”
"Looks like you’re on your own Maxxie boy,” Freddie stated, "I’m taking Sabine.”
"Might give it a miss then,” Max sighed.
"Not on my account, I’m sure Sabine won’t mind you tagging along.”
"As if,” Max blustered.
"Just saying,” I stated with a slight smirk.

Sabine, it has to be said, has a bit of a reputation, she’s had more boyfriends than I’ve won races, Freddy is just the latest in a long line.
 

Friday’s are a bit of a strange affair, I only have one lecture, at twelve o’clock, I’m often home by four. That of course means I have pretty much all morning to kill, well in theory we’re supposed to be doing course work but a lot of people just come in late. I could do that – if I got the train but I’d still need to leave by nine, its easier to come down with the lads.

This week I do have an essay to write so I headed to the library, its quieter than the so called ‘study hall’ and of course its handy if you need to look stuff up. There was a spot in a quiet corner, I know, a quieter place in an already quiet place, anyhow, I set up camp, made myself comfortable and, well nothing. I stared at the blank sheet, at my notes but my mind was as bereft as the paper.

Instead of ‘Erforderliche Schritte für eine wirksame Behebung von Kundenbeschwerden’ my thoughts strayed to the demise of Angelika Lindt two years ago. They say that most murder victims know their attackers, I guess a taxi driver would ‘know’ quite a few people especially somewhere like the Ahrtal where there aren’t a lot of taxis and most users are probably ‘regulars’. Did one of her regular fares kill her or was it really a random attack, a robbery gone wrong maybe, on the radio they said it was a frenzied attack which sounds more, I dunno, personal?

If you watch Tatort or stuff like Midsomer Murders, one of Dad’s favourites, not the same dubbed into German of course, you’d think violent death was an everyday thing. I suppose somewhere like Köln or Frankfurt it might be more commonplace but in the sleepy Ahrtal its rare. I suppose driving a taxi might be considered a risky job, especially for a woman, it shouldn’t be but you are on your own, with strangers, anything could happen and for poor Angelika it did.

None of this musing was getting ink on paper, I read the title again, looked at my notes from Lisbet’s tutorial on the subject and started to write, ‘Customer complaints…’
 

"You ready for the weekend kiddo?” Dad asked when I took him a cup of tea.
"As I’ll ever be I guess. What’re you doing?”
"Sorting out next months race programme.”
"Thought you did that at the beginning of the season?”
"Things change, races get cancelled, we get invites and we still have to actually enter and pay to race. Then of course there’s all the travel and accommodation, we have to pass on some events due to budget issues, we don’t have a bottomless money pit. Not only that but I’m doing it for both squads at the minute.”
"Any news on the new DS?”
"Like I said last night, hopefully next week.”
"And you won’t tell me who?”
"Nope, it wouldn’t be fair to them or us, they might decide not to do it or we might not offer the post to the first comer. So no, you’ll find out as soon as a decision is made. You need a lift tonight?”

Tonight? Tonight? Oh, Garde.

"Yes?”
"Okay, make sure you’re all packed for tomorrow, we’ve got an early start.”
"How early is early?”
"I want to be on the road by seven.”
"Urgh!”
"And make sure you’ve got enough clothes including your team frock, remember its all weekend.”
"Do we have to wear them? They make us look like right dorks.”
"Yes you do and I think you look really smart, very professional.”
"Yes Dad,” I sighed, "Whatever. I take it Mum’s gone?”
"This morning, Maria’s baptism by fire.”

The seniors have got a four day in Prague, somewhere I’ve never been, I don’t envy them the drive, I’m sure Dad said it was about seven or eight hours, virtually right across Germany and then some. At least we’re only going up near Bremen, we should be there for lunch, the first stage is in the afternoon.

"And chips for tea?”
"Maybe not sausages?”
"Okay, I’ll see what there is.”

What there was was some liver, not something we have often, maybe not often enough, its fairly cheap and its quick and easy to cook. Hmm, liver, chips and thick onion gravy, I suppose we could have mash? Nah, chips is easier, some nice big English style chips. I did the prep and headed upstairs to get ready for Garde – and pack for the weekend, the food won’t take long to cook once Mand gets in.
 

Of course, at Garde all talk was about the Lindt murder. The Polizei haven’t named the suspect yet, which of course was grist to the rumour mills, speculation went from a jilted lover to a homicidal maniac. From what I’ve heard so far the latter is more likely than the former but you know what gossips are like.

I was a bit sidelined to be honest, its not just the clubs cheerleaders at Adenau tomorrow, the Garde are there too so they were running through the programme. It wasn’t a dead loss, most of the stuff I could do on my own but you feel a bit daft doing a solo wheel or march so I missed those bits. No pizza tonight – well we’ve already had it once this week, after cheer, instead we finished the chocolate cake off with our cocoa.
 

Gott knows what time Dad must’ve been up, he was being far too awake and cheerful when I slithered into the kitchen about half six.

"You brought your bag down?”
"In the hall,” I mumbled around a yawn.
"I’ll put them in the Hymer while you get breakfast, there’s tea in the pot.”
“’kay”
"Mornin’,” Mand offered as I joined her at the table.
"Something like that,” I agreed, "Coulda done with a lie in.”
"You can sleep in the camper.”
"Maybe,” I allowed as I poured myself a cup of Yorkshire2.

The toaster popped and Mand got up to retrieve her charred bread.

"You want some?”
Do I? I need something and given the time restraint it wasn’t a bad choice.

"Please, on five.”
"That’s nearly white,” Mand opined.
"No its not, some of us prefer our toast to still resemble bread.”
"If you say so.”

She returned to the table after setting my breakfast going then started scraping the burnt stuff off the incinerated slabs. Go figure.
 

It was a bright morning as the big camper strained up the ramp onto the Ahrweiler spur, a short bit of autobahn that connects the Ahrtal to the outside world. It always seems counterintuitive to go into Bonn to get to Köln for the One, we usually go up the Ninety One and into the city that way but this way we cross the river and miss most of the heavy cross country traffic that uses the Köln autobahn crossing.

Of course the One is still busy up to Dortmund where the Forty Four goes off to Kassel and points east, there are always hold ups around Dortmund but its usually plain sailing from there north. This morning the traffic was quite light but it still took us an hour up to Leverkusen where we joined the One.

"The lad’s meeting us there?” I enquired as we trundled through the En Ar Vee countryside towards Wuppertal.
"That’s the plan,” Dad confirmed.
"It’ll be weird without the others,” Mand observed.
"Yeah,” I agreed.

To be honest, I was a bit put out when I found out that they’d both been selected to ride for their respective regions at the Lausitzer GP which is a girls only event at the Lausitzer Ring not far from where we were last week. I was miffed because I didn’t get selected, I mean I’m the double National and World Champion, how could I not? Apparently it was mostly down to Frank at the Federation, he wanted see how the race dynamics changed when I wasn’t on the card and to give the others a free hand without any conflicts of interest.

I can sort of see where he’s coming from and its not like I’d have Mand with me on a Palatinate team, she’s still on a British licence so ineligible anyway. So anyway, that’s why its just the ‘British’ component of Team Apollinaris riding the Bremen event.

"Did I mention that Josh’s uncle is over?” Dad dropped into the conversation.
"No.”

His uncle, if you recall, is Joe Waugh who rode for Team GB years ago, he went to the Olympics and everything.

"Yeah, I spoke to him earlier in the week, said he’d bring the lads over.”
"Don’t think I’ve seen him since we went to Yorkshire for that weekend,” I mused.
"We’ve got an invite to go again this year,” Dad advised.
"That’d be cool.”
"We’ve had quite a few invites this year,” Dad noted, "Holland, Belgium, Austria.”
"Gab’s stripey jerseys,” Mand surmised.
"Probably,” Pater agreed, "George was working on getting us some extra funding before, you know, everything kicked off.”
"Thats a bummer,” Mand stated.
"So there’s no money for Yorkshire?” I asked.
"I didn’t say that, Apollinaris have said they’ll match anything else we can raise, there are irons on the fire so to speak.”
"Are we gonna do any of the others,” de Vreen asked.
"Hopefully, the ones in the low countries are close enough so if they don’t clash with the National events here we’ll likely accept.”
"Cool.”
"We’ll stop at Műnster, I could do with the facilities.”
"How far’s that?”
"Thirty minutes?” he suggested.
"I’m gonna lie down for a bit then,” I announced, releasing my belt.
"We’ll wake you,” Mand told me as we swapped positions.
 

As you know, its a big camper, toilet, shower, kitchen, bedroom but I eschewed the latter in favour of one of the sofas – being at the back behind the wheels the bedroom is too bouncy to use when travelling. The sofa is quite deep, it converts to another double bed, I made myself comfortable and prepared to get forty winks. As usual, when you want to sleep you can’t, the hum of the motor and gentle sway of the vehicle usually do the trick but this morning I only reached the eyes shut but still lucid stage.

So we’ll be doing some more foreign trips – its always good to race against some different competition, they don’t know us or our tactics which of course bites both ways but does make the racing more exciting. And we might go to Yorkshire again, that was a hoot last time, I think its just before the Worlds so maybe my last time in the rainbow stripes. Well unless I win again, they’re in Greece this year which might not be so good for me with the heat.

I wonder why Uncle Joe is over in Germany? Hang on, could he be the mystery new DS, I mean, why would Dad be speaking to him? That could be interesting, he’s got quite a strong accent, proper ‘why aye’, much more than Josh, the girls’ll never understand a word he says. But if he’s the new DS, why’s Caro coming over?
 

"Gab, you coming?”
"Um?”
"Services? Coffee?” Mand suggested.

I guess I dropped off after all.

"Er yeah, be right with you.”

Dad had gone on ahead, his need for a stop having apparently escalated to Defcon one! We secured the transport and strolled over to the road house, Münsterland Ost apparently, arriving just as Dad emerged from ‘that’ place.

"Breakfast?” he suggested.
"Could do,” well its been three hours since my tea and toast.
"I’ll see you in there then.”

You don’t think me and Mand weren’t paying a visit first did you?
 

We found my parent waiting in the queue to pay. I’d been expecting the standard meat and cheese platter that passes for Frühstück in most establishments in Germany but instead he had what looked very much like scrambled eggs on toast.

"Get some cutlery and find a table Manda, Gaby, coffee.”
"On it,” I enthused.

A couple of minutes later Dad was distributing our second breakfast around the table. It was indeed scrambled egg but there was also a separate plate with some slightly crozzled bacon and mini frikadel. Not exactly a full English but better than I’d been hoping, especially as we’re racing in a few hours. It certainly filled a hole but you know me, Miss Hollow Legs.
 
Back on the autobahn there was a bit more traffic about than when I’d last seen it somewhere around Dortmund but it was now after ten.

"How much further?” I enquired.
Dad checked the trip meter, "Two hours, ish, why?”
"Thought we could have some music on.”
"If you must.”

I scrabbled about in the dash locker, I know it could be tidier but its not just me dumping stuff in it. How did this get in here? We’ve not been anywhere in the beast since the end of the Tour. I slid the disc out of the case, into the player and sat back.

There was the sound you get on all ‘live’ music recordings of am expectant crowd before the familiar strains of the BlauHase intro kicked in, I’m not a narcissist, honest, its just that its good music for a road trip – mostly!

 
Maddy Bell © 15.06.2023