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“Yeah, that’s where I told her to put it, and I’m sure she did just that.”
    He beamed a big smile at Joe. “Well, you’d better be getting out to the stables,” he said. “Shorty is waiting for you. He’ll put you through your paces with Abiyad so you’ll be ready for the amateur jousting matches.”
    â€œAre there any more entrances into this room?” Joe asked.
    â€œSure,” Alan said. “All of the secret rooms in this house have more than one escape route.”
    Joe looked around the room, trying to figure out where the other exit was. “So where—”
    A ringing phone interrupted his question. Alan opened a drawer in the long table and pulled out a phone, but he didn’t answer it. Instead, he turned to Joe and smiled. “Better get going,” he said. “You need to log some practice time if you’re going to get that brass ring.”
    The phone kept ringing, but Alan waited until Joe walked toward the door. As Joe walked down the narrow staircase, he heard Alan pick up the phone and whisper a few words, but he couldn’t make out what was said. Joe lingered halfway down the staircase before Alan firmly closed the door behind him.
    Joe tried to hear anything through the door, but he couldn’t—so he left the house and headed for the bazaar.
    He heard Kay’s laughter first, then spotted her talking to a boot maker who was working in one of the booths. “Joe, look!” she called when she saw him walking up. She turned her leg around in both directions. “What do you think?” White leather boots were pulled up over her jeans and turned down into cuffs above her knees.
    â€œThey’re perfect,” Joe assured her. “Just what you need for a medieval adventure.”
    â€œI totally agree,” she said, peeling them off. While the boot maker continued to measure herfeet and legs for her custom-made pair of boots, Joe asked Kay about the couple he wanted to interview.
    â€œOfficer Chester pointed them out to me last night,” he said. “They were helping you clean out the burned hedge. The officer said they lived in the village, and they saw someone running toward the forest at about the same time I did. I’d like to talk to them and compare notes.”
    â€œYou must mean JoAnne and Harold Donaldson,” Kay said. “I saw them over near the food vendors just before I came here. They were in line then, so they’re probably still eating.”
    â€œGreat,” Joe said. “Maybe I can catch them before they move on. See you later.”
    Joe left Kay with the boot maker and headed toward the large tents where the caterers served food. He saw the Donaldsons sitting alone at a large table near the edge of the tent. He grabbed a soda and joined them.
    â€œWelcome,” JoAnne Donaldson said. She was wearing a blue satin dress with billowing sleeves and eating a bowl of salad with blueberries.
    Joe introduced himself and told them why he wanted to talk to them.
    â€œWe already told Officer Chester what we saw,” JoAnne said.
    â€œYes, he told me,” Joe explained. “I saw someone running into the woods at about the same time. Ijust wanted to compare pictures with you and see if we’re talking about the same guy”
    â€œWell, he was about six feet, two or three inches,” Harold Donaldson said, putting down his turkey drumstick. He wore a hunter green fencing vest. A fencer’s mesh helmet lay on the table next to a plate of cheeses. “He was a big guy,” Harold added. “Stocky and thick, you know?”
    â€œWhat was he wearing?” Joe asked.
    â€œSome kind of costume,” JoAnne answered. “Armor or chain mail, something like that. He had on a helmet or hood—we couldn’t really see his face or his hair.”
    â€œYeah, that’s about what I saw, too,” Joe said. “Was he carrying