the date at the bottom of the page. Wondering if she had seen it or was quoting information from memory, he decided to test her expertise. ‘Who designed the castle?’
She looked at him. ‘An artist named Christian Jank. Believe it or not, he wasn’t a trained architect. He was actually a stage designer for Richard Wagner’s opera Lohengrin. Ludwig was so moved by Jank’s artwork that he commissioned him to create several concepts of a dream castle. Ludwig selected a design he liked, and the two of them worked on it together.’
‘Without an architect? That doesn’t sound safe,’ Jones said.
‘Ludwig eventually hired Eduard Riedel, a German architect who had restored Berg Castle for Maximilian the Second, to make sure the plans were safe. However, Riedel was just the first of many. Over the next few years, a number of architects worked on the plans including Georg von Dollmann and Julius Hofmann.’
‘Why so many architects?’
‘Two reasons,’ she said. ‘One, because Ludwig was a control freak. He changed his mind all the time and every new draft required his personal approval. This was unbelievably frustrating for the architects, especially when Ludwig disappeared for days on one of his journeys. Sometimes construction stopped while they were waiting for his authorization.’
‘What was the other reason?’ Payne asked.
‘The construction took nearly twenty years. That’s a long time to work with a crazy person.’
Jones nodded in agreement. ‘I worked with Jon for less than a decade, and it felt like for ever. Twenty years would have killed me.’
Payne smiled but said nothing.
‘Sadly,’ she added, ‘that’s one of the reasons it took so long to build the castle. Thirty people died during its construction - mostly because Ludwig was so demanding about self-imposed deadlines. Occasionally, when he made urgent changes to the designs, he had as many as three hundred workers at the site working in shifts around the clock. They used to set up oil lamps on the scaffolding so they wouldn’t have to stop at night.’
‘They must have hated him,’ Jones said.
She shook her head. ‘Despite the challenging conditions, the locals loved Ludwig because he was the biggest employer in the region by a wide margin. Without Neuschwanstein, many of the craftsmen would have been out of work. That carried a lot of weight with them.’
Payne glanced at her. ‘If I remember correctly, you said Neuschwanstein means new swan stone in English.’
She stared at him, trying to read the emotions in his eyes. But it was difficult. He was a much better poker player than Ulster. ‘That’s correct.’
‘What else can you tell us about the name?’
‘That depends. What are you keeping from me?’
‘What do you mean?’
She sighed, frustrated. ‘I mean, it’s a simple translation of three German words - neu, schwan and stein. You didn’t need me to tell you that. Petr could have told you the same thing. He speaks German, too.’
‘What’s your point?’ Payne demanded.
‘My point is you asked me about the translation on Schachen. When I explained it to you, your eyes lit up when I mentioned the word swan. Then you huddled with DJ to discuss it when I took Petr inside the house.’
‘And?’
‘And I want to know why. Otherwise, I won’t be much help to your search. Not because I’ll refuse to help you, I simply won’t be able to help.’
Payne glanced around the room. First he looked at Jones, who nodded his approval. Then he looked at Ulster, who enthusiastically did the same. Finally he looked at Heidi, who was staring at him with her light blue eyes. He didn’t know her very well, but he was starting to understand how she had convinced Ulster to talk about Ludwig’s treasure. She was smart, perceptive and very observant. He was glad she was on their side.
Payne asked, ‘Are you familiar with Petr’s grandfather?’
She nodded. ‘I unknowingly quoted him earlier today.’
‘Recently, we discovered some of Conrad’s belongings. In one of his notebooks, he had written some clues that are supposed to lead us to Ludwig’s treasure.’
‘What kind of clues?’ she asked.
‘The first one is a riddle that uses the word swan. That’s why we keep asking you about Neuschwanstein. We thought maybe he hid the treasure there.’
‘I very much doubt it,’ she said.
‘Why’s that?’ Jones asked.
‘Because Ludwig was murdered before the building was finished.’
Ulster questioned her from across the room. ‘Are you sure, my dear? Wasn’t Ludwig staying there on the night of his arrest?’
She nodded. ‘Ludwig lived in the palace for 172 days, but the castle was far from done.