An unexpected guest for breakfast

The next morning, when Mina came down to the dining room of the inn where she and Lucy had settled in the night before, she noticed that Lucy and her many maids were already eating breakfast.

Mina was tempted to make some remark about how nobody had apparently waited for her when she noticed that Lucy was also talking to a stranger -- a mysterious man who had a wooden arm and who also wore a black eye patch and a black policeman's uniform.

Upon seeing Lucy, the one-armed man sprang to his feet, clicked his heels and raised his wooden arm in a Roman salute, only to immediately lower it and extend his wooden hand in a more conventional form of greeting.

"Good morning, Fraulein," said the man. "I am Inspector Kamp of the Ingolstadt Police. I have come here seeking help with my inquiries and I had hoped that you and your friend Fraulein Westenra could assist me."

"Ingolstadt?" asked Mina. "Isn't that in Bavaria?"

"Why, yes, it is," said Inspector Kamp.

"So what are you doing here in Transylvania?" asked Mina. "Aren't you a little outside of your jurisdiction?"

"When it comes to justice, there is no such thing as jurisdiction," said Inspector Kamp. "Unless it involves some foreigner trying to steal credit for a case that took place in my hometown in which things are obviously different."

"Okay," said Mina. "So what can I help with?"

"I seek a monster," said Inspector Kamp.

"I beg your pardon?" asked Mina.

"I'm looking for a monster," said Inspector Kamp. "A huge one. Looks like a man but it has green skin and two metal bolts in its neck and a flat head."

"That sounds rather unusual," said Mina. "Are you sure such a thing really exists?"

The inspector stroked his wooden arm and said, "Yes, I'm sure. In fact, I'm quite sure."

"Well, I'm sorry but I can't help you," said Mina. "I haven't seen anything like that and if my friend Lucy has, she hasn't mentioned it. Anyway, what makes you so sure that there's anything like that in Transylvania?"

"I'm not," said the inspector. "But I've received a report from a local abbot and his assistant that such a creature has been sighted in the vicinity of a Castle Dracula. And since I was already looking for such a creature anyway --"

"Wait!" cried Lucy. "You know where Castle Dracula is?"

"Not really," said Inspector Kamp. "But I've heard rumors that it's to be found not far from here."

"Do you believe all the rumors that have been circulating about the castle's owner Count Dracula?" asked Lucy.

"What rumors?" asked the inspector.

"You know," said Lucy. "That the Count is really a vampire."

"Don't be silly," said the inspector. "Everyone knows that there is no such thing as vampires."

"Well, everyone would also say that there is no such thing as huge green-skinned men with metal bolts in their heads," said Lucy.

"Well, that's different," said Inspector Kamp. "I actually saw that monster when I was a child. And it left me this wooden arm to remember him by."

"Well, that was nice of him," said Lucy. "Ow! Damn it, Mina. Don't kick me."

"He meant that he lost his arm to that monster, Lucy," said Mina. "So apparently the monster is real. And under the circumstances, I don't blame him for being obsessed with it."

"But won't he get in trouble with the local police for investigating a case so far out of his jurisdiction?" asked Lucy.

"What would you have me do?" asked Inspector Kamp. "Hire an overrated busybody like that idiot Sherlock Holmes? Besides, the police here in Transylvania haven't objected to my presence so far."

"That's what you think," said the voice who was apparently standing right behind Mina.