IF LOVE WERE A FLOWER
The King is Dead - Long Live the King
The sooner Erik could allow his family to leave the safety room beneath the tunnel of horrors the better, so he an de Mer agreed to try it as soon as possible. The prosecutor was eager to get a confession from Riccy, but he was not sure if it would work at all or if Riccy trusted some of his men to rescue his family.
Erik went back to the safety room to tell Meg the good news that they could leave soon. He knew Meg and her mother strongly disliked the dark and cold rooms that lacked almost everything that was necessary to make life endurable. When Erik came to the secret door he called out to Meg: "It is me. Do not pull the lever when I'm coming!" It was a certain thrill to crawl through the model of a shark's mouth on hands and knees knowing Meg was in there with the lever in her hand that would turn the shark model to a guillotine and cut him in half - or at least cut off his legs, which would be bad enough.
Sometimes he wondered if she thought about using this machine to kill him. Or was it only him who found thoughts of killing someone completely normal and other people wouldn't even think about that? But then - knowing every day some people were murdered in New York and no one ever cared convinced him that his thoughts were perfectly normal.
He couldn't help a sigh in relief when he had passed the door and stood up to close it again. Nothing had happened, but Meg wasn't even there - he would have to warn her about being constantly on alert for they were still in danger.
He heard Meg and her mother laugh in the bedroom. What he saw there left him standing stock-still in astonishment: Tony was sitting between his mother and grandmother on the bed, the lamp before him on a chair, he held a book in his small hands and was reading from the book aloud. He was reading slowly, stuttering, stumbling over the words, but he was reading. Could a child that age really read? How was this possible?
"Daddy!" Tony exclaimed and wanted to jump up to run to him. Had Antoinette not grabbed him and held him back he would have overturned the chair with the lamp, causing a fire.
"You... did you just read?" Erik asked.
"Mama taught me," Tony informed him proudly, "I love this Christmas! Mama and Granny are there for me all day long and listen to me reading. If you were here too it would be perfect."
"That's wonderful, Tony! I'm so very proud of you!" Erik exclaimed, "That's my son! He's only four and can read like any University docent!" He hugged the child affectionately.
"Erik... how long do we have to stay here?" Meg asked, "It is dark and cold and... I'm scared. I don't like this place. I feel... imprisoned."
"O my stupid Meg. I would never imprison any woman..." Erik caught himself as Meg and Antoinette glared at him angrily, both thinking the very same: it was certainly not beneath him to kidnap a woman and hold her prisoner. Certainly not! He cleared his throat and went on: "It will be over soon. Just a few days longer then the threat of Riccy's men taking revenge will be removed once and for all."
Riccy was being led from his cell to the interrogation room again. Until now he wasn't really scared - another prosecutor trying to hunt him down. He would be dealt with swiftly like all the other men who had tried that before. No one would ever dare testify against Riccy and a certain prosecutor and judge would see to it that the trial would end before it even began. Riccy could not know that his backers had been arrested too.
When he passed the window he could see his wife and daughter being released and made a mental note to have the insolent prosecutor skinned alive for daring to arrest his wife and daughter. He looked down a second time to see what they were doing and flinched as he recognized the man who was leading them to a carriage: this wasn't the bodyguard! This was the masked magician Mr. Y! Why wasn't the freak in a holding cell? Why hadn't this freak been arrested along with everyone else?
De Mer met a unusually nervous Bruno Riccy. "Good morning," he greeted friendly, "I'm happy to inform you that there is no evidence against your wife and daughter so they have been released just minutes ago. Unfortunately we cannot release their bodyguards for we have evidence against them for criminal assault in several cases, but don't worry, your friend Mr. Y agreed to see to it that not one of your victims will ever try to take revenge on your family."
Riccy paled. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"Mr. Y is well aware of the risk that your victims might do to them what you and your thugs did to their families, but Mr. Y assured me that he is well able to protect them," de Mer delivered the prepared sentence and kept his eyes on Riccy, waiting for his reaction. He didn't have to wait long, Riccy jumped to his feet and demanded to be released at once, that Mr. Y was to be arrested for Mr. Y was a criminal, he, Riccy, was just another honest businessman. The words Riccy used were certainly not fit to be taken down in any records. He was so agitated, two guards had to force him back to his chair.
"I do not know what you are talking about," de Mer replied, fully convinced now that Riccy didn't recognize him because he still wore his beard, "Mr. Y did a great service to the State of New York delivering evidence against you."
"He? You cannot trust him! Mr. Y is a disgusting freak, a monster, a murderer!"
"Mr. Riccy, please, I don't know what you are talking about," de Mer replied, trying not to smile in anticipation.
"He killed a prosecutor and only God knows how many others! This is a vile monster! He's the one you ought to arrest and lock away!" Riccy exclaimed furiously.
"Mr. Riccy, I assure you Mr. Y did not kill me," de Mer replied with a grin. He couldn't keep his poker face any longer. He just wished he had a photographer there to take a picture of Riccy's face as the man finally realized that he had walked into a trap. "Now, Mr. Riccy, I can offer you a deal: no death sentence if you give me a full confession in your own handwriting. Or do you want me to call your lawyer? Not the one we had arrested, you need another one, of course..."
"I'll kill that disgusting freak!" Riccy hissed and added some rather vulgar descriptions what he would do to Erik and his family, but the meaning was lost on de Mer who didn't speak Italian.
"Mr. Riccy, I'm sure Mr. Y will take the best care of your wife and daughter," de Mer reminded him, "I know he's well able to protect them from anyone who wants to take revenge. Not that I can think of any honest man who would take revenge on an innocent girl or woman just because the father or husband is an extortionist and murderer."
That did the trick. The more de Mer informed Riccy that his wife and daughter were not in any danger, the more Riccy understood just how dangerous the situation was: his family was in the hands of a monster who could kill them and let them disappear and no one would ever notice. Riccy was furious with himself for underestimating the freak. He had known just how dangerous that man was but he had let himself be fooled by Erik's eagerness to serve. Riccy had really assumed that freaks, like inferior races, were natural born servants and eager to obey. It hadn't crossed his mind that a dog - even the best watchdog - would ever try to become a master. Dogs just don't do that. A dog is happy to have a good master and to obey. If one master sends the dog away, he tries to find a new master. No dog ever tried to become a master himself and so were freaks and other half-animals who weren't really human. His racism had been his downfall, he realized far too late.
And now wife and child were in the hands of the man who would sell them to the highest bidder at the first opportunity - and Riccy knew just how many men would love to pay him back for being beaten and what he did to their families or ordered his men to do to them. He shuddered. "What do you want for keeping my wife and daughter safe?" he asked, finally defeated.
"A full confession. If you give a full confession in your own handwriting and do never revoke it, I'll guarantee that we can protect your family. Or you can rely on the honor of Mr. Y to keep his promise..." De Mer spread his hands. He knew what he was doing wasn't exactly legal in itself, but then, he hadn't uttered one threat, on the contrary, just assured the prisoner his family was save. But of course he knew that catching such a big fish as "the Boss" he couldn't play all fair or he would never succeed.
"Give me that damned paper!" Riccy snapped.
When Erik got the telegram from de Mer containing just the word "done" he laughed with relief. It was over. Riccy had signed a confession and this would be published in the newspapers - there would be no reason for his men to execute any revenge plan as soon as Riccy had a deal with the prosecutor and delivered his backers on a silver plate.
Immediately Erik allowed his family to leave the save-room and go outside again. "Snowball battle!" Tony exclaimed happily and began forming snowballs and throwing them at everyone who was close enough to be hit. Erik endured his son's game with so much patience, Meg wondered if he noticed the snowballs hitting his legs for he was close to immobile.
"Erik... are you alright?" she asked.
"Hmmm? O yes, yes, my dear. It is just... it is the first day I can breathe without fear again. The first day since... since I left the opera that I'm not scared of a violent mob coming for me and those I love," he took a deep breath and stretched. "We are free, do you realize that?" A snowball hit his stomach but he ignored it. "We are free. All my crimes are erased, I'm free from the danger of being arrested, I'm free from being blackmailed and I have a document declaring me a citizen of America. This means we can never be send away against our own will, I can pass citizenship to our son along with all I have..." He gestured to the buildings around them, they looked wonderful in the sun of the icy day covered in snow as they were. "He will have a better life than we do."
"You are boring!" Tony complained and hit his father's leg with his fists, "Play with me! Play with me now! Play with me!"
"Of course, my boy. What do you want to play?"
"Cowboy!" Tony demanded, "I wanna ride the horse!"
"You can ride one of the ponies."
"No! The ponies are for girls. I wanna ride the horse!" Tony demanded, stomping his foot.
Erik shrugged. "The mare is old and walks around as if she's half asleep. I think she's good for learning how to ride. Come on, Cowboy, I'll teach you."
"Erik! The horse is by far too large for Tony!" Antoinette gasped in shock.
"If I lead her by the reins? Don't be ridiculous!"
It was a wonderful winter for Erik. He was so happy, nothing could destroy his good mood for weeks. He sat at the piano in the variety composing with Tony by his side, the child drawing. The child was getting better and better, he even added a few letters to his drawings to point out what he wanted.
They had a show with a shark now. This one wasn't an aerialist stunt but technically even more difficult. It was about men in a boat and the shark was swimming around them. The boat would be on strings, the shark would move around it and beneath it so it would look like the shark-automaton wouldn't be on strings, which was of course not true. The shark model couldn't fly. The music was far too buoyant and joyful for the rather frightening setting of men in a boat threatened by a shark - but since Tony strongly identified with the shark and wanted it to eat many fat swimmers Erik had decided that possibly other children would like the shark too. After all, they had loved to see the mechanic wolf eat Little Red Riding Hood. Dancing girls and a few chorus girls in mermaid costumes sang a song about the shark being their protector from the vile sailors in the boat. In the end the boat sank and the shark ate up all men, its belly becoming rather large. This was a really dangerous stunt so even the grown-up audience might appreciate it.
Erik found that now that he saw how much his child loved the amusement park and the various attractions he liked it himself. He began to like the shows he put on in the variety, displaying his magic and music in a playful way families and children would appreciate and love, even if there was always a certain dark strain in most shows, Erik was simply incapable of doing something purely fluffy and happy. And his son just loved to see the shark eating the sailors!
It was short before the season opening. The park was already bustling with people preparing for the opening. Erik was for the first time rather relaxed, knowing there was no imminent threat from any side, neither banks nor criminals nor tax authorities. His debts were under control and he felt he liked his new life now, he even wanted to do more magic shows now that he had more time.
Erik was on one of his rounds through the park accompanied by Johann who had become his right-hand-man somehow. Suddenly he noticed a group of men approaching him. He flinched as he recognized them - they were some of Riccy's thugs he had been forced to hire as guards! What could they possibly want?
Erik already turned to run but Joe held him back. "Wait! They do not look like they are looking for trouble," he said, "Talk to them."
"Talk? Talk? How could I? They are twelve and I'm alone - too high a risk!"
"Erik, calm down, they aren't here for trouble!"
"How would you know?" Erik snapped angrily.
"If you would care to read your incoming mail you'd know that they ask for a job," Joe replied patiently like he was talking to a panicked child.
"A job?"
They couldn't discuss any longer for the group of men was too close now. They took off their caps and politely waited until Erik turned to them. He did remember all too well how he had received a beating at their hands - well, not all of them, but some of them.
"Sir, since it is season opening we... wanted to ask if we still have our jobs?" one of the men asked, twisting his cap in his hands.
"Why do you think I'd keep you?" Erik asked, "Riccy is gone, as are his backers."
"We know, but... sir, we aren't brutes. We are guards, always have been, and we are boxers. We need the job as guards and we like boxing, so... well, if you'll have us, we'd love to work for you. By the way - can we use the hall for our training in the future?"
Erik stared at them, realizing that he had underestimated them. They had become Riccy's guards because they didn't have much choice in their lives and now they jumped on the opportunity to become his guards. Well, to be true, he knew he would need them to keep the scum away and his customers happy. The difference between worthless scum and a highly appreciated customer was often nothing but the weight of his purse for Erik certainly did provide for drug addicts, gamblers and drinkers. But he wanted them to stay out of his family amusement park. And of course someone would have to frighten the thieves away.
"I'll give you a chance," Erik replied, not daring to refuse, afraid that they might attack if he refused their request now, "Report for duty as usually."
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to be continued
Since I'm a bit ill (cough) I will only post two chapters this week. (cough) I'm sorry I can't do more now.
