Chapter Seven: Tiger Prey
It was a massive overkill. The body was lying in a pathetic heap, covered in an ungodly amount of thick, rapidly drying blood. It was as though the man laying at their feet before them had been viciously attacked by a giant wildcat. Yet this was in the middle of a sleeping Manhattan, a realm which saw no tigers and Erik knew the mark of a blade when he saw one.
"One man could not have done this." He said to the nervous man standing beside him. "Two at least, but most likely three." He sighed deeply and ran a hand through his hair. "God, what a mess."
The anxious Persian stood beside him; with shaking hands he held the note which had been fastened to the body of the recently deceased with a pin. The paper was saturated in blood, yet the message was clear enough to read.
The street was quiet and vacant in the early morning hour, but the two men knew the dire urgency of the situation. "We need to leave before we are seen." Erik stated simply, only a faint vein of irritation lining his words. Vacating the horrible sight before them, the men briskly walked the two blocks required to reach the sanctuary of The Gilded Cage.
New York is a city with few alleys, such a densely populated city lacks the space for the narrow strips of gritty terrain where most cities dispose of their refuse. Fortuitousness does not explain the presence of an alley running along The Gilded Cage. Erik had hand selected the building for that very reason, paying nearly double the asking price for the property to ensure its acquisition. His life experiences had drilled home one important lesson: Always have multiple escape routes for any situation. Sometimes this translated into the literal, his club and underground home had over a dozen different exits which he and he alone knew existed. Never again would he feel the complete helplessness and degradation of capture, to be left at the mercy of other men.
Nadir never knew how the passages were accessed, despite witnessing Erik personally enter them a handful of times. The clever masked magician, ever the showman, never seemed to lift a finger before the brick before them swung inward by half a meter. The damp smell of underground greeted them as each man ducked inside.
"Be sure to hear the click when you close the passage, Nadir. We would not want any strays making their ways into here, now would we?" Erik said as he handed Nadir something cold and metal in the darkness, a flashlight. Erik needed no illumination to guide his way through the tunnels, but Nadir was prone to walking into solid walls and hitting his head on low hanging pipes. 'So clumsy, good Daroga' Erik once chuckled when Nadir had given himself two black eyes after walking face-first into a steel water pipe. 'You look like a creature that should be digging through someone's refuse, not the Persian Chief of police.'
"Erik, we need to discuss what this recent development means." Nadir turned on the source of light, casting a weak yellow glow a few feet ahead of him. The incandescence lit up Erik's unearthly yellow eyes like a wild animal at night, the effect haunting to Nadir. It was often difficult to remember the intimidating individual standing before him was merely a man, a human being like himself. The glowing eyes stared at him with undisguised impatience.
"Well? Shall we talk while walking? Or would you prefer we have this lighthearted conversation about murder right here in a dark?" Erik turned his back to Nadir and began the journey to his home.
"I think we need to start considering that perhaps someone is attempting to get your attention." Nadir breathlessly stated while keeping up with Erik's long strides.
Erik whirled around on his heel, eyes glowing once again like a terrifying nocturnal bird of prey. "Of course someone is trying to get my attention." He calmly, yet acerbically retorted. "I am not an idiot, Daroga! This has all the trappings of a personal message."
The remainder of the trip through the bowels of the underground to Erik's apartment was done in silence, save for the occasional knocking of a water pipe. Both men were already attempting to unravel the mystery of the recent murders with the cryptic notes as Nadir's hand torch cast undulating shadows upon the wall of the tunnel. After all these years in Erik's close acquaintance, he had still lacked the ability to grow comfortable in the enveloping black void of darkness his companion seemed to thrive in. How can a man thrive in the dark? Nadir thought.
Friendship with the prickly masked frenchman had not come easy. The two men had formed a sort of begrudging respect for one another after years of service together, but it was tragedy that truly bound the men to one another. It was through that trial by fire that the two men began to see each other in a different light. Loss has a way of doing that, of breaking old bonds and forming bonds anew. It was through loss that Nadir was offered a rare glimpse into Erik's soul, to see him for the broken, sensitive man that he truly is and not the terrifying bringer of doom the rest of the world had labeled him.
Intense light appeared, blinding Nadir briefly as Erik accessed the door to his elegant, underworld flat. The tunnels leading to the home may be devoid of illumination, but the apartment was brilliantly lit by a beautiful crystal chandelier hanging in the middle of the sitting room.
"That's new…How on earth did you get that down here by yourself?" Nadir gasped at the dazzling metal and glass light fixture suspended proudly above them from the vaulted ceiling.
"I built it down here, piece by piece." Erik replied as though it was the most obvious answer in the world.
"That seems plausible, but how did you manage to hang it once assembled?"
"I did not hang it, Nadir. That would be a fool's errand, it would most likely have fallen and there truly is nothing more tragic than a shattered chandelier." Erik smirked and looked at Nadir "No, you see, I built it while it was suspended."
Nadir sighed. "Is this a riddle, Erik? I don't understand what that means."
"Of course not, you fool. I built it from the hook downward, welded each ring and attached it to the former. I worked my way down until the frame was completed. After that it was simply a matter of attaching the crystal, there are a total of five hundred individually crafted pieces."
"What prompted you to build such a large light fixture? Such illumination seems out of character for you. I assumed you preferred your lighting to be oppressively moody."
Erik stared at the Persian, processing the playful insult and choosing to answer regardless.
"I was inspired." He said evasively "I have recently discovered a very brilliant source of light and I wanted to duplicate it here in my home." He then grew somber. "Although" He began sadly, "The metaphor does not do the inspiration true justice. One cannot duplicate heaven, after all…" He trailed off, then turned towards Nadir with a puzzling expression on his face, a slight frown turning down his thin lips. He held out one long, elegant hand palm up towards the Persian. "The note please, Daroga."
Nadir took one last, brief look at the bloodied note before passing it off. The blood having begun to dry and crumble from the small sheet of paper. The words were scrawled in a looping, childlike handwriting.
Erik gingerly accepted the piece of evidence and narrowed his eyes as he began his careful examination. "It nearly looks like my handwriting, hm? However, there are quite a few inconsistencies." He pointed to to the letter "A" "You see here?"
The former chief of the Persian police had now gravitated closer to the parchment to better observe. "It looks as though they don't apply as much pressure on certain stokes of the pen." He offered.
"Exactly. This was not written with the individual's dominant hand. They intended to obscure their handwriting."
"What do you suppose they are implying by 'Two days'?" Nadir rubbed his face, the phantom call of a migraine creeping behind his eyes.
Erik strode towards his desk and tossed the soiled paper curse onto the surface, it fluttered to join a cluttered stack of designs and staff paper. "I suspect it alludes to some event to take place in two days' time. We will need to be prepared for whatever that is."
"We don't have much to go by at this juncture. We know now that the people who are doing this are either targeting our operation, you or both." Nadir glanced over to the man now absently pacing.
"I had just spoken to him not two hours ago, Nadir." Erik swung around to the cool marble mantle place, gripping it with both hands. He continued, his voice carrying to evidence of regret "I had given him an insincere apology for requiring his presence so late, for pulling him from his wife's bed." Erik turned and lifted a pair of pained eyes to the concerned Persian. "I do not feel remorse often, but I am sorrowed by the death of a man who was merely appeasing my eccentric whims." He pounded a skeletal fist onto the mantle. "I should have been able to meet him during the day! I just do not appreciate when the general population gawks at me."
Nadir wearily made his way towards a plush, red velvet sofa and rested himself upon it. "You know, Erik. I can't say that I'm not pleased to hear you feel saddened by the loss of human life. It is a remarkable change from our days in Persia." At this a pair of yellow eyes burned furiously in his direction. "Do not be upset. This is praise, Erik. However, I do feel in this situation you should not allow yourself to carry the burden of this death. We really could not have known this was personal until this night."
Agitation radiated in thick waves from the tall masked man; it was palpable in the air. It was true, the men could have not predicted to find the body of yet another of their paid prohibition officers. Until Nadir had stumbled upon the massacre that was once a human being life felt fairly peaceful, the triple murder by the Opera had seemed an insignificant anomaly. Now there was no denying the coincidence to be too unlikely. Someone was familiar with Erik's connection to both The Gilded Cage and the Opera. Something was going to occur in two days.
Nadir's migraine was beginning to take full form, raging behind his eyes like an angry devil trying to pound its way out of hell. The light was indeed blinding now, Nadir put his hands over his eyes.
Erik looked up at the chandelier in contemplation. "It is quite bright for this room, is it not?"
Nadir chuckled weakly, a laugh half saddened and half amused. "No, my friend. I think I like this new change. I'm not sure what prompted it, but I think you should maintain to keep it in your life whatever it is."
The two men sat, speaking no more on the subject. The future was clouded with a looming, invisible threat like a sinister specter awaiting to grab them.
Nadir was quite certain he would be unbearably jumpy for the next forty eight hours.
This was a somewhat difficult chapter to write. I've been in the process of moving into my first home while also surviving Chemistry and Cellular/Molecular Biology.
I really love a good Erik/Nadir chapter. There will be plenty more of them in the future, but until then I hope you all enjoy a little more mystery!
More will be revealed!