27

Several months had passed since Helen and Erik had wed.

Katrina found it agreeable, albeit odd, to have someone else in the house on the lake. She found it equally agreeable to discover that Marie was expecting a baby sometime in the late spring or early summer.

Life in the winter continued with some normalcy. Marie began teaching new members of the chorus, and Jacques had reinvented Erik's job to allow him more freedom and legality in the opera house. Putting him on the pay roster also relived the added pressure of smuggling funds to the ghost. Helen painted furiously, mostly Katrina, although she had managed to sneak a few sketches of her husband.

Madame had managed to grown used enough to Erik that she would visit. She found this absurd domestic picture amusing. There was the skeletal Erik, followed by her rotund and jovial daughter, followed by the eager and wide-eyed Katrina who was followed by the dog.

It was, perhaps, a grave misfortune that led a thief down.

He had robbed the cash boxes, and been dually cornered, when he chanced on a bolt hole that went below. The Daroga glimpsed him as he disappeared, and became certain this fellow was the fake ghost. He and Darius hinted enough to keep the police on sight, while they themselves followed the man into the cellars.

It went on for several hours, the man rushing ever downwards, hoping to find a service tunnel out. The Dargoa and his servant following, and driving him farther.

The thief reached the lake, and found that he could go no farther save by the spare boat. It was left there and rarely used, and the dust on it showed. It was also in the middle of repairs, several boards had been pried free, and left a gaping strip open down the bottom.

The Persian stepped out, holding a pistol on the man. "I congratulate you on surviving these tunnels alive, Monsieur. But the game is over, and we must return to reality."

The man barked back a few curses. "I've never been down here in my life. If you hadn't come after me, I'd be gone now."

This puzzled the men, but they walked slowly forward. The man held up his hand and in it the bag of money. "I shall drop it, sir, and you'll lose half of what you're after."

Just then, a voice in the darkness echoed from the side causing him to drop it anyway, though unintentionally.

"Daroga, Darius, what are you doing here?"

Katrina bounded out in time to see the bag drop, and knew she had picked a poor moment. She vanished almost as quickly as she had arrived, leaving the man willing to charge any way he could to avoid what he perceived as a spirit.

Before he could, however, a noose was dropped cleanly over his head and arms, pulled snug, and he found himself hoisted into the air. Katrina then reappeared and eyed her handiwork closely.

'What did he do?" She inquired, looking up at the gentleman innocently.

Darius recovered first. "He stole the money from the opera."

"All of it?"

"Yes."

She walked over to the water and peered into the green glow. "I'd better not swim here. Too many traps."

The man's cries grew ever louder, and he kicked franticly to free himself. Katrina informed him seriously that the more he fought, the tighter the knot would grow. He stilled, but shouted all the more.

The two men now found themselves in something of a quandary. They could cut the man down and take him back easily enough, but they were growing older and in a serious struggle, they could be overpowered. There was also the money Katrina was trying to reach with a board from the boat to be returned.

Just then, a voice from over the lake demanded to know what was going on, and had she got lost again going shopping. Katrina called back that it was her, not Helen, and she had hung a thief, and was trying to get the money back to send up with the Dargoa and Darius.

A pause followed this statement. In a few moments a larger boat came drifting over the water, a hooded and caped man polling at the stern. He eyed the two men behind Katrina coldly and said by way of greeting, "I suppose this was inevitable."

Beaching the boat, he looked down in the water and told Katrina how to reach it without tripping a snare. She dove in without hesitation, and returned soaked but laden with the funds. "It's heavy," She said as Erik took it from her.

He then turned to the man dangling before him, and with an expert yank, brought him down. He bound him and hobbled his feet, giving the rope ends to Darius. "A pull with fell him, should he attempt trouble." He gave the bag to the Daroga, and looked him in the eye.

Shocked, but maintaining some dignity, the Persian slowly offered his hand. "I suppose if she can trust you enough to dive in booby-trapped water, I ought to trust you to behave. I doubt we shall meet again."

"I pray so," Erik said, gripping the offered hand.

The two men no doubt talked it over for many hours out of every day for many years. But Erik was safe from them, if only for the sake of Katrina.