Page 40 of Angel's Flight

“It’s the only way.”She’d had this discussion with herself several times in the last hour and was almost convinced.She hoped he was.

“Then let us begin.”Erik opened the door to the cellar and charged down into the dark.Christine rushed after him, her heart already pounding.

“Erik, wait!”she cried as he rounded the corner to where they had left Pauline.

The chair was empty, which was very much not part of the plan.

“Where...”Erik began, casting about as a figure moved behind him.

“There!”Christine yelled.Erik spun fast as lightning, catching Pauline by the wrist as she launched herself at him and forcing her to drop the broken wine bottle she had been wielding like a knife.

“Would killing me really do you any good?”Erik sneered, twisting Pauline’s arm back painfully.“Your firm wouldn’t like the mess.”

“I had to take the chance,” Pauline laughed, then gasped as Erik increased the pressure.She didn’t seem to be in pain though.In fact, she looked rapturous.“I almost had you.Disappointing.I expected more from a phantom.”

“Well, I don’t want to fail to meet any more expectations,” Erik replied, voice low and deadly.He caught Pauline’s other hand easily as she swung at him, then in an instant, he twisted her around, trapping her wrists behind her so she was facing Christine.“My dear wife, would you hand me that cord Pauline here left on the ground?I’ll make sure it’s tight this time.”

Christine didn’t let her eyes leave the two of them as she knelt to comply.When Pauline finally winced as Erik forced her to move, Christine knew she should have worried about the state of her husband’s soul, but she only felt satisfaction.

“We want you to tell us who employed you and Monsieur Bidaut,” Christine demanded, her voice unsteady as she handed Erik the frayed rope that Pauline had somehow escaped from.Pauline only stared at Christine defiantly as Erik forced her back into her chair and bound her tightly and viciously.

“My wife asked you a question, Mademoiselle – what was your surname, by the way?Is Pauline your real name at all?”

“Topilina,” Pauline said, her voice taking on an interesting lilt as she said the name.

“Interesting,” Erik muttered.“Now, my wife’s question.”

Pauline sneered at Christine as Erik loomed behind her like a great raven ready to strike.“You calling her your wife doesn’t make her any less of a failure,” Pauline spat, looking Christine up and down with pure disgust.“Just like forcing some poor priest to mutter magic words won’t erase what she’s done.”

“I was hoping you’d say something provocative,” Erik sighed, and in a flash of movement, he had a second length of cord around Pauline’s neck.

“Erik!”Christine screamed, watching as the woman struggled fruitlessly to breathe, her face turning red and her eyes bulging with terror.“You can’t kill her!”

“Why not?I killed Bidaut.Probably,” Erik replied lazily as horror filled Pauline’s face at the words, and spittle dripped from her mouth.“This ties up a loose end.Pun intended.We throw her in the river, and we’ll be done with this.”

“Then they’ll just send someone else!”Christine cried, tears stinging her eyes.

Erik gave a dramatic sigh and let the dark-haired woman go.Pauline took a gasping breath and looked up at Erik with a terrible, hungry smile.“That’s more like it.”

“We’ll let you go if you go back to whoever sent you and tell them to leave us alone!”Christine begged.“This money isn’t worth your people suffering or dying.Please, let us live our lives in peace.”

“My employers don’t care about that, you idealistic little fool,” Pauline laughed hoarsely.“They don’t care about your love or whatever fictions you concoct to sleep at night.After this, they’ll be even more determined.There’s nowhere you can go where we won’t find you.”

“Well, if that’s the case,” Erik said, coming around in front of Pauline at last and leaning in close.“I would like to know who would hunt me in such a way, so I can eliminate them.”

“No!”Christine screamed and grabbed Erik by the shoulder, hauling him back out of the cellar while Pauline cackled behind them.“Erik, we can’t do this!”

“We can’t leave loose ends, you have to understand that!”Erik shot back, echoing off the stone wall.“Not if we want to start fresh.”

“Did you not hear her?”Christine replied, equally fiercely.“She practically promised that they will follow us to New York!Killing her will only make it worse and – dear God, you said things were different now!”

“Things will be different the moment we get on the ship, I swear.”

“Erik, please!Let me try to reason with her one more time before you...”Christine couldn’t even get out the words.Erik sighed in something like disgust.

“We have to be on the way to Naples by dawn.I will give you an hour,” Erik rumbled.Erik huffed and disappeared back into the dark, to where Jack and Howard hopefully waited to do their part.Christine rushed back down the stairs.She had to be quick about this.

“So the dog is back in his cage, and you’ve come to try and sway me?”Pauline mocked as Christine returned to the little circle of light she sat in, cast by an old oil lamp.“But sway me to what?To change my heart?For you?”

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