The Devil's Opera(159)
Once again curse volleys echoed from the warehouse walls. It was some time before Ernst finally ran out of breath and paused to think.
The master had left Metzger up to him. Fortunately, the master wasn’t here at the moment. That gave him a little time to salvage the situation.
Another warehousemen came in. “Jurgen,” he said to him, “do your cousins still want to work for Master Schardius?”
“Yah.”
“Are they hard enough to do what has to be done?”
Jurgen gave a gap-toothed smile and nodded with vigor.
“Good. Go get them.” He looked around the room at his remaining men. “We will take care of Metzger. The master said alive or dead. Dead is easier.”
Low voices cursed in agreement.
* * *
“So this Schardius is the main guy you’ve been investigating all along?” Captain Reilly asked, looking across the table at his top two detectives.
“Yes,” Gotthilf answered, seconded by Byron’s nod. “We’ve been quietly trying to investigate rumors since December, but until we found this Metzger person, we weren’t having any luck finding anyone who would admit to knowing anything.”
“And last night he decided to talk to you?” The captain sounded skeptical.
“Yah,” Gotthilf said. “Metzger had one of his fights out at the new arena last night, and something happened there that caused him to break with Schardius.”
“We might be able to get more details about that from Todd Pierpoint, or this kid Simon that hangs around Metzger a lot,” Byron interjected.
The captain nodded, and looked back at Gotthilf, making a “get on with it” motion with his hand.
“Metzger asked us for protection for his sister and the boy Simon, told us enough that we can justify questioning Schardius and his associates, then disappeared.”
“Disappeared.” Captain Reilly sat up straight at that word. “He’s not going to show up in the river, is he?” The captain’s frown made an appearance.
Byron shrugged. “Maybe. Schardius might want that to happen, but Metzger is one tough dude. Of all these ‘hard men’ in Magdeburg, he is without a doubt the hardest. They might take him down, but I promise you there will be more bodies in the street than his if they do.”
“For all that he’s apparently the best around at professional fighting, Metzger seems to be a relatively nice guy,” Gotthilf offered. “But the one thing we hear from all our sources is that he’s fanatical about protecting and providing for his sister, Fraulein Ursula Metzgerinin. Our guess is that he’s gone out to try and draw the attentions of those men who might otherwise be asking her where the money is.”
“Fifty thousand dollars, you said?” the captain asked.
“That’s what we were told,” Gotthilf replied.
“That’s a lot of money.”
“And that’s why we think Schardius is sending guys after it. That’s enough even for him to notice the loss.”
“That, and the loss of face,” Byron added. “Sounds like some of those stories out of Pittsburgh, boss.”
Captain Reilly nodded slowly, tapping his fingertips on the table while he thought. The fingers stilled, and he looked directly at them.
“Right. Don’t go after Schardius yet. You’re going to have to brief Mayor Gericke about this. We’ll need his approval as mayor and magistrate before you go after one of the leading lights of the city.”
The captain stood. “Leave word of your whereabouts at the central desk at all times. I’ll call you in as soon as I have confirmed an appointment with the mayor.”
* * *
Frau Fickler finished adding the numbers up, and looked at the stacks of coins and bills on the table in front of them.
“That makes sixty-three thousand nine hundred fifty dollars, plus another forty-nine Groschen and one hundred ninety-seven pfennigs.”
The three women, older and younger alike, sat and stared at what amounted to a small fortune. Frau Fickler had teased the story out of Ursula about Hans’ pugilistic career, so there was no question about where it came from or who it belonged to. What to do with it, however, placed them in a definite quandary.
“Does Gotthilf know about this?” Frau Fickler asked.
“I do not think so,” Ursula replied in a low voice. “Or at least, not how much is there.”
Frau Fickler pondered for a moment. She was beginning to like the soft-spoken Metzger girl. She had a pleasant manner about her. The older woman had also wormed out of the girl the fact that she did fine embroidery, which meant that the girl wasn’t afraid to work. That also spoke well of her.