The Devil's Opera(174)
* * *
Crash!
All the actresses jumped and several screamed when one of the side walls seemed to explode and a man landed on one of the makeup tables. Everyone moved back as the man struggled to get to his feet.
Marla stepped forward. “Herr Schardius! What are you doing?”
“Isn’t it obvious, ladies?” a mocking voice said from inside the space Schardius had been in. Then came a shrill, high-pitched laugh. “He was peeping through the wall at you!”
Chapter 66
Angry voices began to rise. Schardius was very shaken. For just a moment after he gained his feet, he stared around at the angry women who were starting to shout at him. He gave his head a sharp shake, and, knowing he was exposed now, pulled his pistol from his jacket pocket.
“Shut up!” he barked, gratified to see faces go pale and voices go silent. “Nobody moves, nobody says anything!”
Despite his orders, one person did move. Marla Linder stepped forward until she was at the front of the crowd, shielding those behind her.
“What do you want, Schardius?” she demanded fiercely.
His thinking crystalized, snapped into sharp focus.
“You.”
Her eyes widened with surprise, possibly shock. But if anything, her expression grew fiercer still. “I don’t think so!”
“You will come with me, or I start shooting,” Schardius snarled. He grabbed one nearby young woman, barely more than a girl, pulled her in front of his body and stuck the pistol in her ear. “Shall I start with this one?”
“Wait!” Marla said. Schardius exulted to hear a note of uncertainty in her voice. He said nothing, only cocked the hammer of the pistol.
The young woman was trembling, and a smell of urine suddenly filled the air.
“All right,” Marla conceded. “Just don’t hurt Sophie, and let them go.”
* * *
Byron and Gotthilf pushed their way through the crowd on the portico and made their way through the doors into the foyer of the opera hall. They stopped inside the doorway, craning their heads as they tried to look over the crowd. Being taller, Byron was more successful at that than his partner. After a minute or so, he said, “There!” and pointed toward a group of people near one of the main doors into the auditorium.
They both held their badges up and began making their way toward the spot where Amber was. “Clear the way! Make a hole, people!” Byron shouted.
“Official Polizei business!” Gotthilf called out.
Between them, the crowd in front of them thinned out and they made their way to Amber, who was starting to move to one side with everyone else. Byron grabbed her by the elbow.
“It’s you we need to see, Amber. We’ve got a security issue we need your help with. Where can we talk?”
Byron’s urgency clearly registered on Amber. “This way,” she said, and led them through a door guarded by ushers. “This is one of the hallways leading to the lowest level of boxes.”
They walked down the hall until they were past the last of the box entrances. At the very end of the hall, Amber turned in front of a door and faced them. “This is as private as we can get at the moment. What is this all about?”
“Has Andreas Schardius made advances to Marla or any of the other women in the production?” Byron asked harshly.
* * *
There was a sudden explosion of shrieking women from the Women’s Dressing Room. “He came through the wall.” “He’s got a gun!” As the others tried to get them to calm down, Friedrich caught a glimpse of what looked like Frau Marla, dressed very oddly, going through the door through which he and the others had entered the backstage area from the basement. She was followed by someone in a dark cloak which swirled just enough to show something glinting in the hand directly behind her back. The cloak swirled back, but Friedrich saw the cloaked figure’s shoulder make a sharp movement which was followed by Frau Marla jerking almost as if she were reacting to a jab.
Friedrich’s thoughts raced for just a moment, then he turned from his friends and moved with stealth to another door to the basement. The door was in a shadowed nook, so he could open it without a betraying blaze of light warning whoever was below. He had to wait for a lull in the conversations and other noise, but after a moment or two one happened and he slipped through the door.
Closing the door with care, Friedrich eased down the stairs, listening to steps receding across the floor of the basement area. When he got to the bottom of the stairs he stepped to the shadows and followed, moving on his toes for speed and quietness.
* * *
“Stop here,” Schardius said as the entered a pool of light under a single fixture. “Turn around.” He studied Marla’s face; the heightened color, the widened pupils, her deep breaths.