The Gentle Axe Paperback

by R. N. Morris

  Porfiry nodded. “First let us turn off the light out here.”

  Salytov nodded back and signaled to Iakov Borisovitch, drawing a hand across his throat and pointing to the light. Iakov Borisovitch stared back, stupefied by the brutality of the gesture. Finally he blinked his enlarged eyes and turned off the gaslight.

  “Unlock the door, then stand aside” came Salytov’s command from the darkness.

  They waited as Tolkachenko fumbled with the key. They wanted the turning of the key to take forever, and at one moment it seemed as though it would. At last Tolkachenko moved out of the way, ducking into a huddle in the far corner of the landing. Salytov stood on one side of the door frame, Porfiry on the other. The lieutenant turned the handle and pushed the door in. Light from the flat gushed out.

  Slowly, leading with the revolver held out in front of him, Salytov edged inside, followed by Porfiry. The room was cold and smelled strongly of vodka. Despite the burning gas, the atmosphere was undeniably lifeless.

  They could tell that the man lying facedown on top of a smashed guitar was not going to get up. He was a big man who might have struggled to get to his feet at the best of times. But there was something final about the compact his bulk had made with gravity now.

  Porfiry crossed to the body and crouched down to turn the head. The eyes were open but shrunken to dark slits under the frozen puffiness of his face. Salytov prowled the rest of the apartment, still with his revolver extended in front of him.

  He came back a moment later, his demeanor perceptibly more relaxed.

  “There’s no one here.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I have searched the whole place. There is one room adjoining this one, a small kitchen.”

  “And the windows?”

  “I have checked them all. Locked from the inside. Is that Govorov?” Salytov pointed his pistol toward the body.

  Porfiry picked up and sniffed an empty vodka bottle that had been lying on its side near the body. “We will need our friend outside to confirm that. If it is, then I have to confess that this is not the first time I have encountered the elusive Konstantin Kirillovich Govorov.”

  One of Salytov’s eyebrows rippled inquisitively.

  “I met him once before, in Lyamshin’s Pawnbroker’s. He was pawning a guitar.” Porfiry lifted the broken guitar neck attached by its strings to the crushed sounding box beneath the body. “It seems he found the funds he needed to redeem it.”

  Y ES, THAT’S GOVOROV,” confirmed Tolkachenko. His expression was startled, almost outraged, as if he had been cheated by the man lying dead on the floor.

  Porfiry nodded distractedly. “But you said there were two men in here? You said you heard two voices, did you not?”

  “Yes. That’s true.”

  Porfiry pointed at the body with an unlit cigarette. “One voice was his?”

  Tolkachenko nodded.

  “And the other? Did you recognize the other?”

  “Well, here is a strange thing,” said Tolkachenko. “I didn’t recognize it. And then I did.”

  “What?” barked Salytov.

  “I mean, there was this fellow. He came down the stairs. He spoke to me.”

  “What did he say?” asked Porfiry, scrutinizing his cigarette as if he had never seen one before.

  “‘Good day to you.’ He said, ‘Good day to you.’” This seemed to strike Tolkachenko as the most scandalous aspect of the whole affair.

  “I see.”

  “Well, the thing is, the really strange thing…it was the same voice.”

  “What do you mean, it was the same voice?” Salytov’s impatience showed in the rush of color over his face.

  “I mean, it was him.”

  It looked for a moment as though Salytov would strike the yardkeeper.

  Porfiry intervened quickly. “You mean the voice of the man on the stairs was the same as the voice of the man whom you had locked inside Govorov’s flat with Govorov?”

  “Yes!” cried Tolkachenko.

  “But that’s impossible!” Salytov thrashed the air in his frustration.

  “Yes!” repeated Tolkachenko, smiling in amazement.

  Porfiry finally put the cigarette in his mouth. “So, Ilya Petrovich,” he said. He broke off to light the cigarette. “It seems we have a mystery on our hands.” Porfiry let the smoke escape with his words. “The question is”—he inhaled deeply again and waited before exhaling and continuing—“who was this other person in the flat with Govorov?” Again he paused to draw deeply on the cigarette. “And even more perplexing, how could he be both locked inside the flat and coming down the stairs?” Porfiry smoked the cigarette through, only to be taken aback by the stub. He extinguished it between his thumb and forefinger and then handed it to Tolkachenko, with an absentminded “You may take that.” Tolkachenko frowned at the stub as Porfiry lit a second cigarette. “It is a mystery, but”—Porfiry smoked with professional determination—“I feel confident we will get to the bottom of it. What do you say?”

  Salytov didn’t answer. He was lost in angry thought.

  “Logic. We must apply logic,” continued Porfiry. “Cold, dispassionate logic. Don’t allow the puzzle to disturb your temper. You cannot solve it if you’re annoyed at it.”

  “But it is impossible!” insisted Salytov crossly.

  “No, patently it is possible.” Porfiry’s insistence was calm. “That is the first logically inevitable deduction we can make. It has happened, therefore it is possible. The actual is incontrovertibly possible.”

  Salytov shook his head impatiently.

  “Think about it, Ilya Petrovich.”

  “You have worked it out?”

  “A logical conclusion has forced itself on me.”

  “How? How could you have…from this?”

  “Perhaps I have an unfair advantage over you. As I said, I have met this gentleman before.”

  “In the pawnbroker’s. What of it?”

  “He impressed me with a dramatic recitation from Gogol’s The Government Inspector. He was once an actor, you see. His style was very natural. He seemed to become the character he was playing.”

  Salytov’s face clouded in confusion. He looked from Porfiry down to the body, then back to Porfiry. “But why?”

  Porfiry shrugged. He had another cigarette stub to dispose of. Tolkachenko steadfastly ignored his eye. “One thing at a time, Ilya Petrovich. One thing at a time.”

  20

  Govorov Speaks

  PORFIRY LOOKED OUT the window of the prokuror’s chambers, down on to Gorokhovaya Street. He wanted very much to smoke.

  So he was gazing out of the window as a distraction. The streetlamps were lit, chains of illumination strung across the early morning gloom. Behind him he heard the riffle of papers and the prokuror’s deep sighs.

  Porfiry turned to see Prokuror Liputin close the report he had submitted. It contained statements taken from Tolkachenko and Iakov Borodonich, together with a formal request from Porfiry for a medical examination to be conducted on the body now confirmed to be that of Konstantin Kirillovich Govorov.

  Liputin’s expression was not encouraging.

  “So, Porfiry Petrovich, you truly believe that this constitutes sufficient grounds for an application of habeas corpus?”

  “Indeed I do, your excellency. I would not have troubled you with the matter otherwise.”

  Liputin screwed up his nose dismissively. “The man died alone. In a locked room. In your report, you yourself state that there was no evidence of an attack. No blood, no wounds, no bruises. The epidermis is intact.”

  “I stated there was no forensic evidence of attack. However, the yardkeeper testified that he heard a struggle.”

  “No, no, no! We can’t base a case on what someone thinks he heard through a locked door. Especially when it is not consistent with what is logically possible.”

  “But it is consistent with what is logically possible,” insisted Porfiry. “If we suppose that Govorov
was struggling not with a human assailant but with a chemical one.”

  Liputin masked his confusion with a frown of annoyance and shook his head impatiently.

  “I suspect poisoning, your excellency, as in the case of—”

  “You’re not going to bring up the yardkeeper, are you?” cried the prokuror in an irritable drawl. “As you know, that case is closed.”

  “Leaving that aside, there is the dead man’s connection to the missing actor, Ratazyayev. An autopsy would determine—”

  “But are we really justified in seeking an autopsy? Is it not more likely that Govorov simply died from natural causes?”

  “It is certainly a possibility. Though it would be a strange coincidence given the circumstances.”

  “What circumstances?” Liputin’s look of distaste suggested that he immediately regretted asking the question.

  “As you will have read in the relevant statement, the yardkeeper heard two people enter the building.”

  “So he says. He could simply have been mistaken. As for his tale of two voices inside the apartment, that is simply not sustainable.”

  “I agree. Given that the windows were locked from the inside and given also Tolkachenko’s constant presence outside the locked door, the presence of a second person in Govorov’s apartment is without doubt logically impossible.”

  “You agree?” Liputin seemed more surprised by this than by any aspect of the case before him. It was evidently something he needed to confirm: “You agree?” he asked again.

  “I agree.”

  The startled bristling of Liputin’s unruly eyebrows settled into a suspicious scowl. “In that case, how do you explain—?”

  “The two voices in the flat?”

  Prokuror Liputin nodded anxiously.

  “Govorov was an actor, a skilled mimic. It is my belief that he was talking to himself. It is likely that he was drunk. If he had been poisoned, he was possibly also raving. We all rehearse or reenact arguments in our heads. Perhaps he was simply vocalizing the process.”

  “Exactly! You have explained it just as I would myself. Apart from the poisoning. I would not have hypothesized poisoning. It was just a drunken actor raving, preliminary to the extreme moment.”

  “But you are overlooking the mysterious individual on the stairs, whose presence was mentioned by both witnesses. Tolkachenko said that his voice sounded familiar. When pressed on this, he claimed that it was the same as the other voice he had heard in the flat, the voice that was not Govorov’s. Or, if my theory is correct, the voice that Govorov was mimicking.”

  “What does that prove?” demanded Liputin antagonistically.

  “It proves nothing. It suggests, perhaps, that Govorov had just been conversing with this individual and was playing the scene again, this time taking both parts. Perhaps rewriting the script so that he got the better of his interlocutor. In all likelihood, the two men had parted company at Govorov’s door. But for some reason the mysterious man did not leave the building. He went up to the next landing and waited. What was he waiting for? Possibly for the sound of Govorov’s fall.”

  “Perhaps this, possibly that, in all likelihood the other—”

  “Very well. I will confine myself to those things I know for certain. The words that Govorov spoke, in his own voice, through the door to Tolkachenko. ‘It’s not me who’s the murderer.’ This is not simply a protestation of innocence. It is also the beginning of an accusation. It suggests he knows who the real murderer is. Providing someone with a motive for killing him. A reasonable supposition would be the individual waiting on the stairs.”

  “But you are forgetting one thing, Porfiry Petrovich. There is no real murderer because there has been no real murder. What murder? Not the dwarf, I hope? Because you know very well that the man who killed the dwarf died by his own hand.”

  “But the new evidence—”

  “The new evidence concerned the disappearance of Ratazyayev. Do you have evidence that Ratazyayev has been murdered? Did his body turn up? If so, I am surprised you did not inform me of such a significant development.” The prokuror couldn’t help smirking at the cleverness of his satire.

  “At the very least, in the case of the sudden demise of an otherwise healthy individual in the prime of his life—”

  “That hardly describes this fellow Govorov.”

  “—the law requires we establish cause of death. A medical examination is required for that.”

  “A medical examination is not necessary for every old soak who drinks himself into the ground. Your own report mentions the empty bottle found near the body.”

  “But what if we were wrong to dismiss Dr. Pervoyedov’s findings concerning the cause of death in the case of the yardkeeper? Let us allow, for one moment, that Borya was poisoned with contaminated vodka. Do we now have another instance of the same crime? Is this a modus operandi? Will it come out, will it be something we read about in the newspapers, that in our eagerness to close that case, we allowed a murderer to kill again? It is too late to prevent Govorov’s death. But imagine the scandal there would be if we made the same mistake again.”

  “Porfiry Petrovich. I am not wrong. I am never wrong. It is impossible for the office of the prokuror to make mistakes. The law is quite clear on this. However”—Prokuror Liputin looked Porfiry in the eye—“it is certainly possible that you could have made a mistake. You could, for example, have misinterpreted my instructions.”

  “I am sure that that is what has happened.”

  “So I shall speak very clearly this time, in order that there should be no misunderstanding. You are to commission Dr. Pervoyedov to conduct a medical examination of the deceased Govorov forthwith. If the test for prussic acid poisoning is positive, you are to reopen the case of the dwarf—”

  “Stepan Sergeyevich Goryanchikov.”

  “—and the yardkeeper. Is that understood?”

  “Yes, Prokuror Liputin.”

  “Incidentally, if Dr. Pervoyedov does find that Govorov was poisoned by prussic acid, I will have no choice but to instigate disciplinary proceedings against you, Porfiry Petrovich.”

  “I understand, your excellency,” said Porfiry, almost losing his balance through the depth of his bow.

  THE BODY WAS wrapped in a green canvas sheet, rubberized on the inside. Two rubber-aproned orderlies lifted it from the trolley, one at either end. They grimaced noiselessly as they took the full weight. It seemed a point of pride to them not to utter a sound. The load did not sag or bend at any point. The orderlies seemed surprised by this rigidity, although they must have experienced it before. Perhaps it surprised them anew each time they encountered it. Or perhaps they were thinking of something else entirely.

  They dropped it heavily on the waist-high examination table, the pine surface of which was as pitted and stained as a butcher’s block. It had beveled edges and a drainage hole at one end over an enamel trough. There was another, smaller table to one side, with a large set of balancing scales on it.

  “How extraordinary. What an extraordinarily novel idea,” commented Dr. Pervoyedov, as he opened the canvas sheet exposing the gray-faced cadaver beneath. “To conduct a medical examination in a hospital! That is to say, to arrange the medical examination to suit the convenience of the medical examiner. What is the world coming to? What indeed. I wonder if our beloved tsar, when he began to entertain the notion of reform, I wonder if he ever dreamed that it would lead to such, such…revolutionary novelties!” Dr. Pervoyedov seemed particularly pleased with this choice of word and so repeated it several times: “Novelties. Yes, novelties. Here at the Obukhovsky Hospital, novelties!”

  Major General Volkonsky and Actual State Councilor Yepanchin were once again in attendance as official witnesses. They frowned disapprovingly at Pervoyedov’s outburst.

  Porfiry Petrovich smiled indulgently. “I was much struck by the prokuror’s use of the word ‘forthwith.’ Equally by his tone. There was an urgency to it. I took it upon myself to ensure that t
here would be no possibility of delay.”

  “Will Prokuror Liputin be joining us?”

  “I think not,” said Porfiry. His smile became tense. “I have the feeling that he wishes to maintain a certain distance from the proceedings until the outcome is clear.”

  “Would that we all had that luxury.” After this comment Dr. Pervoyedov worked in silence. He was helped by one of the orderlies, who took upon himself the role of diener. Dr. Pervoyedov had not trained in Germany, but he had learned his pathology from professors who had and from the German textbooks they had brought back with them. The doctor communicated with his assistant—or “servant,” to translate the German term more accurately—through a system of finely nuanced facial expressions and nods. First Pervoyedov examined the already exposed areas of the corpse, including the eyes and fingernails. Then he nodded to the diener, and they began between them to remove the clothes. There was something numbing about the dead man’s open-eyed passivity as he was hefted to facilitate his last undressing.

  Now the body lay naked on its back. The contaminating grayness of death had been released. The abdomen spread out to the sides in soft, uneven mounds. The penis was plump and stunted, shrunken into itself. It had the shamefaced air of a whipped dog. It was hard to think of anything more insignificant. Porfiry thought back to the time in the pawnbroker’s when Govorov had accosted him. He felt himself blush and averted his gaze distastefully.

  He heard them roll the body over.

  “No external signs of traumata,” Dr. Pervoyedov murmured.

  After several silent minutes the body was rolled again onto its back.

  “We are particularly interested to know if there is any evidence of poisoning. For example, by prussic acid.” Porfiry addressed the remark to the ceiling.

  “Everything in due course, Porfiry Petrovich. Everything in due course.”

  Porfiry saw out of the corner of his eye that Pervoyedov had begun the deep, Y-shaped incision that would enable the skin to be pulled back.

  Dr. Pervoyedov teased a long-bladed scalpel beneath the flesh with one hand, as he lifted a single thick sheet of skin and tissue away with the other. Porfiry was aware of the movement and the faint meaty smell that came when the body was opened up. The diener was already standing ready with the small curved shears that were used for severing ribs. Dr. Pervoyedov gave one of his communicative nods and then exchanged his scalpel for the rib-cutters.