Death With Dostoevsky

by Katherine Bolger Hyde

  Daniel frowned, then shrugged. ‘I’ll give it some thought, but my brain’s not working very well these days. Not the healthiest environment, you know?’

  ‘I know. I could just go through the college directory and see what I find. That would be a lot less time-consuming than trying to talk to everyone on campus.’

  ‘You know I really appreciate everything you’re trying to do for me, Professor Cavanaugh.’

  ‘Emily.’

  ‘Emily. But I don’t get why you’re doing it. What am I to you besides the guy who snagged all the books you wanted?’

  Emily gazed at him, asking herself the same question. ‘You’re a person in trouble. And I believe you’re innocent. That’s enough in my book.’ Daniel didn’t need to know about the personal history that gave this case such emotional resonance for her. ‘Don’t despair. There must still be some unexplored avenues, and I will definitely explore them, or badger the police until they do. Meanwhile, try to keep your spirits up.’

  He gave her a look of utter cynicism.

  ‘I know it’s hard. Svetlana came with me today – she wanted to visit you, but they wouldn’t let her on the spur of the moment when they already had me signed up. But she’s out there in the office writing you a letter.’

  Daniel brightened a little at that, and they said their goodbyes. As Colin walked her out, she asked, ‘Do you think I could get a look at Curzon’s appointment book?’

  ‘I guess so. Why?’

  ‘I’m not sure, I just have a feeling about it. I want to see if I can track down any other DR.’

  Colin took her back to the main office and went off to the evidence room, returning in a few minutes with the appointment book in a plastic evidence bag. He handed her a pair of latex gloves to use while handling it. His own hands gloved, he turned the book to the relevant page. ‘Right there.’

  Emily stared at the initials. They were written together, as capitals with no periods between. ‘Could it mean “doctor”?’

  Colin looked skeptical. ‘Doesn’t seem too likely, does it? A doctor’s appointment at ten-thirty at night?’

  ‘Not a regular medical appointment, no. But she could have been planning to meet someone who happens to be a doctor, but in some other capacity.’

  ‘But wouldn’t she have written the R in lowercase? That’s the usual abbreviation for doctor.’

  ‘True, but Taylor was not a usual person.’ She skimmed through the entries for the week previous to Taylor’s death. ‘See, she always writes out a person’s name – the first or the last name, at least. There’s not a single other entry here that just has two initials.’

  Colin leafed through in his turn. ‘Huh. You’re right. That’s kind of funny. But couldn’t it be because it was a secret assignation?’

  Emily flipped back to the previous autumn and found an entry for Pacifique. ‘She was sleeping with this guy, I’m pretty sure, and she wrote his name out. I don’t think she’d care about keeping that sort of thing secret. Now, if her mafia guy had the initials DR, that might make sense. But then she probably would have written the initials in Russian. Some Russian letters look like Roman letters, but there’s nothing that looks like D or R.’

  ‘Yeah, IB for Ivan Bordetsky doesn’t look much like DR either. These letters are pretty clear.’

  ‘Wait a minute.’ Emily pulled the book close and examined the letters again, then the other entries around them. ‘Aren’t they too clear? Her handwriting isn’t that great – some of the other entries are kind of hard to make out. But the DR – like you said, it’s quite clear.’

  ‘You know, you’re right. I never thought of that.’

  ‘I bet it’s a forgery. The murderer wrote those initials as just one more way of implicating Daniel.’

  ‘Why not go the whole hog and write out “Daniel Razumov”?’

  ‘Because he didn’t trust himself to capture her handwriting. He didn’t do that great a job on these two letters. If he’d tried the whole name, you’d have been sure to notice the difference before now.’

  ‘Hot dog. I think we’re on to something.’ Colin snapped the book shut. ‘I’m going to have to run this by the boss and get it over to the handwriting specialist to verify. But I’m sure in my bones you’re right. Wharton will have to let me broaden the investigation now.’

  Emily glowed. Progress at last, with real physical evidence that Daniel was being framed. She had to tell Svetlana.

  But when Colin and Emily entered the cubicle where she was waiting, Svetlana stood. Straight and resolute as a martyr going to the stake, she handed Colin a sheaf of folded papers. ‘This is for Daniel,’ she said. ‘And I want to make a confession.’

  TWENTY-THREE

  Colin’s eyebrows rose toward his hairline. He glanced at Emily, who returned a baffled look. She had certainly not expected this development.

  ‘We’ll have to move to an interview room,’ Colin said.

  Svetlana hesitated. ‘May I have Emily with me?’

  Colin exchanged glances with Emily again, and she nodded her agreement. ‘I guess we could call her your appropriate adult. But you do need to keep quiet unless I ask you something, Emily.’

  ‘Of course.’

  He led the way to an interview room – windowless, sterile, devoid of any comfort. Emily felt cold to her core. She could only imagine what Svetlana must be feeling in this oppressive place.

  Colin made the necessary introduction for the sake of the recording, then said, ‘You said you want to make a confession.’

  ‘Yes.’ Svetlana sat rigidly erect, her hands clenched in her lap, her gaze directed straight ahead – not at Colin but at the opposite wall. Her face looked completely drained of blood. ‘I killed Taylor Curzon.’

  ‘Right.’ Colin cleared his throat. ‘Did you plan this ahead of time?’

  Svetlana’s eyes went wide. ‘No! Of course not. I just wanted to reason with her. I went to her office to try to persuade her to let Daniel off the hook. I didn’t care what she did to me if she would only leave him alone.’

  ‘You went to her office. I take it you mean on Monday night? What time was this?’

  Svetlana swallowed. ‘Yes, Monday. I think … around eleven?’ She cast a telltale glance at Emily as if unsure of the time the police had determined for the murder. A tiny knot of doubt in Emily’s mind relaxed at that moment. She was now completely certain Svetlana’s confession would be false.

  ‘Did you see anyone else in the building?’

  ‘N–no. Not that I remember.’

  ‘Did you go straight to Curzon’s office?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And then what happened?’

  ‘I knocked on her door.’

  ‘Was it shut?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did she come to the door?’

  ‘No. She called out “Come in”, so I went in.’

  Colin raised an eyebrow toward Emily. He and she knew that Curzon’s office door did not stay fully closed unless it was locked, but Svetlana evidently did not.

  ‘And then?’

  ‘She was sitting at her desk. I went up to the desk and said … well, I don’t remember my exact words, but I asked her to leave Daniel alone. I said I didn’t care what happened to me, but Daniel couldn’t work with her pestering him, and he absolutely had to finish his degree this year.’

  ‘And how did she respond?’

  ‘She laughed at me. She … called me names. Then she stood up and came around the desk. She got right up in my face and said terrible things about Daniel, too. That his career didn’t matter, he’d never amount to anything academically because he was ill. I don’t know how she found out about that, but I just saw red.’

  Svetlana took in a breath and finished her recital in a rush. ‘Daniel’s statue was there on the desk, right by my hand – I have no idea how it got there – and I picked it up and swung at her. I didn’t mean to kill her. I just wanted to shut her up. Then when I saw what I’d done, I was horrified
. I panicked and ran.’

  Colin was silent a moment, giving her time to finish. But she said no more.

  ‘I see. You hit her once and then you ran?’

  ‘Yes. She crumpled right away.’

  He nodded sagely. ‘And you didn’t get any blood on your clothes?’

  Svetlana blinked rapidly, and Emily could almost hear the gears of her brain turning over. She knew about the blood on Daniel’s jacket; her story would have to account for that somehow.

  ‘I … uh … I had borrowed Daniel’s jacket earlier. I ran into him after dinner and I was cold, so he gave me his jacket. All the blood got on that.’

  ‘And then you took the jacket back to Daniel’s room and left it there for us to find. For us to assume he’d been wearing it himself when he killed her.’

  Svetlana’s eyes went wide. ‘No! I never wanted anyone to think that! I … I wasn’t thinking, I guess. When I saw she was dead, all I knew was I wanted Daniel to comfort me. I ran to his room, and I guess I just took the jacket off while I was there and didn’t think about anybody finding the blood.’ She buried her face in her hands. ‘Why didn’t I wash it? Or burn it? Then he’d be free …’

  Colin spoke gently. ‘No, he wouldn’t, because we have more on him than just the blood. And I’m afraid this sorry attempt at a confession isn’t going to help Daniel either. You seem to know a fair bit about this murder’ – he cast a severe glance at Emily, who grimaced an apology – ‘but there’s one thing you apparently weren’t told. Taylor Curzon was not killed by a single blow to the head.’

  Svetlana looked up. ‘But – I told you—’

  ‘In cases like these, it’s what the pathologist tells us that counts. She was struck multiple times. It’s possible the first blow was actually fatal, but the killer didn’t stop there. He beat her head to a bloody pulp.’

  Svetlana turned green and put her hand to her mouth.

  ‘Interview terminated for a comfort break.’ Colin stood and opened the door. ‘The restroom is right over there.’

  Svetlana sped out.

  ‘You’d better go with her,’ Colin said to Emily. She needed no urging on that point.

  When Svetlana had finished vomiting, Emily helped her clean up and then held her as she sobbed. ‘Why didn’t you tell me? If I’d had more facts I could have made it convincing. I could have made them take me and let Daniel go.’

  Emily rubbed the girl’s back. ‘I doubt that, Svetlana. Even if your facts had been convincing, your manner would never have been. You simply don’t have the bearing, the attitude, the anything of a killer.’

  She put her hands on Svetlana’s shoulders and held her at arm’s length so she could look her in the eye. ‘What you did today was very brave, if also incredibly foolish. But the situation is not as desperate as you think. You didn’t give me a chance to tell you – we do have a glimmer of hope. Colin let me look at the initials in Curzon’s appointment book, and they were almost certainly forged. If that can be proved, it’s a strong indication that someone was trying to frame Daniel.’

  Hope dawned in Svetlana’s eyes for the first time since Daniel had been taken in for questioning. ‘Oh, Emily! Thank you! That’s the best news I’ve had in – well, ever. Oh, thank God! Thank God!’

  Emily didn’t want to prick Svetlana’s balloon of confidence, but she knew these grounds for hope were still fairly flimsy. It was one thing to prove evidence suggesting Daniel was framed, but quite another to discover who had done the framing. They still had a long way to go.

  Colin called Emily back late that afternoon. ‘You were right,’ he said. ‘The handwriting guy says there’s a ninety percent chance those initials were forged. I’ve never heard him commit himself to that extent before.’ He paused. ‘Kind of makes me feel stupid for not noticing sooner.’

  ‘You had no particular reason to look closely. The point is, we know now.’

  ‘Yes. And Wharton says we can go back to campus for a more thorough search and door to door first thing Monday morning.’

  Emily crossed herself gratefully. ‘Thank God for that.’

  She allowed herself a true day of rest on Sunday with church, a movie, and cuddle time with the cats. In the evening she called Luke and gave him the news.

  ‘Well, well, well. So you caught Colin out on physical evidence. I’m going to have to rib him about that next holiday gathering.’

  ‘Don’t be too hard on him. He feels badly enough about it already.’

  ‘Nah, I’ll go easy. He’s a good kid. But like all kids, he’s got a lot to learn.’

  She told Luke about breaking Douglas’s and Richard’s alibis as well. His reaction was like Colin’s on steroids.

  ‘Em, how many times have I told you not to put yourself in a dangerous situation like that? You do not let yourself be alone with a viable murder suspect. You especially don’t let him know what you’ve got on him. Leave that to the police.’

  ‘The police weren’t doing anything. Colin would have, left to himself, but Sergeant Wharton dug his fat toes in and wouldn’t let him budge. Besides, I wasn’t alone with Douglas – Marguerite was there – and I’ve known Richard for years. Much as I dislike the man, he’s too much of a wimp to lash out in cold blood. A crime of passion might be just barely within his scope, but not cold-blooded murder. And in broad daylight, too.’

  ‘I don’t care how much you think you’ve got him figured, you never know what somebody will do under stress. Especially if he’s killed before. Promise me you won’t do anything that stupid again.’

  Emily gave in. Luke might be a little overprotective, but at least it was out of love. ‘All right. I promise.’

  As for the rest of their conversation, if it had been written in a letter by Anne Shirley to Gilbert Blythe, it would have required a new pen.

  TWENTY-FOUR

  The weekend’s cloudless skies meant Monday morning dawned even colder than the last two weeks had been. Emily resisted the temptation to drive down the hill, but she did take a thermos of coffee with her to the library, knowing she’d need to warm up once she got there.

  She knew Colin would be on campus interviewing people again. He was trying to narrow down who might have written the initials DR in Curzon’s appointment book as well as confirm who actually was in Vollum during the crucial hour of the murder.

  Emily found it difficult to settle to work for wondering how Colin was getting on. But Svetlana was working diligently away on Emily’s notes, and she couldn’t sit there idly while her assistant labored. So she attempted to read. This was the last week of Paideia; next week she would have to give her desk back to the thesis student who occupied it during term time. She had to make the most of the little time she had left.

  At noon Colin called her cell phone. ‘Got some stuff to run by you. Want to grab lunch?’

  ‘Sure. Commons?’

  ‘Better off-campus. We don’t want to be overheard.’

  ‘Meet me outside the library and we can walk up to Baumgartner’s.’

  ‘Mind if we drive? I’ve been pounding the pavement all morning. My feet are burning and frozen at the same time.’

  Emily smiled to herself at the thought that she was more willing to exert herself than this fit young man. But she would humor him. His must be a taxing job, both physically and mentally.

  When they had ordered, Colin wrapped his hands around his coffee cup and took a long sip. ‘I’m frozen to my core. I guess Bede isn’t that big as campuses go, but when you’re trudging from end to end in search of folks it feels like the Russian steppes.’

  ‘Interesting you’d choose that simile. It sounds like something I would say.’

  He grinned. ‘I guess you’re rubbing off on me. Or maybe it’s all the Russian names and whatnot associated with this case. That plus the weather. But I guess we need a few feet of snow to make it really feel like Russia.’

  ‘That and a further temperature drop of about forty degrees. This is probably like October in Petersbur
g.’

  ‘Glad we’re not there, then.’ He shivered.

  ‘So has all your trudging paid off?’

  ‘Maybe. Nothing definite, but some stuff that’s suggestive.’ He pulled out his notebook, then paused as the waiter delivered their soup and sandwiches. He took a slurp of beef barley soup before continuing.

  ‘First of all, I’ve confirmed that Richard McClintock was in Vollum until at least eleven o’clock. Once I pinned Douglas Curzon down on his late visit to his wife, he told me he’d seen McClintock in the hallway on his way out.’

  Emily’s heart gave a little jump, but she reminded herself that she must strive to be impartial. ‘So presumably Richard saw him as well?’

  Colin nodded. ‘Worse luck for us, though – Curzon was definitely on his way out, and he was not covered in blood. McClintock even heard the victim call out something after him, so she must still have been alive at that point. No reason for McClintock to lie to protect Curzon – he’d be more likely to try to implicate him if he could.’

  Emily frowned. ‘True. So they more or less clear each other?’

  ‘More or less. Though we don’t have a witness to McClintock leaving the building. We only have his word he left shortly after that without seeing the victim.’

  So Richard could still be guilty. ‘How did he justify having lied about his alibi?’

  ‘Blustered a bit, then finally admitted he was afraid of being suspected because of his run-in with the victim earlier that day. He figured Douglas Curzon wouldn’t blow his alibi because he wouldn’t want to admit he’d been there himself. And McClintock didn’t think anyone else had seen him.’

  ‘In which he was correct. Sidney only saw his open door. So, in point of fact, we are no further forward, with those two at least.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘How about Goldstein? Did anybody happen to see him on campus that night?’

  Colin held up a finger as he finished chewing and flipped through his notebook. ‘Not a definite identification, but your friend Teresa did remember seeing someone with a similar silhouette in the parking lot when she left for the night. She thought it might be the same guy who bumped into her in the library, but he was wrapped up for the weather so she couldn’t be sure.’