The Gentle Axe pp-1

by R. N. Morris

  “It is not necessary for me to like you. Or for you to like me.”

  “Of course, but what I think you do not realize is that I have enormous respect for you. I specifically requested you to be assigned to this case so that we could work together.” Salytov’s expression was suddenly outraged, as if Porfiry had insulted him. “What have I said now?” demanded Porfiry.

  “You do not know?”

  “No.” Porfiry’s eyes pleaded.

  “You insist that I tell you?” Salytov’s demand received a nod from Porfiry. “Very well. I know that you make fun of me. I know that you send me off on fools’ errands. You intrigue to get me the worst jobs. And here you have the boldness, the effrontery to say that you respect me!”

  “You are wrong, Ilya Petrovich.”

  “No, Porfiry Petrovich. I am right. I know that you are not to be trusted. You use the same tricks and techniques on your colleagues as you do on the criminals you interview. With me, it is flattery and disingenuousness. No doubt you would call it psychology.”

  “Is that really fair, Ilya Petrovich?”

  “You cannot even be straightforward with me now, when you have demanded honesty from me.”

  Porfiry exhaled audibly through his nostrils. “Perhaps you’re right. It is interesting to see myself illuminated by your perception. Not a very flattering portrait you paint.”

  “I do not flatter.”

  “I know, I know. That is my method. Forgive me then. I will own up to everything you accuse me of. Obviously, I am not as subtle as I like to think.”

  Salytov regarded Porfiry’s ingratiating smile coldly. He then leaned toward Porfiry, so that their bodies were pressed together. “You have never forgiven me,” he murmured, though he was close enough for it to be heard.

  “Forgiven you? What is there to forgive?” Porfiry too spoke more quietly now.

  “That it was to me that he confessed,” Salytov hissed with intimate antagonism.

  “I really have no idea-”

  “That student. Raskolnikov. He sought me out and confessed to me!”

  “But I was pleased that it was so, Ilya Petrovich. I was glad that he was able to confess at all. It does not matter to whom. The important thing is he confessed.”

  “Hypocritical nonsense! It was a blow to your vanity. Admit it. Have the decency to admit it.”

  “I see that I will not be able to persuade you of something you’re so determined not to believe.”

  “You cannot persuade me of your sincerity, if that’s what you mean.”

  “Hmm.” Porfiry pulled away and flexed his brow. “I’m sorry you feel this way. It is painful to me.”

  Salytov shrugged.

  “We must simply agree to ignore our differences and concentrate our efforts on the case,” said Porfiry, as brightly as he could.

  Salytov closed the gap between them again. “But will you be honest with me even in that?” His challenge had a pleading edge to it. “Will you honestly share with me all that you have discovered? Or will you-hold something back?”

  “If I am guilty of holding things back, it is only because I have nothing certain to disclose. I have discovered nothing. The solution evades me as much as it evades you.”

  “But you have your suspicions?”

  “Perhaps. But suspicions at this stage of the investigation are worthless.”

  “You see! You will not even share your suspicions with me!”

  “I will say this. I do not believe that Borya killed Goryanchikov-or himself.”

  “That is obvious. You have given me nothing.”

  “As for the student Virginsky-”

  “You let him go.”

  “I had no choice in the matter. I believe that he provides the key to the mystery somehow. Everything comes back to that contract. At the very least it provides him with a motive. But I need more than a motive. And I suspect there is more to it than meets the eye. At any rate, I have put a tail on him. I think it is as well to know what he is up to. It may even save his life.”

  “You think he is in danger?”

  “If the murderer believes he can incriminate him.”

  “Who do you think the killer is?”

  Porfiry Petrovich sighed despondently. “I do have a fault, you’re right. It’s a very Russian fault. I’m superstitious.” Porfiry’s glance was momentarily shy, almost apologetic. “Did you know I come from Tartar stock? On my grandmother’s side. She was born into a Kezhig tribe. Married a Russian subaltern. In my more fanciful moments, I like to imagine she was the daughter of the tribal shaman. Perhaps that accounts for it, my superstition. At any rate, it is that which is to blame for any reticence you may have noticed in me. Nothing more. Incidentally, contrary to what you may think, I do not believe these mysteries are solved rationally, through the exercise of a cold, deductive reasoning. The thing that terrifies me-sometimes, when I allow myself to think about it-is that I don’t know how they are solved. One must go to a place within one’s self. It is a kind of Siberia of the soul. In the criminal, it is the place where these deeds are conceived and carried through. But we all have a similar place within us, or so I believe. I know that I have. I can’t speak for you, of course.”

  “What’s your point?”

  “My point is, one cannot see clearly there. One gropes one’s way. Occasionally figures come toward one. Perhaps one is able to glimpse the features of a face.”

  Salytov relaxed heavily. He threw himself back and sat for a while considering Porfiry’s analogy. “Nonsense,” he shouted, at last. “You’re still trying to hoodwink me. You just want to guard your secrets in case I get there first. I must disclose everything I learn to you, but you can keep everything back.”

  “This has been a very diverting conversation,” said Porfiry. He took out his brightly colored cigarette case and held it open toward Salytov. The policeman snorted his refusal. The drozhki began to slow. Porfiry put away the case without taking a cigarette.

  Virginsky saw the tramp huddled in a doorway on Gorokhovaya Street, a coarse sack pulled over his head. He knew from the ragged felt boots sticking out at the bottom that it was the same man.

  He was relieved that the man’s face was hidden. It saved him from confronting the fear that now obsessed him: that he would recognize himself in the stranger’s features. Somehow the idea had entered his mind that this figure dogging his steps was nothing other than his future self. The absurdity of it did not escape him. That he was incapable of religious faith but was prepared to entertain this stupidity as a literal truth.

  I am mad! He almost laughed out loud.

  His self-awareness offered hope.

  I think I am mad, therefore I am not mad.

  He sensed a movement in the sacking as he passed. But did not look. He was torturing himself with the notion that the instant he looked the tramp in the eye, he would merge with him. He would become his future. What a ludicrous and humiliating-yes, humiliating, everything about his life was humiliating now-superstition! And yet he believed in it enough to keep his eyes fixed firmly ahead.

  With the tramp behind him, he allowed himself to think about the meal he would soon have in a cheap restaurant. Perhaps that should have been humiliating too, given the means he had used to acquire the money for his dinner. He had not just begged; he had lied. Virginsky had no intention of attempting a word of the translation. He had gone there simply to see what he could get out of them. But he found that he was not ashamed or humiliated. He felt no compunction at all.

  He was almost grateful to his hunger, as it enabled him to look forward to a five-kopek meat pie as if it were a banquet. It also excused any behavior.

  He had just one more errand to run before dining. Glowing spheres of color drew him. He approached the lights in the window of Friedlander’s the apothecary. He was momentarily touched by wonder, although he knew that they were just big bottles filled with colored liquid and lit from behind. Unconsciously, his gaze went back to the doorway where he had
last seen the tramp. He was dismayed to see that it was empty.

  The Hotel Adrianople was a low wooden structure that squatted heavily at the side of the Bolshoi Prospect, a brooding shadow compressed beneath the featureless sky. In places, its timbers were charred, as if someone had tried to set light to it.

  It was dark inside, and deserted. The reception area was minimal. A rack of keys was suspended behind a high desk at the start of a narrow, low-ceilinged corridor. Dirty yellow wallpaper absorbed the weak light.

  Porfiry pushed the bell on the desk. It gave a broken chime.

  A stubble-faced porter eventually appeared through an arch in one wall. He was wearing a grubby uniform undone to the belt, revealing a discolored vest. The porter assessed the two of them with an insolent expression. “A room for the hour, is it?”

  “How dare you!” shouted Salytov. The speed with which he attained his rage astonished even Porfiry.

  “We are looking for the boy Dmitri. It is police business. I am an investigating magistrate. This gentleman is a police lieutenant.”

  “What has he done, the little gypsy?”

  “Tell him we wish to give him his reward. From the tsar.”

  The slovenly man stirred himself into a frown and then roared, “Dima!” without taking his eyes off Porfiry.

  In an aside to Salytov, Porfiry murmured, “Please, Ilya Petrovich. Remember he is a child.” To Salytov’s look of startled outrage, he added, “There is nothing to be gained from scaring him.”

  Salytov shook his head in angry impatience.

  “You mentioned a reward,” said the porter, an unpleasant eagerness in his eyes.

  “For Dmitri, yes,” insisted Porfiry.

  The porter countered this detail with a cynical leer. “Leave it with me, your excellencies, and I will make sure that he gets it. There is no need for your excellencies to be inconvenienced. You could be here all day hanging around for that wastrel.”

  “You want his reward? I’ll give you his reward!” Salytov closed in on the porter with a raised hand. Although he was protected by the desk, the porter backed away from the policeman’s threatening advance. He flashed a quizzical appeal toward Porfiry and shouted for “Dima” again, this time embellishing the diminutive with abuse.

  A moment later the boy’s face peered out from the archway. It was every bit as filthy as the last time Porfiry had seen it. He had a grimy pillbox hat pushed back on the crown of his head. His eyes widened when he saw Porfiry, and it looked for a moment as if he might make a run for it.

  “Ah, Dmitri, my friend! How good to see you again! I have something for you-from the tsar himself.” Porfiry held up a shiny silver ruble. It drew the bellboy out into the open. But just as Dmitri reached for it, Porfiry closed his fist around the coin.

  “It’s not gold. It’s silver,” said Dmitri dismissively.

  “Ah, but it’s freshly minted-just for you. It has the tsar’s picture on it.”

  “Give it to me then.”

  “You’ve almost earned it. If only you hadn’t run away when we were talking before, it would be yours already. Why did you run away, my friend? There was nothing to be afraid of.”

  “I wasn’t scared.”

  “Then why did you run away?”

  “You ask too many questions.”

  “It’s my job.” Porfiry took out and lit the cigarette he had put off smoking in the drozhki. Dmitri’s watchful envy inspired him to offer the boy the case. Dmitri took a cigarette eagerly and sucked in his cheeks as Porfiry lit it for him.

  “Turkish?” he asked with his first, delayed exhalation.

  Porfiry nodded. “You like it?”

  Dmitri shrugged.

  “We were talking about the yardkeeper, remember? When you delivered your message to the dwarf Goryanchikov, you called in at the yardkeeper’s shed. Did Govorov give you a message for him too?”

  Dmitri bit the inside of his mouth. “He gave me a note, yes.”

  “So? Why not tell me that before?”

  Dmitri held the cigarette between thumb and forefinger and studied the glowing ash. “Dunno.” He took a long draw. “Something he said, maybe” came out with the smoke.

  “What did he say?”

  “It was nothing really.” Dmitri steadfastly refused to look Porfiry in the eye.

  “Yes, I’m sure you’re right. It’s bound to be nothing. A pity. If it proved to be useful…”

  “‘Be careful with it.’”

  “‘Be careful with it’?”

  “That’s what he said. ‘Be careful with it.’”

  “Anything else?”

  The boy shrugged. “It was the way he said it. His smile. The way he looked at me.” The boy shuddered at the recollection. In that moment, and in the distant narrowing of his eyes, he seemed curiously ageless, beyond all consideration of age, as if he were remembering something that had happened a hundred years ago. “It sent a shiver down my spine.”

  Porfiry pursed his lips. He glanced quickly to Salytov for a reaction. The policeman was frowning thoughtfully. “Interesting,” conceded Porfiry.

  “So do I get it now?” Dmitri held out his hand.

  Porfiry winked and produced the silver ruble. He reasoned that he would not get much more out of the boy on the promise of the coin alone. “You’ve done well. The tsar will be pleased.” He handed over the prize.

  Dmitri flashed a proud glance around, but seeing the grubby porter, his expression became wary. He hurried the coin into a pocket. “Do you know the tsar?” he asked Porfiry.

  “Not personally. But I will communicate your cooperation to my superior, and he will communicate it to his superior, and so on until it reaches the tsar. I am confident he will be pleased.”

  “He’s playing with you, you little fool,” sneered the porter suddenly.

  “I assure you, that’s the way the system works,” said Porfiry, blinking calmly. “His Imperial Majesty’s gratitude-or displeasure-is passed back down.” He lowered his head to menace the porter with significance. “It could be a beating as easily as a coin.” Porfiry turned to Dmitri with a smile. “Now, my friend, there is one more thing I would ask you to do for me. I would like you to show us the room that Govorov occupied.”

  Dmitri drew from his cigarette with a manly grimace. “We’ll need a candle,” he said.

  Virginsky scanned Gorokhovaya Street as he came out of Friedlander’s. He couldn’t see the tramp. But it was getting dark, and the air was thick with swirling snow. It was difficult to see anything. He had the sense, however, that the man was out there somewhere waiting for him. Perhaps he was one of the vague shapes huddled around the yardkeepers’ fires that punctuated the pavement on both sides of the street.

  Virginsky’s stomach growled painfully. Big snowflakes streamed toward his eyes, hungry for his tears.

  He started walking south. His new boots served him well on the slippery surface. He felt them grip but also sensed within his step the heart-lurching point at which they would fail him, and he measured his gait to stay the right side of it. Then, as a closed carriage passed him heading in the opposite direction, he turned sharply back on himself and ran in its lee. He was exhilarated by his ability to stay upright. He surprised himself by the maneuver but was comforted by it all the same, not merely because the carriage sheltered him from the weather. If the tramp was still on the other side of the street, the moving vehicle would act as a further blind, in addition to the nascent blizzard. As he came to the first corner, he turned right into Morskaya Street. The carriage continued straight on. Virginsky ran a few more paces and then abandoned himself to a slide that took him, arms windmilling, a couple of sazheni along the pavement. His arms came up, and he ducked into a quick walk, casting a single glance over his shoulder.

  With the same impulsiveness that had prompted him to turn on his heels in Gorokhovaya Street, he suddenly lurched toward the door of a shop. He did not look at the name of it and had formed no clear impression of what it sold.
/>   There was a smell of new felt and cologne, which had to it an elusive familiarity. He had been here before, once, a long time ago. In fact, his last visit to the German hat shop on Morskaya Street had been soon after his arrival in St. Petersburg. In those days his own apparel was equal to the expensive hats on display. It had seemed the most natural thing in the world to hold his head high as a shop assistant measured its circumference. Then he had inspected the shop’s wares as if they already belonged to him, and he had not been afraid to look himself in the eye in one of the many looking glasses. His face beneath a German topper had not struck him as preposterous. Far from it. He had bought the hat, though it was long since hocked, the pledge surrendered.

  Now the mirrors crowded in on him oppressively. He flinched away from them as if from a public shaming. And to try on one of the hats would have been as impossible as to dance on the ceiling.

  Virginsky moved far enough into the interior to be partially hidden from the street, but not so far that he could no longer look out through the window of the door. He was anxious also to avoid the attention of the shop walker. Fortunately, the staff all seemed to be busy with other customers.

  He didn’t have long to wait before the tramp shuffled into sight. In fact, the man’s sudden appearance on the pavement outside the shop took him by surprise. He had not had time to prepare himself for what now confronted him: an unimpeded view of the other’s profile. The greatest shock was that he did not recognize the face. It was certainly not his own. This was so unexpected that he stared blankly at the man, scarcely believing that it was the same tramp. He looked down at the stranger’s feet for confirmation. He was still wearing the old felt boots. But Virginsky noticed he now had a pair of good rubber galoshes over them.

  The man hesitated briefly on the pavement almost directly in front of Virginsky, casting searching looks up and down Morskaya Street. It seemed it did not occur to him to look inside the German hat shop. It was clearly inconceivable to connect the object of his search with the interior of such an establishment. The man moved on. Once again his speed and purpose impressed Virginsky.