A Vengeful Longing

6

‘Porfiry Petrovich?’ Virginsky said the name quietly, though with breathless urgency and a questioning intonation. He looked over the edge of his desk at Porfiry, who was stooping beneath the window in front of him, his attention focused on a saucer he was holding in both hands. The saucer contained a viscous golden liquid.

At that moment, Nikodim Fomich came into the room. He took in the situation with an ironic smile, winking at Virginsky. ‘I say, what have you there, Porfiry Petrovich?’

Porfiry met his good-natured enquiry with a preoccupied scowl. ‘Honey.’ He rose to his feet and stood over the saucer, watching it with fixed determination.

‘Honey?’

‘For the flies.’

‘You’re feeding the flies? I should have thought they are flourishing well enough without your encouragement.’

‘The honey is laced with kvas.’

‘I. . see,’ said Nikodim Fomich. He nodded his head and pursed his lips thoughtfully.

‘The flies will eat the honey and become intoxicated. They will then become sleepy and erratic. This will make them easier to catch. And kill.’

‘But why not simply lace the honey with poison?’

‘Ah!’ said Porfiry with a flutter of his eyelids. ‘Where is the sport in that?’ He broke off from his vigil and took his seat behind his desk with a grimace.

Nikodim Fomich settled into the sofa. ‘I am surprised you do not use your psychology on them,’ he said, with another wink to Virginsky, who was watching their exchange with an acutely anguished expression.

‘You always say that, Nikodim Fomich, but it is not my psychology, ’ said Porfiry. ‘And in a way I am. The psychology of a fly is surely very simple. It is dominated by hunger.’

‘So, it’s true what they’re saying.’

‘And what are they saying?’

‘That you have lost your wits, Porfiry Petrovich. That the heat and the flies have finally got to you.’

‘What?’

‘That and the pressure of work. Three murder cases running concurrently, and not a whiff of a solution in any one. Finally, the great Porfiry Petrovich has come face to face with the prospect of failure.’

‘Who is saying this?’

‘No one in particular. It is just a thing one hears. They say you are going round in circles, that you have no leads, that you have wasted valuable time arresting the wrong men, or that you have let the murderers go. Or even that you are more concerned with the drainage provisions of the city of St Petersburg.’

‘No one is saying these things. Apart from you, that is.’

‘I? No. I have. .’ Nikodim Fomich cast about for the appropriate word: ‘Defended you. I say to your critics that you will surprise us all, that you will amaze us, in fact, with your powers of deduction and your. . psychology. Yes. It is always the psychology that does it in the end. You will produce solutions from thin air, like rabbits from a hat. Is that not so?’

Porfiry did not answer.

‘I’m confident of it. Indeed, I have good money riding on it.’

‘You mean there are wagers on the likelihood of my solving these cases?’

‘One can get very good odds at the moment. You’d better not let me down, my friend.’

‘But this is appalling. And hardly appropriate behaviour for a man in your position, Nikodim Fomich.’

The chief inspector pouted contritely. ‘I merely brought it up to show my absolute confidence in you.’

‘Even so.’ Porfiry gave his friend an admonishing stare. After a moment’s consideration, he added: ‘How much did you bet?’

Nikodim Fomich waved the question away. ‘Please. Let’s not talk about that. I wouldn’t want to put you under any more pressure than you are already. But tell me that you are close to a solution in at least one of the cases. The Meyer case, for instance. You have been working on that the longest.’

‘I have my theories.’

‘I knew it! You are the man for theories.’

‘To begin with, I now believe all three cases are connected.’

‘What? The latest as well? I knew you had connected the first two — the letters and all, even though there was no letter found in the case of Setochkin. So is there an anonymous letter involved in this latest case too?’

‘Not as far as we know. A search of the Gorshkovs’ corner in their rotting basement has turned up nothing. No, it is not the presence of a letter that inclines me to this view but a number of other factors. To begin with, the murder weapon.’

‘But the murder weapon is different in each case.’

‘Exactly!’

Nikodim Fomich’s expression clouded. ‘My friend, I fear you have been pushing yourself too far. You cannot connect cases simply because they are different. Why, you’d have all the murders on our books pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle, if that were so. And our entire casebook solved by the arrest of one man! It’s madness, you must see that.’

‘They are superficially different, but fundamentally the same. Each weapon, I feel, has been deliberately chosen because of its significance to the murder victim.’

‘How so?’

‘The chocolates, poisoned. A tarnished sweetness. It seems appropriate, does it not, for a woman who once made her living as a prostitute? Setochkin, a dissolute retired officer, a gentleman of little honour, shot with his own duelling pistol, a weapon of honour. Suggestive, is it not? And Ferfichkin, the tailor who exploited the Bible for gain, stitched through the heart with a cruciform dagger. It is all, quite clearly, indicative of a consistent psychology at work.’

‘There! You see!’ cried Nikodim Fomich to Virginsky. ‘I told you there would be psychology in it.’

‘Furthermore, I have now had a chance to read the witness statements compiled by the Eastern Admiralty District Police Bureau. On the night before Ferfichkin’s body was found, a man answering his description was seen to bump into a number of people. He was evidently drunk. It was after one such collision — with a man who has not yet come forward — that he fell to the ground; it was assumed in a drunken stupor. Now, if you remember, according to Dr Meyer’s testimony, someone bumped into him coming out of the confectioner’s, at which point he believes the poisoned chocolates were substituted for those he had bought.’

‘What are you saying? That this bumping-into is important?’

‘It is the beginnings of a pattern.’

‘But there was no bumping-into in the Setochkin case,’ protested Nikodim Fomich.

‘No, not that we know of,’ admitted Porfiry.

‘It is all very. .’ Nikodim Fomich brought his clenched hands together in the air, then wiggled his fingers as his hands drifted apart. ‘Tenuous.’

‘I can see how it would seem so to you, but to me these patterns are quite as concrete as any piece of physical evidence. Vakhramev’s journal provides a link between the Setochkin and the Meyer cases — the visit to the brothel. There are two instances of collisions between pedestrians, which in turn link the Ferfichkin and the Meyer case. So indirectly, Ferfichkin is also linked to Setochkin. When you add to these correspondences the significant weapon choices, we begin to discern a presence, and to suspect a definite personality at work.’

‘Yes, but who? That is the question.’

‘I–I think I may be able to shed some light on that.’ It was Virginsky, his voice tremulous with the import of what he was saying. He blushed as the eyes of the older men turned on him. ‘I was trying to tell you, Porfiry Petrovich, when Nikodim Fomich came into the room.’

‘Very well,’ said Porfiry. ‘You may tell us now.’

‘As you suggested, I paid a visit to Archives.’ Virginsky spoke quickly, breathlessly. ‘It was you who said you recognised the dead man’s face. There was indeed a case file with Ferfichkin’s name on it. It seems that Yemelyan Antonovich was a highly litigious man. He has sought to bring a host of private suits against many individuals. It started when he was in domestic service. It is an interesting case in itself. He accused his master of slander, it seems, because the gentleman complained, as masters are wont to do I believe. .’ Virginsky gave Porfiry an abashed look before continuing ‘. . that Ferfichkin was torturing him. And so Ferfichkin claimed that he was being slandered as a torturer. A report was made, but no proceedings taken. The gentleman’s name was struck from the record at his request. However, for Ferfichkin, it was the beginning of a career of litigation, mostly for perceived slander, or the recovery of debt.’

‘This is all very interesting,’ said Nikodim Fomich. ‘But could you hurry up and get to the point.’

‘Well, the point is, I found a name, one of Ferfichkin’s recent debtors, a man for whom he had sewn a fur collar on to an overcoat. ’

‘Yes, yes. And what is the name, dear boy?’ urged the chief inspector.

‘Rostanev,’ said Virginsky. ‘Axenty Ivanovich Rostanev.’

‘Rostanev?’ Porfiry frowned. Then his face lit up with realisation. ‘Rostanev! No, I don’t believe it! Surely not?’

‘Who is Rostanev?’ asked Nikodim Fomich.

‘My nemesis!’ said Porfiry, rising from his desk and rushing over to Virginsky.

‘He is described in the record as a civil servant,’ added Virginsky, the excitement rising in his voice.

‘So! Do you have the letter?’

‘Of course,’ said Virginsky, sorting through the papers on his desk. ‘I retrieved it from Alexander Grigorevich. When I saw the name, I thought I would check the handwriting. You will see.’ He handed Porfiry the terse note that had come from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Department of Public Health.

‘It could be, it could be,’ Porfiry repeated, as if seeking to convince himself of something he doubted.

‘What is it?’ Nikodim Fomich heaved himself from the sofa to join them. He read the note that Porfiry thrust in his hand. ‘“Re: Yekaterininsky Canal adjacent to Stolyarny Lane. Your letter regarding the above has been investigated. No action was deemed necessary.” I see that it is signed A. I. Rostanev. But what of it?’

‘Now the letter that was sent to Dr Meyer,’ said Porfiry, impatiently. ‘Do you have it, Pavel Pavlovich?’

Virginsky handed him this document.

Porfiry snatched the other letter back from Nikodim Fomich and compared the two. ‘There are similarities, definite similarities. But I dare say there are many clerks who could produce an identical hand. Nevertheless, it certainly makes our Mr Rostanev a candidate. ’

‘There is one other thing,’ said Virginsky, ‘which I have only just now discovered. In fact, it was this that I was checking when Nikodim Fomich. .’

‘Yes, yes, you have already mentioned that I am responsible for delaying your interesting disclosures. There is no need to delay them further yourself.’

‘I checked the pupil lists of the Chermak Private High School. If you remember, we were interested in classmates of the individual mentioned in Vakhramev’s journal, a certain Golyadkin. We were hoping to identify the mysterious individual who went with Golyadkin, Vakhramev and Devushkin to the brothel where Raisa Meyer worked. There was no Rostanev in Golyadkin’s class; however, the name did occur in the list of pupils five years junior to Golyadkin. Rostanev, A. I.’ Virginsky pointed to the name on the relevant list. ‘And just now,’ he continued breathlessly, ‘I happened upon an instance of the name in Ballet’s order book. The address is given as “care of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Chernyshov Square”.’

Porfiry’s hands snapped together in a single loud clap. ‘Got one!’ he cried. He met Virginsky’s and Nikodim Fomich’s bemusement with a smile of serene satisfaction. ‘A fly. The kvas worked. They are drowsy now.’ His smile solidified as he looked down at his clasped hands.