Eye of the Red Tsar

30

PEKKALA AND THE NUN SAT ON FLIMSY CHAIRS IN A ROOM BARE except for some framed photographs on the walls. All were portraits of nuns. The pictures had been colored in by hand, and the cheeks of the nuns were balls of pink, their lips clumsily traced. Only the blue of the habits had been correctly drawn. The artist had attempted to fill in the eyes, but instead of adding life to the picture, he had succeeded only in making them look afraid.

“We are being temporarily shut down,” explained Sister Ania.

“Temporarily?”

“Our beliefs, at this moment in time, are no longer in accord with the governing body, according to the Central Office of the Ural Soviet. The surprise is not that they are doing this to us, Inspector. What astonishes me is that it took them this long to get round to it.” Sister Ania sat straight-backed in her chair, her hands in her lap. She looked poised but uncomfortable. “The other sisters have all been dismissed. I am to stay on as caretaker of this empty building. Most of our belongings are to be placed in storage. Where, I don’t know. How long, I don’t know. And why, I don’t know either. Either we should be shut down or we should not be shut down. Instead, we are being held in a kind of suspended animation, like insects trapped in amber. But something tells me you have not come to investigate this particular injustice.”

“I regret that I have not.”

“Then I am guessing this has something to do with the Romanovs.”

“That is correct.”

“Of course it is. After all, what else would bring you to this backwater?”

“To tell you the truth, I am compelled by circumstance-”

“We are all compelled by circumstance,” interrupted Sister Ania. “I believe I can save you the trouble of wearing me down with your interrogation techniques.”

“Sister Ania, that is not what I…”

Her hand rose from her lap, then settled slowly back again. “I have waited a long time to tell what I know to someone I feel I can trust. He spoke of you, you know, in those few moments when we were able to talk. ‘If only the Emerald Eye were here,’ he would say.”

Pekkala felt a weight settle on him, like chains draped around his neck. “Did he really believe I could have helped him, under arrest and surrounded by armed guards?”

“Oh, no,” replied Sister Ania. “But I think his world just made more sense when you were in it.”

“I should have stayed,” muttered Pekkala, more to himself than to the nun.

“And why didn’t you?”

“He ordered me to leave.”

“Then you should have no regrets.”

Pekkala nodded, the chains so heavy on his shoulders that he could barely draw breath into his lungs.

“When the Tsar spoke of you, I realized that he had created in the Emerald Eye an image of himself as he would have wished to be but never could.”

“And how is that?” asked Pekkala.

“A man who had no need of things which he himself had found he could not live without.”

“Yes,” agreed Pekkala. “I believe there is some truth to that.”

Sister Ania sighed heavily. “Anyway, what does it matter now, except to old believers like ourselves? He is gone now, and you will hear many stories in this town about the night the Romanovs disappeared.”

“I have heard some of them already.”

“There are almost as many versions as there are people in Sverdlovsk. I cannot vouch for all of them, but what I can tell you is that the Romanovs had reason to believe they would be rescued.”

“Rescued? Do you mean by the Whites?”

“No. The Tsar knew that if the Whites came close enough to this town, the Reds would simply execute him and his family. This rescue was to take place before then. A plan had been worked out.”

“May I ask how you knew about it?”

“I brought them messages.”

“And you had written them?”

“Oh, no. I only delivered the messages.”

“Then who did they come from?”

“A former officer in the army of the Tsar asked me if I could get a message through to the Romanovs. This was in the early days of their captivity at the Ipatiev house, when the militia were still guarding them. The officer told me that a group of loyal soldiers were prepared to storm the house and transport the whole family to safety.”

“And you agreed?”

She nodded sharply. “I did.”

“So I can assume that your loyalties were also with the Tsar.”

“Let us say that this eviction notice from the Ural Soviet does not come as a complete surprise. I offered to deliver the messages myself, so that no one else in the convent need know about them.”

“How were they delivered?”

“Rolled up and hidden inside corks which were used to plug bottles of milk.”

“How did the Tsar reply?” asked Pekkala. “Were his messages also hidden in corks?”

“No, it was not possible to remove the messages without damaging the corks. The Tsar came up with his own method. It was quite ingenious. He used books. They were given to me as gifts, but I passed them along to the officer.”

“And these books contained messages?”

“None that the militia guards could find. I wasn’t even sure myself how the messages were getting through. There were no pieces of paper tucked inside or notes written into the margins. It was only after the Romanovs disappeared that the officer explained how the messages had been hidden.”

“And how was it done?”

“The Tsar used a pin”-she pinched the air in front of her-“making tiny holes beneath letters to spell out words. He always began on page ten.”

“And did the officer ever speak to you about these messages?”

“Oh, yes. He even offered to take me away with him when the Romanovs were rescued. But he never got the chance.”

“Why not?”

“At first, the Tsar wrote back that he was willing to be rescued, but only if the whole family could be brought away. Alexei was ill. The Tsar worried that the boy might be too weak to make an extended journey. He was anxious to avoid any bloodshed, even among the militia who were guarding him.”

“What happened to change his mind?”

“Shortly after the local militia were replaced by the Cheka security detachment, the Tsar sent a message ordering the officer not to attempt a rescue.”

“Why would the Tsar do that,” asked Pekkala, “when it was his only chance of escape?”

“That I cannot tell you,” Sister Ania said. “The officer said it would be too dangerous for me to know, since he could no longer guarantee my safety.”

“Did you ever see this officer again?”

“Oh, yes,” she replied. “We are still friends, he and I.”

“Sister Ania, it is important that I speak to this man, whoever he is.”

She looked at him carefully. “If that officer were here beside me now, he would say I had already told you too much.”

“I am not here to find a man who tried to save the Tsar,” said Pekkala. “I am here to find the one who put a bullet in his chest.”

Her lips twitched. “So it is true what the papers said.” It was not a question.

“Yes,” said Pekkala. “The Tsar is dead.”

She sighed heavily. “There are many who believed that he survived.”

“It is possible, however, that one of the children has survived.”

Sister Ania’s eyes widened. “Possible? What does that mean? Please, Inspector-is one of them alive or not?”

“That is what I am investigating, Sister Ania. It is why I am speaking to you now.”

“Which one?” she insisted. “Which child?”

“Alexei.”

She struggled to remain composed. “That poor boy… He had already endured so much.”

“Yes.”

Suddenly she leaned towards him. “And what do you believe, Inspector Pekkala?”

“My investigation is not yet complete.”

“No!” She slapped one hand against her knee. “What do you believe? Do you think he is alive or not?”

“I think he might be, yes.” His voice barely rose above a whisper. “And if there is any chance that the Tsarevich is alive, I think your officer might help me to locate him.”

“You will find him at the police station,” said Sister Ania, without hesitation.

“He is under arrest?”

“On the contrary,” she said. “He is in charge of the place. His name is Officer Kropotkin.”

“Kropotkin. This will not be my first conversation with the police chief.”

“That is just as well,” she replied. “He does not make a good first impression.”

Sister Ania walked Pekkala back towards the entrance.

As Pekkala passed by the crates filled with the belongings of the convent, he wondered in what dark warehouse they would be locked away and, if they ever saw the light of day again, what would be remembered of their owners and what convenient lies would be admitted.

Before they stepped from the cool shade of the building into the glare of the gravel courtyard, Sister Ania rested her hand on his shoulder. “If the Tsarevich is alive, promise me you will see to it that no harm comes to him, Inspector. He has suffered enough for crimes he did not commit.”

“I give you my word,” Pekkala answered.

They walked out into the sun.

“Do you believe in miracles, Inspector Pekkala?”

“It is not in my nature.”

“Then maybe it is time you started.”

Propped against the convent wall was an old bicycle, its leather seat cracked and the black paint covered by a film of dust. The wooden handles showed a burnish of hard use, and the treads on the tires had been worn down almost smooth. In spite of its age, the old machine possessed a certain dignity, as those things do which have accompanied a person on the journey of their lives.

Pekkala looked beyond the iron gates at the long walk down into Sverdlovsk. A fierce blue sky beat down upon the road. The dappling shadows of the poplar trees seemed to offer no comfort at all.

He stared at the bicycle, imagining the cool breeze he would feel upon his face as he freewheeled down the hill, instead of drearily trudging through the heat.

Sister Ania followed his gaze. “Take it,” she told him. “Otherwise, those men will carry it away. By the time it is released from storage that bicycle will be an antique, if it isn’t one already. If it will do you any good at all, please take it now and do not say another word about it.”

Pekkala straddled the bicycle, the old leather seat not as comfortable as he would have liked.

“Well,” said Sister Ania, smiling slightly, “let’s see how you handle it. I don’t want to be responsible for you breaking your neck.”

He rode around in a circle on the gravel path. It had been years since he’d last ridden a bicycle and the front wheel wobbled as he struggled to stay upright.

“Perhaps I have made a mistake,” she said.

“Not at all,” he reassured her as he came to an uncertain halt beside her.

She reached out to him.

Pekkala took her small pink hand in his.

Her touch shocked Pekkala like a jolt of electricity. It had been years since he’d last held the hand of a woman.

“We need you,” she told him. “Don’t ever leave us again.”

Pekkala opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He was too overwhelmed to speak.

Sister Ania squeezed his hand, then let go. Turning, she walked back into the convent.

Far below, at the base of the hill, the road forked left and right. The right fork led into town. The left fork passed along the side of a weed-choked pond and on into a pale green sea of barley fields.

As soon as Pekkala cleared the gates, the road sloped sharply downwards. From then on, gravity propelled him and there was no need for him to pedal. His eyes began to water. The wind in his ears, like the roaring of a gas flame, was all that he could hear. Suddenly, catching himself completely by surprise, Pekkala laughed.

When the bicycle was going so fast that he felt the back wheel begin to shudder, he reached out with his fingers, closed them around the bare metal of the brake levers, and gave them a light squeeze. But the bike did not slow down. Pekkala glanced down in time to see the old rubber brake pads coming apart in chunks as they connected with the wheel rim.

With no idea why, Pekkala was still laughing. He could not help himself.

He gave the brakes a tighter squeeze and the bicycle slowed momentarily. Then both pads flew off completely. He looked behind at the rear brakes and only then did he notice that the cable was missing, rendering them useless.

He roared with laughter and the wind poured into his mouth.

The wheels were buzzing now.

Pekkala struggled to stay on the bike as the trees went by in a blur, a swishing sound as each one passed.

By the time he reached the bottom of the hill, he was holding on for his life. He banked left, gripping the wood handles as tightly as he could. The road leveled out. He straightened the handlebars. Everything seemed to be working. Pekkala had just allowed himself a moment of silent self-congratulation when he heard a loud crack from somewhere behind him. The rear tire had exploded. Out of control, he veered to the left and blew through the tall grass which grew at the side of the road. For a brief moment, he had the sensation of flying, as if the free-spinning wheels might carry him up into the sky. A second later, garlanded with buttercups, daisies, and purple-flowered tangles of vetch, Pekkala pitched forward over the handlebars and into the pond.

For a second, he lay there, facedown. The trees he had passed on his way down the hill still flickered behind his closed eyes.

Then, planting his feet in the mud, Pekkala stood. Pond weeds clung to his coat like green confetti. A bloom of stirred-up silt spread out around him.

As he made his way back to dry ground, pulling at the bicycle and exhausted by the weight of water in his clothes, an image of his childhood returned-of himself and Anton, dragging sleds behind them and struggling under the burden of their winter clothes. They used to sled down a steep hill near their house. The hill was used only in summer, when woodsmen dragged timber out of the forest, rolling the logs downhill to a river where they could be floated to the sawmill in town. In winter, he and Anton had the hill all to themselves. It was back before things changed between them-before the crematory oven, before Anton left to join the Finnish Regiment. Since then, the gap had only widened. Pekkala wondered, as the breath grew hot in his lungs, if they could ever return to the way things were before. Not without a miracle, he told himself. Maybe Sister Ania is right. Maybe it is time to start believing.