Boris Akunin - He Lover of Death

The engineer nodded, as if he was approving Senka’s efforts at deduction.

‘The sadistic client theory c-could have been taken as the primary one, if not for the s-similarities between this crime and the two that preceded it. The extermination of every l-living thing. That is one. The use of torture. That is t-two. The same district. That is three. And in addition ...’ He pulled the shirt up off Tashka’s bare legs and took a magnifying glass out of his pocket. Senka turned away quickly and started coughing to get rid of the lump in his throat. ‘Mmm, yes. No s-signs of rape or sexual violence. The killer’s interest in his v-victim was not sensual in nature. Let us t-take a look at the lips . . .’

Masa walked over, but Senka didn’t look.

There was a quiet rasping sound – that must have been Erast Petrovich tearing the plaster off Tashka’s mouth.

‘Yes, just as I thought. The plaster was pulled off and stuck back on several times. The torturer kept asking about something over and over again, but the girl didn’t answer.’

Senka didn’t think it was very likely that Tashka didn’t answer a fiend like this. She would have answered him all right, loud and shrill, with her choicest words. But here on Khokhlovsky Lane, no matter how loud you yelled and what filthy words you used, no one would come, no one would rescue you.

‘Now this is interesting. Masa, l-look at her teeth.’

‘Goo’ for her,’ the sensei said, with an approving click of his tongue. ‘She bi’ his finger.’

‘Ah, what a shame we d-don’t have a laboratory.’ The engineer sighed. ‘We could take a particle of the criminal’s b-blood for analysis. The Moscow police have p-probably never heard of the Landsteiner method . . . But even so, we have to d-draw the investigator’s attention to this l-little detail somehow ...’

Masa and Mr Nameless leaned down over Tashka, and Senka started striding round the room, just to give himself something to do. There were three white daffodils in the window. Did that mean ‘I love you’ in the language of flowers? Or maybe it was ‘you can all go to hell, you bastards’? No one would translate it for him now ...

‘Ah,’ said Senka, reproaching himself out loud. ‘I should have come earlier, before dark. I was being too careful, so I got here too late.’

Erast Petrovich glanced round briefly. ‘Before dark? The murder was committed at least two days ago, most probably three. So you were a lot later than you think, Senya.’

That was true enough. The daffodils in the window were all wilted.

But this was Khitrovka, so no one had noticed anything. If anyone died, they just lay there till the neighbours caught the smell of rotting flesh.

‘If it’s not a loony, what did he want from Tashka?’ Senka asked, looking at the dead flowers. ‘What could he get from her?’

‘No “what”, b-but “who”,’ the engineer replied, as if he was surprised at the question. ‘You, Senya. This stubborn gentleman wants you very b-badly. And you know why.’

‘That’s a disaster!’ Senka exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. ‘I told Tashka about you and Mr Masa. And I told her you live on Asheulov Lane too. If this killer’s so stubborn, he’ll find out where we moved to, for sure. He’ll find the cabbies who moved the things and intelligate them! We’ve got clear out!’

‘Not “intelligate”, b-but “interrogate”,’ the engineer said strictly, pulling on a pair of thin rubber gloves. ‘And we’re n-not going to run anywhere. For two reasons. We are not afraid of this f-friend of yours, let him come – it will m-make things easier for us. That is one. And then, your low opinion of Mademoiselle T-Tashka is an insult to her. She did not give you away, she d-did not tell her killer a thing. That is t-two.’

‘How do you know she didn’t give me away?’

‘Do not f-forget that I had the honour of being acquainted with this exceptional individual. She was a true c-comrade to you, a “good mate”. And apart from that, if she had t-told him, the plaster would have been removed from her m-mouth. It was not, which means that she remained s-silent to the very end.’

And that must have been when the time for deduction came to an end, because Mr Nameless’s intent, matter-of-fact expression disappeared, and his face was suddenly immensely sad.

‘I feel s-sorry for the girl,’ Erast Petrovich said, and put his hand on Senka’s shoulder.

The shoulder instantly started trembling, all on its own, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Masa picked the puppy up off the floor and set it down carefully on the windowsill, near the daffodils.

‘I feer sorry for brave puppy too. In next rife he wirr be born samurai.’

But the unsentimental engineer told him to put Pomponius back on the floor ‘in order not to confuse the already rather muddled picture of the crime for the investigator’.

Senka and Masa sat in the study, keeping shtum as they watched Erast Petrovich striding round the room and rattling his beads. Senka already knew he mustn’t say anything, just wait patiently for whatever came next.

Once the engineer had stopped in the middle of the room, he put the green beads away in his pocket and clapped his hands twice in rapid succession, as though he was suddenly feeling incredibly happy about something.

Even so, the sensei put a finger to his lips: Sit still and stay quiet, it’s not over yet.

But soon after that Mr Nameless stopped treading the carpet down, sat in an armchair and spoke thoughtfully, as if he was talking to himself: ‘So. Three cruel m-murders have been committed: the first and the third were in Khitrovka, the s-second was five minutes’ walk from Khitrovka, but still in the area under the j-jurisdiction of the Third Myasnitsky police station. In all, the c-criminal has taken the lives of eight people – two m-men, three women and three children – and, for some reason, a p-parrot and a dog too. In each case one of the victims was t-tortured cruelly before he or she d-died, in an attempt to extort certain information required by the k-killer. There are no clues and n-no witnesses. Such, in brief, are the terms of the p-problem facing us. We know the required result –find the m-monster and deliver him into the arms of justice.’

‘An’ if not arive, then deriver him to justice dead,’ Masa added quickly.

‘If the criminal should offer resistance when an arrest is attempted, then, after having exhausted all the legally permitted measures of self-defence’ – at this point the engineer raised one finger in the air and gave his valet a significant glance – ‘it might not prove possible to circumvent the outcome that you mention.’

‘I’d like to find the rat and smash his rotten bonce in,’ said Senka, putting in his two kopecks’ worth.

‘Not “b-bonce”, but “head”. But whatever you call it, first we have to track him down.’ Erast ran his eyes over the other members of the meeting there assembled. ‘Are there any questions before we move on to d-deduction and practical measures?’

Senka didn’t know what to ask, but the Japanese scratched his stiff brush of hair and drawled thoughtfully: ‘Sa-a. Masta, why “kirrer”, not “kirrers”?’

Erast Petrovich nodded to acknowledge the relevance of the question.

‘You gave a very c-convincing rendering of the criminal’s actions at Khokhlovsky L-Lane. Why would he n-need an accomplice?’

‘That no argumen’,’ Masa snapped.

‘I agree. I ought t-to have asked: Why would the killer need an accomplice, if so f-far he has managed p-perfectly well on his own? In the b-basement Senya was attacked by one person. That is one.’ Mr Nameless took out his beads and clacked one of them against another. ‘The k-killings at the jewellery shop were also committed by a single individual, as the p-police have established. That is two.’ He clacked another bead. ‘And finally, at Yeroshenko’s d-dosshouse the killer also managed p-perfectly well without anybody else’s help. As you recall, Senya told us Siniukhin spoke of one m-murderer, “he”. Isn’t that right, Semyon?’