Boris Akunin - Murder on the Leviathan

‘Concerning the murder weapon that seems very probable,’ the diplomat agreed. ‘I th-think the same.’

The old maid flushed brightly with pleasure and was clearly embarrassed when she caught Renate’s mocking glance.

‘You are saying quite outrageous things,’ the doctor’s wife rebuked Clarissa Stamp. ‘Shouldn’t we find a more suitable subject for table talk?’

But the colourless creature’s appeal fell on deaf ears.

‘In my opinion the greatest mystery here is the death of the servants!’ said the lanky Indologist, keen to contribute to the analysis of the crime. ‘How did they come to allow themselves to be injected with such abominable muck? Not at pistol-point, surely! After all, two of them were guards, and they were both carrying revolvers in holsters on their belts. That’s where the mystery lies.’

‘I have a hypothesis of my own,’ Renier announced with a solemn expression. ‘And I am prepared to defend it against any objections. The crime on the rue de Grenelle was committed by a person who possesses exceptional mesmeric powers. The servants were in a state of mesmeric trance, that is the only possible explanation! Animal magnetism is a terrifying force. An experienced manipulator can do whatever he chooses with you. Yes, yes, madam,’ the lieutenant said, turning towards Mrs Truffo, who had twisted her face into a doubtful grimace, ‘absolutely anything at all.’

‘Not if he is dealing with a lady,’ she replied austerely.

Tired of playing the role of interpreter, Dr Truffo wiped the sweat from his gleaming forehead with his handkerchief and rushed to the defence of the scientific worldview.

‘I am afraid I must disagree with you,’ he started jabbering in French, with a rather strong accent. ‘Mr Mesmer’s teaching has been exposed as having no scientific basis. The power of mesmerism or, as it is now known, hypnotism, has been greatly exaggerated. The Honourable Mr James Braid has proved conclusively that only psychologically suggestible individuals are subject to hypnotic influence, and then only if they have complete trust in the hypnotist and have agreed to allow themselves to be hypnotized.’

‘It is quite obvious, my dear doctor, that you have not travelled in the East!’ said Renier, flashing his white teeth in a smile. ‘At any Indian bazaar the fakir will show you miracles of mesmeric art that would make the most hardened sceptic gape in wonder. But those are merely tricks they use to show off!

Once in Kandahar I observed the public punishment of a thief. Under Muslim law theft is punished by the amputation of the right hand, a procedure so intensely painful that those subjected to it frequently die from the shock. On this occasion the accused was a mere child, but since he had been caught for the second time, there was nothing else the judge could do, he had to sentence the thief to the penalty prescribed under shariah law.

The judge, however, was a merciful man and he sent for a dervish who was well known for his miraculous powers. The dervish took the convicted prisoner’s head in his hands, looked into his eyes and whispered something - and the boy became calm and stopped trembling. A strange smile appeared on his face, and did not leave it even when the executioner’s axe severed his arm up to the very elbow! And I saw all this with my own eyes, I swear to you.’

Renate grew angry:

‘Ugh, how horrible! You and your Orient, Charles. I am beginning to feel faint!’

‘Forgive me, Mme Kleber,’ said the lieutenant, taking fright. ‘I only wished to demonstrate that in comparison with this a few injections are mere child’s play.’

‘Once again, I am afraid that I cannot agree with you …’

The stubborn doctor was preparing to defend his point of view, but just at that moment the door of the saloon swung open and in came either a rentier or a policeman - in short, M. Gauche.

Everybody turned towards him in consternation, as if they had been caught out in some action that was not entirely decent.

Gauche ran a keen gaze over their faces and spotted the ill starred clipping in the hands of the diplomat. His face darkened.

‘So that’s where it is … I was afraid of that.’

Renate went over to this grandpa with a grey moustache, looked his massive figure over mistrustfully from head to toe and blurted out:

‘M. Gauche, are you really a policeman?’

‘The same C-Commissioner Gauche who was leading the investigation into the “Crime of the Century”?’ asked Fandorin (yes, that was the Russian diplomat’s name, Renate recalled). ‘In that case how are we to account for your masquerade and in general for your ppresence here on board?’

Gauche breathed hard for a few moments, raised his eyebrows, lowered them again and reached for his pipe. He was obviously racking his brains in an effort to decide what he should do.

‘Please sit down, ladies and gentlemen,’ said Gauche in an unfamiliar, imposing bass and turned the key to lock the door behind him. ‘Since this is the way things have turned out, I shall have to be frank with you. Be seated, be seated or else somebody’s legs might just give way under them.’

‘What kind of joke is this, M. Gauche?’ the lieutenant asked in annoyance. ‘By what right do you presume to command here, and in the presence of the captain’s first mate?’

‘That, my young man, is something the captain himself will explain to you,’ Gauche replied with a hostile sideways glance at Renier. ‘He knows what is going on here.’

Renier dropped the matter and took his place at the table, following the others’ example.

The verbose, good-humoured grumbler for whom Renate had taken the Parisian rentier was behaving rather differently now. A certain dignity had appeared in the broad set of his shoulders, his gestures had become imperious, his eyes had acquired a new, harder gleam. The mere fact that he could maintain a prolonged pause with such calm confidence said a great deal. The strange rentier’s piercing gaze paused in turn on each person present in the room and Renate saw some of them flinch under its weight. To be honest, even she was a little disturbed by it, but then she immediately felt ashamed of herself and tossed her head nonchalantly: he may be a police commissioner, but what of that? He was still an obese, short winded old duffer and nothing more.

‘Please do not keep us guessing any longer, M. Gauche,’ she said sarcastically. ‘Excitement is dangerous for me.’

‘There is probably only one person here who has cause for excitement,’ Gauche replied mysteriously. ‘But I shall come back to that. First, allow me to introduce myself to the honourable company once again. Yes, my name is Gustave Gauche, but I am not a rentier, alas I have no investments from which to draw income. I am, ladies and gentlemen, a commissioner in the criminal police of the city of Paris and I work in the department which deals with particularly serious and complicated crimes.

The post I hold is entitled Investigator for Especially Important Cases.’ The commissioner pronounced the title with distinct emphasis.

The deadly silence in the saloon was broken only by the hasty whispering of Dr Truffo.

‘What a scandal!’ squeaked the doctor’s wife.

‘I was obliged to embark on this voyage, and to travel incognito because …’ Gauche began flapping his cheeks in and out energetically in an effort to revive his half-extinguished pipe.

‘… because the Paris police have serious grounds for believing that the person who committed the crime on the rue de Grenelle is on board the Leviathan.’

‘Ah!’ The sigh rustled quietly round the saloon.

‘I presume that you have already discussed the case, which is a mysterious one in many respects.’ The commissioner jerked his double chin in the direction of the newspaper clipping, which was still in Fandorin’s hands. ‘And that is not all, mesdames et messieurs. I know for a fact that the murderer is travelling first class …’ (another collective sigh) ‘… and, moreover, happens to be present in this saloon at this very moment,’ Gauche concluded.