Boris Akunin - Murder on the Leviathan

Clarissa started in surprise and everyone else fell silent and began staring curiously at the commissioner, recognizing that special tone of voice in which he began his leisurely ‘little stories’.

‘I promised to tell you something about this individual later.

And now the time has come,’ Gauche continued, with his eyes still fixed on Clarissa, and the longer he looked the less she liked it. ‘It will be a rather long story, but you won’t be bored, because it concerns a quite extraordinary woman. And in any case, we are in no hurry. Here we all are sitting comfortably, eating our cheese and drinking our orangeade. But if anyone does have business to attend to, do leave by all means. Papa Gauche won’t be offended.’

No one moved.

‘Then shall I tell you about Marie Sanfon?’ the commissioner asked with feigned bonhomie.

‘Oh yes! You must!’ they all cried.

Only Clarissa said nothing, aware that this topic had been broached for a reason and it was intended exclusively for her ears. Gauche did not even attempt to disguise the fact.

He smacked his lips in anticipation and took out his pipe without bothering to ask permission from the ladies.

‘Then let me start at the beginning. Once upon a time, in the Belgian town of Bruges there lived a little girl by the name of Marie. The little girl’s parents were honest, respectable citizens, who went to church, and they doted on their little golden-haired darling. When Marie was five years old, her parents presented her with a little brother, the future heir to the Sanfon and Sanfon brewery, and the happy family began living even more happily, until suddenly disaster struck. The infant boy, who was barely a month old, fell out of a window and was killed. The parents were not at home at the time, they had left the children alone with their nanny. But the nanny had gone out for half an hour to see her sweetheart, a fireman, and during her brief absence a stranger in a black cloak and black hat burst into the house. Little Marie managed to hide under the bed, but the man in black grabbed her little brother out of his cradle and threw him out of the window. Then he simply vanished without trace.’

‘Why are you telling us such terrible things?’ Mme Kleber exclaimed, clutching at her belly.

‘Why, I have hardly even begun,’ said Gauche, gesturing with his pipe. ‘The best - or the worst - is yet to come. After her miraculous escape, little Marie told mama and papa about the “black man”. They turned the entire district upside down searching for him, and in the heat of the moment they even arrested the local rabbi, since he naturally always wore black.

But there was one strange detail that kept nagging at M. Sanfon: why had the criminal moved a stool over to the window?’

‘Oh, God!’ Clarissa gasped, clutching at her heart. ‘Surely not!’

‘You are quite remarkably perceptive, Mile Stamp,’ the commissioner said with a laugh. ‘Yes, it was little Marie who had thrown her own baby brother out of the window.’

‘How terrible!’ Mrs Truffo felt it necessary to interject. ‘But why?’

‘The girl did not like the way everyone was paying so much attention to the baby, while they had forgotten all about her.

She thought that if she got rid of her brother, then she would be mama and papa’s favourite again,’ Gauche explained calmly.

But that was the first and the last time Marie Sanfon ever left a clue and was found out. The sweet child had not yet learned to cover her tracks.’

‘And what did they do with the infant criminal?’ asked Lieutenant Renier, clearly shaken by what he had heard. ‘They couldn’t try her for murder, surely?’

‘No, they didn’t try her.’ The commissioner smiled craftily at Clarissa. ‘The shock, however, was too much for her mother, who lost her mind and was committed to an asylum. M. Sanfon could no longer bear the sight of the little daughter who was the cause of his family’s calamitous misfortune, so he placed her with a convent of the Grey Sisters of St Vincent, and the girl was brought up there. She was best at everything, in her studies and in her charity work. But most of all, they say, she liked to read books. The novice nun was just seventeen years old when a disgraceful scandal occurred at the convent.’ Gauche glanced into his file and nodded. ‘I have the date here. The seventeenth of July 1866. The Archbishop of Brussels himself was staying with the Grey Sisters when the venerable prelate’s ring, with a massive amethyst, disappeared from his bedroom. It had supposedly belonged to St Louis himself. The previous evening the monseigneur had summoned the two best pupils, our Marie and a girl from Aries, to his chambers for a talk. Suspicion naturally fell on the two girls. The mother superior organized a search and the ring’s velvet case was discovered under the mattress of the girl from Aries. The thief lapsed into a stupor and would not answer any questions, so she was escorted to the punishment cell. When the police arrived an hour later, they were unable to question the criminal - she had strangled herself with the belt of her habit.’

‘I’ve guessed it, the whole thing was staged by that abominable Marie Sanfon!’ Milford-Stokes exclaimed. ‘A nasty story, very nasty!’

‘Nobody knows for certain, but the ring was never found,’ the commissioner said with a shrug. ‘Two days later Marie came to the mother superior in tears and said everyone was giving her strange looks and begged to be released from the convent. The mother superior’s feelings for her former favourite had also cooled somewhat, and she made no effort to dissuade her.’

‘They should have searched the little pigeon at the gates,’ said Dr Truffo with a regretful sigh. ‘You can be sure they would have found the amethyst somewhere under her skirt.’

When he translated what he had said to his wife, she jabbed him with her elbow, evidently regarding his remark as somehow indecent.

‘Either they didn’t search her or they searched her and found nothing, I don’t know which. In any case, after she left the convent, Marie chose to go to Antwerp, which, as you are aware, is regarded as the world capital of precious stones. The former nun suddenly grew rich and ever since she has lived in the grand style. Sometimes, just occasionally, she has been left without a sou to her name, but not for long. With her sharp mind and brilliant skill as an actress, combined with a total lack of moral scruple’ - at this point the commissioner raised his voice and then paused - ‘she has always been able to obtain the means required for a life of luxury. The police of Belgium, France, England, the United States, Brazil, Italy and a dozen other countries have detained Marie Sanfon on numerous occasions, on suspicion of all sorts of offences, but no charges have ever been brought against her. Always it turns out that either no crime has actually been committed or there is simply not enough evidence. If you like, I could tell you about a couple of episodes from her distinguished record. Are you not feeling bored yet, Mile Stamp?’

Clarissa did not reply, she felt it was beneath her dignity. But in her heart she felt alarmed.

‘Eighteen seventy,’ Gauche declared, after another glance into his file. ‘The small but prosperous town of Fettburg in German-speaking Switzerland. The chocolate and ham industries. Eight and a half thousand pigs to four thousand inhabitants. A land of rich, fat idiots - I beg your pardon, Mme Kleber, I did not mean to insult your homeland,’ said the policeman, suddenly realizing what he had said.

‘Never mind,’ said Mme Kleber with a careless shrug. ‘I come from French-speaking Switzerland. And anyway, the area around Fettburg really is full of simpletons. I believe I have heard this story, it is very funny. But never mind, carry on.’