R. Morris - A Vengeful Longing

In his wake, was the sense of a commotion nearing.

‘Ruffians! Ruffians and rogues!’

Bursting in like a cannonade of silk, the woman came to a halt before Porfiry, her eyes wrathful and seeking. ‘Where is he? Where is our Vakhramev? What have you done with him?’

She was compact, almost compressed, a little shorter than Porfiry and somewhat stouter. She moved with a top-heavy momentum. Porfiry was relieved that she had stopped short of charging him. Her mouth was pinched with determined indignation.

Following her into the room was a drifting, aloof girl of about nineteen or twenty, who looked around her from the vantage point of a long neck, seemingly without seeing, as if she did not want her vision to be demeaned by the objects it might fall upon. If she believed herself visible to those around her (for example, to Virginsky, who could not take his eyes off her), she certainly gave no indication that they were visible to her.

‘We are holding him,’ said Porfiry, ‘in a cell.’

‘Ruslan Vladimirovich Vakhramev? In a cell?’

‘I’m afraid so, madam.’

This provoked a disdainful jerk of the head from the drifting girl. Her gaze, though, refused to come anywhere near Porfiry.

‘Who, may I ask, are you?’ ventured Porfiry to the indignant woman.

‘What business is it of yours?’

‘I am Porfiry Petrovich, investigating magistrate. I am dealing with the case in which Vakhramev is implicated.’

‘ Implicated? How dare you!’

‘Are you, by any chance, his wife?’

‘I am Nastasya Petrovna Vakhrameva and I have the honour to be the wife of Ruslan Vladimirovich Vakhramev. I command you to release him this instant.’

‘I’m afraid that will not be possible. A man has been murdered. Until we have eliminated Ruslan Vladimirovich from our investigations, it will be necessary to hold him in a secure place.’

‘I have never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life. You take him away without a word to his family. He is a gentleman. We have friends, you know. Friends who could crush you like a beetle. ’ The woman pulled on Porfiry’s shoulder and hissed into his ear: ‘Yaroslav Nikolayevich Liputin.’ When she pulled back, Porfiry saw that she had a gleeful smile on her face. ‘There! That’s scared him. That’s right. Yaroslav Nikolayevich Liputin. So, what are you waiting for? Release Vakhramev.’

‘I’m not sure I understand,’ said Porfiry. ‘You are friends with the prokuror ?’

The woman nodded. ‘And he is not happy about Vakhramev’s arrest, let me tell you. He is on his way here now. So, if you want to avoid trouble, little man, you would do well to release Ruslan Vladimirovich immediately.’

‘As I have explained, that will not be possible. As a matter of course, Yaroslav Nikolayevich would be informed of the details of the case. He frequently visits the department.’

‘He is furious. When Vakhramev failed to come home, I naturally went straight to my good friend Yaroslav Nikolayevich. Good friend that he is, he made enquiries on our behalf. That is how we discovered that you had brought Vakhramev here. I would not like to be in your shoes when Yaroslav Nikolayevich arrives.’

‘It is always a pleasure to receive a visit from Yaroslav Nikolayevich. I’m sure today will be no exception,’ said Porfiry with a tense smile.

‘Whom did he murder?’ The question came, unexpectedly, from the drifting girl, who angled her head in the direction of the ceiling, while regarding Porfiry out of the corner of her eye.

‘The victim, I believe, is known to you, if I am correct in assuming that you are Tatyana Ruslanovna. It is Colonel Alexei Setochkin.’

‘Alyosha!’ There was a moment in which her disconnected gaze latched on to Porfiry hungrily. She even turned her head to face him. But then she rolled her eyes upwards in a gesture of dismissal. ‘He had no need to do that. I had finished with Alyosha.’

‘Tatyana,’ said Nastasya Petrovna darkly. ‘What is the meaning of this? Who is this Alyosha?’

‘A nobody. I’m glad he’s dead. I will congratulate Daddy.’ For the first time, the girl seemed to notice Virginsky. She looked at him with a glance that invited complicity.

‘Good grief! What has got into you?’ To Porfiry, Nastasya Petrovna added: ‘See what you have done? Yaroslav Nikolayevich will sort this out. We will do nothing until Yaroslav Nikolayevich arrives.’

‘I am afraid that will not be possible. At least not as far as I am concerned. I have my duties to attend to. I will have to ask you to wait outside, Nastasya Petrovna.’

‘Really!’

‘There are seats provided for your comfort.’

‘You expect me to rub shoulders with common criminals?’

‘Of course not.’ Porfiry turned to Zamyotov. ‘Alexander Grigorevich, would you kindly see to it that no criminals are seated next to this lady.’

‘But it is so difficult to tell these days,’ said Zamyotov airily. ‘Anyone may turn out to be a murderer.’ He fixed Virginsky with a pointed look as he said this.

‘Your sarcasm has not gone unnoticed,’ said Nastasya Petrovna to Porfiry. ‘Yaroslav Nikolayevich will be made aware of it when he arrives, rest assured. Come, Tatyana.’

‘If you please,’ put in Porfiry quickly, ‘Tatyana Ruslanovna will stay. I have a few questions I wish to put to her alone.’

‘Alone? But she is a child. I will not have you intimidating her.’

‘I am not a child. You’re worse than Daddy. He’s always treating me as a child and now look what’s happened.’

Nastasya Petrovna’s eyes enlarged significantly at this outburst.

Tatyana Ruslanovna softened her tone to her mother. ‘It’s better we do what they want. Better for Daddy.’

‘But Yaroslav Nikolayevich — ’

‘Yaroslav Nikolayevich is not coming. Yaroslav Nikolayevich thinks you are a tiresome old woman. He barely remembered you. And didn’t remember Daddy at all. He only agreed to help us to be rid of us. We were disturbing his breakfast and he wanted us out of his sight. So he sent a man to find out what had happened. It does not greatly inconvenience Yaroslav Nikolayevich to have his man running to the police headquarters. There were probably papers that he needed picking up. Didn’t he make us wait in a shabby drawing room while he finished his breakfast? And he did not even have the grace to say goodbye in person. He left that honour to his pimply servant, who as good as escorted us off the premises. Do you not know what it is to be insulted, Mother?’

‘How can you say such things? In front of them?’

‘It is the truth. Why will you never face up to the truth? You have deluded yourself about Yaroslav Nikolayevich. You have deluded yourself about Daddy. You delude yourself about everything. ’

Nastasya Petrovna put her hands over her ears and began screaming. ‘Cruel, ungrateful child! I will not listen to another word!’

‘Then wait outside, Mother. You need not concern yourself on my behalf. I’m not afraid of these men.’ Tatyana Ruslanovna’s gaze swooped imperiously over Porfiry and Virginsky. She angled her face upwards imperiously.

‘Please sit down.’ Porfiry gestured with both hands to the sofa. Tatyana Ruslanovna viewed it suspiciously, but at last deigned to lower herself into it. ‘Please be assured’, continued Porfiry, ‘that I earnestly desire to eliminate your father from my investigation and that I will do everything in my power to bring that about as soon as possible.’

‘Don’t trouble yourself on my account. I’m sure you had your reasons for arresting Daddy.’

Porfiry froze on his way to his desk, turning his head sharply back towards her. ‘But do you really think your father capable of murder?’