The Gentle Axe Read online

  “Do you want me to read it to you?” said Zamyotov, referring to the statement he was now holding.

  “That won’t be necessary.”

  “I’m perfectly willing to.”

  “I appreciate your willingness. However, I will read it myself.”

  Porfiry took the statement:

  I am guilty. We are all guilty. But I am the most guilty of all. We are all guilty of every crime. There is no crime we are not capable of. There is no crime that we have not dreamed of committing. Only she was innocent. Only she was without sin. The sin was not hers. It was mine. I am guilty. I, Yekaterina Romanovna Lebedyeva, am guilty of her sin. I am guilty of it all. I am guilty of everything…

  The statement continued in this vein for several more lines.

  “I see,” said Porfiry, when he had finished reading it. “Madam, will you come with me?” And with that he led her into his chambers.

  SO THEN, what shall we do with you?” began Porfiry, his tone kindly and indulgent. “Shall we lock you up, Yekaterina Romanovna?”

  The woman nodded briskly. Tears streamed from her eyes, transparent trails from her snuffling nose. There was no doubting her sincerity. Porfiry opened a drawer in his desk and took out a clean handkerchief; he kept a supply on hand for such occasions. He held it out to her. She repaid him with a look that suggested he was the one who was raving. Eventually she took it, though she could not be encouraged to wipe her face. Ignoring Porfiry’s mime to that effect, she held the handkerchief tightly balled in her palm.

  “But on what charge, Yekaterina Romanovna? We must have a charge to enter in the great recording book.”

  The woman let out a half-articulate moan, just recognizable as “Guilty!”

  “Yes, but of what? You understand my predicament?” Porfiry held his arms open across the desk as if petitioning her for help. “I have an idea,” he said suddenly. “I shall suggest some crimes to you, and all you have to do is nod when I get to yours. We shall make a game of it. Can you do that, Yekaterina Romanovna?”

  Porfiry smiled uncertainly at her answering nod. He could not be sure she understood him.

  “Let’s start at the top, I think,” said Porfiry brightly. “Oh, and please don’t take this the wrong way. I am not myself accusing you of anything, you understand. I am merely trying to help you make your statement a little more—how shall we say—precise? This is very strange, I will admit. Not the usual procedure at all but…there is nothing else for it, I think. So this crime, the crime of which you are guilty, is it, madam, perhaps”—and his eyes twinkled with pleasure as if he really were playing a parlor game—“murder?”

  Yekaterina Romanovna let out a gasp of confirmation: “Yessss!” For the first time there was a change in the manifestation of her behavior. “Yes, yes, that’s it, murder.” She sobbed, her head quivering as if on a spring.

  “Murder, I see. Very good. Or rather, it is not very good. But it is good in the sense that we are getting somewhere. And at least I am saved from the labor of having to go through a whole catalog of crimes and misdemeanors. Murder, you say. May I ask you—this is the form these inquiries take, you understand—may I ask you, whom did you murder?”

  Again there was a development in her behavior. Her head stopped shaking, and she held his gaze steadily. “My daughter.”

  Porfiry sat up. The excitement he felt was no longer that of a game. “This is a very serious charge to make against yourself, madam. You do understand that, don’t you? How did you kill her?”

  The woman shook her head in violent denial. Her teeth were clenched, as if something inside her was determined to prevent her from saying more. Through those clenched teeth she hissed: “I refused to believe her.” The effort of making this admission evidently exhausted her. She fell back into her chair.

  “I meant rather, by what means, with what weapon shall we say, did you kill her? That is usually the way with murder. It is essentially a violent crime. There is usually some sort of attack. I would include poison as a weapon here. Perhaps you poisoned her?”

  From her sunken position in the seat, she let out a high-pitched, cracking groan. “I accused her.”

  “Of what did you accuse her?”

  The woman stirred and sat up a little. “I refused to believe in her innocence. But I knew. I knew!”

  “You’re doing very well, Yekaterina Romanovna. But I need to understand more. If you could take me through what actually happened, the circumstances of your daughter’s death.”

  “Oh, she is not dead!” cried Yekaterina Romanovna pleadingly. Her eyes beseeched him.

  “Then I do not see how you can have murdered her if she is not dead,” answered Porfiry. He said the words slowly, trying to fathom the truth behind the woman’s contradictory statements.

  “I murdered her.” She said this flatly, giving it an irrefutable force.

  “Please help me. I need to understand.” A new idea came to Porfiry. “What is your daughter’s name?”

  “We have no daughter.” She spoke imperiously, as if announcing a sentence. Her face was set in a grim mask.

  “You once had a daughter but no longer. Something you have done has brought about this circumstance.”

  “He cast her out.”

  “He?”

  “Lebedyev.”

  “Your husband?”

  She closed her eyes and nodded once.

  “And you?” pressed Porfiry.

  Yekaterina Romanovna opened her eyes and stared straight through Porfiry. Her face became agitated. It was as if she were watching a scene of intense and painful interest to her. “I said nothing,” she said at last, in a whisper. She closed her eyes again.

  “And it is because you said nothing, because you didn’t intervene—it is because of this you are plagued by feelings of guilt.”

  “She was blameless.”

  “Do you know what has become of your daughter?”

  Yekaterina Romanovna shook her head, still with her eyes closed.

  “Would you like me to help you find out?”

  She opened her eyes, this time looking directly at Porfiry. Anguish twisted her face into ugliness. A look of hatred, Porfiry felt, though who the object of her hatred was, he could not say. “I have no daughter!” she shrieked.

  “Madam, I think it is a priest and not a policeman that you need.”

  There was suddenly a knock at the door. Zamyotov peered in.

  “I beg your pardon, Porfiry Petrovich,” began the chief clerk. Porfiry nodded for him to continue. “A gentleman”—Zamyotov broke off, giving the word ironic emphasis—“who professes to be this lady’s husband wishes to be admitted.” He concluded the message with his customary smirk.

  “Please show him in,” said Porfiry, glancing at Yekaterina Romanovna, who had just resumed her plaintive wailing. It suddenly occurred to him that her tears, and the noises that accompanied them, were a source of comfort to her, perhaps her only one.

  Zamyotov bowed and backed out. The man who strode into the room now possessed the labored dignity that is common to a certain category of drunks. He drew himself upright and even beyond upright, leaning slightly backward. His movements were stilted, made with great effort and deliberation. An aroma of vodka preceded him. His florid face and the slight tremble that was perceptible in his features suggested that he was a habitual drunk. Stiff wisps of gray hair stood up from his balding head, which he held proudly erect. His eyelids fluttered gracefully, and he smiled in a show of politesse, revealing a gap where his upper incisors should have been. Porfiry was aware of the strain all this affected honor placed on the man.

  The newcomer was wearing an old black frock coat with gaping seams and missing buttons. He bowed vaguely in Porfiry’s direction, though his moist eyes were evasive.

  “Your honor, allow me the privilege of introducing myself. I am Titular Councilor Ivan Filimonovich Lebedyev. Your honor,” he repeated, “allow me the honor—ah!” He broke off disconsolately. He bowed momentarily a
nd clenched his face into a pained rictus. He recovered with a flashing smile, marred only by the lack of teeth. “Too many honors! Your honor, what can I do?”

  “You may sit down if you wish, sir.”

  “No sir, I do not wish.” This was said with quick, haughty defiance, as if he were rebutting a slur against his character.

  “How may I help you, Ivan Filimonovich?” asked Porfiry gently.

  “You will allow me to address my wife?”

  “Of course.”

  “Yekaterina Romanovna, come home with me.”

  Without ceasing her lament, Yekaterina Romanovna rose obediently from her seat and crossed to her husband. He signaled his approval with a delayed nod and turned to Porfiry seeking release.

  “There is just one thing, sir,” said Porfiry, with an air of reluctance. “Something your wife said. About your daughter.”

  “My wife is ill, sir. You may have noticed. She is not”—he paused and bowed and grimaced, as he had done before—“herself.” He smiled again.

  “But your daughter is quite well, I trust?”

  “We have no daughter, your honor.” Lebedyev bowed with an air of finality, then began leading his wife out.

  Porfiry rose and followed them. In the receiving hall, he caught Zamyotov’s eager eye as he passed him.

  “It seems she has put on a similar performance in every police bureau in Petersburg,” the chief clerk informed him.

  “And the story of the daughter?” asked Porfiry.

  “It has been looked into. There is nothing in it. I talked to Rogozhin, who transferred here from the Central District. He knows all about it. It is all a fantasy of the woman’s disordered brain.”

  Porfiry watched the couple cross the hall toward the exit. Lebedyev had his arm around his wife’s shoulder. It struck Porfiry that the gesture was not so much to protect her as to close her off from further interest and inquiry.

  LIEUTENANT SALYTOV STOOD at the eastern end of Petrovsky Island, his back to the Tuchkov Bridge. It felt like the lowest point of the city; he had a sense of Petersburg rising up behind him as if it would bear down and crush him. A feeling of oppression was never far away from Salytov. Ptitsyn, the young polizyeisky who had been allocated to him, stood about twenty sazheni to his right, within sight, awaiting the signal. Salytov looked toward the frozen, snow-covered park and was overcome by a sudden blank hopelessness. His characteristic defense against such intolerable emotions was rage, and he gave in to it now.

  They had sent him on a fool’s errand. They! There was no “they” about it. He well knew who was behind this. Porfiry Petrovich. And what a position he had been put in when he had announced himself and his mission at the Shestaya Street police station in the Petersburgsky District. With what contempt they had greeted him! No wonder. Wouldn’t he have reacted in a similar way if an officer from another district had turned up in his bureau, making similar demands, based on as little evidence?

  The corporal on duty had raised his bushy gray eyebrows in an expression of mock alarm. Salytov recognized him as one of those officers of long-standing low rank, in whom a lack of ambition had instilled the habit of sarcasm and the vice of sloth. The man was not, however, devoid of envy, which he directed against all those who had the power to control his actions and curtail his ease. Superior officers, in other words, particularly those who came from other bureaus making demands. He vented his envy by being as obstructive as possible, without risking open insubordination. “A report of murder, you say?” He had narrowed his eyes, as if struggling to understand. Feigning stupidity was evidently one of his favorite techniques. “What kind of a report?”

  “A tip-off,” Salytov had spat. He had realized what he was up against, yet still could not prevent himself from rising to the bait.

  “From a reliable source, I take it?”

  Salytov could have struck the fellow for that. How dare he question him, Salytov, and in that tone! Of course, what galled Salytov was the knowledge that the source was far from reliable. He regarded the corporal with hatred. “The top brass are taking it seriously. They want me to take some of your men and conduct a thorough search.” It was a great strain on Salytov’s patience to have to explain all this.

  “We can’t spare men to go gallivanting off in the park.”

  “You must have some men available.”

  “But if we are to commit resources, we must know on what basis. You must share your information with us. Besides, I will have to talk to my chief. And there is the usual paperwork.”

  It was ridiculous, the whole thing was ridiculous. To be put in such a position! To be made to wait! And after all that waiting to be given Ptitsyn, a mere boy!

  Salytov scowled at the youth, who looked back with an expression of good-natured expectancy that was too much to bear.

  “What are you waiting for, you fool?” shouted Salytov. Ptitsyn placidly waved one gloved hand, and both men began walking.

  SIR, LOOK! Lieutenant Salytov, sir!”

  “Yes, I see it.”

  The two of them broke into a high-stepping run through the deep snow, converging toward the body that was hanging from the giant bow of the bent tree.

  “Is this what we are looking for, sir?” gasped Ptitsyn, breathless and rosy-cheeked, as excited as a schoolboy.

  Salytov did not answer. The note he had been shown had spoken of murder, not suicide.

  “Is he dead, sir?”

  “Of course he’s dead, idiot.” There was ice in the man’s beard, snow on his cap and shoulders.

  “Shall we get him down?”

  “No! Leave him there, do you hear? Don’t touch him! Don’t touch a thing.”

  “Who is he, sir?”

  Again Salytov ignored the question.

  “I’ve never seen a dead one before, sir.” Ptitsyn looked wonderingly up into the staring eyes.

  Noticing a bulge in the corpse’s greatcoat, Salytov stepped up and teased it open. “So. It seems there is murder here after all,” he commented on seeing the bloody axe tucked in the man’s belt.

  “Sir,” said Ptitsyn, a frown of confusion giving his voice a querulous note. “How did he do it?”

  “What are you talking about, boy?”

  “I mean, how did he hang himself? You see the rope is tied around the trunk of the tree, sir. I can see how he could have thrown the rope around the tree, tied a loop, and pulled it tight. But how did he string himself up?”

  There was something in what the boy said. Salytov looked up into the tree, at the point where the rope was tethered to the trunk, just below a small vertical nick in the bark. He then examined the flimsy birch branches. His eye was caught by a slip of grayish paper snagged on a twig. He beckoned Ptitsyn over.

  “What is it, sir?”

  “I want you to lift me onto your shoulders.”

  “I beg your pardon, sir?”

  “Get down and lift me on your shoulders.”

  Ptitsyn looked momentarily bewildered, then lowered himself to a crouch so that Salytov could straddle his shoulders.

  “Up!”

  Ptitsyn rose shakily, crying out under the strain. As Salytov reached up to grab the slip of paper, Ptitsyn’s center of gravity was thrown. It seemed for a moment as though they would fall. But by a heroic readjustment of his stance, Ptitsyn was able to right himself. Making no allowances, Salytov cursed and kicked the man beneath him with his heels as if he were spurring a horse. “Get closer to the tree, damn you!”

  Ptitsyn bellowed his response and lurched a step higher up the incline. Salytov was able to grasp his prize.

  “Down!”

  Ptitsyn sank groaning to his knees, losing his cap and receiving in return a face full of snow as Salytov dismounted over his head. “What have you found, sir?” he asked, when he had retrieved his cap and staggered back to his feet.

  Salytov examined the paper with an expression of angry triumph. “Ha! This will show him!”

  “Is it a clue, sir?”

&nb
sp; Salytov folded his wallet over the slip of paper and scanned the ground eagerly. He noticed a mound of snow of suspiciously regular shape some way from the tree.

  “There,” Salytov pointed.

  “Could he have jumped from that, sir? Is that what you’re thinking?” asked Ptitsyn.

  “What?” snapped Salytov.

  “I only mean, sir—”

  “I don’t give a damn what you mean, you imbecile. I commanded you to investigate that mound in the snow. Are you refusing to obey my order?”

  “No, sir. Of course not, sir,” said Ptitsyn, stung by Salytov’s severity. But he was determined to prove himself worthy of the stern officer’s approval. He did not waste time wondering how the word there could be interpreted as a formal command. He lunged in the direction Salytov was still pointing.

  Ptitsyn crouched by the mound, which seemed to have a precisely rectangular outline beneath the soft, rounded surface of the snow. He scooped away a few handfuls of the freshest fall from one side, revealing patches of brown in a sheer, smooth surface. “I think it’s some kind of suitcase,” he said, as he continued to excavate. “It appears to be open. There’s—” Ptitsyn broke off. His gloved fingers groped into the snow and lifted what turned out to be an envelope, lilac in color. So delighted was he with this haul as he handed it to the lieutenant that he failed to notice what it had uncovered. But as Ptitsyn looked keenly into the lieutenant’s face, he noticed that it had suddenly become unusually pale, as if the heat of his temper had been siphoned from him. There was no ferocity there. Following Salytov’s eye line toward the spot he was staring at, Ptitsyn gasped to see the features of a man in the snow. “Did you ever see anything like this, sir?” he whispered, his eyes wide open in shocked wonder.