“Ah!” said Porfiry, rising from his chair. “You mean the boy who came to visit Goryanchikov?”
“He came back. I caught him spying on the house.”
The boy’s shrill screams had not let up: “You’re pulling my ear off!”
“Could you not let go of his ear? You appear to be hurting him.”
“If I let go, he’ll run off. You watch. I brought him all the way here like this.”
“Good heavens. I really would like you to let him go. Testimony obtained under duress is not admissible in the new law courts.” Porfiry crossed to the door and locked it. “There, now,” he said, dropping the key into the hip pocket of his frock coat. He nodded sternly to Katya. She frowned uncertainly, still reluctant to let go.
“You don’t know this one,” she said.
“The door is locked. He can’t escape.”
Finally she released the ear. It seemed, from her wary dismay, that she believed he would vanish the moment he was out of her grip. But also there was the sense that she had relinquished the source of her own confidence and momentary power. She seemed to find herself superfluous now that she had let him go. Noticing this, Porfiry bowed and thanked her. “I beg you to stay while I question him,” he said. The boy stood up straight, rubbed his ear, and regarded Katya with a look of vindicated innocence.
“You’re not out of here yet,” she warned him.
“So, boy, tell me, what is your name?” asked Porfiry.
“I’ve done nothing wrong,” the boy answered.
“No one is accusing you of anything. But it is possible that you may be able to help us in a murder investigation.”
The boy’s eyes widened in his coal-smudged face. “Murder!”
“Yes.”
“Is there a reward?”
“You will have the satisfaction of knowing that you have done your duty as a loyal subject of the tsar.”
“That’s not much of a reward.”
“Perhaps I should explain to you how the legal system works. It is not so much a question of rewards for doing your duty as penalties for not. If you do not provide me with the information I require, I can have you locked up.”
“And flogged,” added Katya, with a threatening nod.
“That may not be necessary,” corrected Porfiry. “The loss of liberty in itself is considered to be a sufficient deterrent. Of course, if I feel that you have rendered us exceptional help, I can recommend that your services be recognized. There is the possibility of a citation or even a medal.”
“What’s a citation?”
“It’s a piece of paper with your name on it, outlining the extent of your contribution.”
“What use is a piece of paper?”
“It will be sent to the tsar.”
“And what will the tsar do with it?”
“He will be gratified.”
“Will he give me money for it?”
“He will not lock you up and have you flogged,” said Porfiry, rather wearying of these negotiations. “And he may recommend that you be given a gold medallion. But it all depends on how much you help us. Of course, nothing can happen if you don’t tell us your name. We can’t write the citation if we don’t have your name.”
“Dmitri.”
“Very good, Dmitri. At least that can go on the citation. And where do you live?”
Dmitri narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
“So that the tsar knows where to send the gold medallion, should he decide to award it.”
“The Hotel Adrianopole. I am the bellboy there.”
“Very good. And where is the Hotel Adrianopole?”
“On the Bolshoi Prospect. Vasilevsky Island.”
“Thank you. Now, please, Dmitri, could you tell me why you were spying on the house of the Widow Ivolgina, in Bolshaya Morskaya Street?”
“I wasn’t spying.”
“He was,” insisted Katya.
“I was waiting for the dwarf.”
Porfiry exchanged a significant glance with Katya and nodded minutely to Dmitri. “I see. The dwarf. Why were you waiting for him?”
“I wanted to ask him how he did it.”
“How he did what?”
“The trick.”
“Perhaps you had better start at the beginning. You admit that you have met Stepan Sergeyevich Goryanchikov-the dwarf, as you call him-before?”
Dmitri seemed unsure how to answer. He looked mistrustfully between Porfiry and Katya.
“This lady says you came to the house, the house where Goryanchikov-the dwarf-lived, and visited him.”
“All right, it’s true.”
“Why did you go there?”
“A gentleman sent me.”
“What gentleman?”
The boy shrugged.
“How did you know him?”
“He was at the hotel.”
“A guest?”
“Yeah.”
“Why did he send you there, to the house?”
“He had a message.”
“For the dwarf?”
The boy nodded.
“And so you delivered the message?”
He nodded again.
“And?”
“And what?”
“Well, I’m trying to establish why you came back to spy on the house. The trick you mentioned. Can you tell me more about that?”
The boy frowned uncertainly. “Well, he came to the hotel.”
“Who did?”
“The dwarf.”
“I see. The message that you delivered was an invitation then? So what happened when he came to the hotel?”
“He went into the gentleman’s room.”
“So what happened next?”
“He was such a little man. He was much smaller than me, and yet he was a man.”
“Yes. But what happened after he went into the room?”
“The gentleman quit his room. The ordinary-size gentleman, I mean.”
“And the dwarf?”
“He didn’t come out. The other man paid his bill and paid for another week in advance as well. A whole week in advance! He said the dwarf was taking over his room and would want it for another week. But this is the thing, you see. I went back to the room. To see if there was anything the dwarf wanted. I knocked on the door. No answer. I opened the door. Nobody there. The room was empty. There was no sign of him.”
“He must have gone when you were with the other gentleman.”
“I would have seen him. There’s only one way out. Down the corridor and past the reception. He hadn’t been that way, I’m telling you. I was watching all the time. I wouldn’t have missed him. Even though he was such a tiny fellow.” Dmitri became heated in his insistence.
“He must have climbed out of the window then!” said Porfiry.
“No!” shouted Dmitri, amazed at Porfiry’s stupidity. “There is no window. It’s the room under the stairs.”
“I see. Very interesting.”
“He must be some kind of goblin, don’t you think?”
“I would incline toward a more rational explanation.”
“A wizard then? Or some such.”
“Tell me, did you carry the gentleman’s luggage out for him?”
“No!” The boy cried out in remembered indignation. “He wouldn’t let me. Insisted on carrying it out himself, didn’t he? Wanted to do me out of a tip, I’m sure.”
“I believe he may have had other reasons,” began Porfiry with a pleasant flicker of his eyelids, “for holding on to the suitcase so jealously.”
The boy’s look of indignation turned slowly to one of horror. “He was in the case! The dwarf was in the case!”
“The guest, the gentleman who sent you on your mission and whom the dw-the smaller gentleman, Goryanchikov, visited…you don’t happen to remember his name, do you?”
“Did he murder him? Did he murder the dwarf? And put him in the case?”
“It is a possibility.”
“And what if he comes back to murder me?”
“If you help me catch him, I shall make sure he cannot come back and murder you. I shall make sure he can never hurt anyone else again.”
“That’s what you say.”
“It is indeed what I say. Now, please, can you remember the guest’s name?”
“Govorov.”
Porfiry felt somehow that he had expected this. He believed he was not surprised. And yet he felt his pulse quicken at the mention of Govorov.