Sherlock Holmes and The Shadows of St Petersburg by Daniel Victor (bookstand for reading TXT) 📗

of compassion on the one hand and cold and ruthless on the other, both emotional and calculating, full of sympathy and full of self-loathing.

“Truth be told, Porfiry Petrovitch confessed to me that he thought Raskolnikov had listened less to the police and more to Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladov, the God-fearing woman Raskolnikov called Sonia and with whom he was destined to fall in love. It was the devoted Sonia, not himself, that Porfiry Petrovitch believed to be the prime mover in getting Raskolnikov to surrender.”

“A most interesting fellow, your Russian policeman.”

“True, Watson, but then you and I are in the midst of our own murder case, not one already solved twenty years ago.”

So infatuated had I become with hearing about Dostoevsky’s machinations in producing Crime and Punishment that I had almost forgotten all that I had learned when Holmes was gone. My friend was correct; it was time to return to the present, which, of course, was also connected to the past.

“Regarding the Gottfried case, Holmes, I’m afraid it has more to do with the twenty-year old murders than you have already reported.” And I proceeded to tell him of the informer Lestrade had called the Assistant.

Holmes steepled his fingers beneath his chin. “The Assistant, you say?”

I nodded yes.

“These are deep waters indeed,” he replied. “Do you not remember Dostoevsky’s account of Raskolnikov’s confession?”

Of course! Now I recalled what the Assistant had failed to mention when Lestrade brought him to Baker Street. “Raskolnikov offered his confession to a hot-headed police assistant!” I cried. “According to Whishaw, people named him ‘Explosive.’ The man told Lestrade and me that he was called Dmitry.”

“Pure fabrication. His real name is Ilya Petrovitch Poruchik though he sometimes calls himself Alexsandr Ilich.”

“I do not remember-”

“You will not find those names in the novel proper, Watson, but both appear in Dostoevsky’s notebooks. Porfiry Petrovitch showed them to me - pages and pages filled with comments on the case, all written in excellent penmanship, precise and slanted” - he used his hand to show the angle just past the vertical - “yet also a bit maddening with their share of cross-outs and inserts. Sometimes he wrote sideways in the margins; sometimes, even upside-down. And - oh, yes - one cannot forget the drawings - figures, faces, churches. The whole business is something to behold.”

I could only imagine! What a trove of information! Little wonder that Holmes knew so much more than I about Ilya Petrovitch.

“Lestrade told me about the Assistant’s anger,” I said. “The man’s hostility so aroused the ire of his colleagues that they had him dismissed from the force.”

“Actually, it was Porfiry himself who dismissed him.”

“And now,” I observed, “we discover that this informer for Lestrade actually played a significant role in the old case in St Petersburg. You should know, Holmes, that Ilya Petrovitch dismissed any such similarities as ‘coincidence’.”

Holmes chuckled dryly. “As I am sure you are aware, Watson, I do not believe in coincidence.”

Returning to our brandies, we both sat quietly for a few minutes. When Holmes spoke again, it was to change the subject - except, of course, it was really the same subject.

“Regarding the other investigation in which we find ourselves entangled,” he asked, “what can you tell me of Roderick Cheek? I should like to hear more about his circumstances before I contact his sister.”

How Holmes already knew about my meeting with the young man I could only guess. Presumably, he had got the information from Charlie Duffle before returning to Baker Street. Whatever the case, I reported to Holmes all I had learned about the strange brother of the woman who had asked us to find him - and the even stranger connection he seemed to have with the decades-old Russian murders. For good measure, I added what I knew of Cheek’s friend Arbuthnot.

“Well done, Watson,” Holmes reassured me. Relighting his pipe, he added, “On the morrow I should like to visit the lodgings of Roderick Cheek myself.” Then he inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. Within moments, small wisps of smoke began escaping from the corners of his lips and making their journey upward, dissipating before ever reaching the ceiling.

1 All the key Russian names in this narrative were invented by Dostoevsky for Crime and Punishment. It should be noted that in the serialization of the novel, the actual identity of the murderer was never made public. To facilitate keeping track of him, however, I, like Dostoevsky, have employed the same fictional name for the man from beginning to end - Raskolnikov. (JHW)

2 Some seven years later, Holmes would cable Porfiry Petrovitch regarding the investigation I titled “The Golden Pince-Nez”. It was from the Russian detective that Holmes gained background regarding the Russian Nihilist organization of which Professor Coram had once been a member. (JHW)

3 Because no such chimes have been shown to exist, Watson’s insistence remains a point of controversy ever since he first mentioned hearing them in The Sign of Four. One alternative for the source is the tower clock in the Royal Normal College for the Blind in nearby Upper Norwood. For Watson’s reference to the school itself, see “An Adventure in Darkness” (which I edited) in Sherlock Holmes Adventures in the Realms of HG Wells published by Belanger Books. (DDV)

Chapter Eight: The Fiancé

And so once more unto the East End. Yet again the hansom driver required extra coins to take us there. Yet again the choking traffic, the muddied roads, the raucous cries, the powerful stench. Holmes absorbed everything without a murmur; but when we finally arrived in front of the Lindermann shop that Thursday afternoon, I was more than ready - stink and all - for the relative quiet within the boarding house.

We climbed the stairs; and upon reaching Cheek’s fourth-storey room, I delivered a sharp rap on the door. Receiving no response, I knocked again only harder. This time we were rewarded not by any sounds from within, but from the door itself, obviously unlocked, which - as during my previous visit