A Negotiable Instrument

Chapter Nineteen

Tursunov sat at his desk, lit a Zefir, and brooded. He couldn't help thinking that he was walking into a trap. What the trap was, or who had devised it, he couldn't be sure. Radostev had given his word there would be no more intimidation of his family, but how could he trust the man? Even if he could, and he knew he had no real choice, he doubted that Radostev had the power to put his words into practise. He knew from bitter experience that the Okhrana would do exactly as they pleased, whatever agreement they might have negotiated. But he realised that whatever else Radostev may be, he wasn't a stupid man. He must think he was able to apply considerable pressure to even consider making such a promise. Unless, of course, it was just another move in the game they were all playing. Perhaps he should ask Maximka. His little boy was sure to understand the subtleties of the game better than he did.

'Yes, come in,' he shouted, startled by a knock on his door.

'Greetings, Vasilii Alexandrovich!' Investigating Attorney Nyzhnyk declared as he strode into the room. As always, his suit was immaculate, his necktie flamboyant, his shoes the latest fashion. All in sharp contrast to the crumpled clothes Tursunov had managed to assemble in the first wretched stages of his hangover.

'I wasn't expecting you, Vadim Konstantinovich.'

'Why should you be? That would only lessen the pleasure you can now take from my unexpected arrival.' Nyzhnyk smiled his broad smile. He chose a chair, examined it for signs of dust or anything worse that might cling to his pristine attire, and sat on it.

'What can I do for you?' Tursunov asked.

'It is what I can do for you that I am here to impart.'

'I would appreciate any good news you might have.'

'Indeed. Your investigation does appear to have attracted considerable attention. Not the sort of attention you might want, of course. Bezzubenkov lands a talking fish, a fish, moreover, that urges a wife to kill her husband. You,' Nyzhnyk added with a sweep of his hand, 'are left to wrestle with our dear friends in the special section. The odour that emanates from each may be similar, but the outcome will not be.'

'If you have come here to tell me that my investigation has not been a complete success you might as well tell me not to take samovars to Tula.'

'You are quite correct. Such platitudes are superfluous. You do not need me to speak of the obvious. What I will speak of, however, may be of some use to you. Regrettable as the special section's involvement in your investigation may be, their interference has borne fruit in one regard.'

'What?' Tursunov couldn't think of any way the Okhrana might be useful to him or to anybody else.

'Once you have arrested this Giorgadze, they will spare us the trouble of preparing for a protracted, and no doubt tedious, court examination.'

'They intend to claim the murders as political crimes and hold a closed trial?'

'So I have been informed.'

'They simply invoke the Ordinance on Measures for the Preservation of the Order and Public Tranquillity, and any pretence at a fair trial is dispensed with? Doesn't that trouble you?'

'Not unduly. We are, after all, in a period of extraordinary security as defined by the Security Law.' Nyzhnyk said with a complaisant shrug.

'You, a trained lawyer, are quite happy to see the suppression of all legal safeguards by a supposedly temporary measure drawn up thirty years ago to deal with a tiny handful of men who might, or might not, be preparing to commit terror against the state?'

'Not happy, no. But what is one to do?'

'A few years ago the Governor of St. Petersburg got into an argument with the driver of a cart that had stopped in the road blocking his way. He proceeded to vent his frustration at this inconvenience by issuing a decree under the so-called Security Law which resulted in over 35,000 arrests for traffic violations, whether real or imagined, over the course of the following few months. Those arrested had no chance to challenge their convictions, no right to question the punitive level of their fines, no redress to the courts. Anyone who protested spent days, in some cases weeks or months, in police cells. Do you think that was a reasonable use of the Security Law?'