The Toksovo Ten

Chapter Ten

Filipp Ignatyich Rassudkin followed the guard down the halls of the jail, his breath coming out white in the frosted cold air. A light snow was falling outside the barred windows, and the sky was a dim gray.

"Here she is," the guard said, stopping at a barred door.

"Who is it?" he heard the familiar voice of Darya Chebarova say. He stepped into her line of sight, and she let out a bark of mad laughter.

"Filka!" she exclaimed. "Such a pleasure!"

"Madame Chebarova," he said stiffly, stepping into the cell with the guard, who closed the door behind them. He looked her over. It was strange to see her like this, in a baggy gray prison uniform instead of her aristocratic clothes, her face gaunt and bare, sitting on a jail cell cot, dark bruises around her neck.

"So what brings you here?" she asked, again with an unsettling cheeriness. "Are you here to investigate? Here to prove my innocence?"

"Madame, I don't think that can be proven," Rassudkin said gravely.

"Ah. So you think it was me too."

"Well, seeing as you're the only note recipient still living, I don't see how it could be anyone else."

"It was Nikolai. I killed him in self-defense," she said flatly, the false cheeriness gone.

"Madame, there is overwhelming evidence against you. The prosecution has found a great deal to prove it was you."

"Like what?"

"I don't believe I'm in a position to tell you that and risk their case."

"Well I don't see what it could be, seeing as I didn't do it."

"That will be up to you and your lawyer to prove, and I suggest you get a good one."

"So why are you here, then?" Darya asked. "Just here to gloat over my reduced state? Because I don't see how you're in a position to gloat when you didn't prevent a single murder."

"How could you do it?" Rassudkin asked, looking at her with disgust. "Your family, your husband, your best friend, these people loved you. Why would you want to kill them?"

"I didn't want to kill them," she said dully, her eyes hollow.

"So why did you do it then? Just couldn't stop yourself?"

"I didn't do it!" Darya suddenly shouted. "I killed Nikolai because he was trying to kill me, but he killed the rest of them, I swear."

"Madame–"

"How do you explain the red 'one' that was on the door, then?!" Darya cried. "He clearly painted that before he came in, since he was coming in intending to kill me! After I killed him I fled from the window, I never would have had a chance to paint it!"

"Then you painted it before."

"And he just walked right into a room with a red one painted on the door?!"

"It was dark, he may not have seen it–" Rassudkin broke off as Darya burst into wild laughter.

"Your case is flimsy, you know it is," she raved. "You just want it to be me, you've hated me from the beginning–"

"Madame, there is plenty of evidence against you. You may have thought you covered everything up perfectly, but you left traces everywhere."