'The boy at the inn, sir.'

'Morik?' I said sharply. 'What about him?'

'He's been found, sir.'

I glared at him for a moment. 'I am glad of that, Sergeant, but I do not see the urgency...'

'I'm sorry, sir,' Koch interrupted forcefully. 'Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. The boy is dead, sir. Foul play's suspected.'

Chapter 11.

Wild, angry shouts exploded suddenly all around us.

'The King! Where's the King?'

'Napoleon will slay us, no one seems to care!'

'Down with the King! To the scaffold! Vive la revolution!'

Our coach rumbled onto the long wooden bridge that spanned the River Pregel, scattering a furious crowd of cat-calling men and screeching women who jostled towards the scene of the crime. In that barrage of noise and derision it was impossible to isolate the individuals who were fomenting the protest. Perhaps there were no leaders in that rabble. I had the unpleasant impression that the coach was a fragile boat forced to run between converging reefs, which threatened to sink us at any moment.

'They blame the authorities for what is happening,' I said, as we trundled on and left the raving mob behind us.

'Their fears feed on each new corpse,' Koch replied. 'It's just as General Katowice feared, sir. Rumour, unruly gatherings, riots. These murders will lead to trouble. Rebellions have a way of spreading.'

'Terror is what they aim at,' I said, feeling the enormous burden of the delicate task with which I had been entrusted. 'But what were you saying before we were interrupted?'

'About the eel-fisherman, sir. He found the corpse while setting his traps. The troops brought him to the Court House, then they called me. I spoke to him, but he had nothing much to add, beyond the macabre discovery. If you wish to interrogate him, sir, I made a note of his name and address...'

'We'll see him later, Koch. How far is The Baltic Whaler from here?'

'Half a mile, sir. No more.'

I thought back to what Morik had told me the previous night, and to the scene that I had witnessed later from my bedroom window. What further proof did I need that the boy and all the others had been murdered by terrorist infiltrators?

'Were the landlord and his wife taken into custody?'

'They were, sir.'

'As soon as we've seen the body,' I said, 'I will interrogate them. Then, perhaps, I'll be in a better position to report my findings to General Katowice.'

The coach slewed and skidded suddenly, rolling and jerking to an uncertain stop at an angle to the bridge-rail.

'Get back there! Go on, get on with you!' Soldiers were blocking the way, their muskets pointed in a menacing fashion at our driver. Sergeant Koch jumped down and some minutes later the coach was allowed to pa.s.s through the road-block on my authority. For once in my life, I must admit, I felt rea.s.sured by the bullying behaviour of the troops.

Having crossed the bridge and turned to the left along the far bank, the vehicle pulled up a hundred metres further on beside a long, slippery flight of slime-covered stone stairs, by means of which we reached the rutted, muddy bank of the river. It was a vile, salt-smelling sort of place. The river was low, the weeds dank and black, flattened by the force of the retreating tidal waters. We hurried on beside the stream to where a knot of soldiers stood braced in a tight circle, facing outwards, firearms at the ready. They waved us away with bayonets fixed to the muzzles of their guns.

'I am the new Procurator. Make sure that no one else approaches,' I ordered sharply, glancing across the river as the troops fell back. The far bank was packed with idle onlookers. Half the town had gathered there, as if to see some gruesome public spectacle or welcome a travelling circus. With a feeling of disgust for Mankind in my heart, I turned to my task, but I pulled up suddenly. A figure was down on his knees in the mud, his trademark wig glistening with damp, the corpse of Morik visible only as a shapeless, twisted heap of mud-stained clothes and pale flesh beneath him. Like a wild beast poised to feast on fresh blood and warm flesh, Doctor Vigilantius was sniffing and s...o...b..ring over the body.

'In the name of Heaven!' I cried.

Vigilantius did not look up. The blasphemous ritual continued unchecked.

'This is an outrage!' I erupted. 'Who called him here?'

'I did, Stiffeniis.'

The voice at my back was feeble, but I recognised it even before I turned.

'I sent for Doctor Vigilantius.'

A three-cornered hat sat low on Immanuel Kant's head, his face almost hidden beneath it. He wore no wig. A fine mesh of silvery-white hair graced his deformed left shoulder. Wrapped up against the weather in a shimmering, waterproof cloak of dark brown material, he held on tightly to the arm of a young man so tall, robust and protective that they might have been a father and his son, age reversing the roles that Nature had a.s.signed them.

His unexpected arrival there on the banks of the river robbed me of the power of speech. Of course, I realised, it was inevitable that I would meet him sooner or later in Konigsberg. But not in that place, nor in such doleful circ.u.mstances. Who had told him of the finding of the body of Morik? Had Jachmann informed him of my presence in the city, and of the reason for my being there? Herr Jachmann had warned me of the changes advancing age had inflicted on the philosopher, but I could only compare what I saw with what I recalled as we parted that afternoon seven years before, and Kant made his way home alone, limping painfully as the swirling fog swallowed him up. He did not seem a day older.

'My dear Hanno, how happy I am to see you!' he said warmly.

My first impulse was to take his hand and press it to my lips, but natural reserve stopped me. 'I did not expect you, sir,' I said, attempting to hide my confusion and embarra.s.sment.

'I expected nothing less of you,' he returned with a welcoming smile. 'You made the acquaintance of Doctor Vigilantius last night, did you not?'

He did not wait for me to reply, but shuffled forward, still clutching the arm of his servant, and cast his eyes on the horrid spectacle. 'He has not wholly finished his examination, I see.'

Vigilantius was on his knees beside the dead boy, grunting like a pig over a mountain of offal. At the sound of his name he looked up quickly, acknowledged Kant with no more than a nod, then returned to his business. The scene was vile, nauseating, revolting, but Professor Kant did not appear to be in the least disturbed by what he saw.

'I hope the doctor will be able to tell us something useful,' he confided quietly, looking over his shoulder at me. His pa.s.sionate concern spoke all the louder for a lack of violent animation. The keen intelligence shining from his eyes seemed to suggest that he had lost none of his renowned intellectual powers. 'You are wondering what he is doing here, are you not?'

Kant remained silent, waiting for me to reply.

'He is a follower of Swedenborg,' I said, carefully measuring my criticism. 'He claims to speak with the dead, sir. You condemned his master as a fake and a cozener.'

'Oh, that!' Kant returned with a tinkling laugh. 'Dreams of a Spirit Seer is the only book of mine for which I have ever apologised. Do you disapprove of my having called on Swedenborg's spiritual heir in my search for the murderer?'

'Your search, sir? Indeed, I am puzzled,' I admitted.

'Were you not impressed by what he had to show you at the Fortress?' he asked, a thin smile tracing itself on his pale lips.

I hardly knew how to respond. 'The seance, sir?'

Kant frowned. 'Seance? Is that all you saw last night?'

'What else should I call it, sir? A man asking questions of a dead body, the corpse supposedly speaking back. I left Vigilantius knowing nothing that my own eyes did not tell me when I examined the body.'

'Ah!' Kant exclaimed with a smile. 'You ran out of patience and did not stay until the end. I should have foreseen that possibility,' he murmured. Then he looked at me attentively. 'So, you are surprised to see Vigilantius here, but you are not surprised to have been nominated in the place of Rhunken. Am I correct?'

His open irony regarding my appointment struck me like a slap in the face.

'It seems that I have you to thank for the honour, sir,' I began, but a louder voice than mine cut in.

'This death is not like the others, Herr Professor.'

Vigilantius was towering over Morik's body. 'This is the work of another killer,' he said.

'Another killer?' I repeated, appealing to Professor Kant. 'In G.o.d's name, sir, what is he talking about?'

Kant ignored me. Turning to Vigilantius, he said: 'Explain yourself.'

The doctor smiled triumphantly in my direction before he spoke. 'This corpse does not confirm what we know from the other bodies, Herr Professor. The scent here is...entirely different. The energy with which the soul left this body is distinct from what I have divined in other instances. They were taken unawares; this boy was not. He realised what was about to happen. He saw the blow before it fell, and he was terrified.'

Kant was silent, absorbed in his own thoughts.

'I see,' he said at last. 'And does this corpse tell you anything more?'

I was lost for words. What devilry could induce him to speak in such a deferential manner to an infamous necromancer? Kant had formulated a code of social ethics and rational a.n.a.lysis which had dragged Mankind out of the Dark and into the Light. And was he now inviting a smooth-tongued quack to reveal what a dead body had told him during a vulgar spirit-raising?

'Professor Kant!' I burst out, unable to contain myself. 'Herr Tifferch's corpse revealed what was obvious to any man with two eyes in his head. His back was covered with wounds, old and new...'

'I told you how he was murdered,' Doctor Vigilantius sneered. 'He did not die of those wounds. You would have had the proof if you had had the courtesy to wait last night.'

Kant turned and fixed me with a stare.

'Indeed, Herr Procurator, what did you make of those wounds?' he queried, like a falcon that has spotted a limping hare.

'I know they did not kill him,' I muttered. 'They were self-inflicted.'

'Self-inflicted?' Kant interrupted me. 'What do you mean?'

'I searched his house first thing this morning,' I began, 'and there I found evidence of how he had procured those wounds...'

I stopped, embarra.s.sed to speak to Kant about such things.

'Well?' he insisted.

'A goad was carefully hidden in a cupboard, sir,' I murmured. 'Herr Tifferch had quite an eccentric private life.'

'How interesting!' Kant exclaimed. 'Rip the mask from any man's life, and what do we find? A black heart behind a smiling face, the bent wood of Humanity. Do you think that this is the motive behind his murder?'

'Not at all, sir,' I replied. 'There is another element which may indicate a common factor in all of the other killings, too.'

I took a deep breath before continuing. Immanuel Kant was the person that I admired above all the intellectual authorities in the Enlightened world. His learned meditations upon the topsy-turvy broomstick that was Man had marked out the path of Rational a.n.a.lysis and Enlightened behaviour. He had summoned me to Konigsberg to a.s.sist in solving a mystery, and I did not intend to disappoint him.

'Herr Tifferch had a secret h.o.a.rd of anti-Napoleonic trash hidden away in a cupboard,' I announced. 'He may have been a.s.sa.s.sinated by the political enemies of the State. Procurator Rhunken held the same opinion. I've read his reports...'

'But how did he die?' Kant spat out the question like an angry adder. 'That is the question which interests us, Stiffeniis.'

'I...I do not know yet,' I admitted hesitantly. 'He might...'

Kant was no longer listening. Curtly, he turned to Vigilantius.

'Is there any trace of the claw on the child's body?' he asked.

I was stunned. Professor Kant had used the term employed by the woman who had found the body of Jan Konnen. The Devil's claw.

'No sign, sir. Not this time,' Vigilantius replied gravely.

'What are you talking of?' I cried in frustration, excluded from their conversation by the cryptic intimacy of this exchange. Had Jachmann been right to express concern for Kant's mental health? 'No trace of what?'

'I'll show you later,' Kant replied with a flash of impatience. 'If there are two murderers, we don't need paranormal powers to see the problem that it poses for the authorities. Come, Stiffeniis, let us take a closer look at the physical evidence.'

Laying his slender hand on my arm, pulling me forward, we took a step towards the body. Vigilantius moved aside with a sweep of his cloak like an actor who has successfully recited his lines and I forced myself to look down. I did not see the dead boy from The Baltic Whaler. I saw another body lying there on the wet ground, the skull crushed, bone splinters white and stark against the mess of blood and brain, eyes staring at me through a gla.s.sy veil. I fought to cancel out the unwanted vision, struggling to concentrate all my attention on what was, in that moment, before my eyes.

'This is him,' I mumbled. 'Morik.'

Signs of terrible violence were written on his face, or what was left of it. The left side of his skull had been crushed like a fragile eggsh.e.l.l. Slivers of brain and spots of congealed blood were splattered on his hair, temple, forehead and cheeks. His left eye stared up at the cloudy heavens from the corner of his mouth, as if it had crawled there of its own accord like some hideous slug.

Kant might almost have read my mind.

'Does this sight disturb you?' he asked, looking intently at me, studying my face, rather than the disfigured face of the dead child on the ground. 'Of course, it must. Your brother suffered similar wounds to the cranium, I suppose?'

I swallowed hard. Kant's concern had quite unmanned me.

'It...the crushing...was on the other...the right lobe,' I managed to reply.

'Were you obliged to examine his body?' Kant asked, scrutinising me closely. 'I don't remember having heard of a criminal investigation afterwards.'

'No, sir,' I murmured. 'There was no investigation.'

He hesitated a fraction. 'Let's get on with the business, then.'

'It...This, I mean, was a fearful blow,' I said, struggling to direct my attention to the dreadful sight before me. 'Death must have been instantaneous.'

'And the boy saw it coming,' Kant added. 'His fists will be clenched, I'd wager. Move his clothes away, will you?'

Before I could react, Koch had dropped to his knees and pulled the sodden clothes away from the boy's hands to reveal the accuracy of Kant's intuition.

'Sergeant Koch is my a.s.sistant,' I explained quickly, having completely forgotten his presence just a few steps behind me. 'He used to work for Procurator Rhunken.'

'His name is not new to me,' Kant replied, eyeing Koch curiously. He drew closer and followed every movement, his hand still on my arm, the other gripping his silent manservant for support.

'Note the look on the boy's face, Stiffeniis,' he said, his voice quavering with emotion. 'Physiognomy teaches us much regarding that expression, does it not?'