Mine Eyes Dazzle

Chapter V: The Incident of the Prime Suspect

The young man was plainly not at his ease. He had the air of one who is being pushed towards dangerous machinery in which he is loath to become entangled. -- P. G. Wodehouse, The Custody of the Pumpkin

There were two options: question Goncharovsky now, or question him later. He was so unpleasant that Yo-han didn't want to see him again. On the other hand, he would have to no matter how much he put it off.

He made up his mind. He went back to Kanayama's door and asked where Goncharovsky could be found.

The answer was the university's chemistry department. That turned out to be downstairs in the main building, at the end of a long line of meandering corridors. Yo-han opened the door warily. Nothing was currently exploding. A group of young men were huddled around a beaker that appeared to be full of water. As Yo-han watched, one of them dropped a ball of something into it.

The ball begin to smoke. It sped around the beaker like a living thing.

One of the men timed it. When the ball disintegrated, he said, "One minute and five seconds."

The group had been leaning on the table. Now they moved back. Yo-han saw that one of them was Goncharovsky.

"I thought sodium caught fire in water," the man who had timed it said, disgruntled.

Yo-han decided it was time to speak, just in case they were about to cause an explosion after all. "Excuse me, Mr. Goncharovsky? I'm from the police station. I'd like a word with you."

~~~~

Now that the blow had fallen, Vasily surprised himself by how calmly he was able to take it. He followed the policeman outside. St. James' had an ornamental pond in the courtyard. The policeman brought Vasily to a bench on its banks. Vasily sat down. The policeman stayed standing.

Vasily couldn't have spoken if his life depended on it. He waited for the sentence to be declared.

The policeman said, "I'm Assistant Detective Seo Yo-han and I'm investigating the death of your friend Edward Hannay."

Vasily blinked up at him. He understood each word, but none of them made any sense. After an uncomfortable pause, he realised Seo was waiting for him to speak.

"E-Edward?" he repeated.

He almost blurted out something more. The world shifted on its axis. He understood. The whole thing took on the shape of a monstrous farce. The police didn't know. He was safe. He was trapped. This would drag itself on, day after dreadful day, with no end in sight.

A wild urge to laugh seized him. He bit his tongue.

Edward's death had shocked him. Though once the initial shock had worn off, it hadn't shocked him as much as it would have if it had happened a month ago. He had so much else to worry about that it still hardly seemed real.

He cleared his throat. "What do you mean, investigating? Edward's death was an accident."

~~~~

While Goncharovsky was stunned into silence, Yo-han tried to gauge his reaction. His refusal to speak on the way here had looked like guilt. But if he wasn't genuinely shocked at the mention of Hannay, he was an excellent actor.

He was also still wearing flesh-coloured concealer. In the daylight it made him look simultaneously washed-out and garish. Yo-han didn't know enough about make-up to tell for sure, but it looked like he wore mascara too. The concealer could be explained if he had a birthmark or skin condition, but the mascara made no sense. Especially when it didn't seem to follow the shape of his eyes.