“Well then, suspect Katzman,” Andrei said in a tried and tested chilly tone of voice. “I seriously recommend you adopt a respectful attitude toward the investigation if you don’t wish to make your own situation any worse.”
Izya stopped smiling. “All right,” he said. “Then I demand to be informed of the charge against me and also the article under which I have been detained. Furthermore, I demand a lawyer. From this moment on I won’t say another word without a lawyer.”
Andrei chuckled to himself. “You have been detained under article 12 of the Criminal Procedural Code concerning the preventive detention of individuals whose continued presence at liberty could constitute a public danger. You are accused of illegal contacts with hostile elements, concealing or destroying material evidence at the time of arrest… and also of violating the municipal ordinance that forbids travel beyond the city limits for public health reasons. You have violated this ordinance on a regular basis… And as for a lawyer, the Public Prosecutor’s Office cannot provide you with a lawyer until three days have elapsed following the time of arrest. In accordance with the aforementioned article 12 of the Criminal Procedural Code… In addition, let me clarify: you may formally protest, register complaints, and enter appeals only after you have satisfactorily replied to the questions of the initial interrogation. All in accordance with the said article 12. Is all that clear?”
He had been studying Izya’s face and he could see that everything was clear to him. It was also absolutely clear that Izya would answer the questions and wait until the three days were over. At the mention of the three-day period Izya had unmistakably caught his breath.
“Now that you have received this clarification,” Andrei said, picking up the pen again, “let us proceed. Your family status.”
“Unmarried,” said Izya.
“Home address?”
“What?” asked Izya. He had clearly been thinking about something else.
“Your home address? Where do you live?”
“Nineteen Second Left Street, apartment 7.”
“Do you have anything to tell me regarding the charges brought against you?”
“By all means,” said Izya. “Concerning the hostile elements: delirious drivel. This is the first time I’ve even heard that there are any hostile elements. I regard it as a deliberately provocative invention on the part of the investigation. Material evidence… I did not have and could not have had any material evidence with me, because I have not committed any crimes. Therefore I can neither conceal nor destroy anything. And as for the municipal ordinance—I am a former employee of the municipal archive, where I continue to work on a voluntary basis; I have access to all archival materials, and therefore also to those that lie outside the city limits. That’s all.”
“What were you doing in the Red Building?’
“That is my own personal business. You have no right to intrude into my personal affairs. First prove that they are relevant to the substance of the charges. Article 14 of the Criminal Procedural Code.”
“Have you been in the Red Building on more than one occasion?”
“Yes.”
“Can you name the people whom you met there?”
Izya gave a ghastly grin. “I can. Only that will not assist the investigation.”
“Name these people.”
“By all means. From modern times: Pétain, Quisling, Wang Ching-wei, Vasil Bilak—”
Andrei raised his hand. “I request that above all else you name individuals who are citizens of our City.”
“And why would the investigation require that?” Izya inquired aggressively.
“I am not obliged to account for anything to you. Answer the questions.”
“I don’t wish to answer your idiotic questions. You don’t understand a damn thing. You imagine that if I met someone in there, it means he really was there. But that’s not so.”
“I don’t understand. Please explain.”
“I don’t understand it myself,” said Izya. “It’s something like a dream. The delirious ravings of an agitated conscience.”
“I see. Like a dream. Were you in the Red Building today?”
“Yes, I was.”
“Where was the Red Building when you entered it?”
“Today? Today it was there beside the synagogue.”
“Did you see me in the Building?”
Izya grinned again. “I see you every time I go in there.”
“Including today?”
“Yes.”
“What was I doing?”
“Engaging in lewd behavior,” Izya said with relish.
“Specifically?”
“You were copulating, Citizen Voronin. Copulating with numerous girls at the same time and simultaneously preaching high principles to eunuchs. Impressing on them that you were not engaging in this activity for your own pleasure but for the good of all mankind.”
Andrei gritted his teeth. “And what were you doing?” he asked after a brief pause.
“I won’t tell you that. That’s my right.”
“You’re lying,” Andrei said. “You didn’t see me there. Here are your own words: ‘From the look of you, you’ve been in the Red Building…’ Consequently, you did not see me there. Why are you lying?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Izya replied breezily. “It’s just that I felt ashamed for you and decided to make you think I hadn’t seen you there. But now, of course, things have changed. Now I am obliged to tell the truth.”
Andrei leaned back and flung the pen behind his chair. “You say it’s a kind of dream. Then what difference does it make if you saw me or didn’t see me in a dream? Why try to make me think anything?”
“That’s not it,” said Izya. “I was simply embarrassed to let you know what I really think of you sometimes. But I shouldn’t have been.”
Andrei shook his head dubiously. “Well, all right. Did you bring the document file out of the Red Building too? From out of your own dream, so to say?”
Izya’s face froze. “What file?” he asked nervously. “What is this file you keep asking about all the time? I didn’t have any file.”
“Drop it, Katzman,” said Andrei, closing his eyes wearily. “I saw the file, the police officer saw the file, that old man saw the file… Pan Stupalski. You’ll have to provide an explanation at the trial in any case… Don’t exacerbate matters!”
Izya’s eyes wandered across the wall. He sat there stony-faced and said nothing.
“Let’s assume the file wasn’t from the Red House,” Andrei continued. “Then did you obtain it outside the city limits? Who from? Who gave it to you, Katzman?”
Izya said nothing.
“What was in that file?” Andrei got up and walked around the office with his hands clasped behind his back. “An individual has a file in his hands. The individual is arrested. On the way to the Prosecutor’s Office the individual disposes of the file. Secretly. Why? The file evidently contains documents that are compromising for this individual… Do you follow the train of my logic, Katzman? The file was obtained outside city limits. What kind of documents, obtained outside city limits, can compromise an inhabitant of our City? What kind, tell me, Katzman?”
Izya looked up at the ceiling, worrying away relentlessly at his wart.
“Only don’t try to worm your way out of it, Katzman,” Andrei warned him. “Don’t try to sell me another of your cock-and-bull stories. I can see right through you. What was in the file? Lists? Addresses? Instructions?”