The Baron shook off Khorvat’s hand. “I want to be certain your wife wouldn’t object to the close contact I have with my Chinese patients?”
“I’m certain you take every sanitary precaution. You are Kharbin’s most renowned doctor.”
His heart pounded and it dried his mouth so that words barely moved off his tongue. “I can’t guarantee my sanitary precautions. But since he’s never met you, my colleague Dr. Messonier is a better doctor for your wife. I wish her a rapid recovery, although you both probably share the same unpleasant characteristics.”
Bakai blinked as the insult slowly came into focus. He hesitated, then turned away.
The Baron’s heart rate slowly dropped. He didn’t dare touch Li Ju or comfort her. To his relief, she was silent.
“Generous of you to send a new patient to Dr. Messonier.” Khorvat’s expression was strained. “Please be my guest here at the club anytime.”
“May I bring my wife?”
Khorvat choked out a laugh and bowed to Li Ju. “Baronin, I am pleased to meet you. You bring grace to our evening.”
Li Ju curtsied to General Khorvat since he was her elder. “Thank you.” She answered in Russian. “The weather is cold tonight.”
“Yes, gracious lady, I anticipate the cold will be with us for months.”
The Baron marveled at the Baronin’s armor. He finished the vodka in his glass in one burning swallow. He was pleased that Khorvat had been amused by his remark but uneasy he’d witnessed Bakai offending his wife.
The dwarf Chang Huai made his way across the room, a current of movement below eye level as men stepped back, women swept skirts aside allowing him to pass. A smiling woman leaned forward, revealing her décolletage as he kissed her hands, then angled his head to look up at her, emphasizing his small stature and creating the impression of trustfulness. She playfully tapped him on the head with her fan.
Chang Huai turned to address the Baron. “You’ve been set a task tonight.”
“Myself and others. May I present my wife, the Baronin.”
“Enchanted.” He bowed respectfully.
She smiled in relief and the dwarf gave the Baron a thoughtful glance.
The Baron spoke in Chinese. “You have an amusing story? Or advice? What can you tell me?” He was tired and wished to avoid uncomfortable conversation.
“I couldn’t speak freely when we met with Andreev. I was distracted. And the man has a reputation. But now I can tell you the body by Churin’s store had been on the street all night. The watchman told me. I saw the men who took the body, but they were unrecognizable.”
“How so?”
“Their noses and mouths were covered with a white cloth.”
“Protection from the cold?”
“They also wore white clothing. Long white aprons. Gloves.”
He gripped Chang’s shoulder. “You’re certain?”
Chang nodded, taken aback by his reaction.
“Please. I wish to go home,” Li Ju murmured in his ear.
The Baron barely reacted to her words, lost in the scenario created by the dwarf’s information. Men wore white uniforms for disguise or protection. He built the case for protection. They were most likely from the Russian hospital and had retrieved the body. He grasped Li Ju’s hand. “You wish to leave? But it’s early.”
“I’ll take the Baronin home. You should continue a conversation with General Khorvat.”
A sharper look at Chang, his face impossible to read since it was only partially visible. “Thank you. I won’t be long. It’s a business matter.”
From across the room, Andreev caught his eye, obviously drunk, gesturing excitedly at an officer, closing a deal or promising a favor. How was this man admitted to the club?
Aware that he was being watched, Andreev immediately became calmer. The man wasn’t drunk but shamming for some scheme. The Baron sometimes felt clumsy around Andreev, earthbound, a slowness that came from a sense of duty and order. But this gave him an advantage. Andreev recognized only the type of behavior that was familiar to him. He must have read something in the Baron’s expression and maneuvered his way over to speak with him.
“Good evening, Baron. You seem worried.”
“Snow and cold conquers everything.”
“Not everything. Tonight I’ve won.” Andreev opened his hand to reveal a ring with a large red stone. “It belonged to an Englishman. Until he had a gambling loss.”
The Baron had little patience for people who boasted about trinkets. “What pleasure to own such a fine thing,” he said. His words had the effect of a dismissal, for Andreev swiftly put the ring away. “You’ve heard about the death of Dmitry Vasilevich? Yes? How did his widow, Sinotchka Vasilevna, escape Kharbin so easily?”
Andreev shrugged. “She escaped because no one pursued her. Or she crouched in an oxcart with her trunks all the way to Vladivostok. Or perhaps she caught a freighter to Canada.”
“Could she have taken a ferry downriver?”
“Ice on the Sungari. Dangerous and slow. The roads are no better, nearly snowbound. Even a private carriage is too risky for a Russian woman traveling alone. There are Hutzul bandits. And criminal carriage drivers.”
The Baron shook his head. “The train is the only way to escape Kharbin in winter. But our soldiers are garrisoned at all train stations.”
“Unsupervised drunkards waiting for the Chinese army. As if they could stop an invasion. Or stop anyone.” Andreev was humoring him. “Maybe the daughter, Sonya, killed her father and stepmother. Two dead Russians. Or perhaps the murderer followed Dmitry Vasilevich home from Central Station. See? There’s your link to the train.”
“Doubtful.”
“You must be under General Khorvat’s orders to even speculate about finding the widow. Curious, since a dead civilian matters very little to a general.”
“Khorvat did ask for my aid. I believe it was a meaningless gesture, this searching for lost sheep, as the prophets say.” The Baron nearly confessed his confusion. A simpleton’s response. Andreev was not the person with whom to share the wavering-edged circle of his doubt. He spoke quickly to mask his anxiety. “Never mind. Tonight we drink with the highest society.”
Andreev was quiet for a moment. Sometimes he pretended not to listen as the Baron spoke, or he yawned to show he wasn’t impressed by the other man’s title or position. He was free to be rude. The Baron could usually ignore this behavior. “High society? I prefer the people of Diagonalnaya Street to the Railway Club members. I go to the Fantasia cabaret. The Japanese bordellos. People know me.” He grinned. “Sometimes I gamble. Or watch.”
“Whom do you watch? The gamblers?”
The question amused Andreev. “Ah, my dear Baron. Here we are, two men of the world in the most godforsaken corner of the world. You can see things that are unimaginable anywhere else.”
“I’m a doctor. I’ve seen everything.” He tried to match Andreev’s authority.
Andreev’s laugh was brief, a dry bark. “Yes, but your patients show their bodies to you willingly.”
He struggled away from the cruel images raised by the other man’s words. He turned and glimpsed Sonya Vasilevna speaking with an elderly man. No. He had mistaken another young woman for Sonya. Then Khorvat’s deputy Diakonov waved at him.
The Baron walked over to join Diakonov and Khorvat. The deputy grudgingly stepped aside when the general indicated that he wished to speak with the Baron alone.
“I need you as a witness, Baron.” Khorvat raised his voice. “Deputy Diakonov, bring the doctor’s coat.”
The clean warmth of vodka was still on his tongue as he strode after Khorvat and Diakonov down a bright corridor, wincing when the door opened into the darkness outside. A force of frigid air as he struggled into his sheepskin coat.