Chapter Text
Home of Viktor Mironov.
August 23, 1888
Miss Anna Viktorovna Mironova.
Dear Miss Mironova,
I wish to convey, again, as I believe I offered such sentiments on the evening of the seance at the Kuleshovas, my sincere appreciation for your considerable assistance in the matter of discovering the culprit in the case of the murder of Mrs. Tatiana Kuleshova. I will repeat my belief that had it not been for your astute and utterly believable presentation at that evening’s events, I should have consigned your uncle to our most uncomfortable and disheartening of receptacles. In truth, justice itself could have been foiled.
You did, on that occasion, dismiss my inquiries into your methods with the pretext that you yourself failed to comprehend the mechanism by which you were able to orchestrate a confession. I wonder, if after these few days that have passed, you are now able to disclose to me your secrets. Upon reflection, it occurs to me that there are, at a minimum, two confounding questions related to the occasion that require elucidation.
First, and of primary concern to me, was your ability to uncover the identity of the murderer without benefit of all the evidence. But, I assume certain facts in this statement, do I not? Perhaps the question is not how you discerned the perpetrator absent all the relevant facts, but how you came to know the facts of the case before I revealed them.
Second, of much less importance and, upon reflection, likens to enjoining a magician to unmask his sleight-of-hand, is the curiosity of the seemingly independent movement of the planchette across the spirit board. And while a solution to the first is of considerably more interest than the second, it is this fantastical occurrence that is the more mystifying. At the peril of appearing arrogant in your consideration, I propose that I am not wanting in knowledge, as it pertains to the physical sciences. And yet, in this instance, I cannot put forth a conjecture that satisfies what I observed.
Returning to the first, and primary, question, I pen that it is less of a mystery. Why? Throughout this investigation it was my considerable fortune to engage in discussion with you, Miss Mironova. And by these interactions, which I will confess were most gratifying and stimulating, you made manifest your cleverness and predisposition to deductive reasoning. Marry these favorable investigative abilities with your penchant for stumbling upon pertinent pieces of evidence and the inevitableness of discerning the truth becomes indisputable. I warrant with the advantage of time and the benefit of further opportunities for conversation, if you are so inclined, I will be able to perceive the process by which you analyze and detect hidden truths.
I return to the evening of the seance to reference a remark that I made of which you were dismissive. As we exited the Kuleshova home, I offered an observation, that the one good thing to come of the series of events associated with Tatiana Kuleshova’s unfortunate death was my making your acquaintance. At the time I made the statement, I made it in earnest. The sentiment remains true. I consider the association that we began, albeit under the most unpleasant of circumstances, to be perhaps the most pleasing, and promising, of connections I have made in your fair city.
Yours respectfully,
Yakov Platonovich Shtolman.