EQMM 2012-05 by Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine

Author:Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine [Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Ivan wasn’t there yet, just as Tsihosha had suspected. Somewhat irked at having to wait, he went to the station restaurant and ordered a cup of tea. He sipped his tea, thought about the poisoning of the anonymous man on the train, and, in spite of his own determination to leave it alone, was coming closer and closer to solving the case. Tsihosha fought the temptation.

“The police will figure it out. I gave them enough information to make this an easy puzzle to solve,” he told himself. “If I pursued this, I would lose at least the whole night, would get no sleep, and I have to be back in Lviv tomorrow afternoon. And Ivan is not here. If he comes and doesn’t find me, he’d just figure I never did come and would go back to the estate.”

As he tried to convince himself thus, the street-side door opened and a sleepy Ivan appeared in it.

“I am here,” he said without conviction, fumbling with his cap. “A bit late, beg pardon, the road’s rotten.”

“Finally,” Tsihosha grumbled. “I don’t know what the road’s like, but I do know it’s lined with taverns. The moon’s out, you could’ve made haste.”

“I did … I whipped the horses good, but the road …”

“Go back to the horses. You can’t just leave them and the carriage unattended. I will come when I finish my tea. The horses will rest, meanwhile.”

To justify himself, the driver said:

“The Berestechko priest’s driver is keeping an eye on them; he’s waiting to pick up the vicar from the Reverov train.”

He bowed and left. Tsihosha tinkled his spoon in his tea glass.

“Check, please,” he called to the waiter, when the man came within earshot. “When is the Reverov train due to arrive?”

“Forty-five cents for the tea. The Reverov Express comes in forty-five minutes, and the regular passenger train at midnight. At twenty-four sharp, I mean,” he corrected himself.

“And when does the next train from Hodiv come?”

“You’d have to wait longer, until two… . But the restaurant’s open all night,” he added reassuringly.

“Thank you,” said Tsihosha. “Here’s for the tea.”

He finished his tea and began his mental calculations.

“I’ll get to Hodiv before midnight. There, I will have an hour and fifteen minutes until the return train. That pair of crooks—I must catch them!—got off in Hodiv to cover their tracks and will most likely stay the night there before setting out for Reverov, where they’d planned to go all along. Thus, I believe they don’t know Hodiv very well. Necessity forced them to leave the train, and they’re likely to take a room in one of the hotels, so it won’t be hard to find them. And I am sure to recognize them after seeing their silhouettes against the window.”

The charge of energy that always came when he set to work ran through Tsihosha’s body like electric current. He glanced at his watch, rose quickly, left the restaurant, bought a second-class ticket to Hodiv, and went outside to Ivan, who was waiting for him on the driver’s seat of the carriage.

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