Murder on the Leviathan by Boris Akunin

Author:Boris Akunin [Akunin, Boris]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
ISBN: 9780812968798
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Published: 2005-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

'It's not Jenny,' he said in a repulsively calm voice. 'It is I, Erast Fandorin. I shall wait outside while you g-get dressed.'

He was either one of a rare, seduction-proof variety or a secret pervert. If it was the latter, the Englishwomen were simply wasting their time and effort. But Renate's keen eye had not detected any of the characteristic signs of perversion. Apart, that was, from a strange predilection for secluded conversation with Watchdog.

But this was all trivial nonsense. She had more serious reasons for being upset.

At the very moment when Renate finally decided to plunge her fork into the cold sautee, the doors crashed open and the bespectacled professor burst into the dining room. He always looked a little crazy - either his jacket was buttoned crookedly or his shoelaces were undone - but today he looked a real fright: his beard was dishevelled, his tie had slipped over to one side, his eyes were bulging out of his head and there was one of his braces dangling from under the flap of his jacket. Obviously something quite extraordinary must have happened. Renate instantly forgot her own troubles and stared curiously at the learned scarecrow.

Sweetchild spread his arms like a ballet dancer and shouted: 'Eureka, gentlemen! The mystery of the Emerald Rajah is solved!'

'Oh no,' groaned Mrs Truffo. 'Not again!'

'Now I can see how it all fits together,' said the professor, launching abruptly into an incoherent explanation. 'After all, I was in the place, why didn't I think of it before? I kept thinking about it, going round and round in circles, but it just didn't add up. In Aden I received a telegram from an acquaintance of mine in the French Ministry of the Interior and he confirmed my suspicions, but I still couldn't make any sense of the eye, and I couldn't work out who it could be. That is, I more or less know who, but how? How was it done? And now it has suddenly dawned on me!' He ran over to the window. A curtain fluttering in the wind enveloped him like a white shroud, and the professor impatiently pushed it aside. 'I was standing at the window of my cabin knotting my tie and I saw the waves, crest after crest all the way to the horizon. And then suddenly it hit me! Everything fell into place - about the shawl, and about the son! It's a piece of simple clerical work. Dig around in the registers at the Ecole Maritime and you'll find him!'

'I don't understand a word,' growled Watchdog. 'You're raving. What's this about some school or other?'

'Oh no, this is very, very interesting,' exclaimed Renate. 'I simply adore trying to solve mysteries. But my dear professor, this will never do. Sit down at the table, have some wine, catch your breath and tell us everything from the beginning, calmly and clearly. After all, you have such a wonderful way with a story. But first someone must bring me my shawl, so that I don't catch a chill from this draught.

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