Two Cases for the Czar by Gorg Huff & Paula Goodlett

Author:Gorg Huff & Paula Goodlett [Huff, Gorg & Goodlett, Paula]
Format: epub
Published: 2021-07-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Location: Room 22B, Ufa Dacha

Date: May 12, 1637

That night Miroslava and I talked about the burglaries. And Miroslava mentioned her concern about Gleb. I assured her that I would talk to Anya about getting her a gun and that I would see about having one made for myself at the same time. I'm no Conan the Barbarian, but I am a member of the Russian service nobility and so have been taught the use of weapons: sword, bow, and long gun, as well as pistols.

Miroslava told me about the theft of Zia Chernoff's jewels, and I found myself somewhat admiring the thief. He was skillful and not stupid, more like the cat burglars of up-time books than a common thief.

"You may get your way, Vasilii," Maroslava told me while we cuddled under the blankets. It was a chilly night. "We don't have many clues as to who he is. Just the witness from Nikolina's room. And, even assuming he's remembering accurately, we don't know for sure that the man at Nikolina's door was the thief."

"Fingerprints?" I asked.

"I don't carry around a fingerprint kit with me. Besides, the theft was two days old when I was called in. Even if the thief's prints are there, how would we identify them?"

I could see someone figuring out how to pick a lock just by examining the lock and several keys, but that, combined with the gear he had to use to climb that wall . . . That's another clue to who he is. It didn't prove that he had access to up-timer books, but it suggested it rather strongly. "Do you think he might be from the Dacha?"

"Why?"

I explained my reasoning and Miroslava sat up in bed, which let in the cold air while exposing her breasts in the dim lamplight. Both those things were distracting in the extreme, but the breasts took pride of place. "Maybe," Miroslava said, "but which Dacha?"

Well, I'd been distracted. Miroslava, not so much.

I lay back on my back, and looked at the ceiling. "It doesn't have to be either. It could be the Grantville desk of the embassy bureau.. Either Grantville desk. For that matter, mystery books aren't the sole province of the Dachas and the Grantville desks. All the entertainment books and stories were copied, along with everything else. Still are, probably."

It was surprising how many books and pamphlets were available in Grantville. A small West Virginia mining town with no great pretension of education had, after the Ring of Fire, proved to have more—and more varied—books than anyone would have guessed before the Ring of Fire. And Russia, thanks to Vladimir Gorchakov and his team, was endeavoring to copy every scrap of it and ship it to Russia. Where it was, bit by bit, being translated into Russian. Including the complete Ellery Queen mysteries in book form. I read them in the original English, but I know that back in the Dacha, before the move to Ufa, there was a group that was

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