"He asked as he left" by Boris Akunin, summary Automatic translate

This book is a historical detective story, published in 2022. The story is told from the perspective of an elderly criminologist who, minutes before his execution in the basement of the Petrograd Cheka, recalls the most incredible and tragic investigation of his life, which took place in the spring of 1914. The book is part of the "History of the Russian State in Stories and Novels" series, and is the ninth work of fiction. Other books in this series include "The Fiery Finger," "The Widow’s Scarf," "The Week of the Three-Eyed," and "The Road to Kitezh."

Meeting in Monaco and an unexpected employer

In the spring of 1914, Vasily Ivanovich Gusev, a former Moscow detective and now the respected head of the Central Technical Bureau of the Police Department, was in Monaco attending an international criminology congress. During a meeting at the Oceanographic Museum, he delivered a report on technical innovations in the Russian police. There, he met Marie Larr, the prominent owner of a London private detective agency, an American of Russian descent. Her unusual appearance, chillingly cool mind, and unconventional methods of psychological analysis of suspects greatly intrigue Gusev. Marie explains that she entered the profession as a child, vowing to avenge her mother’s murder.

The peaceful congress is interrupted by the sudden appearance of Alevtina Khvoshchova, a capricious and domineering Russian factory owner. She is in a panic: her six-year-old daughter, Dasha, has been kidnapped in broad daylight in St. Petersburg. The widow hires Marie Larr and, through brutal blackmail, forces Gusev to abandon his government duties. Years ago, the detective accepted a bribe from Khvoshchova to falsify the report on her husband’s death, and now this long-standing mistake forces him to join a private investigation.

Return to St. Petersburg

The heroes urgently return to Russia in Khvoshchova’s luxurious private carriage, decorated with scandalous paintings by the fashionable artist Monsart. Along the way, they are joined by Marie’s assistant, the young and incredibly talkative circus acrobat Betty Chatty, a master of disguise and stealthy entry. During the frantic race from the border, the rented locomotive crashes: the train’s brakes fail. Thanks to the desperate courage of Marie and the fireman, Maciek, a disaster is averted. Gusev is deeply disgusted when the detective retreats to a compartment with the grimy savior. This act reminds the forensic scientist of his own wife Irina’s infidelities.

Upon arriving in the capital, Gusev visits his home and discovers that nothing remains of his former family life. His wife has left him for good, for her cellist lover, and mercilessly forbids Vasily Ivanovich from seeing his beloved daughter, Lenusya. The only faithful companion for the grief-stricken man is his deformed but incredibly intelligent dog, Vidok. Gusev turns to his superior, Vice Director of the Police Department Konstantin Voronin, for covert assistance. Voronin assigns him the cunning and ambitious Captain Knopf from the Security Department.

False versions and the first victims

Police and private detectives are pursuing several theories. The first concerns revolutionaries. They suspect engineer Milovidov, to whom Khvoshchova’s late husband bequeathed his millions. The widow, through protracted legal proceedings, deprived the party of these funds, and now the Bolsheviks may have resorted to kidnapping. Knopf immediately organizes close surveillance of Milovidov.

The second theory concerns the kidnapped child’s health. Dasha has a rare blood disorder, thrombophilia, and requires weekly injections of a special drug prepared by the brilliant but completely unfeeling hematologist Osip Mengden. The doctor coldly declares that if the girl misses an injection, she will inevitably die from thrombosis. The kidnapping itself took place right in the hospital park, while Dasha was walking with her English nanny. The perpetrators chloroformed the nurse and took the child away. Marie notices that the criminals thoughtfully took Dasha’s stuffed bunny and piglet, leading her to conclude that they had no intention of killing the girl.

Meanwhile, Gusev accompanies Khvoshchova to her factories, suspecting that the kidnappers are after not money but a large-scale strike. The widow brilliantly manipulates the workers at the cigarette factory, breaking their unity with petty concessions. At the match factory, she uses a puppet workers’ committee and a squad of brutal security guards to suppress a brewing rebellion by force. Gusev confronts the consumptive Milovidov directly, but discovers that the engineer disdains blackmail with children and is planning a routine armed bank robbery.

That night, Marie, Gusev, and Betty track Milovidov to the port, where he secretly meets with a Caucasian militant. A bloody shootout ensues in a dark warehouse. Vidocq, the dog, heroically lunges at the armed bandit and is killed. The Caucasian militant opens fire at the sound, severely wounding Betty in the spine. Marie Larr calmly eliminates both criminals, saving Gusev. The young acrobat is left completely paralyzed, and Marie, fulfilling her promise to her friend, secretly helps her commit suicide right there in the hospital room.

The next suspect is the flamboyant millionaire Zibo Bobkov. He fiercely competes with Khvoshchova in the art collecting business and has threatened to take revenge on her for luring away the artist. Mari and Gusev secretly enter his decadent mansion during a masquerade of the dead. After breaking down a secret door, they discover a room with voodoo dolls and an altar to the goddess Kali, but discover that Bobkov is merely gloating over his rival’s misfortune, receiving information from a spy among Khvoshchova’s servants, and has not kidnapped the child.

Soon, suspicion falls on the kidnapped woman’s grandmother, Agrafena Kukuhina, a religious fanatic who, long before the crime, had been begging Dr. Mengden for ampoules of medicine. Gusev, Marie, and a detachment of factory guards storm her country house, where they accidentally encounter the elder Grigory Rasputin. The investigators realize the old woman is innocent; she has no child, and is merely fervently praying for her granddaughter before a special lectern on the advice of the Tsar’s favorite.

Solution and salvation

Left with no leads, the heroes decide to examine the only physical evidence — microscopic traces of ointment on a patent leather shoe dropped by the thief. Marie conducts a chemical analysis in the police lab and identifies the composition of a rare dermatitis medication. Gusev methodically visits St. Petersburg pharmacies and finds the pharmacist on Malaya Okhta who manufactured the drug.

Detectives locate a house with an apple orchard, home to a young drug-addicted couple named the Petrovs. They secretly watch through the window as a woman, her face covered in a rash, puts Dasha to bed, singing lullabies, before returning to her partner to inject morphine. An attempt to arrest her ensues, leading to a brutal, deadly struggle. The enraged woman attempts to stab Gusev with a kitchen knife and then sinks her teeth into his throat. The detective is forced to shoot her. Petrov, awakened from his daze, nearly kills Marie, but Gusev shields her with his body and is shot glancingly in the head. Marie instantly kills her attacker with a stiletto hidden in her sleeve. Dasha is rescued and returned to her mother.

The mastermind behind this monstrous crime turns out to be Dr. Osip Mengden. A prescription with his signature found in the home of drug addicts ruins all of the villain’s plans. While attempting to flee abroad, the doctor falls into Gusev’s hands and, during interrogation, reveals a stunning truth. It turns out that Mengden has invented a unique balm that heals the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexei, from hemorrhaging. The secret component of the drug is bone marrow extracted from children with thrombophilia. To obtain the material, Mengden killed the young donors alive. Dasha Khvoshchova was the last known source of biological material. The doctor kidnapped her and hid her with the morphine-addicted Petrovs, intending to use her at the right moment while maintaining his unfettered influence over the royal family through Rasputin.

Realizing that publicizing this diabolical secret would destroy the monarchy’s reputation and provoke a political catastrophe, Vice Director Voronin makes the radical decision to conceal the facts. Mengden is secretly sent under escort to Austria-Hungary, Marie Larr is urgently deported to her homeland, and Voronin forcibly dismisses Gusev himself, blackmailing him with an old bribe receipt to guarantee his complete silence. All the criminologist’s hopes of reforming the police are dashed by political games in the State Duma and the interference of high-ranking officials.

The final steps

Four years later, early in the morning of September 1918, Gusev is in the dungeons of the Petrograd Cheka. The former detective, along with other hostages, including Konstantin Voronin, awaits execution as part of the Red Terror. Voronin confesses that his own father shot himself in 1906 with the same weapon used by Marie Larr, leading Gusev to believe that the American woman had come to avenge the deaths of her parents.

Descending into the execution cellar and counting the last fifteen steps of his life, Gusev regrets nothing. He reflects on how the state and his career proved to be mere chimeras. In his final seconds, the criminologist recalls Marie Larr’s kiss and takes solace in the thought that he sacrificed his future for good, so that the little girl could live at least a little longer.