The Geographer's Library

The Geographer’ s Library
the company of a violent rogue policeman. And I would guess any interested
party would find that person’s fingerprints—your fingerprints—quite easily
in the house, could they not?” My face stayed blank. “And you, working ever
so diligently—unusually diligently, one might say—on an obituary in an
obscure newspaper? And you, having been seen with Miss Rowe, entering
and exiting her apartment, spending an inordinate amount of time together
for two people who, after all, only met so recently? Do you see? I am a foreign
national traveling on a forged passport: the only way I will ever be found is if
you decide to use that gun. Say Jaan had willed his estate to Miss Rowe—and
say his estate was far grander than it appeared—you can imagine the sordidness
of what might emerge.”
“Did he really leave everything to Hannah?”
He sighed exasperatedly. “Did he, didn’t he? Should you choose to publicize
this story, that certainly is what he did. So you see, you really would have
been better off had you just acceded to the request she made of you. To let
the matter rest. You should have done it then, but you’ll do it now,” he said
confidently. “The only difference is the burden it places on your shoulders,
all these distressing events that don’t concern you.”
“But the police already know,” I said pathetically. “The man who brought
me tonight—”
“Detective Jadid, you mean? Detective Jadid was photographed breaking
into a man’s home two hours outside of his jurisdiction,” Tonu said, pulling
a tiny camera from his inside pocket. “The film has already been sent to Mr.
Sickle, the late complainant’s attorney. Detective Jadid was also photographed
exiting a bar in Clougham, gun drawn; the bar’s owner has also, shall we say,
disappeared. By a strange coincidence, shortly before the bar owner’s disappearance,
he, too, had occasion to visit Mr. Sickle for a bit of advice. These
photographs will be on Commissioner Pereira’s desk in a matter of hours, in
fact, if not already.” He drew the curtain to let the morning air into the room.
It was sunny and clear, and the light washed into the room like water into
a wound.
“I know as well as you that Joseph Jadid is a good policeman and that he
likes his work. I also know he has a fiery temper and an unfailing instinct for
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