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committed by the same person, and that they are both designed to relay a message, albeit one we have
yet to fully crack.”
“Come now, Rayley, everyone in Russia is theatrical,” Emma said, setting down her cup with a
careless clatter. “You’re right, if this crime took place in London, in a shop or a school or a hospital,
the elaborate staging would be noteworthy. Some great clue to the killer’s mind. But these are
Russians, and dancers, and revolutionaries, and what seems excessively dramatic to us is more or
less the way they all think.”
“So have we come to an impasse?” Trevor said, after a moment of silence. “Yet once again?”
“Not at all,” Tom said. “I find your mention of the Scottish case most apt. It reminds us to
question every assumption. There may be two killers afoot, and not one, and they may be connected
to a joint cause or acting on completely different motivations. The murders may be less connected
that they appear. Yulian may not have been the only member of the Volya to have infiltrated the
palace.”
“I find that last thought the most chilling,” Emma said. “For you’re quite right. If Yulian Krupin
managed to dance his way through these iron gates and into close congress with the imperial family,
there could be others.”
“One other point,” Rayley mused. “Yulian had been part of the imperial ballet corps for nearly
a year. Why was he killed now?”
“Rayley is returning to his training,” Trevor said, nodding toward Tom and Emma. “When the
Yard cannot discover why something has happened, we busy ourselves with the timeline, the ‘when’
of the crimes. For the ‘when’ often leads us to the ‘why.’”
“Perhaps Yulian’s killer only recently discovered his identity,” Tom said.
“I think it’s more likely there’s some sort of ticking clock we aren’t aware of,” Rayley said.
“Some upcoming event which is forcing the killer’s hand.”
“Quite a few events are converging,” Emma said, her voice also slow and speculative. She
seemed to be talking as much as ever and sifting through the discussion perfectly well, at least to
Trevor’s point of view, and he wondered about this misty, distracted manner that both Tom and
Rayley had commented upon. She certainly wasn’t showing it to him.
“There is of course the great ball,” Emma was continuing. “And the customary closing of the
Winter Palace just afterwards, so that the imperial court can retire to the coast. You might also argue