Page 48 of The Affair of the Mysterious Letter
“I don’t believe I mentioned the deceased gentleman’s name.”
“I read it on a letter in his room.”
“The room you illegally entered?”
“It was only ever my intent to call upon the Contessa socially to discuss a matter of mutual interest.”
“And finding her not at home you decided, what?” His stern mouth softened very slightly, as though he were trying to repress a smile. “To sneak in the kitchen window?”
“Ah, no. The front door was open, which we took as invitation.”
“Very reasonable, if true. And on accessing the property through the open front door, what happened then?”
I blushed. “Um, as it happens, I did not personally enter through the front door. My companion went in alone, and I sought an alternate means of ingress through the catacombs beneath the chapel.”
“You went,” repeated the Second Augur, his voice as flat as I had ever heard it, “in through the catacombs beneath the chapel?”
“Yes.”
The Second Augur reached out and turned off the recording. “Mr. Wyndham, we’ve had this conversation before. You are not helping your defence.”
“I don’t understand how being honest can fail to help my defence.”
“Because,” he said, through gritted teeth, “you are making yourself look guilty.”
“Well, I did shoot the dog, and I did enter the house through the catacombs.”
“Did it at no point occur to you tonotdo either of those things?”
“With respect, not shooting the dog would have resulted in my death.”
He stood up, giving me ample opportunity to appreciate his stature. “Well, if you hadn’t been breaking into a vampire’s house in the first place, your life wouldn’t have been in danger.”
“The vampire in question is a suspect in one of Ms. Haas’s ongoing investigations.”
At this, Second Augur Lawson made several comments that I did not feel were appropriate for an Augur on duty. “Did I not tell you that if you carried on associating with the sorceress Shaharazad Haas, this sort of thing would keep happening? Admittedly, I didn’t think they would keep happening quite this quickly. But here we are.”
“I’m still not certain that my associations are any business of yours.”
He gave me a look that seemed equal parts exasperation and understanding. “They are when they make you break the law.”
“And,” I told him rather sharply, “I am perfectly willing to face the consequences of any lawbreaking I might have done. Now will you please turn your cylinder back on so that I can explain the circumstances in which I was arrested. And, afterwards, you may decide for yourself whether the public good is best served by continuing to detain me.”
He began pacing the confines of the interview room. “I didn’t become an Augur to lock up good people who are too pigheaded to either keep out of trouble or get out of trouble.”
I was oddly touched at his implied categorisation of me as a good person. And, I confess, I had always secretly wanted to be pigheaded. “That is very commendable, Second Augur Lawson.”
After a moment or two, he took his seat again and turned therecording back on. “Please continue, Mr. Wyndham. What happened after you entered the catacombs?”
“Well, before I entered the catacombs I shot the dog.”
The Second Augur covered his face with his hands.
“In, I should stress, self-defence.”
“Some might say the dog was only defending its mistress’s property from intruders.”
“Yes, but as it transpired, its mistress’s property was a murder scene.”
