The Cleansing Flames by R. N. Morris

citizens present.’
    ‘You cannot make me go back in there and look at that thing. It is too much to ask of a respectable citizen.’
    ‘The other witness is inside, I take it?’
    ‘The other witness took himself off entirely.’
    ‘That is indeed unfortunate. We do need two witnesses.’
    ‘I can hardly say I blame him.’
    ‘Is it really so bad?’
    The elderly gentleman’s expression became sheepish. ‘I’m afraid there was an unfortunate accident.’
    ‘An accident?’
    ‘At the sight of that thing . . . the smell of it . . . I was not able to hold on to my breakfast. I blame that doctor of yours.’ The elderly gentleman shook his head disapprovingly. He produced a silver flask from his breast pocket and took a quick swig, releasing vodka fumes to the morning. ‘I will be here if you need me. But I will not set foot in there again.’
    Perversely, the witness’s words only quickened Porfiry’s eagerness to be inside.
    As soon as he and Virginsky stepped through the entrance, they were met by the same swampy smell he had noticed by the Winter Canal. The light and air that flooded in with them seemed cowed by it, and hung back.
    They found Dr Pervoyedov chatting blithely to his assistant – or diener , to use the accepted German term – next to a trestle table bearing the body to be examined. The cadaver’s strange, waxwork-like face was uncovered.
    Both Dr Pervoyedov and his assistant were dressed in long leather aprons, darkly stained. The diener was one of the orderlies from the Obukhovsky Men’s Hospital, whom Pervoyedov had picked out on account of his aptitude for the peculiar work of the pathology laboratory. He had proven himself to have a strong stomach, in other words; one that held on to its own contents even when he was required to empty out the contents of others. That he was also a humourless and taciturn individual, as adept at retaining his thoughts as his recent meals, was perhaps understandable: Dr Pervoyedov accepted that here were two sides of the same coin. But he would have found almost any other temperament more amenable and certainly regretted the man’s habit of assuming a doglike snarl whenever he set to work dismembering a cadaver.
    ‘Ah, there you are, Porfiry Petrovich, there you are. And good day to you too, Pavel Pavlovich. At last, you are here. We may begin now, I presume?’
    ‘One moment, doctor. There has been some difficulty with the official witnesses?’
    Dr Pervoyedov winked slyly towards his unresponsive diener . ‘Difficulty, you say? I can’t imagine what you mean by that.’
    ‘One has absented himself and the other refuses to fulfil his civic duty.’
    ‘No matter, no matter. We don’t need them. I always rather feel that the official witnesses are somewhat superfluous on these occasions, don’t you? They haven’t a clue when it comes to forensic medicine. If you ask them to perform the simplest task, they either keel over or vomit.’
    ‘What did you ask them to do?’ Porfiry’s voice was heavy with suspicion. He had worked with Dr Pervoyedov for many years now. He knew the doctor well and liked him, although he did not always trust him. He was confident that such feelings were thoroughly reciprocated.
    ‘Oh nothing really. I merely thought they might be interested. Just trying to educate them, you know. One is never too old for a little education , now, is one? And besides, how can they be expected to bear witness if they haven’t the least idea what’s going on? It will be meaningless to them. Meaningless!’
    ‘What did you do?’ demanded Porfiry.
    ‘I simply asked them if they wanted to smell some of the adipocere.’
    Porfiry blinked in astonishment. ‘And now we have lost our official witnesses! You are aware that we cannot proceed without them. You may resent the presence of unqualified laymen to supervise you, but the law requires it.’
    ‘ Supervise? I hardly think that is the right word.’ A flash of indignation came into