HS01 - Critique of Criminal Reason Read Free

this case which should not be committed to paper. You will be informed of them in due course .
    ‘Are you ready, sir?’ asked Sergeant Koch, gathering his shoulder-bag and standing up. ‘I am yours to serve in any way which will expedite our departure.’
    I remained seated in mute protest against this driving sense of urgency. The contents of another letter that I had received from Königsberg seven years before echoed in my mind like a taunt. On that occasion, I had been compelled to make a promise which the simple act of accompanying Sergeant Koch to the city would force me to break.
    ‘How long will I be required to stay?’ I asked him, as if it were, above all, a practical question.
    ‘Until the case is solved, Herr Stiffeniis,’ he answered flatly.
    I sat back in my chair, wondering what to do for the best. If it were a matter of passing a few short days in the city, closing a case which Procurator Rhunken had been preventing from completing by ill health, no harm would come of it. If I proved unequal to the task, I would simply be ordered to return to the oblivion from which I had come. But then, I thought with a spurt of mounting ambition, what would be the limits to my future career if I were to succeed?
    ‘I must take leave of my wife,’ I said, jumping to my feet, the choice made.
    Sergeant Koch pulled his cloak more tightly around him. ‘There’s not much time if we’re to reach Königsberg before nightfall, sir,’ he said.
    ‘I need but a few minutes to wish my wife farewell and kiss my little ones,’ I protested on the strength of my new authority. ‘Neither Procurator Rhunken nor the King would deny me that small luxury, I think!’
    Out in the street, a large coach bearing the Imperial coat-of-arms stood waiting in the snow. As I climbed aboard, I could not avoid reflecting on the incongruity of my situation. There I was in a state coach, holding a letter signed by the King imploring me to solve a case that not one of the great magistrates in his service had been able to resolve. It should have been the crowning moment in my short career, the day the dark clouds parted and the sun shone brightly on one of her own, my abilities not only recognised, but usefully employed for the good of the nation. But then the words of that old letter came echoing back once again:
    Do not return. Your presence has done more than enough damage. For his sake show yourself no more in Magisterstrasse!
    The coachman cracked his whip, and the vehicle leapt forward. I took it as a sign of destiny. I should leave the past behind, and look towards a brighter and more prosperous future. What more could I possibly want? It was, when all was said and done, a glorious opportunity for professional advancement.
    Helena must have been sitting at the window as the splendid vehicle pulled up outside the small, draughty house on the edge of the town which was tied to the prebend of Lotingen. As I climbed down, she ran out to meet me with neither hat nor coat, ignoring the biting north wind and the driving snow. She stopped before me, looking uncertainly up into my face.
    ‘What has happened, Hanno?’ she gasped, stepping close and slipping her arm through mine.
    She listened as I told her all that had come to pass, slowly drawing away from me, clasping her hands protectively across her breasts. It was a gesture that I knew only too well when she was disturbed or upset by something I had said or done.
    ‘I thought that you had chosen Lotingen precisely to avoid such things, Hanno,’ she murmured. ‘I truly believed that here you had found what you were seeking.’
    ‘I did, my dear,’ I told her instantly. ‘I mean, of course, I have.’
    ‘I do not understand you, then,’ she replied. She hesitated for a moment, then went on: ‘If you are doing this for your father’s sake, nothing can change what happened, Hanno. Nothing will ever change him .’
    ‘I hoped you would be proud to see me getting on,’ I said, perhaps a