Chapter 14 Part 1 - Eleven

When the indictment had been read, the presiding judge consulted with the two judges, then turned to Karzinkin, with an expression on his face that said: Now we will get to the bottom of the whole case. "Peasant Simon Karzinkin," he began, leaning to the left. Simon Karzinkin stood up, put his hands on the seams of his trousers, and rushed forward with his whole body, his cheeks twitching silently. "You are accused of stealing cash from the suitcase of the businessman Smerikov with Yefemia Bochkova and Yekaterina Maslova on January 17, 188, and taking arsenic, instigated Ekaterina Maslova to drink the wine for the merchant Smelkov, and Smelkov was poisoned to death. Do you admit that you have committed a crime?" He turned his body on his side after speaking to the right.

"It's absolutely not the case, because our job is to serve customers..." "You save that for another time. Do you admit your guilt?" "Absolutely not, sir. I just..." "I'll talk about it later. Do you admit to having committed a crime?" asked the President again calmly and firmly. "I wouldn't do this kind of thing because..." The marshal rushed to Simon Karzinkin again and restrained him in a low, pitiful voice. With an air that his interrogation was over, the president moved the elbow of the hand holding the papers, and turned to Efemia Bochkova.

"Efimia Bochkova, you are accused of colluding with Simon Karzinkin and Ekaterina Maslova at the Moor Hotel on January 17, 188x, from the merchant Smerikov Steal his cash and a ring from his suitcase, share the spoils among the three, and in order to cover up your crime, let the businessman Smerikov drink poisoned wine, causing him to die. Do you admit that you have committed a crime?" "I'm not guilty of anything," said the accused woman with airy determination. "I haven't even been in that room...Since that bitch has been in, it's her fault." "You can talk about that later," said the president, again softly and forcefully. "Then you don't admit that you have committed a crime?"

"I didn't take the money, I didn't drink the wine, I didn't even set foot in the door. Had I been there, I would have kicked her out." "Don't you admit that you have committed a crime?" "Never." "very good." "Ekaterina Maslova," said the president, turning to the third accused, "you are charged with taking the key to the suitcase of the merchant Smerikov from the brothel to the Moore's Hotel, and stealing the money and money in the suitcase. One ring," he said deftly as if reciting a letter, and at the same time put his ear close to the judge on the left, and the judge told him that there was still a wine bottle missing after checking the list of physical evidence. "Take cash and a ring from the box," repeated the judge, "you divide the spoils, and then you return to the Moore Hotel with the merchant Smelkoff, and you give Smerikov poisoned wine, and thus killed him. Do you admit your guilt?"

"I'm not guilty of anything," she said hastily. "I said it before, and I say it now: I didn't take it, I didn't take it, I didn't take it, I didn't take anything, and the ring was his own." for me..." "You don't plead guilty to the theft of two thousand and five hundred rubles in cash?" asked the president. "As I said, I took nothing but forty rubles." "Then you are guilty of giving the merchant Smerikov poisoned wine, do you admit it?" "I admit it. But I was told it was sleeping pills, and it didn't matter if I took it, so I believed it. I didn't think he would die, and I didn't mean to kill him. I can swear to God, I didn't The idea," she said.

"So you do not plead guilty to the theft of cash and rings from the merchant Smelkoff," said the president. "But you admit to giving him poisoned wine, don't you?" "It's an admission, but I thought it was a sleeping pill. I gave it to him to put him to sleep. I didn't mean to kill him, I didn't." "Very well," said the President, apparently satisfied with the results achieved. "Then tell me what happened," he said, leaning back in his chair and putting his hands on the table. "Tell me the whole story from beginning to end. If you confess honestly, you can get a lenient sentence."

Maslova kept her eyes on the president, and said nothing. "Tell me what happened." "What happened?" said Maslova suddenly and quickly. "I took the carriage to the hotel, and they took me to his room, and he was very drunk." She said the word him with a look of terrified terror on her face, and her eyes were wide open. "I want to leave, but he won't let me go." She stopped, as if her train of thought had suddenly stopped, or she had thought of something else. "So, what happened next?" "What else was there after that? After staying there for a while, I went home."

At this moment, the deputy public prosecutor leaned on one elbow in a strange manner, and stood up. "Do you want to ask questions?" asked the President, and when the Deputy Prosecutor answered in the affirmative, he gestured to give him the right to ask questions. "I would like to ask a question: did the accused know Simon Karzinkin before?" said the deputy prosecutor, not looking at Maslova. When he asked a question, he pursed his lips and frowned. The President repeated the question.Maslova stared at the deputy prosecutor in horror. "Simon? From before," she said.

"Now I want to know how the defendant's friendship with Karzinkin is. Do they see each other often?" "How is the friendship? He often asks me to meet people, and there is no such thing as friendship," answered Maslova, looking anxiously at the deputy public prosecutor, then at the president, and then at the deputy public prosecutor. "I wonder why Karzinkin always picks up Maslova and no other girls," said the deputy prosecutor, narrowing his eyes and smiling suspiciously. "I don't know. Show me how?" replied Maslova, looking around timidly, her eyes resting on Nekhludoff for a moment. "He can find whoever he wants."

"Did she recognize it?" Nekhludoff thought frightenedly, feeling the blood rushing to his face.In fact Maslova did not recognize him, she turned away at once and gazed at the deputy prosecutor again with terror. "So the defendant denies that she had any intimacy with Karzinkin, does she? Very well. I have nothing further to ask." The deputy prosecutor immediately took his elbows off the desk and began to take notes.In fact, he didn't write anything down, just randomly traced the first letter in the notebook with a pen.He has often seen prosecutors and lawyers do this: when they ask a clever question, they mark the place where it can kill the opponent.

The President did not address the accused at once, for he was asking the spectacled judge whether he agreed or disagreed with the questions he had prepared and laid out on the paper. "And what happened next?" the president asked Maslova again. "When I got home," continued Maslova, looking more boldly at the judge alone, "I handed over the money to the foreman, and went to bed. Just as soon as I fell asleep, our sister Berta took the I woke up. She said: 'Come on, your businessman is here again.' I didn't want to go, but the master insisted on me. He was right next to him." When she said his word, she obviously realized again He showed a look of fear, "He has been filling wine for our sisters, and later he wanted to buy wine, but he ran out of money. The headman didn't trust him and refused to credit him. He sent me to the hotel. He Tell me where the money is and how much to withdraw. I will go." The President, who was talking in a low voice with the judge on the left, did not hear what Maslova was saying, but in order to pretend that he heard it all, he repeated her last sentence. "You just took a ride. So what happened?" he said. "When I got there, I did what he said and went into his room. I didn't go in alone. I asked Simon Mikhailovich to go in with me, and she," she said, pointing Bauchkova. "She's talking nonsense, I never went in at all..." Bauchkova was stopped when she started. "I took four red notes in their presence," Maslova went on, frowning, without looking at Bauchkova. -------- ① Ten-ruble banknotes. "Then, when the defendant took out the forty rubles, did he notice how much money was in it?" asked the deputy prosecutor again. As soon as the deputy prosecutor asked her questions, Maslova shuddered all over.She didn't know why, but she felt that he had bad intentions for her. "I didn't count them, I just saw that they were all in hundred-rouble notes." "The defendant saw the hundred-rouble note, so I have nothing more to ask." "So you took the money later?" asked the presiding judge, looking at his watch. "It's brought." "And what happened next?" asked the President. "Then he took me away again," Maslova said. "Then how did you put the powder in the wine for him to drink?" asked the presiding judge. "How? I sprinkled the powder into the wine and gave it to him to drink." "Why did you give him a drink?" She didn't answer, just sighed helplessly. "He never let me go," she said after a silence. "I was exhausted by him. I went into the corridor and said to Simon Mihajlovic: 'I wish he would let me go. I'm exhausted.'" Simon Mihajlovic said: 'He's killing us too. Let's put him on some sleeping pills, and as soon as he's asleep you can get out.' I said, 'Okay.' I thought it wasn't poison. He gave me A small paper packet. I entered the room and he was lying behind a partition and asked me to pour him brandy as soon as he saw me. I picked up a bottle of fine brandy on the table and poured two glasses, one for myself and one for me. He drank it. I sprinkled the powder in his cup and gave it to him. If I knew it was poison, would I give it to him?" "Then how did that ring come into your hands?" asked the President. "The ring, he gave it to me himself." "When did he give it to you?" "As soon as I got back to the hotel with him, I wanted to leave. He beat me on the head and broke the comb. I was angry and wanted to leave. He took off the ring on his hand and gave it to me, telling me not to leave. said Maslova. At this moment the deputy public prosecutor stood up again, and still pretending to ask the president to allow him to ask a few more questions.Having obtained permission, he tilted his head on his embroidered collar and asked: "I would like to know how long the defendant spent in the room of the merchant Smelkoff." Maslova again looked bewildered, looked anxiously from the deputy public prosecutor's face to the judge's, and said hastily: "I don't remember how long I stayed." "Then, does the accused remember whether she went anywhere else in the hotel after she left the merchant Smelkoff's room?" Maslova thought about it. "Went in an empty room next door," she said. "What are you doing there?" the deputy public prosecutor got carried away and asked her the question directly. ① -------- ① Prosecutors can ask questions only through the president of the court.The accused cannot be interrogated directly. "I'm going to straighten my clothes and wait for the carriage to come." "Then, was Karzinkin in the room with the accused?" "He went too." "What is he going to do?" "The merchant had a little brandy left, and we drank it together." "Oh, have a drink together. Very good." "Then, did the defendant speak to Simon? What did he say?" Suddenly Maslova frowned, blushed, and said hastily: "What was said? I didn't say anything. I've told you what happened. I don't know anything else. Do what you want with me. I'm not guilty, that's all." "I have nothing else to say," the deputy public prosecutor said to the president, shrugging his shoulders pretentiously, and began to jot down the defendant's confession on his outline: She had been in the empty room with Simon. There was a moment of silence in the courtroom. "Have you nothing else to say?" "I've said it all," sighed Maslova, sitting down. Then the president wrote something down on a piece of paper, and after hearing what the judge on the left whispered in his ear, he announced a ten-minute pause in the trial, stood up hastily, and walked out of Faqu.What the president was talking to the tall, bearded judge on the left with the big kind eyes was this: the judge felt a little sick to his stomach and wanted to massage himself and take some medicine.He informed the presiding judge of this, and the presiding judge declared the trial adjourned. Jurors, lawyers, and witnesses stood up one after another along with the judge. Everyone was happy to feel that a part of the trial of an important case had been completed, and they began to walk around. Nekhludoff went into the jury room and sat down by the window.