The Cleansing Flames (38 page)

He crossed the Fontanka by the Semyenovsky Bridge, and it was as if he was walking over the memory of that day. He felt a renewal of the anger he had once entertained against his father, but almost as soon as it had come upon him, he was newly aware of the same unseen presence dogging his steps that he had experienced the day before. But, unlike then, he now had the unmistakable sense that the presence was benign. Whatever it was, he was no longer afraid of it.

Forgive him!
The words arrived in his consciousness as an urgent plea. At the same moment, Virginsky realised that if he forgave his father he too would be forgiven.

He would go straight home, as Dr Pervoyedov had advised. In his mind, he began to draft the letter he would write to his father as soon as he had reached his lodgings.

My greatest debt is to Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. Porfiry Petrovich is his character, of course, not mine. If this book encourages even one reader to turn to Dostoevsky’s great novel
Crime and Punishment
for a brush with the original Porfiry, then perhaps I will be forgiven for my shameless purloining.

I’d like to thank Rachel Yarham, Daniela de Gregorio and Mike Jacob for intervening at a crucial moment and preventing me from doing something stupid. Thanks also to Liz Yarham for giving me my first corpse.

Born in Manchester in 1960, R. N. Morris now lives in North London with his wife and two children.
The Cleansing Flames
follows
A Razor Wrapped in Silk
,
A Vengeful Longing
and
A Gentle Axe
in a series of St Petersburg novels featuring Porfiry Petrovich, the character created by Fyodor Dostoevsky in
Crime and Punishment
.
Taking Comfort
was published by Macmillan under the name Roger Morris in 2006. He has written the libretto for Ed Hughes’s opera
Cocteau in the Underworld
and his novella
The Exsanguinist
was published in 2010 by Didier.

by the same author

A GENTLE AXE
A VENGEFUL LONGING
A RAZOR WRAPPED IN SILK