Fixer, The - Bernard Malamud [37]
Grubeshov drummed with his fingertips.
Yakov quickly sat down. Bibikov glanced at the colonel in embarrassment. To the fixer he said firmly, “You will please control yourself, this is a legal investigation. I shall continue to read: ‘Investigating Magistrate: Are you charging sexual assault?’
“‘Z. N. Lebedev: I’m sure he intended to assault me. By this time I had begun to suspect he might be a Jew but when I saw for certain I screamed loudly.’
“‘Investigating Magistrate: Explain what you mean that you saw “for certain.” ‘
“‘Z. N. Lebedev: He—I saw he was cut in the manner of Jewish males. I could not help seeing.’
“‘Investigating Magistrate: Go on, Zinaida Nikolaevna, after you have calmed yourself. You may be embarrassed but it is best to speak the truth.’
“‘Z. N. Lebedev: He realized I would not tolerate his advances and left the room. That was the last I saw of him, and I thank God.’
“‘Investigating Magistrate: Then there was no assault in the true sense of the word, if you will pardon me? He did not touch you or attempt to?’
“‘Z. N. Lebedev: You may say that but the fact remains he undressed himself and his intentions were to have relations with a Russian woman. That’s what he hoped for, or he wouldn’t have undressed and appeared naked. I’m sure you wouldn’t approve of that, your honor.’
“‘Investigating Magistrate: There is no approval expressed or implied either of his conduct or yours, Zinaida Nikolaevna. Did you afterwards inform your father, Nikolai Maximovitch, of this incident?’
“‘Z. N. Lebedev: My father is not well and hasn’t been in good health or spirits since the death of my poor mother. And his only brother died a year ago of a lingering illness, so I didn’t wish to upset him further. He would have wanted to horsewhip the Jew.’ “
“It is noted that at this point the witness wept copiously.”
Bibikov laid down the paper.
“Will you say now,” he asked Yakov, “whether you attempted to force yourself upon Zinaida Nikolaevna?”
Ivan Semyonovitch filled the magistrate’s water glass from a porcelain pitcher on the table.
“Absolutely not, your honor,” Yakov said hastily. “We ate together twice on her invitation while I was working in the upstairs flat, and the last night—the night I finished painting—she afterwards invited me to her bedroom. Maybe I shouldn’t have gone—that’s obvious now—but it’s not such a hard thing to do when you consider a man’s nature. Anyway, I had doubts and the minute I saw she was unclean, if you’ll excuse me for saying so, your honor, I left. That’s the honest truth and I could try from now to the Day of Judgment and not make it truer.”
“What do you mean ‘unclean’?”
The fixer was distraught. “I’m sorry to mention such things but if a man is in trouble he has to explain himself. The truth of it is she was having her monthlies.”
He lifted his manacled hands to wipe his face.
“Any Jew who approaches a Russian woman ought to be strung up,” said Colonel Bodyansky.
“Did she state such was her condition?” Grubeshov spoke with a slight thickness of speech.
“I saw the blood, your honor, if you’ll excuse me, while she was washing herself with a cloth.”
“You saw the blood?” the Prosecuting Attorney said sarcastically. “Did that have some religious meaning to you as a Jew? Do you know that in the Middle Ages Jewish men were said to menstruate?”
Yakov looked at him in surprise and fright.
“I don’t know anything about that, your honor, although I don’t see how it could be. But getting back to Zinaida Nikolaevna Lebedev, what her condition meant to me was that it wouldn’t do either of us any good, and I was a fool to agree to go to her room in the first place. I should have gone home the minute I finished my work and not be tempted by a table full of all kinds of food.”
“Relate what happened in the bedroom,” Bibikov said. “And please confine yourself to the question at hand.”
“Nothing happened, your honor, I swear it with my whole heart. It’s as I said before—and also the young lady in the paper you just read—I got dressed as quickly as I could and left. I assure