When Authority Responds to Crisis — The Brothers Karamazov

Mihail Makarovitch Makarov, the police captain, is a retired lieutenant-colonel, a widower, and an excellent man. He came to the town only three years ago, and he has won general esteem chiefly because he knows how to keep society together. He is never without visitors. Someone is always dining with him. He never sits down to table without guests. On the evening of the crime they are gathered at his house, and it happened quite naturally. Ippolit Kirillovitch, the prosecutor, is there because his wife has had toothache for two days and he had to escape her groans. The doctor, from the very nature of his being, cannot spend an evening except at cards. Nikolay Parfenovitch Nelyudov has been intending for three days to drop in, so as to startle the eldest granddaughter, Olga Mihailovna, with the secret of her birthday, which she is trying to conceal so as not to be obliged to give a dance. The ladies call him the naughty man, and he is delighted at the name. He is well-bred, of good family, and his sallies are innocent. They are at whist when the night breaks in.

Marya Kondratyevna bursts in from the Karamazov lodge. Marfa Ignatyevna has been woken by Smerdyakov's epileptic scream. Grigory is not by the fence. He is lying some paces off, covered in blood, and he mutters that the master is murdered. Through the lighted window she has seen Fyodor's body. She ran for help by the back way, and the cards are still on the table when the news arrives. The search finds the brass pestle on the garden path, and the torn empty envelope. It was inscribed a present of three thousand roubles for my angel Grushenka, if she is willing to come, and under that, for my little chicken. There were three seals of red sealing-wax, and a pink ribbon lay on the floor. The money was gone.

Pyotr Ilyitch arrives with his own account. Dmitri had the pistols. He spoke of shooting himself at dawn. He grinned that help would come too late. The prosecutor recalls the Olsufyev story, a murderer who curled his hair and carried the stolen money openly. Formalities delay the departure. Schmertsov is sent on ahead in secret, to watch Dmitri through Trifon Borissovitch at Mokroe. The main party follows in the early morning. The doctor stays for the post-mortem, and to study Smerdyakov's fits, The prosecutor and the investigating lawyer remember the doctor saying that Smerdyakov could not outlive the night. They congratulate him on his find.