To the Sound of Coincidences, Intelligence Debases

Forty minutes had passed since Katherine entered the room. It was her first time carrying out the interrogation after she came into the Police Investigation Department. Lord Dominik observed through the glass. Katherine felt she was being thoroughly analyzed. 

- You are not completely unrelated to the case, Mister Williams. You have repeatedly attended several events in the city, with the randomness of having coincided in every one of them with one or more Miss Anastasia’s regular guests.

Mister Williams reflected an elegant appearance: he was wearing a gray linen suit, a tie with diamonds in a darker tone and glasses which make him look like a professor. He expressed a relaxed and entertained sensation.

– If you based your investigation on coincidences you would disappoint me, inspector. In life, what occurs the most are coincidences, and we insist on giving meaning to them, a reason as a cause and a deliberative conscience, often with the “coincidence” of fitting perfectly our desire or what we are trying to give a logical sense to.

The inspector Katherine was exhausted, she had spent the entire night working. The attorney Brown had insisted on the early resolution of the case due to the close relationship the victim had with several influential persons within the Ministry, among them the Secretary of State.

– I don’t need you to delight me with such digressions,  as reasonable as they can be, they are out of context. In an investigation process,  it is often needed to start studying what a priori are coincidences with the shape of the puzzle pieces we are trying to solve, therefore you explore the possibility of those pieces fitting, building bigger pieces each time until you form the entire puzzle, or at least a great part of it.

– So that puzzle you formed happens to portray me, on the contrary I wouldn’t be here but in a Benedetti concert in Farnese di Parma Theater, in Italy. – He said, with a pretentious expression. 

– Indeed, Mister Williams. Don’t believe I don’t have another place to be right now, same as you, yet I must take your testimony and you must remain in the city until you are no longer a suspect.

– Under those circumstances, you may proceed with the questions, I will delightly answer them. As I already told you, I don’t require layer services, I am certain you won’t find anything that incriminates me.

– Begin with telling me where you were on the 6th of November from five to seven in the afternoon.

– That day I was at Miss Anastasia’s dance. I left the place around nine, when the house was already replete of agents and the majority of guests had already left. 

– I know that you were absent from the dance room during the period of the crime. Could you tell me where were you?

– I went outside to get some fresh air. I didn’t take a carriage nor went further than a couple of streets. Although, for the pleasure of discussing, let’s say I went to Anastasia’s room, why would I kill her? I didn’t even know her.

–  So there was no relationship with the victim but common guests to events you have attended. As far as I know, there isn’t a relationship with those guests either, according to my research, the only reason you have been able to attend the events was duke Nothurberlam’s son, whom you met less than a year ago.

– In that case, it seems to me you don’t have an investigation, but several coincidences necessarily put against me.

– In every one of those events, guests I have spoken to said that in the brief conversation they had with you, most of the time you asked questions about Miss Anastasia and her relatives. Apart from that, you focused on walking around the house admiring the paintings on the walls and in the dance room you stayed surrounded alongside the piano.

– The search for something that evokes excitement and interest has been in vain with those social events, where you can choke on shallow conversations, in which people say just the opposite of what they actually think, and they rarely please each other. I don’t reject having a conversation with another guest, if I keep on attending those events is, in fact, because I hope meeting someone who I can have an interesting conversation with.

Arthur Williams no longer seemed entertained, instead, he started to have a more serious look.

– Had you been in Miss Anastasia’s room previously?

– I haven’t, I already told you I didn’t know her.

– You never talked to her?

– No.

Williams started to be uneasy. The gentleness he had at the beginning was disappearing. 

– We have found a pen at the crime scene. It happens to be one of the gifts offered in the new Music Conservatory’s opening ceremony in York Gate,  which you attended last week.

– There were many attendees, it was a very expected project for many people who are affine to the artistic world.

– For sure. We have investigated every attendee, resulting in the coincidence that none of them had any relationship with Miss Anastasia, except you. How do you think she got that pencil?

For the first time Mister Williams remained quiet.

– Someone from that dance murdered Anastasia. They watched her while she went to her bedroom and at the moment she sat on her dressing table they approached from behind,  expecting her to see them through the mirror, indirectly, to see how her attacker got closer and realized the vulnerability of her situation, to then nail her a paper knife on the back of the head, although they had the poor taste of playing one of the most soporific pieces of Schubert, the keys on the piano were stained with blood.

– You have no idea what you are talking about! That is a brilliant sonata which only the most vulgar could despise!

Katherine looked implacable to his eyes for a few seconds that seemed minutes for him.

– I haven’t told you which piece it was, Mister Williams. It is a coincidence that you guessed, isn’t it? – Katherine said while she stood up and picked up the papers from the table in the interview room.