Dialogues of the Dead

SERGIUS: Oh yes. That was quite amusing really. She had to mark you to get the sense of steel engraving across. But the police experts interpreted it as an attempt to inscribe RIP, in Cyrillic script. They were right about the script-a macabre little joke on my sister’s part-but in fact all she was writing was her initials, R.P., as an artist might inscribe a work of art. This was part of her desire for confirmation of my protection, for assurance of her invulnerability. Tell the world it was her; even as in your case, my lord, lead the police to the body. It didn’t matter what she did, she felt she couldn’t be caught, no matter what clues she left.

SAM: And that makes it all right, does it? So what clues did the cow leave after she did for me?

SERGIUS: Well, she left the book open at that poem about the loved, long lost boy. That was me, of course. And then there was the chocolate bar …

SAM: What chocolate bar, for God’s sake?

SERGIUS: The Yorkie bar. Yorkies have the letters of its name printed on them, one on each segment. She broke it up and rearranged it on the mantel shelf above the fire. If anyone had found your body before the chocolate melted, they’d have read her message.

SAM: Message? What message? Some reference to The Chocolate Soldier? Very subtle!