The Brothers Karamazov: Part 3: Book 9, Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

The district police commissioner, Mikhail Makarovich Makarov, is “a retired lieutenant colonel, a redesignated state councilor…a widower and a good man.” He arrived in town and got his position three years ago. He lives with his widowed daughter who has two grown-up girls. Mikhail Makarovich isn’t a bright man and is rather uneducated, but he’s competent in his job.

Pyotr Ilyich is sure that there will be others at the police commissioner’s that evening. Varvinsky, the district doctor, and Ippolit Kirillovich, the deputy prosecutor that everyone calls the prosecutor. The young district attorney, Nikolai Parfenovich Nelyudov, is in the next room. It is by a coincidence that they all end up at the police commissioner’s at the same time and on the same night of Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov’s murder.

When Pyotr Ilyich enters the police commissioner’s house, he learns that Fyodor Pavlovich really was murdered and robbed at his home. Marfa Ignatievna woke up and rushed to Smerdyakov, who was “struggling and gasping horribly.” When she called Grigory, she realized that he wasn’t in bed. She went out to the porch, called him, and got no answer, but heard some groans from the garden. The sounds reminded her of Stinking Lizaveta’s visit to the garden years before. Marfa saw that the garden gate was open. Suddenly, Grigory called out to her in a weak voice. She found her husband some distance away from the fence, covered in blood.

Grigory muttered incoherently to Marfa Ignatievna. She began to scream and saw that Fyodor Pavlovich’s window was open. She called out to Fyodor. She then looked through the window and saw Fyodor lying on his back, not moving. His white shirt was soaked with blood. Marfa rushed away, horrified, and went to Maria Kondratievna’s. Maria recalled that she had heard a “piercing cry” from the Karamazov garden before nine o’clock. What she heard was Grigory crying out. Foma, a wanderer, was staying with Maria and went with her to help the women carry Grigory to the cottage. Maria then gave the alarm to everyone at the commissioner’s house, five minutes before Pyotr Ilyich’s arrival.

The assistant police chief rounds up four witnesses. They then go to Fyodor’s house and conduct an investigation. They search near the fence and find the brass pestle on the garden path. Nothing is disorderly in Fyodor’s room, but they find a big envelope on the floor. On it is inscribed a message to Grushenka, notifying her that the envelope contains a “little treat of three thousand roubles.” They also find the pink ribbon with which the envelope was tied.

Pyotr Ilyich remembers that Dmitri threatened suicide and would probably kill himself before dawn. They need to hurry to Mokroye. The group is detained, however, by the investigation, so the deputy commissioner Mavriky Mavrikievich Shmertsov will go to Mokroye, “without raising any alarm,” and keep watch on the criminal until the proper authorities arrive. Only Trifon Borisich is alerted to the secret after the deputy’s arrival. This explains the sudden change in the innkeeper’s attitude toward Dmitri when they meet on the veranda.

The remaining authorities arrive after four o’clock in the morning. Varvinsky stays behind at Fyodor’s home, with the object of doing an autopsy. However, he becomes more interested in Smerdyakov’s condition, noting how strange it is for “severe and protracted fits” to recur “uninterruptedly over two days.” He believes he’s discovered a rare find. The doctor adds that Smerdyakov won’t live till morning.