Victoria Litvanoff
A dark-haired woman who appears to be in her early sixties, Mrs
Victoria Litvanoff is in fact only in her forties. She was born
somewhere in Russia in 1893. She claims to be half French but is
actually entirely Russian. Her face is long and heavy-set, with
prominent eyebrows. Her pseudonyms include Madam Ganette, Victoria
Seou, Madam Dafin Desmond and Dauphine Desmonde. She has lived in
Manchuria as well as Japan, and has visited most of the major cities
of China.
Victoria Litvanoff has married four times so far. Her first husband, a
Russian army officer, died on the Eastern Front in the Great War. Her
second, one Baron Toll, was killed during the Russian Revolution. The
third, Captain Koishi Senoo of the Japanese Army, died in the Japanese
earthquake of 1923. she married her fourth husband in Shanghai, in
1924. Nikolas Nikolayevitch Litvanoff is some ten years younger than
his wife. As a boy he attended the Khabarovsk Cadet Corps School in
Russia. He joined the White Army aged sixteen and fought against the
Bolsheviks. He became an assistant tutor to the Russian Cadet Corps in
Vladivostok, before moving to Canton as a member of the Portuguese
River Police. He later set up as an electrical contractor in Shanghai,
which was where he met his wife.
Mrs Litvanoff operates as a clairvoyant in a subdivided office on
Nanking Road, which she shares with a Chinese doctor called Liu Ding.
In order to preserve an aura of mystery, the doctor invites clients to
wait in his surgery when Mrs Litvanoff changes from her ordinary
street wear.
Once inside Litvanoff's cubicle, the client finds her dressed in a
long black gown and hood. Only her hands and eyes are visible. The
room is lit by candles in a brass sconce, while a human skull rests on
a table in the corner with two crossed thigh bones in front. She is
evasive about just where and how she obtained these human remains.
Clairvoyance is illegal in the International Settlement. However, as a
White Russian, Litvanoff lacks a nationality and so falls under
Chinese law. As a result, the International Police are unable to
arrest her, at least for the crime of clairvoyance. She often uses the
information she gathers during these fortune-telling sessions to
blackmail her clients. She also kidnaps white women and sells them to
brothels, as well as running a few brothels of her own.
Mrs Litvanoff also enjoys performing as a stage magician and
escapologist, though her opinion of her own skills is vastly inflated.
Her act, which includes card tricks and 'escaping' from some obviously
loose handcuffs, is lacklustre at best.
The Shanghai Special Branch is very keen to arrest Mrs Litvanoff.
Unfortunately for them, she knows her Shanghai law very well and
always manages to keep one step ahead.
Mrs Litvanoff's life is currently rather troubled. Last she ran a
successful house of ill repute in the French Concession. It's
reputation was so ill that it prompted the French police, who in the
normal run of things just couldn't be bothered, to make a raid on the
place. In escaping arrest, Mrs Litvanoff fell down a flight of stairs
and broke her hip. This left her with a limp and the unwelcome
prospect of having to start again from scratch. Starting again wasn't
all that hard. It just took another change of name and a new location.
She was able to evade the law by switching back and forth between the
International Settlement and the French Concession. When she is wanted
in both places (a common occurrence), she goes to her house in the
Outer Roads' Area.
The Outer Roads' Area is a suburb full of large foreign-owned houses
on the outskirts of the foreign-run districts. No one knows who has
jurisdiction over the Outer Roads' Area. The International Settlement
claims the highways, since they built them. Houses on the highways,
known as the Municipal Roads, pay taxes to the Municipal Authority of
the Settlement and are subject to its laws and police protection.
Houses off the roads full under Chinese jurisdiction. But what exactly
counts as being 'on' or 'off' the road is still undefined. Sometimes
the Chinese refuse even to recognise the International Settlement's
claim to the highways.
Mrs Litvanoff rents a house in an alleyway under Chinese jurisdiction
with one side facing a Municipal Road. As a location for a hideout, it
is in a perfect state of legal limbo. To get the house, Mr and Mrs
Litvanoff paid two months' tax in advance to the International
Settlement, and haven't bothered paying since. The authorities can do
nothing to evict them.
Having fled the French Concession, the Litvanoffs found a new place
for business, hired some girls and opened up shop. Then something
unexpected happened. Mr Litvanoff fell in love with Veronica, one of
his wife's White Russian employees. The two of them ran away together
and now live in two small rooms on Weihaiwei Road. As if that wasn't
bad enough, he set up a house of ill repute specialising in the same
kind of unpleasant things his wife's businesses had offered.
Mrs Litvanoff first attempted to commit suicide, then went to the
police. She reported his activities, but they simply showed her the
door. The police records note that the complaint was made by Mrs
Litvanoff the 'notorious ... procurer for all forms of debauchery'.
In return, Nikolas and Veronica sent an anonymous letter to the
Special Branch claiming that she was a Bolshevik spy (one of the few
things she isn't guilty of). Their feud continues, as does the police
force's effort to capture Mrs Litvanoff.
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