Wild tales to hide/conceal the nature of one's depravity???
And the following had me curious from the beginning of the story....to what purpose these slabs??
He watched the shaft of light catch on a shelf of Venetian glass. He noted the silver inkwell gleaming beside a single, exquisitely bound volume of Pliny’s Natural History. His eyes drifted to the far wall, where a pair of narrow marble slabs stood—few would guess their purpose. Beside the washbasin sat a harsh pumice stone, an ugly necessity he used nightly to scrub the stubborn calluses from his palms.