billions, so now he hears there is trouble in Ukraine, he supports Orange Revolution, he hears there will be trouble in Georgia this summer, he sends money to what he calls the democratic forces. It makes him a target.” Tolya sat up. “It’s not about him, it’s about you. This is why I came to see you, Artyom. Your fingerprints were all over Val’s place. Excuse me.” He said, hauled himself to his feet like an old man, and slowly made his way out of the room to the bathroom.
“Why did they look for your fingerprints, Artie?” said Tolya when he returned. “Was there a reason?”
“They probably run everything through the computer.”
“Yes, perhaps,” he said, “but people ask questions.”
“Which people?”
“It doesn’t matter. I just wanted to warn you.”
I was pretty stunned. I kept my mouth shut.
“By the time I got to New York, they had taken Valentina away,” said Tolya.
“I’m sorry.”
“You tried. Your Mr Roy Pettus is asking about you.”
“I needed his help.”
“You’re naive,” said Tolya softly.
“Just tell me.”
He picked up his glass and sipped the vodka.
“I got to the loft and my Val was gone. Leven, you call him Bobo? He was waiting as if he knew I was coming. It took balls. He sees me, he gets up and doesn’t know what to say, just stands there, this skinny tall boy, long arms hanging down, showing respect, and I think to myself, I should offer my hand. So I put out my hand, and I think he is going to kiss it. ‘I’m sorry, Anatoly Anatolyevich. Please forgive me,’ Leven says in Russian.”
She wasn’t there, of course. They had taken her away. Together they went to the morgue but he couldn’t look at her body.
“I love all my kids, Artie. Val’s sister, of course, and my boy who I almost never see, but she is special. Valentina is like me. She never took shit from anybody. She wanted to do things how she wanted. Even as a little girl when I bring them to Florida from Moscow to be safe, she is a rebel.”
I didn’t say anything, just waited for him to catch his breath and take another slug of the vodka.
It was the hot dog that got to Tolya, he said. Before he and Bobo got to the morgue, he saw the lunchtime crowd, and in it, a man eating a hot dog with yellow mustard and listening to his iPod. He saw the mustard, the white strings of the iPod, the man’s red shirt very clearly. Then they went inside.
“I can’t look,” said Tolya. “I just went back outside. You love her, Artie? I know that. I know you loved her also not just as my daughter. I know that you did and that you never touched her. You said to yourself, this is not right, and you left it.”
“What else?”
“In the official world, it’s hard to get information.”
“You bought some?”
“Yes.”
“What was it?”
“They tried to poison her, Artyom.” he said. “Turn off the music, please.”
“With what?”
“Polonium-210.”
“The autopsy?”
“They said they were still testing. They didn’t know how to look. You have to know how to look for the symptoms. In another week, or perhaps two, she would have lost her hair, her skin, everything. She would have died very fast, very ugly. But Leven gave me the pictures he took of her at home, after she was dead, she looked very pretty in her summer dress Artyom, everything was in place. How was that possible I asked myself? I asked myself over and over, and I don’t know. Maybe I was wrong about the poison, maybe I went crazy, or maybe the poison had not yet started its work on her body.”
“But you came here to see me.”
“I think, I must tell Artie about the fingerprints. I must tell him before anything happens to him.”
“You think it was me?”
“I only know your fingerprints were everywhere in her apartment, even on the desk, the pictures, the bed, everywhere, even things in the wastepaper basket, old boxes of film, on brushes she uses to clean her negatives. I tell everybody, Artie Cohen had nothing at all to do with this. He was often here, he is our friend, of course his fingerprints are in the apartment. And I don’t ask you anything at all,” he said. “This second killing was not murder. Whoever did this, it was a blessing,” he said. “It kept her from dying like Sasha Litvinenko. It kept her from being eaten from inside. It was from mercy, I understand,” said Tolya who got up, kissed me on the cheek and went to his room.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
“It wasn’t me.”
“Then who?”
“Do you believe me?” I said.
“If you tell me, of course,” said Tolya, but I could see he didn’t believe me, not completely.
“Will they believe me at home?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who, Artyom?”
“Grisha Curtis. You were right, it began in London, you can get anything here, buy anyone.”
The housekeeper came in with a tray of drinks, but Tolya shook his head.
“I must go,” said Tolya, barely reacting to the information about Grisha. “We all travel too much now,” he said. “Russians feel they have to keep moving or somebody might take this right away again,” he added. “Don’t worry, I’m okay,” he added, but it was hard for him to talk and he caught his breath constantly the way you might catch your clothing on a thorn.
“You should eat.”
“It’s all right. I’ve had everything,” said Tolya. “I’ve had my share,” he added. “I’ve had all the good things.” He left the room again, and I listened to the music until he came back, carrying a black raincoat and a small bag.
I asked him again where he was going.
“Where is Curtis? Is he in Moscow?”
“I don’t know. You’re going after him?”
“What do you think, Artyom? To Moscow?”
“Probably, yes,” I said, and regretted it as soon as I did. In that instant I knew Tolya would go after, him and in Moscow Tolya would be in bad trouble.
“What else?”
“Curtis knows I have stuff on him, he knows I got it from his office, that I can make the connection that he hired this Terenti creep to kill Val, and Terenti got it wrong and killed Masha by mistake, and then Grisha took over. He knows I can make the connection to Valentina. I think he was furious when this Terenti shit got the wrong girl and killed Val himself. If he went to Moscow it’s because the Russians won’t let the Brits extradite, he probably thinks he’s safe there.”
“I see.”
“Do you?”
“Then he killed her twice, once with the Polonium, the second time because he suddenly thought about her suffering horribly, and so he suffocated her and laid her nicely on the bed. And I believed it was you. Oh God,” said Tolya. “I want you to stay here for a little while, please. To be safe. I’ll call you as soon as it’s safe.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’ll call you.”
