“I swear, he’s as curious as a cat. Come on, Polo. Don’t bother the nice people, Polo. Good boy. Oh, now he’s going up the stairs.”
Arkady heard the dog scamper up. He was halfway to the balcony before Stasov snagged the leash. Arkady got a glimpse of the lieutenant’s bald spot when he scooped up the dog.
“Excuse me,” he told the ladies. “Excuse me, please. Such a rascal. Ah, well, here comes his treat.”
“A bonbon!”
“He’ll gobble this down in two bites. See?”
“What a character.”
“Well, ladies, duty calls. My friend and I must go fight crime.”
Polo made a final bolt for the stairs but Stasov stepped on the leash and reeled him in like a fish.
“Au revoir.”
“Au revoir.”
Stasov retreated to his car and held high an extra bonbon. Polo was enraptured.
“I told you that dog had no loyalty,” Arkady said.
31
Maxim knew. He knew as soon as Arkady and Tatiana walked into his apartment that the situation had changed. He had gone from suitor to also-ran. All the risks he had taken were worthless chips. He was a poet without words.
“I’m sorry,” Tatiana said, although she didn’t mean it. Not really, Maxim thought.
“They’ve been here already, Alexi’s men and the police.”
“Good, maybe they won’t be back so soon,” Arkady said.
“How is your boy, Zhenya?” Maxim asked. “Has he deciphered the notebook yet?”
“Most of it. The ‘what’ and the ‘where.’ But not exactly ‘when.’ We think there will be another meeting.”
“All this sound and fury for a notebook of incomprehensible symbols. This calls for a drink, only I haven’t got a bottle in the house.” Maxim poked around in an empty liquor cabinet. “And they’ll hold the meeting without Grisha?”
“It’s still a good plan,” Tatiana said. “The Defense Ministry provides two billion dollars for a submarine refit. Half will actually go to the shipyard that does the work. Curonian Amber will take the other half and carve it up like a wedding cake. Everybody gets a piece. Friends in the Kremlin, the Defense Ministry, the banks and the Mafia. That was Grisha’s genius. He was generous as well as inventive.”
Maxim said, “So it’s one more rip-off. What’s so unusual about that?”
“Actually, it’s a Chinese refit of a practically new Russian nuclear submarine, the
Maxim shrugged. “ ‘Made in China.’ What isn’t these days?”
“This is different. Hold back that much money and the
“Sit, please,” Maxim said. “I apologize about the heaps of clothes. Creative people are messy. I must have something to drink here. I should be a better host. Tea? Coffee?” Maxim wandered in and out of the kitchen searching for clean cups. In the living room, some bookshelves were bare, not carefully removed but swept aside. Shakespeare, Neruda, Mandelstam commingled on the floor, and it occurred to Arkady that Maxim probably had not left the apartment for days.
Tatiana saw that she was not penetrating. “Are you okay?”
“Not really.” Maxim slapped his hands together and studied them. “So, the two of you have been on the run. That’s always romantic.”
“Do you want us to go?”
“No, no. You’re my guests. I told myself not to be bitter or vituperative. I should have known better than to have set you up with someone as long-suffering as Investigator Renko. Tell me, Renko, have you noticed that our Tatiana likes the sound of bullets? Has she done anything you would consider a little reckless, like stand in front of a moving train? Does she inoculate herself with fear on a regular basis? I see you have a mark on your ear. Has it occurred to you that it’s not safe to stand next to a martyr? Unlike Anya. Have you been in touch with her?”
“We talked,” Arkady said. Days ago, he realized.
“She was one of the also-rans, like me,” Maxim said.
“I don’t think she cared one way or the other.”
“Surprise.”
It occurred to Arkady that Anya may not have betrayed him. She had delivered the notebook to him, not to Alexi, and had not told him where Arkady was. What else could he have misread?
“Where is she?”
“Moscow, I suppose. Moscow suddenly seems sane. Ah, here we are.” Maxim pulled out a half-empty bottle of vodka from under the couch. “And where is this meeting going to take place?”
“The
“Pushkin’s whore,” Maxim said. “As a literary man, I can appreciate that. When?”
“Tonight, we think.”
“How do you know that?”
“Last night Abdul gave a concert of hate here in Kaliningrad. Tomorrow night he’ll be in Riga, but tonight he’s still here, as are Ape Beledon and the Shagelmans.”
“There’s not much you can do about it, is there?”
“I think there is, but we need your help.”
Maxim transferred his gaze from Arkady to Tatiana. “This is rich. Help you ascend to martyrdom? First, your friend is going to get himself killed. Second, I’m not a fucking Sancho Panza. Not even a Pushkin. Now I really do need a drink.”
Tatiana said, “It’s simple. Arkady will go to the meeting with a cell phone. You will be waiting on the other end here, listening with a tape recorder.”
“And where will you be?”
“We’ll need a witness.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’ll be with Arkady.”
A wolfish grin spread on Maxim’s face. “You two. You two are too much. Every time I think I’ve got you topped, you come up with something better. A witness? You mean a floating body. Two floating bodies, and I’m supposed to be on the other end with a phone up my ass. This is fucking moral blackmail.”
“You should be safe,” Arkady said.
“Exactly, and that’s all people will remember me for, staying safe while you get your throats cut.”
“You don’t have to do it.”
“Right.” Maxim took a long pull on the bottle and exhaled a cold cloud of vodka. “What makes you so sure the partners of Curonian Amber will be there?”
“Because these are the sort of partners that keep an eye on each other. We don’t want to get into a violent confrontation. We just want to threaten to take their plans public.”
“Will Alexi be there?”
“Apparently Grisha didn’t tell him about the first meeting, but he knows where this one is.”
“No, no, no, no. I won’t do it.”
“I understand,” Arkady said.
“No you don’t. I’m going with you.” He pointed at Tatiana. “She can stay with the tape recorder.”
“That’s not what we’re asking,” Tatiana said.
“It’s that or nothing. I’m not going to be a butt of contempt and derision the rest of my life. Besides, you
