six or seven children. We would live in London, but we would always spend our summers here. I'll let you guess: what part of that have I not accomplished?'
'Is this a trick question?'
'Definitely not. A trick question is, how long will you be here? When will you suddenly disappear? People do that. They're here for a week or two, and poof, they're gone, taking with them their fascinating tales of living with the exotic natives of the Zone.'
'Let's dance.' Arkady took the glass.
'Are you a good dancer?'
'Awful, but I remember you dancing with Alex.'
'You were dancing with Vanko, after all.'
'It wasn't the same thing.'
'Slow?'
'Please.'
'I didn't think you were coming back.'
'But I did.'
She slipped out of bed over to a cassette player. 'A waltz at midnight. This is romantic. You're surprising. You can cut wheat like a farmer, you can dance.'
'I surprise myself.'
'A midnight waltz in Chornobyl, that's kicking death in the teeth.'
'Exactly.'
He took her in his arms and executed a practice dip. She was incredibly light for being so much trouble.
Arkady's mobile phone rang.
'Ignore it,' Eva said.
'I'll just see who it is.'
He assumed the caller was Victor or Olga Andreevna, but it was Zurin the prosecutor, calling from Moscow.
'Good news, Renko. Sorry to ring you in the middle of the night. We're bringing you home.'
It took Arkady a moment to absorb the news. 'What are you talking about?'
'You're coming back to Moscow. We've booked you on the six a.m. Aeroflot. There'll be a ticket waiting for you at the airport counter. How do you feel about that?'
'I'm not done.'
'It's not a failure, not a bit. You've been working hard, I'm sure. However, we've decided to wrap up things at Chernobyl, at least on the Russian side. I thought you'd be delighted.'
Arkady turned with the phone away from Eva. 'There is no Ukrainian side to this investigation.'
'So be it. This matter should have been shouldered by the Ukrainians from the start. They can't always depend on us to wipe up their spilled milk.'
'The victim was Russian.'
'Killed in the Ukraine. If he'd been killed in France or Germany, would we have investigated? Of course not. Why should the Ukraine be any different?'
'Because it is.'
'They wanted to be independent, now they are. There's also a manpower issue. I can't have a senior investigator staying indefinitely in Chernobyl. At a risk to his health, let me add.'
'I need more time,' Arkady said.
'Which will become more time and more time. No, it's been decided. Get to the airport, catch the early flight and I'll expect to see you in my office by noon tomorrow.'
'What about Timofeyev?'
'Unfortunately, he died at the wrong place.'
'And Ivanov?'
'Wrong way. We're not reopening a suicide.'
'I'm not finished.'
'One last thing. Before you come into the office, take a shower and burn your clothes,' Zurin said and hung up.
Eva refilled two glasses like a good barmaid. 'Marching orders? And where are you going from here? You must be going someplace.'
'I don't know.'
'Don't look so sad. You can't be stuck here forever. Someone must be getting killed in Moscow.'
'I'm sure.'
'How long can you sleep with a radioactive woman? I'd say the odds against that are not very good.'
'You're not radioactive.'
'Don't quibble with me, I'm the doctor. I simply need to understand the situation. The prognosis. It sounds as if you're leaving soon.'
'That's not up to me.'
'Oh, it isn't? I had taken you for a different kind of man.'
'What kind?'
'Imaginary.' Eva delivered a smile. 'I'm sorry, that's unfair. You were enjoying yourself so much, and I was enjoying you. 'Never pop a bubble' is a good rule. But you should be happy to go. Out of exile, back among the living.'
'That's what I'm told.' He felt his mind race in ten directions.
'Secretly, aren't you a wee bit happy, a little relieved to have the decision taken out of your hands? I'm happy for you, if that helps.'
'It doesn't.'
'Just as well, because I don't think we really made the ideal couple. You obviously hate histrionics, and I am completely histrionic. Not to mention damaged goods. When, exactly, are you going?'
'I have to go now.'
'Oh.' Her smile began to sink. 'That was fast. Hardly more than a one-night stand.' She drank half her glass in a swallow and set it down. 'Not samogon. We will always have our samogon party. Well, they say short farewells are the best.'
'I will be back in a day. Two at the most.'
'Don't even-' She pulled her robe tight and picked up the gun when he approached. Shining streaks ran down her face. 'The Zone is an exclusive club, a very exclusive club, and you have just been voted out. So get out.'
15
Arkady found Bobby Hoffman sitting with a lantern in a backyard that was wild with roses and thorny canes that reached into the dark. Someone had once put beehives in the garden, and a colony still thrived; a dozen had been lured out by Bobby's light, in spite of the hour. Bobby let a bee crawl over the back of one hand to another and around his fingers like a coin trick. Other bees wandered on his hat.
'My father kept hives on Long Island. It was his hobby. Sometimes he wore a beekeeper's mask, but usually not. In cold winters he'd drive the hives down to Florida. I loved that drive. Cold cigar in the corner of his mouth. He never lit up around the bees. The neighbors would complain, 'Mr. Hoffman, what if they sting?' My father would say, 'You like flowers, you like apples, you like peaches? Then you put up with the fucking bees.' One year, just to make his point, he sent me around the neighborhood to collect money from people, depending on how many flowers and fruit trees they had, like we should get a cut. I made some change, too. When I was thirteen, I was bar-mitzvahed, and he took me to the Copa. A club. Everyone knew him: big guy, big voice. He had one of the chorus girls sit on my lap, and he gave her a pin in the shape of a bee with diamond eyes. He did everything to the hilt. If he liked you, you were in. If he didn't, forget it. One of our drives down south, a couple of crackers saw our license plate and asked if I was a New York Jewboy. He beat them half to death. Motel manager had to pull him
