“Why do you bring me milk? I asked for water.”
This is the end of the story. She predicted it in detail, and died exactly as she had predicted.
The investigator grew silent for a little while, then waved his hand in the air and asked,
“I can’t figure it out. So, tell me, how do you think she died? I give you my word that this is not a fictional story, but it is completely based on real facts.”
Absorbing all he had heard, the doctor raised his eyes to the sky as he said,
“They should have done an autopsy.”
“Why?”
“In order to determine the real reason of her death. She did not die because of her premonitions. Most likely she poisoned herself.”
The investigator turned toward the doctor, squinted his eyes suspiciously, and asked,
“Why do you come to the conclusion that she poisoned herself?”
“It was not a conclusion, but an educated guess. Was she happy with her husband?”
“Well, not exactly. They had some misunderstanding right after they got married. There were some unpleasant circumstances. One day, the newlywed wife saw her husband with another woman, in a compromising position. However, shortly after, she forgave him.”
“And what happened first, her husband’s affair, or the first time she spoke about her future death?”
The investigator carefully looked at the doctor, as if trying to guess the reason for this question.
“Wait a minute, wait! Let me remember.” The investigator took off his hat and wiped his forehead. “Yes, she started talking about her death right after this event. Yes!”
“So you see. Now, most likely it was then that she decided to poison herself, but because she did not want to kill the child she carried as well, she decided to postpone her suicide until after her delivery.”
“You could hardly be right. That would be impossible. She forgave her husband right after the event.”
“If she forgave so fast, it means that she intended on revenge. Young wives do not forgive very easily or so fast.”
The investigator forced a smile to cover his very obvious excitement, halting all conversation while he smoked a cigarette.
“It can’t be. I do not think so. This possibility never occurred to me. He did not cheat on her, and he did not plan to do that. One day he came home from work, a little bit drunk. He wanted to give a little love to someone, and then all of a sudden he met the lady who had been visiting them for a weekend, a stupid, completely silly and unattractive woman. You cannot even call it cheating. The wife looked at it the same way, and shortly after this incident, she forgave her husband. After that, there was no mention of the event at all.”
“People do not die for no reason,” the doctor responded.
“This is true, but I cannot believe she poisoned herself. It is so strange, no one even thought about it! Everyone was surprised that her prediction came true, but there was not even the slightest thought of this possibility. This cannot be possible, that she had poisoned herself, no!”
The investigator was lost in thought and was silent for a while.
The thought of this woman, who accurately predicted her own death, did not leave him while the doctor performed the autopsy. He was writing down what the doctor was dictating to him, frowning gloomily and rubbing his forehead.
“Are there any poisons that could kill a person in a quarter of an hour, quite easily and without any pain?” he inquired of the doctor when they were examining the skull.
“Yes, morphine, for example.”
“Well, that is strange. I remember that she had something like that on hand, but it’s hardly likely, hardly.”
On the way back, the investigator looked very tired. He nervously bit his moustache, and stroked it without any enthusiasm.
“Let us take a little walk, doctor. I am tired of sitting in the cart.”
After taking about a hundred steps, the police investigator looked completely drained, as if he had just finished climbing a steep mountain. He stopped, looked at the doctor with dull eyes, and said,
“Oh my God! If your suggestion is true, what she did was cruel and inhuman. She poisoned herself to torture another person! It was not such a great sin that her husband committed! Why did you give me that terrible suggestion? My dear doctor, you should not have suggested such a thing to me!”
The investigator held his head with both hands in despair and continued,
“I was telling you the story of my wife and myself. Oh my God! Yes, I am to blame, I hurt her. But is it easier to die than to forgive? She reasoned like a typical woman, in a very cruel and merciless way. Oh yes, she was very cruel when she was alive, now I remember everything. Now everything is clear to me!”
The investigator could not stop talking. At some points he waved his hands in the air, and held his head in his hands. He was either jumping from the cab or walking next to it. The new revelation by the doctor had completely stunned, overwhelmed, and poisoned his existence. He was completely at a loss, weakened in both body and soul, and when their journey ended, he did not say good-bye to the doctor, and, despite his earlier promise, declined the doctor’s invitation to have lunch together.
THE DRAMA AT THE HUNT
From the Notes of a Police Detective
(Abridged)
CHAPTER ONE MY FIRST MEETING WITH OLGA
Early in the morning, whistling happily and hitting the tops of cobblestones with my walking stick, I was on the way to the village of Tenev, where there was supposed to be a county fair.
What a beautiful morning! It seemed that happiness itself was floating over the earth, reflected in the diamondlike dewdrops that beguiled the traveler. At this early hour, the forest was quiet and motionless, as if it were listening to my steps. The chirping of little birds was inviting. The whole air was filled with the greenery of spring. I was breathing the fresh morning air and listening to the songs of the insects and the whispering of the wind in young birch trees and the grass.
In an hour, I was walking among the kiosks of the Tenev county fair. There were many sounds—the neighing of horses, the mooing of cows, children tooting on toy trumpets, carousel music, and the babble of many conversations. So many new different types of people, so much beauty and movement in this crowd, dressed in bright colors, made luminous by the morning sun. This was an amazing picture! (… )
Soon I was on my way back home from the town of Tenev. I ran into Olga, who was heading home in her heavy, old-fashioned cart.
“Please, can you give me a lift?” I cried.
“She is really nice-looking,” I thought, observing her soft round neck and the curve of her cheek.
Olga had been shopping. She had several pieces of nice fabric, and an assortment of packages and bags.
“You’ve been on a spree,” I said. “Why do you need so much fabric?”
“I will need even more,” Olga answered. “What I’ve bought is only the tip of the iceberg. You cannot imagine how much trouble I’ve had with all this shopping. Today I spent an hour walking across the county fair and selecting stuff, and tomorrow I will have to go to the city to do some serious shopping for the whole day! And then we will have to sew all this to make a dress. You don’t know of a good seamstress, do you?”
“I don’t know anyone who does that. But why so much shopping? Why do you need a new dress? Your family is pretty small—just the two of you, as far as I know.”
“You men are such strange creatures! You don’t understand anything! Now, when it’s your wedding day, you’ll be the first to get angry if your wife turns up the next morning without a nice, fresh trousseau. I know that Peter Erogovich doesn’t need the money, but I have no desire to show myself as a bad housewife from the very beginning.”