“Soon, Liza, soon,” Lena answered, and she got out another cup, still looking at the television.
“Well, let’s not get carried away,” Regina smiled into the camera again, this time a little embarrassed. “It’s just that Veniamin Borisovich had fresh, vivid ideas. And this one is his last. Unfortunately.”
“No, I can’t anymore!” Misha Sichkin couldn’t stand it. He stood up and switched channels.
It was a cheerful old comedy.
“Uncle Misha! What are you doing?” Liza was indignant. “Nighty Night’s coming on soon!”
“Not right away, little one.” Lena cut a slice of lemon and put it in Liza’s tea. “In about fifteen minutes.”
“I can’t believe there’s nothing we can do! I can’t believe it,” Misha said through his teeth.
“Why are you getting so worked up again?” Seryozha shook his head. “We can’t prove anything. It’s impossible! Forensics did everything they could, the works. There was no trace of poison. Acute cardiac insufficiency. According to the experts, Veniamin Volkov died a nonviolent death.”
“But she did poison Volkov.” Misha wouldn’t let up.
“Of course she did.” Seryozha nodded. “But she used a poison that doesn’t leave any traces, and that means no evidence.”
“To hell with evidence!” Misha was nearly shouting. He couldn’t calm down. “What about Nikita Slepak? Mitya and Katya Sinitsyn? Azarov? And the stroller bomb? I would… I would pay a hitman myself, word of honor! I’d kill her with my own two hands!”
“Uncle Misha,” Liza said sternly. “What are you saying? You shouldn’t kill anyone! Do you understand? It’s time for Nighty Night!”
In the South, on the Black Sea, in the dim living room of his own three-story house, Vladimir Mikhailovich Kudryashev—Curly, the boss of the taiga—sat staring at the television screen.
“You outwitted me, Regina,” he said pensively, devouring the beautiful, chiseled face on the screen with his eyes. “Business above all else for you. You needed Volkov, so you got him out of a sure death sentence. When he got in your way, you finished him off, even though he was your husband. I never expected that of you. I thought this was it, you weren’t going to wiggle out of this one. But you did. Respect!”
Nina approached silently, sat down on the floor by the boss’s feet, and lay her light brown head in his lap.
The long black Lincoln, its windows mirrored, embarked silently from its designated parking spot next to the Ostankino Television Center.
“Well, Anton, I think the live broadcast went pretty well.” Regina leaned back in the soft seat and closed her eyes.
Anton Konovalov tenderly kissed her cold, soft cheek.
“Yes, Regina. You looked stunning. I saw you on the monitors. The cameraman didn’t even have to choose his angles. You’re beautiful no matter how they shoot you!”
“I’m not talking about that, child.” Regina frowned.
“What then?”
She didn’t deign to respond.
A small, dirty Zhiguli kept tightly on the Lincoln’s tail. The lights from oncoming cars occasionally picked out the face of the man behind the wheeclass="underline" deeply pitted cheeks and strangely light, almost-white eyes under bare, eyebrow-less brows.
Vasya Slepak was preparing to do his usual job. Not for hire. And not for money.
This was personal.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dubbed the “Russian crime queen,” Polina Dashkova is Russia’s most successful author of crime novels. She’s sold fifty million copies of her books and has thrilled readers in countries across Europe and Asia. A graduate of Moscow’s Maxim Gorky Literary Institute, she has been active as a radio and press journalist and has worked as an interpreter and translator of English literature. Her books have been translated into German, Chinese, Dutch, French, Polish, Spanish, and English.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Marian Schwartz translates Russian classic and contemporary fiction, history, biography, criticism, and fine art. She is the principal English translator of the works of Nina Berberova and translated the New York Times bestseller The Last Tsar by Edvard Radzinsky, as well as classics by Mikhail Bulgakov, Ivan Goncharov, Yuri Olesha, and Mikhail Lermontov. Her most recent publications are Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Andrei Gelasimov’s Into the Thickening Fog, Daria Wilke’s Playing a Part, and half the stories in Mikhail Shishkin’s Calligraphy Lesson: The Collected Stories. She is a past president of the American Literary Translators Association and the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts translation fellowships, as well as prizes including the 2014 Read Russia Prize for Contemporary Russian Literature and the 2016 Soeurette Diehl Frasier Award from the Texas Institute of Letters.
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Text copyright © 1998 Polina Dashkova
Translation copyright © 2017 Marian Schwartz
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Previously published as Легкие шаги безумия by Eksmo in Russia in 1998. Translated from Russian by Marian Schwartz. First published in English by AmazonCrossing in 2017.
Published by AmazonCrossing, Seattle
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and AmazonCrossing are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781477823460
ISBN-10: 1477823468
Cover design by Damon Freeman