Once more I went back to the contents of the handbag. Maybe I’d find some sort of lead in there?
Nothing could be found.
I discovered no entries suggestive of any clever thought in Anya’s notebook. I studied it from cover to cover, even tested it with my teeth. No use. I stuffed the notebook back into the handbag and set about studying the letters scrawled by Anya’s hand on the sheet of paper. I nearly broke my eyes on the doctor’s handwriting and established that Anya had left behind for posterity the draft of some contract or other. And one so incomprehensible and convoluted that my jaws cramped with boredom. The title alone was worth the price of admission: Agreement of Intent Concerning the Accord on Transfer of Rights… Bah! I stuffed the sheet into the handbag after the notebook and sighed heavily.
If it weren’t for Miguel’s stupidity, impassable and inexplicable… If he were a real friend, the whole thing would be as easy as boiled turnip. I’d drop in on him for a visit, chew the fat about this and that, and in between times poke my key into every lock in a row. Very likely, in the course of the friendly chatter, I’d hit on the box with the secrets in it.
If only, if only… Miguel, the parasite, dug in like a ram, even though we split a bottle of «Beefeater» between the two of us at the bar, even though I listened until I turned blue to his tales about serving in the coastal patrol. «I have no right,» he repeated in answer to my plea for help in my trouble. I came at him this way and that. I even told him the story of my life and the story of my kitty who hid valuables in the bank and promptly drowned. Drowned without sharing the number of the box with me. All she did was hand over the key with a weakening little palm and blow farewell bubbles. Miguel sobbed on my shoulder but stood his ground: «In the bank the order is such – no violations of the order.»
I sighed again.
Well then. We set the handbag aside and proceed to semi-active measures. The active ones – a raid, hostage-taking, a shootout with the police, a chase in speedboats and aircraft – we leave for later. Why risk your own skin for nothing? That sort of thing is only interesting in films and books. In real life it’s simpler to recall the golden words from the school textbook: «Widely doth chemistry stretch forth her little hands into the affairs of men.» That’s how it was written, I believe…
I set off briskly for the local hardware shop, bought up chemicals of every description and smuggled them into my room. I have never had cause to complain of my memory, so no problems arose with the acquired junk. After two hours of stirring and bubbling, the mixture named after Crossbow was ready.