February 4, 1994
10:10
Since morning we sat in the office, thinking. Zhorik was playing detectives from Soviet TV series. He sat over the desk as Colonel Zorin, tapping a pencil on the telephone. He wandered the office as Major Tomin, frowning and posing questions. He sorted through theories like Zheglov:
– Theory one. One of the locals cooked it up. Ruled out. The Khryakino cops reported that the locals would gladly squeeze the watchman for five liters. A crate – with difficulty. Two – sheer bliss. Three – fantasy. Nobody has a car. Nothing to their name but Article 206, and that one while drunk. Peasant morals – stole it, drank it, off to prison! There is a threshold between Article 145 and 146 that the local riffraff cannot cross. This is no baklanka!
– Theory two. Out-of-towners came in posing as businessmen, hobbled Gena, and drove the goods off. Ruled out. The guard stated in the report: at eleven a «nine» pulled up, left ten minutes later, then a flatbed KAMAZ arrived, left an hour after that. Plates were noted, police are looking into it. But look. In a proper hold-up, bandits don’t dawdle around like it’s a promenade. Grab the loot, into the truck bed, and scram. Ten minutes, tops. Here they screwed around for an hour and a half.
– Theory three. The scoundrels took Genka’s family hostage and dictated what to do. Doesn’t add up. If that were the case, they’d have knifed Genka along with his whole family, to leave no witnesses.
– Theory four. Someone Genka knew distinguished himself. If the statements are to be believed, Gena himself called the checkpoint to let the KAMAZ through. He wasn’t stabbed right away, but right before it drove off.
I kept quiet. Zhorik went on:
– If theory four holds, there are two options left. First. Gena was in on it. Fell out over a cut and, sorry pal, nothing personal, just business! In favor of this theory is the fact that your bookkeeping, Roma, might be in order, but the warehouse itself is an unbelievable mess. Seryoga from accounting is already digging around, running an audit in Khryakino. If you compare the accounting reports against the actual goods, you find a shortfall as if the loot had gone out not on one KAMAZ but on three. Meaning what? Meaning this wasn’t the first haul. And another thing. At the funeral I personally heard the story of how the late lamented Gennady bought his old man a car. Where’d that cash come from?
– Hold on, – I cut Zhora off. – I’m sure about Gena. I did two audits at the warehouse myself – in November and after New Year’s. Everything matched down to the last unit. As for the car, no need to doubt it. Genka’s the only one of us who didn’t buy a VCR and TV. He saved every last kopeck of his salary. If people aren’t lying, back in October he borrowed money and invested it in some outfit in Podolsk to double a «Zhiguli» deal at half price. Don’t know how that turned out.
Zhorik listened with half an ear, went on:
– Second option under theory four. Some familiar bulls came by, muddled Gena’s head, then whacked him. Chicha’s athletes, say. What do you think, is that possible?
– Doubtful.
– It’s a workable theory.
– Doesn’t seem likely to me. We should ask the police what they think.
– Cops don’t think anything. They’ve got other priorities.
– Like what?
– Well… How do I explain it to you? Basically, cop priority number one – that they personally don’t get killed. Priority two – that nobody interferes with them feeding off their assigned turf. And three, that citizens on the assigned turf aren’t terrorized without good reason. Except for cases when the cops themselves decide to do the terrorizing. No other priorities exist.
– How can that be?
– It can. In time you’ll understand yourself. About Gena: it’s cheaper to sort this out ourselves than to grease the cops’ wheels and sit on our hands. I’ll head out, find out what’s what.
