Читать книгу Pearly woman. Prose in English - Natalia Patratskaya - Страница 5

In the morning, the musicians went in for the singer Victoria Lvovna to go to the dining room for breakfast, but her door did not open. They called the maid, she opened the door. The room was empty. The bed was untouched, tucked in by the same maid the day before. Someone called Ilya. The crowd crowded at the door.

“I ask everyone to go to the dining room for breakfast, and I’ll alone look around the room, then I will talk to everyone who saw it yesterday,” Illya said clearly.

The first thought of Elijah was the thought of Count Pavlin and his people. But the count without a car does not take away, and foreign cars did not pass the territory of the boarding house from evening to morning, he knew that even before coming to the singer’s room. The window was closed from the inside, therefore, the singer Victoria Lvovna voluntarily went out the door and closed the door behind her. The idea that she could have gone before breakfast did not occur to her. She clearly did not sleep in the room.

Ilya looked around the room, but did not find the singer’s things. There were no things! There were no traces of the singer at all. There was no toothbrush in the room! There was no wet towel! There was nothing!!! But her passport had to remain in the housing administration!

He went down to the boarding house administration, located on the first floor of the fifth building. The singer’s passport was in a safe, he was shown to him by an employee of a boarding house who decorated visiting people. She said that the singer did not change the number. Where did the celebrity from the guarded pension with a suitcase on wheels? On the asphalt there were no traces of wheels. The detective was at a loss. He went towards the beach.

At the boat station in the morning there was still no one, all the people were in the dining room. That’s where Ilya noticed traces of struggle, traces of wheels on the sand! The boats all stood still, but there were traces in the sand of a strange boat! He needs to talk to Alla while she is here, because she was abducted yesterday from a motorboat! Ilya went to look for Alla.

The four were just leaving the dining room, but the terrified Alla refused to testify. They were approached by musicians from the group of the singer, one of whom served as director of the group. Ilya told him that while he had nothing to say about Victoria Lvovna, but if she was taken away by people of Count Pavlin, they usually return those who are being taken away. Must wait.

Alla was visibly nervous, but she didn’t say a word. And it could be understood. Ilya let the people go and wandered to the beach. People on the beach after breakfast increased, and the traces of the wheels of the suitcase disappeared. He had nothing more about the existence of the singer Victoria Lvovna, except for her passport. He again went to the corps administration, but during his absence the singer Victoria Lvovna’s passport disappeared. Now he could play dominoes with the guards. My head was empty.

Four went to the beach. All the attempts of the guys to pull the information out of Alla were not crowned with success. She did not tell. Alla was lying, sunbathing, bathed and silent. An hour later, someone from those who rode the boat that day brought the singer Victoria Lvovna’s belongings, which washed ashore. Called Ilya.

The detective got into the boat, took Yura with him, and left Pasha with Alla.

Men swam in the direction indicated by people. They were lucky in that they found an open suitcase of a fair-haired singer Victoria Lvovna. Scattered things lay on the shore. There were no tracks of people. Things collected and put into the boat. Yura paddles. Ilya examined the suitcase. In the suitcase, he found the second bottom, under it lay white matter in a flat bag. Without expertise, he knew that the white matter was from the sleeping series of Count Peacock.

It was the sleeping pill that the barmaid and her master used to put people to sleep for their own fun. Ilya realized that he took the trail, but whose? Singer Victoria Lvovna in this case – the link is clearly passing. Yura looked at the find and was silent. He was well aware that he was in a black story, and in such a story the main thing is to survive himself. Oh, as he now understood Alla! Anger towards her began to pass.

Ilya suggested that the barmaid injected sleeping pills through the corks with a syringe into bottles, which means that it had to completely dissolve. Water overboard the whole sea, but with them they did not have dishes. Therefore, before the turn, they did not swim and turned to the boarding house to try the substance for solubility in the laboratory.

The public on the beach did not approach the arriving boat. People understood that the matter was serious, and no one was in a hurry to get into the witnesses. Pasha helped collect the singer’s things, bring them to the room of the guards. Yura walked with the girls. Taking Alla’s hand, he simply said:

– Forgive me, Alla, I understand you now.

– Oh, Jura! I’m sad to remember everything, I’m afraid to remember!

– Well done, that made it up! I’ll leave you alone. “I have business,” Bella said, and walked away from them quickly.

Bella walked, walked and suddenly realized that she was going to the tower at the other end of the Apricot. Vaguely in her head was the memory of a scramble on a sailboat and a keen joke about a dachshund, for which two men allegedly fought on a yacht. But the fight was real, so it seemed to her. At the tower on the steps sat the overseer. Bella crouched beside her.

– Girl, why did you come here?

– I’m an artist. I liked the seascape here.

– Draw, girl, draw. We do not charge money for a visit to the sea.

– Why is the white yacht not visible? I wanted to draw her!

– What you wanted: give her a sailing boat! Sailboat sailed on business – on the waves, now here – tomorrow there. You would have told me the news that the village is being done, otherwise there is no one to talk to me here.

– News? They stole a blond singer from a boarding house.

– What are you saying? It’s quiet here. The singers do not sing. And you know, at night I heard singing on the sea! True, heard! Yes, the woman sang so loudly that I still thought that the motor ship was on, and there was music on it. But the singing quickly stopped. The yacht sailed at this time. I saw a familiar sail, and I know these men on the yacht well. They collect contributions from me for letting viewers go to the tower. And you thought that I paid them for a fight on the water? Nonsense, they are a hat, but no, they are a roof.

“Well, I don’t need to know about them, I’d like to bend the waves and then draw them for a whole year,” Bella decided to change the subject because of safety. Something told her that Alla and the singer were taken away by the same people.

– Thank you, I will go to draw pencil sketches, and if I fail, I will come back. Here you have a beautiful sea.

– Come, girl, and bring the news.

Bella took out a phone and called Ilya:

– Ilya, I’m on the tower of the ranger. He heard female singing at night!

– Bella, you risk. One went to the lighthouse?

– Yes, alone. Yura stayed with Alla. You know, there is a strange white yacht here. Probably, the singer Victoria was taken away on it, and Alla was taken to Count Pavlin in a motorboat. These are different people or alone – I have not understood yet.

– Bella, run to the village, you have a lot of information. No surveillance?

– Not! But I will go faster to crowded places.

– I’m coming to meet you.

Bella met Ilya at the bench under a chestnut tree, where Alla and Yura once sat. They sat on the bench.

– Bella, say everything you know about the yacht at the tower.

– a yacht, people collect tribute from it from the caretaker and from someone else. The superintendent at night heard the woman singing. Loudly sang. Now there is no yacht at the tower, this is her parking place, she usually stands at the buoy.

– Here it is! So, they took the singer Victoria to the boat, and then transplanted to the yacht. This explains that her things were thrown out of the boat, and then traces are lost. Bella, you would work with me! Did you see Count Peacock? – he asked.

Behind Bella, someone clamped his mouth.

– Pasha, where are you from here? – turned Ilya head.

– I am looking for my love, and she is sitting here with a detective on vacation.

“We met by chance, here we are,” the detective said peacefully.

– So I believed it. Ilya, you see me, I will not give Bella to you.

Bella had a thought: where did Pasha and Yura have money from? Who else do they work for besides work? She did not believe that firms pay a lot.

– Pasha, our meeting is absolutely random. “I went to the market to see new things for myself at your expense,” she said humbly.

– Well, and found? Bought? – he said displeasedly.

– No, at the dining room of the boarding house the choice of clothes is better. Let’s break up.

“I was sitting with you and not in a hurry,” Pasha reproached.

– Goodbye, Ilya. Come, Pasha, lunch.

“Okay, I’ll believe for the first time,” muttered Pasha, displeased.

Pasha and Bella went towards the boarding house.

Elijah thought that Bella is a smart girl and we will need to talk to her again, but for this Paul he will have to be detained somewhere. He got good thoughts about the yacht, you have to look at who the yacht is registered to. The detective slowly went to the management of the river shipping company.

The owner of the yacht was a certain Pavlinov Ivan Sergeevich. Most likely, he was Count Pavlin. It is clear that the singer Victoria must be sought in the palace of Peacock, but how to get there? Or will he let her go to the rehearsal? Then why was Victoria Lvovna’s belongings thrown overboard, and she herself was taken to the yacht? This is Elijah knew from Bella’s story. And if you offer the powder from the singer’s suitcase to Count Pavlin himself? But he will not believe. Need a setup. Bella would definitely be able to. She has a gift to remain invulnerable, such a gift happens to good intelligence agents.

Here it is! The powder must be offered to the caretaker! Bella could give him the powder! But what about Pasha? He won’t let Bella away from me. Pasha should be sent with Yura by boat, even if they look at the coast. Alla will have to talk, and Bella will be sent to the caretaker. Ilya decided to carry out his plans.

He also had a thought in his head: who could take the singer out of the boarding house, so much so that she walked and was silent? And the duty officer did not see her. Ilya decided to go around the fifth building. At the windows of the singer Victoria Lvovna left traces of four legs from the chair. And he saw that the windows were closed from the inside, and did not think to bypass the building! Here it is the solution! Or part of the clue. So it means that at least three people acted here with singer Victoria Lvovna! One person got out of the window with the singer or was waiting for her at the window, he brought her things to the boat, and the second person closed the window, put everything in place, put away and closed the room. It’s simple. Or so it seems that simple.

There remains one question: who is the singer Victoria Lvovna? Is she a supplier of the Peacock Count or a prisoner? These are two big differences. Ilya slapped his head with his hand and went again to the fifth building. The tracks under the window strongly resembled the tracks of Pasha. The track is big. Pasha and Yura are the same height, but the size of their leg is different – it was Illya who noticed gradually. Could Pasha carry the luggage to the boat in her arms? Easily. Yura could close the window and the room? Could They did not sleep this night with the girls, he knew that well. He also knew from Bella that Pasha hit her on the sand when he sought her love. And Yura with Alla was the second after Count Pavlin! He knew that too.

He did not know who Alla had after these two. She was silent – or there was no one, but there was still the same Count Peacock. Bella didn’t know that either, otherwise she’d have laid out everything for him. So, Alla Bella does not trust. Interesting?! And, according to rumors, they all five sang well, in vain he did not go to the first rehearsal. And all on dachshund. But who pays anyone to this story? So Ilya thought. But he thought not alone.

Singer Victoria Lvovna, looking in the dining room, determined that almost all the viewers of the pension saw and heard her, which means she worked out her life in the pension. Most of all she wanted to leave her musicians and run away for a week, and no one would drive them out of the boarding house, since everything was worked out. The fact that under the second bottom of her suitcase lay a bag of powder, she did not guess. But the director-musician knew about the powder, it was he who slipped the powder to her.

The windows of the musicians went to the outside of the case. What did singer Victoria Lvovna want? Run away and that’s it. She’s all tired. She asked for help in her flight Pasha and Yura. Pasha helped bring her things to the pier, because going through the protected gates would be more noticeable. For her happiness or misfortune, a yacht stood on the horizon. She waved her hand against the lantern. From the yacht lowered the boat and brought the singer on board.

Pasha calmly returned to the sleeping body. The duty officer was already used to the fact that he enters even when he did not go out and did not pay attention to him.

Victoria Lvovna looked at the men on the yacht and realized that she gave a blunder. They did not inspire confidence in her, it seemed that they did not shun anything. One immediately put his nose in her suitcase, the second pulled her hands. She became angry, began to fight back, she was not accustomed to such treatment. Suitcase flew overboard. When the yacht sailed past the tower, the singer sang to attract the attention of the caretaker. He heard her, but helping unselfishly is not from his repertoire.

The woman knew the charms of life without protection. One of the men named Buek took her by force. The second, nicknamed Ledok, did not need it. The first realized that you can curry favor with Count Pavlin, and headed for the palace. Dame, he ordered silence about the violence, then she will live.

Count Peacock, seeing that his children caught the golden hen, did not scold them for an after-hour visit. They were paid for the delivery of the singer, which was hard to miss. The wardrobe found clothes for the singer. After talking, Count Peacock asked her to voluntarily stay for a week. He demanded that she sing three songs every night without musical accompaniment; he could not stand her more singing.

Victoria Lvovna got into a painfully familiar golden cage: a bedroom, a terrace, a small courtyard with flowers – that was all she could see. Few people knew that she was the wife of Count Pavlin, that they both could not live long without the sea.

Victoria Lvovna was treated with caution, but they were not allowed anywhere. Count Peacock did not insist on intimacy with her, he quenched his passion with Allah and was elementarily empty. He had no desires, but he could not deny himself the pleasure of seeing the brilliant singer on her territory again, especially since she herself got into the network of the yacht. A little effort from his people – and she is at his home of her own free will.

In the evening, Victoria Lvovna did not appear in the boarding house.

It was a warm night. The moon slept behind the clouds. The crickets quietly chatter. Glowing fireflies. Bella agreed to take the package to the caretaker in the morning, while she looked out the window. In her head were questions Ilya. She liked the detective more and more. Their souls seemed to be playing on the same wave of interests.

Ilya at this time looked out the window and dreamed of Bella. Their feelings are connected somewhere in the night sky. They dreamed. Then at the same time they went to bed and dreamed of each other.

Alla was lying with her eyes open. Yura was sleeping next to her. Her two partners, Count Peacock and Yura, went through her thoughts. Then, with offense, she recalled how Count Peacock had given her to the two guards after him, shuddered at the horror of the memories. The third time he did not touch her at all, he immediately gave it to the same guards, while he himself sat in his chair, drank red wine from a glass, and watched their actions. She shuddered in disgust. Her nerves were on the edge, I wanted to cry, sob, but she was silent, like a hunted beast. She fell asleep and moaned a little in her sleep.

Singer Victoria Lvovna lay in a golden bedroom, more like a golden cage. No one disturbed her, but she was scared, terrified and hurt. Among gold and luxury there was no simple TV, there was no radio, there were no books and magazines. She lay and looked into the dark night outside the window, which looked out onto the veranda, and the windows of the veranda looked out into a small flower garden, then – one big fence… Victoria Lvovna sighed sadly and remembered that she lost her favorite bag on wheels with she thought about the sailor from the yacht and fell asleep.

Count Peacock slept alone. Two guards, with whom he shared with Alla, slept behind his door, sitting in chairs. His conscience did not torment him, he grew old. Women needed him less and less. Alla already started it twice, which was already a great rarity and a joy for him. And the guards, he was supposed to please? So he shared his last love, as the last piece of bread. He thought that Alla would be silent about it.

Morning shed rain. In the boarding house, everyone sat in their rooms, and in the dining room they walked along the transitions between the buildings. Musicians raked rackets on the white balls. A knock and a shout could be heard far down the corridors of the building. The musician director was sitting alone in the room, he was thinking about a powder that cost a lot of money, although it was not a drug (that was its value), and the effect on the human body was quite definite – a sleeping pill. He already knew that they had fished the suitcase, but how to get it? Ilya himself came to his room and asked directly about the powder. The musician director shuddered.

– Where is Victoria Lvovna? – Ilya asked the director-musician.

“I don’t know that,” the musician shyly shuddered.

– Did she have a white powder in her suitcase?

– There was, but it is not a drug, it is a sleeping pill, a sedative, not compressed into tablets at the request of the customer.

– Where is the powder for whom he? – Ilya continued the interrogation.

– From a pharmaceutical factory. Who was meant, I do not know. I had to take it to the caretaker of the tower. The further path of the powder is not known to me.

– I’ll give you the powder, you will take it to the caretaker, and we will see where it goes further. Do you agree?

– I have no choice. And about the singer Victoria Lvovna – she must wait a week, if she doesn’t appear, then look for her. With her, this already happened, she ran away from everyone.

– Here is the powder. Act as agreed.

Ilya, closing the door, felt lightness because it was not necessary for Bella to be involved in this matter. She was dear to him.

The rain stopped. People began to leave the buildings. Four of the case headed for the dance veranda. Ilya, seeing their procession, approached them closer.

“Bella, I don’t want to go to your town,” said Pasha.

“Who would doubt that,” said Bella, distressed.

“That’s right, Bella and I will go home to ourselves,” Alla said without emotion.

“We will leave for our homes, and this will be the end of it,” said Yura indifferently.

– Men, and where is the singer Victoria Lvovna, did you help her escape? – asked Bella, depicting an interest in someone else’s fate.

“Slaughter, you can’t hide anything from you!” Yes, we brought it to the pier. The yacht was waiting on the horizon. “They sent out a boat for Victoria Lvovna,” answered Pasha.

“Why did you find her things?” – Alla asked.

“I don’t know that,” answered Pasha honestly.

– I wonder where she is now? – Alla asked, without contacting anyone.

– Alla, she is where you were, – said Yura irritably.

– What? She has Count Pavlin? – blurted out jealously Alla.

– And you want him? – Pasha asked sarcastically.

– Want! I want, and that’s all! Yes, I want to see him, but he does not want me, and now he still has this singer Victoria Lvovna! – Alla shouted.

“Alla, we can take you to Peacock’s palace on a white boat, he goes there in a day,” Yura told her with mocking notes in her voice.

– I will leave myself! – shouted Alla, full of jealousy to the rival.

– That’s what love came to! The woman to the peasant was going to go, and he has another one! – yelled Yura.

– Dont spoil spirit! There is no money, otherwise it would have gone, Alla shouted.

– Alla, so we will scrape you on the track, – said Yura, – we will carry you to the ship, and you will become the owner – maybe you will not forget about us.

– Oh, radishes! Here are fun! – Alla started and left the terrace.

“Bella, where are you going?” Do you play dominoes? – asked Pasha.

– Ilya did not scoff at me like you! Pasha, do not come to me anymore! I believe that I worked pension, – said Bella.

Ilya listened to all four of them and quietly left his vantage point in the bushes. He realized that the singer would return, even if not immediately, but he would return. The white yacht in these places was only at Count Pavlina. Ilya went to report on the events to the director of the boarding house: everyone has a boss in his life. The director should know everything, but almost nobody knew him or saw him.

The director of the boarding house was an unforgettable gentleman, he calmly sat in the office as a simple official with the usual name Ivan Sergeevich. But the fact that the director of the boarding house, Ivan Sergeyevich Pavlinov and the notorious Count Peacock, is one person, few people knew. Illya himself did not know this, he only guessed, telling the director everything he knew.

Alla could have recognized the director, but Yura did not see him when they were at his castle. For them and their love, Count Peacock, out of boredom, watched through a cunning mirror: he saw them, and they did not see him. And who will let Alla to the director? No one! But about the wishes of Alla, Ilya informed the director of the boarding house.

The director gave Ilya a prize. Detective, happy, went to his gatehouse to play dominoes.

Count Peacock thought. It turns out that Alla did not forget him. Moreover, she was jealous of him! It was a complete surprise. It was a pleasant surprise!

“Oh, how boring,” he thought. “I know everything, there is no serious opponent.”

– There is! Said the Count Peacock, sitting deep in it. “We need Bella to watch the caretaker when they give him the powder.”

He called Ilya.

– Ilya, Ivan Sergeyevich is bothering you, make your wise Bella follow the music director when he passes the powder to the superintendent. Do not miss the moment. Let her lead this powder to Count Peacock!

– It will be done, now everything is at dinner, I will meet them at the dining room, – Ilya mentally grinned, but kept himself from commenting.

– Take the car! It is important for Bella to see the moment of transfer of the goods, tear her off from those accompanying her under any pretext! On the map of honor boarding!

Count Peacock loved to be a two-faced Ivan Sergeyevich.

Ilya looked into the dining room: the musicians ate, drank. On the lap of the musician-director lay the package, the goods were in place. All four were assembled. He went to his table, ate quickly, went to Belle. Pasha made a displeased face. Bella approached Ilya.

– Bella, come with me! You and I will go to the tower.

“Interesting, let’s go, Illya,” Bella said and waved to the others.

Bella and Ilya, without looking around, went to the central exit of the boarding house, where there was a company car for traveling. He himself got behind the wheel.

“Bella, I’ll give you a lift, but I shouldn’t be near you, you will follow the entrance to the tower.” There is an assumption that today smuggling will be transferred to the superintendent. You follow up who will give him the package, try to see the one to whom the caretaker will then give the package. Here are pencils, paper. You sit and draw, you will not pay attention. You told the caretaker that you were an artist, so draw the waves of the sea from nature.

Ilya took Bella to the tower and disappeared into the side of the city market. She sat down to draw. The caretaker himself went up to Bella and asked:

– Girl, you have no memory at all? Decided to draw waves from life? Draw, but do not bother me. If you were still a little away from the tower, on that boulder.

– OK, I’ll switch. What a beautiful wave today!

– What did you find in them? And, all artists are miserable, that they are offended, – said the caretaker and went to the tower.

Twenty minutes later the musician director appeared. He sat down at the caretaker, then went up to the observation deck, and went downstairs without a package. Bella noticed the package, but she also noticed that there was no package in the hands of the returning music director. The caretaker after the departure of the musician director cheered up.

– Oh, draws. See you, and the waves are as alive. Girl, and you really artist! I would give my waves, I’ll hang them on the wall.

– I’ll give you one drawing, today the waves have turned out well, but I still need to finish them a little.

– Okay, draw, girl, just draw me.

Bella had the feeling that the caretaker had taken a hundred grams of vodka or more per soul and was drunk and excited. She sat, painted and did not turn her head towards the caretaker. Half an hour passed before the yacht appeared.

The caretaker with a bag went to the shore, took the boat…

– Oh wait! I want to ride with you! Shouted Bella.

– Girl, why are you attached to me? The caretaker asked.

“I am not for you, I have become attached to the waves,” Bella said and climbed into the caretaker’s boat. Figure she left under the boulder.

– Ok, floated on the yacht.

– Why did you bring a woman? – asked the sailor in a disgruntled voice.

– This is not a woman, but an artist. She draws waves, she wants to ride with you.

– Can i?! – Bella shouted her question.

– Sit down and do not bother me, but here we will only return by evening.

The bag of white powder disappeared into the hold of the yacht. Bella sat on the stern. The men were talking. The caretaker got into his boat and swam to the shore. The yacht took the course known to Bella on the boat excursion. She sat, watched, was silent. The last thing she noticed on the shore was the car of Ilya. The superintendent told him something. Ilya went and took a picture under a boulder.

The yacht picked up speed. The rescue tower has disappeared from view. Bella men were extremely indifferent, they perceived her as a wretched person, drawing waves. It looked like a rather nondescript gray mouse. This singer Victoria Lvovna was all of herself. She jumped out of her dress while walking. And Bella had it all closed, and she herself was boring. Sailors Buek and Ledok immediately forgot about it.

The yacht was met on the quay by Count Pavlin himself in elegant light-colored clothes. Bella noticed that the package was taken by Buyek to the side door of the castle. And at that moment Count Peacock approached her. He said that he already knew that she was an artist, and he had an order for her.

Bella immediately grew up in her own eyes. They entered the Peacock Palace. It seemed to her that the number of mirrors in the castle was greater than the number of the walls themselves, she was reflected on all sides and quickly felt that her clothes did not fit the castle much.

Count Peacock noticed a change in her mood, but he continued to show an art gallery consisting of only peacocks depicted on canvases.

“Bella, I need a peacock amidst sea waves.” I have a live peacock, it must be drawn against the background of the sea. Can you handle this job?

– I think yes.