I went to the bathroom to wash my hands. The running water carried away the fatigue from my fingers and the imprint of an aura distorted by suffering. I could have used Power to clean myself, but the old folk methods are still the best.
'Why are you ordering me about?' Lera said darkly when I got back.. 'But thank you, the massage was good... I'll just be a moment!'
I waited for her to come back from the toilet, clearly shocked by the speed and efficiency with which her organism was being purged. Once she had sat down, I explained.
'You're pregnant. You shouldn't drink now.'
'My period is due to start tomorrow,' Lera retorted so furiously that I realised she could sense it. Through sheer feminine intu ition, without any outside help, she had realised she was pregnant. Then she had rejected the idea and started binge-drinking.
'It won't start.'
She didn't argue. She didn't even ask how I knew. Probably she put it down to the wonders of oriental medicine. She asked:
'Why would I want a child without a husband?'
'That's for you to decide,' I said. 'I'm not going to try to persuade you either way'
'Who are you?' Lera finally asked.
'Gorodetsky. Anton Gorodetsky. I'm from Moscow. I ... I was asked to investigate the circumstances of Victor's death.'
Lera sighed and said bitterly:
'Vitya's father using his contacts... What's the point now...'
'To find out the truth.'
'The truth...'The girl poured herself some water and drained the glass in one. Her body was driving her blood through her kidneys at a furious rate, removing the alcohol and its metabolic products. 'Victor was killed by a vampire.'
'Vampires don't exist, Lera.'
'I know. But what do you do when a guy says "There's someone drinking my blood", and then they find him with a bite mark on his throat and no blood left in his body?'
There was a subtle note of hysteria in her voice.
'I checked the channel that the boat was sailing in,' I said.
'There's blood in it. A lot of blood. Calm down, Lera. Vampires really don't exist. Someone killed your friend. He bled to death. That's terrible, it's cruel, but vampires don't exist.'
She said nothing for about a minute. Then she asked:
'Why didn't the police tell me that?'
'They have their reasons. They're afraid of leaks of information. Perhaps they even suspect you of something.'
That didn't frighten her at all - in fact, it seemed to make her angry.
'The bastards. I can't get to sleep, I get sloshed on whisky in the evenings. Yesterday I almost dragged some guy into bed... I'm afraid to be alone, understand? Afraid. And they don't tell me anything... Excuse me, I'll just be a moment.'
I waited for her to come back from the toilet, then said:
'I must have overdone it a bit with the massage. But I'm not a professional, I've just picked up a few moves.'
'The things they teach your crowd,' Lera said, and I realised she was as certain that I worked for the KGB as the young Frenchman in the Dungeons had been. We're all children of mass culture. We all believe in its cliches. You don't even need any documents if you behave like a secret agent in an action movie.
'Lera, I want to ask you to make an effort to recall all the circumstances of Victor's death,' I said. 'I know you've said it all over and over again. But please try.'
'We got into that stupid boat,' Lera began. 'I almost fell over, it was a very awkward step down, a long way, and I couldn't see the bottom of the boat in the darkness.'
'Tell me everything from the very beginning. Start from the moment when you got up that morning. Every detail.'
Lera's eyes glinted mischievously.
'Well... we woke up at ten, we missed breakfast. Then we had sex. Then we went into the shower, and we got a bit carried away in there...'
I nodded and smiled benevolently as I listened to the girl's story, which really did include all the details. And when she broke into tears, I waited for a few minutes without saying anything. The tears stopped and Lera shook her head. She looked into my eyes.
'We went into a pub, the Oak and Ribbon, and had some thing to eat. We drank a pint of beer each. It was hot, and then we saw the sign for that damned tourist show. Victor thought it would be interesting. Or at least that it would be cool inside. So we went in.'