Daria Desombre: The Sin Collector

A couple of minutes later, Andrey returned, fully awake now. He kissed her on the cheek and poured some hot water over the grounds in the new Turkish coffee pot. Yesterday, in a weird housekeeping frenzy, they had even bought extra coffee for the future.

Once the coffee was ready, they sat down at the table. Masha warmed her hands around her mug. Andrey made himself a ham sandwich. They looked at each other awkwardly. Their first breakfast together. Andrey put his sandwich down and reached across the table, palm facing up. Masha smiled and put her hand in his.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” Andrey said, with the confidence of someone who has slept well and woken up in a good mood.

Masha nodded, and urged him back to his bread and ham with her eyes.

Andrey laughed. “Who do you take me for, Marilyn Monroe?” he asked and took a huge bite, then a swig from his mug.

“I was thinking,” Masha began, then stopped.

“Yes?”

“I was thinking that I was wrong to treat Innokenty that way. I was just so scared. First my stepfather…” She gripped her coffee cup a little tighter. “And then they took my mom to the hospital, and Kenty told me about his family, and then all those pictures…” She looked up at him. “But none of that means anything, Andrey! I know Kenty inside out. I’d have to be insane to suspect him of murder! Cliché as it may sound, he truly would not harm a fly. Do you believe me?”

Andrey nodded.

“I’ve known forever that his family was unusual somehow. But that never mattered. I was too shy to ask about them back then, when we were kids, like, Why are your mom and dad so weird? I bet, if I had asked, he would have told me the truth. But I wasn’t curious enough. I was too obsessed with my own little demons. Then he picked the worst possible day to reveal that secret to me. As for the photographs…” Masha lowered her eyes and used her fork to trace a flourish on the tablecloth.

“Well, it’s pretty clear what they mean,” Andrey said, sighing.

“Sure,” said Masha, quietly. “I guess I must have known on some level, but I just never wanted to admit it to myself. I was so happy having him as my friend, but from a certain perspective, I was taking advantage of his feelings for me. I—well, to be honest, I’ve been a bad friend. A terrible friend!” Masha looked at Andrey sadly.

He wiped his mouth and made himself another sandwich. “There’s no point punishing yourself, Masha. Yesterday it was your mom, and today it’s Innokenty. Think about it. There’s no way you could possibly have been a good friend to him. We can’t be a good friend to someone who’s in love with us. Because our friendship will never give them what they really want. So we hurt them, no matter what. But Kenty’s a big boy and he made his own choices about your relationship. He had plenty of chances to tell you he loved you and see how you would have responded, try to win you over or whatever.”

Masha suddenly giggled. “‘Or whatever,’” she mimicked him. “What do you mean or whatever ?”

“Well,” said Andrey, pulling her by the hand over to his lap. “For example…”

Masha nodded thoughtfully. “Right. We all know how long and hard you courted me.”

“I’m more interested in the result than in the process,” Andrey whispered in her ear.

“Uh-huh. Kenty would be horrified if he knew how easy it was.”

“No, you’re not easy. You’re just—very selective.”

And with that momentous declaration, Andrey kissed her.

Unfortunately, Masha pulled away from him all too quickly. Andrey thought it must be the ham on his breath, but she was thinking of something else.

“I have to call Kenty and apologize.” In a kittenlike move, she gave his cheek a pat, and then took her phone out onto the veranda.

Andrey wondered how he could ever have been jealous of Kenty. Now he just felt sorry for him. He even felt sort of superior, which was really funny when he thought about it. He was finishing his coffee when Masha returned. She looked worried.

“He’s not answering. Not his cell and not his home phone, either. Where could he be?”

“Maybe his parents’ place?” Andrey suggested, putting the rest of the food back in the fridge.

“No,” Masha said, shaking her head thoughtfully. “He never spends the night there.”

“Hey now,” Andrey said, leading her toward the front door. “Don’t worry too much over him. And don’t get suspicious all over again. Maybe he’s just singing in the shower and didn’t hear the phone ring. Or maybe he got drunk last night to ease the pain, and he’s sleeping, with the phone switched off.”

“Innokenty, getting drunk?” Masha asked doubtfully.

“So you admit he sings in the shower, then?” Andrey teased as they climbed into his car. “A Verdi aria in the original Italian, I’ll bet, none of this pop music nonsense!”

Masha laughed, but sadly. Andrey laid a hand on her knee—this time for reassurance rather than romance.

“I’m going to drop you at the clinic to visit your mom. Spend as much time with her as you need. Then take a taxi straight to Petrovka, okay? I don’t want you out of arm’s reach.”

“All right,” Masha answered obediently, and her knee shook a little under his hand. “But you don’t need to worry, I told you—”

“You told me, and I heard you. The killer’s going after the people you love, not you. I heard that yesterday when you said it in the supermarket, too. So let’s frame it another way: you’ll be protecting me with your presence, okay?”

“Okay, okay! I’ll stay close by.”

They stopped by the store again to pick up some juice, Natasha’s favorite crackers, and some flowers. Half an hour later, he dropped her off in front of the clinic.

Andrey watched Masha walk in, and he spent a moment hoping that the events of the coming day wouldn’t add to her worries. Masha needs a break, he thought as he pulled out of the clinic parking lot. She needed an intermission, or she’d need to be admitted herself. Her heart already ached too much to let her brain make any logical connections. Maybe that was exactly what the Sin Collector was counting on. Maybe he was clobbering her with pain to switch off her mind? Did that mean that regardless of how pointless all their poking around had seemed, they were actually getting close? He hoped Masha could concentrate fully on her daughterly duties for now. A new little idea was dawning in Andrey’s head, and he wanted to check it out right away.

But the loud ringing of his phone disrupted that train of thought.

It was Fomin. “Andrey. Looks like we have a new body.”

“Hang on,” Andrey told him, and swerved sharply to park on the shoulder, ignoring the furious honking that followed. “Are you sure it’s one of ours?”

“Not positive, but seems like it. Last night, the fire department got called to Victory Park. The blaze was big enough to see from across the city. Then they found a burned corpse, and an ID with the name, uh, hold on…” Fomin rustled some papers. “Innokenty Arzhenikov. And since the place was the only one on our table outside the Boulevard Ring Road—Andrey? You still there?”

“Innokenty?” Andrey asked, his voice hoarse.

“Yeah, you know that name?”

“Yes, I do. He’s the guy who wrote that table.”

A short while later, he was back at the clinic. He spent some time sitting in the car, staring dumbly out the window, putting off the moment he would have to tell Masha the terrible news.

She had just finished talking with Nadya. The doctor, as stern and calm as ever in her white lab coat, had told her that Natasha was in stable condition. She wasn’t eating much and she was sleeping a lot, but that wasn’t surprising, given the sedatives she was on. But there was no need to worry. Nadya smiled then, for the first time.