Palmist. Books 1,2,3. Tsvetana Alеkhina
How bitter it is.
– Yes, a sad fate.
– And this one did not die a natural death.
– I have already had a look. Stop mourning everyone.
– Lyosha is right. The whole world cannot be saved. You know how many of these I have already washed.
– He fell in love with a dancer yesterday and is eager to save her. He says she should not die her own death.
– With such zeal you gather troubles on your head.
– «I know about that, too. That is what I have been afraid of since childhood. Troubles on your head. And Sultana, yes, she charmed me. But I can’t see her like my ears. She is already gone.
– Who knows? Never say never. I need to wash these two corpses, and then the autopsy. I am still studying. I work at night, on corpses that have no relatives. Then, over time, I will become a better pathologist. He uttered these words with such pride that Amir and Lyosha looked at him with admiration. – Sometimes it’s quiet, almost no one. And sometimes there are such nights that there is not enough day. I study during the day, the same place as you.
– And how do you know Igor?
– Our parents are friends.
At the same time, in the restaurant, the door of the basement in which Sultana was located opened, and the guard shouldered her and carried her to the car. Of course, no one saw it. Everyone was busy serving tables, the Wine was dancing its folk dance, the chefs were preparing an order and trying to watch the performance, the waiters were running around the hall and could not cope with the work, the music was playing loudly, and no one heard or saw anything. Sultana was thrown into the back seat of the car, the door slammed shut, and she realized that this was the end. Arthur was sitting in the front seat. The same security guard they had talked to at lunch got behind the wheel. Sultana recognized him; he was there too on the day she was abducted from her father’s house. She quickly ran over, looked into his eyes, and took her gaze away.
– «Don’t fall for her tricks. Otherwise, you will suffer the same fate as her late fiance. The driver drove the car in silence and occasionally threw quick glances at the back seat. He was afraid of Arthur’s anger. Arthur nervously negotiated in Russian so that Sultana and the driver would not understand anything. Arthur did not know that the driver had learned Russian while working for him and was silent about it. Arthur tried to behave with restraint so as not to spoil the deal. The driver understood what was going on, wanted to release the steering wheel of the car, but restrained himself in time and pretended that he did not understand anything. He worked only as a personal driver for Arthur and spoke to him only in Lao. This man realized that now everything depends only on him.
– Now we will come to a cozy place. Take this girl and give her to a very useful little man. Then you take me and come back, this little man will return it to you, and you will get rid of it. When you get rid of her, you will need to get rid of the corpse so that this corpse will never be caught anywhere under any circumstances. There are too many corpses. Bury her in an unmarked grave, or I do not know where. He made these speeches so easily that the driver could not help but keep silent, but he kept silent. He began to drive noticeably slower, and Arthur noticed it. Do you feel sorry for her? Do you want to lie down next to her on an unmarked grave?
Sultana heard everything. Her eyes widened. She became even colder from the horror she heard. The clothes she was wearing did not warm her. It was no longer hot outside, and she froze over. Her teeth were chattering, probably from fear, and her body was covered with goosebumps. She took a handkerchief that was lying next to her; maybe someone left it, and wrapped herself in it. Arthur nervously negotiated in Russian so that Sultana and the driver would not understand anything. The driver turned his head to the back seat, and made it clear with a gesture that this was a sign. Sultana quickly understood everything and took hold of the door handle. The driver pressed the pedal and accelerated the jeep. Arthur got scared and started swearing loudly. The car reached a high speed and crashed into an oncoming car rushing at the same speed. The car braked sharply, and making a turn put Arthur sitting next to him under attack. It turned out to be a cool accident. Both cars were smashed. Arthur’s driver received severe blows, but he was able to get out and stood on his feet.
The ambulance and the police arrived quickly. There were four victims, Arthur and Sultana were unconscious. The driver of the oncoming Jeep was dead. His two passengers sitting in the back seat were injured and were in serious condition. The police examined the accident and tried to identify the culprit. The ambulance examined the injured and carried Arthur and Sultana away on a stretcher. There was a car nearby to take the body to the morgue. While the police recorded the death, the driver stared intently at Sultana’s body, which was lying on a stretcher next to the ambulance.
– Well, let us go?
– Yes, bring the gurney in.
The deceased body was also standing next to the waiting car, and the police turned their backs on him, discussing something. There was no time to delay. And Arthur’s Driver decided to do it, knowing that he himself would soon become the same body. He swapped the bodies, not knowing how he did it, but he could. His body was trembling from the fear he had experienced, from what he had done, but he knew what he was going for— – I hope, he said faintly, that she knows what to do next. He covered her face and helped her roll the gurney into the car.
– Thank you, he heard. He nodded his head in response and quickly walked to the ambulance to fix the headscarf on the head of the deceased as soon as possible, which he removed from the Sultan and carefully covered the man’s face with it. He wrapped this corpse in a sheet so carefully that everyone thought it was her fiance.
– This must be your fiancee?
– Yes. This is true. He said in broken Russian. She is a Muslim; she is not allowed to show her beauty. The doctors smiled and gestured for him to go with his fiancee. Arthur was unconscious, and this poor guy was afraid of the day when he would come to his senses. He did not take decisive steps towards the ambulance, and he had to go with them. After getting into the car with them, he put his hand to his heart and groped there for his driver’s license and passport, believing that God himself was smiling at him in heaven. This man decided to run. Run wherever you want. Moreover, he had earned money. And he ran away as soon as the ambulance arrived at the hospital.
The car arrived at the morgue in parallel with the ambulance. While the ambulance was processing the patients, a stretcher with a corpse was brought into the morgue. The ambulance found the substitution of corpses and raised the boil. – Which morgue was the living girl taken to?
– What is the difference? If she is alive, then she will be delivered by herself. You do not have enough work. Let us make out the corpse now. Where to deliver it? Call your relatives? Relatives were waiting in the morgue for the corpse of the deceased. A phone call alerted them to the substitution.
– How is this even possible? Does that happen? To confuse a living person with a dead one, and even a man with a woman. Where to complain. Roman heard the indignant woman’s voice receding. And entering the room, he threw off the covers from the corpse.
– This corpse is rootless. But I’m sorry to send her to a mass grave. The time was about three o’clock in the morning. But this boiling dispelled the dream in the whole morgue. Amir and Lyosha approached the girl and froze. She was lying in front of them. Sultana was actually lying like a corpse, but there was still a glimmer of life in her.
– She is alive!
– How? And she’s really alive. Sultana opened her eyes. She lay motionless as a corpse and moved her eyes from side to side. From the recent events that she had to go through, she decided that she had been brought to be killed, and there were already corpses lying next to her, working for Arthur.
– «They’re already dead. I am next. She thought, and after looking at Lyosha and Roma, she