Daughter, how you have grown! - Exclaimed the father and scooped me up in an armful, as soon as he went into the hallway, - but she got prettier!

“Oh, PA, I’m already twenty with a decent ponytail and I’m not growing,” I squeaked, feeling that from these words a smile from ear to ear was spreading across my face.

“How I missed you,” I turned to my mother and took her bag from which fresh and juicy carrots stuck out.

- So you would come, Anzhelika Vladimirovna, - MA teased me without malice, - you see, there were no corpses in the vicinity, and the police would not interview you.

- Maria! The girl is stressed, and you are starting!” PA said angrily in such a tone, which he probably speaks to his students, only there is not enough pointer in his hand.

“I’ll be quiet, Vladimir Ivanovich,” my mother said conciliatoryly and, smiling, picked up a small box with tomatoes grown by her own hands in the village.

Every summer they try to spend there, in the house inherited from their grandmother. They take a break from everyone and just gain strength. When the vacation period ends, they come to the city, but live in their kopeck piece, not very far from me. And now, those who came for a short period, of course, it is better for them to stay here, because there is enough space, the refrigerator is not empty, and still together, and this is important for us. I am the only child in the family, that's how we live. Again, the borscht on the stove is almost ready, hot, with ribs.

- Volodya, - after a while, a sonorous voice of MA was heard from the hall, - look at what a wonderful bouquet. I hope not from this crook!

After all the circumstances of my divorce were clarified (I informed my parents after the fact that Artyom’s last thing was packed and put out the door with my own hand), my mother could not even hear about Kursk without excitement and indignation, which means she was completely and completely on my side. Everything inside me was already boiling over, resentment and pain, misunderstanding, but the fact that recently the ex-husband again began to persistently stir up my healing wounds with his calls, visits, the past was in no hurry to finally heal.

- Likusya, is this really a gift from a man, - dad stroked his somewhat protruding belly and unconsciously adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose, - although what am I talking about, you are beautiful with us, so they are all afraid to approach you, they know that even the little finger is not stand.

“Dad, mom, I love you very much too,” answering her father’s compliment, which is so natural for a loving parent, she went to the kitchen to sort out “gifts from the village”, cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, ready-rolled cans of vegetables, currants and grapes and raspberries . In fact, my father is a professor, a biologist, teaches at the university and generally travels a lot around the country, so our vegetables and fruits grow strictly according to science. Mom is an assistant professor at the same university, she is only engaged in zoology, and they only have fish from living creatures, and even they have now taken their temporary refuge in a small thirty-liter aquarium on my table, right next to the flower basket.

- Will you introduce us to him? - Mom's voice came from the bathroom, - we'll have a little rest and you can drink some tea, dad comes down for a cake.

-Of course, you can even stronger, what about a seagull at once. Cognac has been disappearing for a long time, it can fade, - Pa's cheerful voice came from the room.

“You have blood pressure, and the weather is hot today,” MA answered him, rattling basins in the bathroom.

- No, we just met yesterday, - for some reason I felt very cheerful, - so today, perhaps, we'll go for a walk, sit. I think it's too early to meet.

- Maria, did you hear what your daughter is saying! She spends time with someone and it is not clear where, but we cannot see this comrade, - the father said with a joke.

"She's as much yours as mine, dear professor," MA retorted in a timely manner.

How much fun we have when we are together!

An hour later, Katrina came and we finally all sat down at the table together. Her parents just shook the story out of her in the rest home, and a friend took the rap for the two of us, because I already told my somewhat shortened version on the phone.

A call from Dan, it was not a surprise and to be honest, I was waiting for it. No, I didn’t get bored with my parents in any way, they just sat down to their own business. My father was reading some notes, my mother was checking the work that her student had recently brought. Everything is as usual.

- Hello, - a familiar voice was heard, - how was the meeting with the parents.

-Hello, - I got up from the sofa, on which I sat so comfortably with a book and went to my room, but I definitely noticed that my parents immediately pretended to be very busy. Oh, no, dad winked at me, and then mom, - everything is fine.

- My friend is having a party tonight, how are you? Not against? This is outside the city, in Oseevka. Nature, kebabs, near a reservoir, a standard set.

- Well, actually, no, I don’t mind, - I answered, because I passed many times through this elite, in my opinion, village, located five kilometers from the city.

- Okay, the uniform is free. Wait, I'll be with you in half an hour, - Dan said, as it seemed to me in a pleased tone, and hung up.

With smiles and a very busy look, my parents watched me as I rushed around the apartment. No, I didn’t remind myself of a teenager, but still ... strangers, a strange environment. And what to wear?!

Denis Bodrov surprised me. Not with some kind of slightly tense look, not with a smile that slipped into the nervously twitching corner of her lips at the sight of me, no. Today he drove up in a silver Foltz, the car is obviously new, but still simpler than yesterday's camper. Not otherwise he has a taxi company.

-Where is the tank? - I turned to Dan, who confidently taxied in the stream of cars that decided for some reason to go with us in the same direction from the city.- Can you imagine, I come in the morning to the garage. Guarded. And on the side of the door there is a skull with bones, as if painted with a nail, - my companion said with bitterness and anger quite sharply.

- Horror. Is there video surveillance anywhere nearby? - For some reason, I really believed that the one who scratched his house would pay dearly for this and regret it more than once.

- That's the hell, there are so many equipment poked around, you won't fit without an invisibility cap, - in an annoyed tone, which Dan was clearly trying to smooth out in communication with me, there was bewilderment, - and some nonsense on the video. I personally tracked it in the morning, almost every minute, there was not a single person there.

“How is that,” I replied in confusion. Perhaps he didn’t notice this scratch yesterday when he put the car in the garage, and it only caught his eye this morning. “But if there was no one, and she appeared, then maybe you drove the car into the garage with her yesterday? There, for example, a call distracted or something.

My words were followed by an abrupt stop, a squeal of tires... For some reason, I felt very uneasy, because what do I know about him? Well, I read something incomprehensible on the Internet, they deal with some kind of phones and related equipment and that's it. Now he will get angry and go bankrupt, although it is better now than when we leave the city. Look how often he breathes, he is trying to cope with himself. The pedestal, which I began to erect for Denis, became a step lower, it did not otherwise grow into the ground because of his intemperance.

“Yes, I myself thought about it several times,” Bodrov answered almost calmly a minute later, “you see, there is a record where my door is absolutely smooth when I pass by security, and after ten hours spent in the parking lot such a vinaigrette, and more accurately a picture. The camera accurately showed that no one had entered that part of the underground garage.

- Some kind of nonsense, but the recording did not stop, - I made my modest contribution to guesses. Although if he looked at everything himself, he probably understands something in this, and no one will hide it, because it is probably fraught with flirting with such a person.

- No, nowhere. The dog flashed several times on the frame, but the guards said that some kind of dog was running, they kicked her out, and the dog would not be able to do this, whatever one may say.

“Well, yes, of course,” I trailed off and stared out the side window. The breeze worked through my hair, distracting me from thoughts of the scratched camper. I liked it yesterday, convenient, comfortable, just perfect, like this Foltz, and I have no idea who played a cruel joke with Bodrov. Perhaps competitors or the same advanced work colleagues who changed something, replaced it in the video. Or the guards themselves are hiding something, but again there is a record ... some kind of vicious circle.

***

- Yo .. Shkin cat! - That's how it was possible to literally and decently translate Bodrov's continuous five-minute exclamations when he approached his last four-wheeled acquisition, a black jeep. On the door on the driver's side was a neatly drawn skull with empty eye sockets laid out, and at the bottom a pair of crossed bones. At the sight of this painting above the door, a "micardial infarction" could have cut down any healthy man, but Denis was a tough nut to crack, although he fell into a stupor, there is nothing to hide. Two weeks from date of purchase... Well, if this fucking Rembrandt falls into the hands ... the picture will be projected onto the restless nature ...

The guards flew around the office like slop cats on a fence, trying in vain to figure out who this entertaining cartoonist was. But when exactly this happened, no one could understand. There was absolutely nothing to complain about, because he, Bodrov, personally supervised the installation of cameras, and, having tracked the material, he saw absolutely nothing, but that was already strange. A furry dog ​​flashed in the viewing area and nothing more.

I didn’t want to go anywhere, but the one who hoped to break Bodrov by this was cruelly mistaken, such things only incite his technically built brain, although they distract him from other things. He definitely decided not to postpone the trip, the boss would not forgive such a thing, especially since CAM called in the morning. But once again, scrolling through what he saw on the recording in his head, voicing it to Lika in order to detect at least some clue, his nerves almost gave out, and this is already bad. And all her assumption is that already in the evening in this form the car was affixed to the garage ...

Taking a deep breath several times, mentally chastising himself for such an idea in front of a stranger, Denis looked at his hands. They didn’t tremble, which is a good sign, because otherwise he would have really wanted to break something, hit him. There was a boxing machine at home, which daily replaced a sparring partner who needed to be beaten. Having calmed down, Dan continued the conversation, still not enough to scare the girl, although no, glancing sideways at her, she had the same expression on her face. Impenetrable, that's good, less saliva and tears when parting.

The path turned to the familiar house of Maxim Petrovich and Dan mentally figured out who the chief accountant arrived earlier or he himself, oh, this eternal involuntary rivalry with quite normal and even somewhat friendly relations, but nothing personal.

***

The house we drove up to was a two-story building made of logs surrounded by a high fence. As soon as the car approached, the gate opened and we entered the territory. Yes, there is no smell of beds like in our country house here, only gravel decorative paths, a lawn and generally a solid design are all around. Beauty, and only.

- Denis Andreevich, good afternoon, - a bald-headed man of a rather severe appearance, who at first glance seemed to be about fifty years old, greeted my companion, - would you introduce me to a companion?

- Good afternoon, Maxim Petrovich, of course. This is Angelica, ”Bodrov introduced me in a rather respectful tone, which immediately became clear that if this was a friend, then they were at several different levels of service, I would even say that I was in front of a boss, or, in extreme cases, a very respected colleague with great experience.