Val went over and pulled the lid off it. I shone the flashlight.
Inside lay a girl of about twenty. Preserved it is not important. His skin was mottled and his nose was crooked. But judging by her hair, she couldn't have been too old – she lived in the seventies or early eighties – and she smelled awful.
I knew who it was.
"From the collection of Rosenthal, Jr. Remember when I told you how the lawyer used to brag about his Museum? He then still told, until what jealousy brings. Here is outcome.
- Yeah, so he here, perhaps, necrophilia handled? "What?" said his colleague.
I looked doubtfully at the girl:
"I don't know.…
Val waved his hand:
"Oh, come on. Look, is there somewhere to hide? Let's try to film him doing it sometime.
"We'll see... but even if that's not why he kept her here... Why would he want it?
"Neither do I, but perverts are hard to understand. He and grandpa must look alike... it reminds me of something. Remember the story about the vodka millionaire? He was in love with a stripper, and she needed money for drugs, she was blackmailing him. From club, where worked, exits she feared. He sent men, they killed her, sawed her into pieces and carried her out in dress boxes. Then everyone tried to guess as she secured the dressing room is gone…
"Yes, I remember. He glued it together and kept it in a tank of alcohol as a memory of a broken love... but didn't Rosenthal kill this one?
Who knows... Okay, let's go. I'll have to come back with a camera sometime...
We got out on the street. It was nice to get out of the stinking basement full of dismembered corpses and into the fresh air. Besides, when we went around the building, began to come across, finally, signs of the presence of the owner. At the back entrance to the house stood nine Lada, two Windows next to the door could be seen the dim glow of candles.
We walked up to the nines. The back door was a different color, so it had been changed.
– It was her client who knocked over Serega.
The candlelight suddenly went out. From the house came the sound of a door closing.
Did he hear us?"
But he did not hear. From around the corner of the house, where we had managed to hide, we saw a tall, thin man saunter out of the door. He walked over to the car, got into the driver's seat, and started the engine. After warming up the engine, he turned and drove slowly towards the gate.
Val whispered:
"It looks like Rosenthal." At least, growth-accurately his.
– B... not enough to miss it now. Well, the road is bad here. He wouldn't go fast.
* * *
We were lucky. When we reached Moskvich, the stern lights of the nine were still flashing in the distance. To the same, have Zhiguli was something with a silencer, and from-for crackling his engine Rosenthal could hardly hear our Moskvich, and we not lost his even for wild swings. We didn't turn on the headlights.
Valera was driving, the agent was dozing, and I looked out the window at the night forest and tried to understand what our investigation had led to... there were still too many Questions.
First of all, is it unclear whether everything we have found is related to each other? And if so, when and how did the story begin? This fall, when someone mutilated the dead casino owner? Or before that, when the Rosenthals had wandered the graveyards at night for some obscure reason? Perverts among them could fall, but they certainly were, but in the succession necrophilia, I still did not believe. That would be crazy.
At the same time, the horrors told by Rosenthal's Deputy were not pure gossip. Over the years of breeding journalistic ducks, I've probably learned to tell a made-up story from a real one. Pavlov told it all quite well, and in General his story looked plausible enough, but still he clearly did not finish something... What? And why?I couldn't understand it yet.
Nor could I understand who had killed the two women in the funeral home. Nina's case was a long time ago, and I don't think we'll be able to find out anything about it. But with the Light we're screwed. Her death was on my conscience, I should have been more careful ... Someone overheard our conversation or saw her looking through the papers.
As far as the papers concerned Rosenthal's case, the first candidate for murder was, I think, him... But it's not that simple. If we assume that the evil comes from one person, it is hardly possible to believe that the funeral of Stashenko also spoiled Rosenthal, who was beaten for it for a long time and painfully, and then hung up on him a bunch of grandmothers.
In principle, a suspicious figure can be considered Pavlov, who was alone in the office when we found Sveta's body. But why would he do that to the chief? Undermining the business of Rosenthal, he loses a lot of money, may be out of work. At the same time, any of the staff could have been bought by the owners of a rival funeral home. The money in this area revolve sufficiently large, the case of the Rosenthal until then it was quite good, and the game was worth the candle.
But what was most interesting to me was how the sabotage at the morgue had to do with The rosenthals ' hereditary weirdness. Of course, events could simply coincide in time, but I wanted to believe that there is a connection here. It would have turned the whole story into one big, well-twisted plot, with every detail in its place and everything explained at the end... but that explanation was yet to be found.