an appointment with and for what purpose?
– I was alone and didn’t plan any meeting. Just walking. Don’t you believe me? – Pyotr Mikhailovich was genuinely surprised.
– I could believe it if it weren’t for the oddities in your behavior. Hence the question: when was the last time you took drugs? During the inspection, a toy elephant was seized from you. Why did you take him with you? Is that an identification mark?
The prisoner suddenly felt dizzy from excitement, but he answered with dignity, proudly raising his chin:
– This is an ordinary toy, nothing more.
– But you are not a child to carry toys with you. Well, you must agree – it’s very strange! – The word “strange” in his mouth sounded like a terrible accusation, Kalinkin noted to himself.
– Who did you want to give it to? Isn’t this a bookmark container? – the investigator squinted. – Witty. However, the examination will soon show whether there are traces of powder…
– Did you break the elephant? – Pyotr Mikhailovich could not stand it. – Galina will kill me!
– Galina is your accomplice?
– My wife, she’s at the village now.
– What happens, citizen? So, without your wife’s permission, you seized common property from the apartment and wanted to transfer it to a third party without her knowledge? Listen: it is in your own interests to refute the suspicions that have arisen and to prove the absence of the sale and storage of prohibited substances. You are in the status of a suspect, the measure is up to five years! – The man clearly enjoyed intimidating the unfortunate detainee.
– I didn’t have any drugs and I don’t have any. You’re confusing me in vain, – Kalinkin became emboldened, but the investigator has heard these speeches twenty times a day for the past ten years with a break for a short vacation once a year for a couple of weeks.
– Pyotr Mikhailovich, – the man looked into the questionnaire and changed his tone to almost affectionate, – well, judge for yourself: what kind of person in his right mind would go to the metro station for no reason, without a purpose, and even with a package containing a plastic toy and a calendar sheet with today’s date? So this piece of paper is a conditional sign?
– It’s just a leaf from the calendar, and I didn’t break anything, – Kalinkin fumed.
– Firstly, you violated it: during a special period you appeared in a public place without a mask and a security number, and secondly, you are now in a place where people don’t just get there… We will check everything and wait for the results of the examination. I warn you about criminal liability for giving false testimony. Sign here and here and here.
Pyotr Mikhailovich nervously and illegibly signed each sheet at the bottom, leaving some kind of squiggle, and then asked:
– What are the voluntary squads of the National Guard?
– A-a-a, – the investigator grinned. – This is, so to speak, an initiative of active segments of the population in pursuance of the Decree on the further development of democracy during the Great Restoration of the Country…
The policeman’s face became alien and impenetrable again.
– And now follow the employee for fingerprinting, you will have to issue a detention for a couple of days until all the circumstances are clarified.
Seeing the mute question in the innocent eyes of the arrested man and after being silent for a while, the man sharply slammed his hand on the table and added softly, typing every word:
– Pyotr Mikhailovich Kalinkin, whom you introduced yourself to, disappeared about five years ago and is wanted. Your appearance does not match the description and photo of the wanted person involved.
When the metal door of the detention cell screeched shut behind Pyotr Mikhailovich, he decided not to abuse the hospitality of the authorities and say goodbye to such a sad future, using a saving phrase:
– I want to go back! – However, there was no reaction. He broke into a cold sweat. Have you really forgotten? – Ah! he remembered. – I want to go back!!!
Time stopped, and the body, along with the sinless soul of Pyotr Mikhailovich, disappeared from the bullpen of the police department without a trace. When the loss was discovered in the evening, the police were surprised a lot, but due to the specifics of the service, they did not hesitate for a long time – and it happens occasionally. They simply withdrew the protocol of interrogation and the act of detention, as if they were not in nature, and that’s the end of it: who needs this Kalinkin, and without him, life is full of other worries.
When Galina Sergeevna Kalinkina returned home from the hospital a couple of weeks later, she found the elephant missing from the chest of drawers. Not that there is any value, but it’s just amazing: she remembered that the figure was always there, in the morning she dusted it with a rag. The elephant himself could not go anywhere! This iron argument and a woman’s insight made her take a closer look at the apartment, and on you: for some reason, a calendar sheet was torn out, there is the sixteenth of June and the eighteenth is in place, but there is no seventeenth. Some kind of devilry… She did not call her friends, but went to consult a neighbor. And neighbor told her about the visit of a strange man: he pestered her with questions, pretended to be a friend. Maybe he is the thief who broke into the apartment? True, it was embarrassing: the things and jewelry dear to her heart were in place, but the fact of penetration alarmed her so much that Galina Sergeevna decided to go to the police tomorrow, without a shake-up, with a statement about the theft. Moreover, this is exactly how they recommend acting on TV.
A man in civilian clothes questioned her, clearly not interested in this small matter. But when Kalinkina gave the address and announced the missing elephant, something cleared up in the investigator’s head, he immediately perked up and clarified:
– Is the calendar sheet missing?
And he was not surprised when he heard an easily predictable answer:
– Gone, gone, for June 17, 2026…
The investigator asked Galina Sergeevna to wait, and he went to the head of the department with a short report about the loss of a toy in the form of an elephant, a calendar sheet and a muddy man who disappeared from custody a couple of weeks ago. The chief instructed to send an investigative team to the victim’s address, and he picked up the secure phone and called the curator, following the instructions: to inform whom about all extraordinary incidents. The fingerprints taken at the police department from allegedly Kalinkin predictably coincided with the traces in the apartment, and thus the fact of his penetration into the dwelling and theft was irrefutably proved. Two circumstances were alarming: although the description of the criminal given by the neighbor coincided with the description of the detainee, Galina Sergeevna herself did not recognize her husband in him in any way. And most importantly: where did the criminal go?
CHAPTER 3. RETURN
Pyotr Mikhailovich woke up sitting in an armchair. In front of him is a monitor screen with the date: June 17, 2021, Moscow time – 17 hours 43 minutes, at the bottom
