pocket, looking at her freshly applied makeup, or maybe for some other reason, Andrei Vladimirovich guessed that the girl was wearing her everyday home clothes. Tatiana Vladimirovna, who, apparently, had sat down on her favorite place, facing the window, pointed a place on the stool at the end of the table, lit a cigarette without offering Andrei, took out a clean crystal ashtray from the table drawer, and despite the fact that there was no ash on the tip of the cigarette yet, gracefully tapped the tip of the cigarette over it with a long, beautiful manicured finger. After making two more puffs, she finally turned to Andrei. “I'm listening to you.” These words somehow sounded distantly, with poorly hidden notes of reproach and irritation.
“Tatiana Vladimirovna, I want to apologize…”
“For what?” interrupted Tatiana. She rose her eyebrow, but there was no interest in her look. A mask of arrogant emptiness remained on the woman's face. “I'm afraid my questions can irritate you. This is a common thing in our work. And I want you to understand me correctly.” Andrei Vladimirovich was outwardly calm, but in fact he started to get a little annoyed.
“Do you like your job?” girl's voice sounded sarcastic. “Yes,” Andrei answered firmly. “In the end, we catch the criminals.” Tatiana turned away from Andrei towards the window and said distantly:
“But still they keep on committing crimes.
They are in power, they’re among us,
You say you catch them, or is it lies?”
“Do you write poetry?” Asked Andrei in order to establish relations with the girl, but Tatiana, letting Andrei understand that she did not intend to spend time on conventions, ignoring his question, asked her own question:
“So what should I understand?” This time there was a question in her gaze.
“I want you to understand: by asking “stupid” questions, I want to come to the truth.”
“I can tell you right away that I did not kill miss Frolova. I didn’t kill anyone.” Girl’s voice sounded resented, irritated and arrogant. “Tell me, do you always have a habit of taking a walk during morning hours?” Deliberately not responding to Tatiana’s irritation, Captain asked in an even voice.
“No, usually, if I don’t work, I sleep at this time of day,” Tatiana replied without looking at the Captain, with the same expression, but more calmly. “Why did you go for a walk yesterday?”
“Because I just wanted to go for a walk,” saying these words, Tatiana even shook her head in stubbornness. Her answer sounded defiantly, and behind it there was a rebuke and a request not to meddle in her affairs.
“Or maybe you had insomnia yesterday?” Andrei still asked exactly.
“No. I got up on the alarm clock,” the girl replied with an evil pressure, without developing an answer, deliberately provoking the next Captain’s question.
“So you got up at a certain time?”
“Yes. I told you, I woke up yesterday with an alarm clock.”
“What about yesterday? You just decided to take a walk in the morning?” Andrei asked the question Tatiana expected.
“Officer Kudinov, isn’t it…” the girl flashed her evil green eyes.
“You can call me Andrei Vladimirovich.”
“Officer Kudinov, I’m not going to report to anyone about what I did yesterday. I’m telling you, I didn’t kill anyone!” Tatiana pronounced these words looking evilly into Captain’s eyes, emphasizing every word and swaying a little to the beat of each spoken word.
“A hysterical girl,” thought Andrei about Tatiana, “what was she doing? Seeing some guy or what? Okay, you have to give it another try.” He spoke softly, even a little insinuatingly:
“Tatiana Vladimirovna, I knew that my questions would annoy you, but I'm here to protect you.”
“Protect me? From whom?” There was still anger and indignation in girl’s voice.
“You don’t understand that you play the killer game with your silence. I believe you didn’t kill anyone. I’m more than sure about that, but the facts… The facts speak against you. You are one of the suspects.”
“Am I a suspect? Do you have facts?” Tatiana almost screamed, turning her whole body to the Captain. “What are the facts? What are you talking about?”
“We know,” Andrei spoke as indifferently as possible, “that you have been in love with your neighbor, your former classmate, Leonid Alekseevich Izmailov since school.” According to the testimony of witnesses, you dislike his bride, Bychkova Clara Yurievna. It was her whom they tried to kill, not Frolova Nadezhda Yakovlevna. Nadezhda Yakovlevna was only an accidental victim. And we know that you, Tatiana Vladimirovna, for some unknown reason stayed somewhere at the time of the murder, while on other days you sleep at that time. Doesn’t it seem strange to you?” Andrei Vladimirovich said this and watched the woman. She seemed to be more and more shocked with each of his words. Her lips pursed, her hand with a cigarette trembled slightly. After a pause of thirty seconds, Tatiana asked in a stone voice: “Who are those witnesses?”
“What witnesses?” Andrei knew whom Tatiana was talking about, but specified nevertheless only to make her talk. He wanted to hear what she would call them, how she would describe them, but, contrary to his idea that Tatiana herself would somehow unflatteringly respond about her neighbor and Katia, Clara’s sister, she simply answered:
“Those who said that I disliked Clara… Yurievna. She’s very nice. You know, they are lying. I rather envy. Yes, I do not hide my feelings for Leonid, but I’d never kill a human!”
Tatiana got up, tempting to leave, but suddenly sat down again on the other side of the table, facing Andrei.
“Believe me, Andrei Vladimirovich, this is nonsense! How can you believe it!” Now the voice of Tatiana sounded indignated. “Why are you so sure that they were trying to kill Clara, not Nadezhda?”
“They were trying to kill Clara Yurievna for the second time. The first attempt was made about a month ago in her yard.”
“See, I don’t know where she lived!”
“This is how the true killer would answer.”
“Andrei Vladimirovich,” she was still indignant, but already had a note of supplication in her voice, “do you really believe in this nonsense?”
“No, I don’t believe it. That's why I want to help you.”
“How?”
“I just want to prove that you were doing something else during the murder. If you don’t want to reveal someone’s name, it will not be called, but I need to know. I must check it.”
“Name?” Tatiana asked with surprise growing into indignation, staring at Andrei. “Do you think I was with a man?” Tatiana had an insulted look.
“Sorry, I didn’t want to offend you. I actually don’t think anything yet. I would like to know the truth.”
“I was at the train station,” the girl replied, somehow abhorrently, as if giving in something dear to herself.
“At the train station?” surprised Andrei. “What for?
