Читать книгу: «The Lock keeper of Kiev»

ACT 1: THE REGULATOR
Scene 1: Marriage in Bavaria

Bob and his wife Frau Daniela, called Jela, believed to be among the first to enter the church where the wedding was to take place. But the two Americans were totally wrong and thought they had to sit down in the back. At the last security control, though, they were led in front to be seated in the second row. Since they had to leave their daughter two hours before the event for a rehearsal, they had come very early to the little village in the west of Munich. Jela was surprised by the beauty of the countryside of the Allgäu pre-Alp hills. Seeing the enormous antennas of the Garching Space Control Center made her homesick of her job at the CERN* in Geneva where she had some form of maternity leave – even though she had only worked there for a short period of time.

The `intimate family reunion‘ had transformed all the meadows around the little village into parking lots with hundreds of security people controlling the guests and guiding them into pre-defined spaces. Jela cursed like a freshman from Stanford when she saw that she could put on her expensive Italian shoes only in front of the church. At some spots there were even small heaps of snow left.

Bob was declared family mule and had to carry the shoes, something warm for the little one and her mother, the marriage present and an umbrella.

The baroque church was an overwhelming mixture of colours with lots of golden angels all over. Several centuries old for sure, it looked like new. Only the huge paintings had not lost their dignity. The organ played very decently in the background and the humming noise of lots of people talking to each other created a strange atmosphere. It was obvious that a big event was going to happen soon. Jela was as beautiful as ever and very excited. Normally not very interested in her appearance, she had worked on her outfit for weeks. Now she presented herself in her favourite colours black and red with a shawl in gold for her special appearance.

Lots of the invitees, many of whom seemed to know each other, asked themselves who the beautiful couple could be which was escorted to the second row. Bob didn‘t not know that Jela had decided to experience this marriage as a form of substitute for their embarrassing marriage ceremony on Hawaii. During those days, Jela was going through very rough times: her mother died in her presence and she sent her father into suicide.** So the marriage was some form of centring her live - especially since she was pregnant. These were also the days where she had attacks of depression which Bob was dealing with bravely. Just for that she could love him.

Since she lived in Europe, Jela was doing much better and she wanted to confirm this with an appropriate ceremony. On top, there was a secondary reason: her rival whom she had only met twice was moving further away from her husband with this marriage. In a mixture of admiration and hatred for her she was looking forward to the comparison between Sybil and herself.

As they were invited by the bridegroom who had nobody else of the appropriate level, they were treated the same way as the brothers oft he bride. Already visible on the parking lot with all its black limousines with chauffeurs, this was a congregation of the rich and famous of Germany. Bob whispered that there was more wealth gathered here like nowhere else outside the West coast of the USA or Shanghai. Since nobody knew them they were sitting there in silence. Secretly, Bob was watching his wife: how much she had developed during their seven years of marriage! The very slim dark-haired student with a rapid mouth and a swan-like long neck in her baggy jogging suit had turned into mature woman of extraordinary elegance who could compete on any catwalk.

Not even thirty, one would not guess that she was the mother of two children and the few pounds that still stuck on her hips since Til’s birth mad her only look softer. Bob found himself again sinking into deep admiration of his beloved one. Like a drug-addict he looked into her black eyes with the long eyelashes. That was when he noticed that Jela had put on the necklace which her friend Nour had given to her when she promised to take care of her two sons who were now in a boarding school in Switzerland. The big diamond alone was certainly worth a lot! Jela knew it exactly; she had asked for estimation.

„What a pity that Fritz and Dora cannot be here”, Bob thought in memory of his friend whose burial was just a few months back. Dora was still mourning and would not participate in a wedding. She had volunteered to take care of the two babies – her daughter Carla and Jela‘s son Til. This was not a big deal as she was living with the Horners anyway.

“Together they would have enjoyed the ceremony in this beautiful place!” Bob was thinking. It would have helped Fritz probably a bit in his depression. Again he asked himself how such a brilliant teacher like Fritz could be so pessimistic about the world and the impact of money in it. Member of a wealthy family of the German Mittelstand, Fritz needed Bob’s help to take off the pressure it created for him when he received many millions as heritage. In any case, his whole class had come to participate in the funerals in Archamps. During the ceremony Bob had carefully observed his wife. He didn’t want her to fall back into her old problems of dark depression holes. But her improvements in Europe proved to be solid.

Just as he started to explain the phenomenon of the ‘German Mittelstand` (medium sized family companies in Germany), the man showed up who had taught all that wisdom to him. It was the bridegroom, Walter, a calm man smiling all over his face. “Where were you last evening?” he asked in English and he learned that they arrived so late in Munich that they decided to put Lena to bed still at the airport.

“What a pity, the wedding-eve party was really awkward for somebody like me in the middle of all these billionaires. I would have loved to have you with me as support!”

Walter asked them to stay for the wedding lunch. Despite the fact that he had been the administrator of the wealth of Sybil`s clan for many years and had invested hundreds of millions every year it was obvious that he did not feel fine in the world of the mega rich. This was also one of the reasons why Bob liked him and had arranged for him to marry Sybil.

Then Little Lena came running with something important on her mind: „Où est-ce que vous avez caché mon cadeau?” (Where do you hide my present?) Living in France close to Geneva, Lena spoke French at school and taught it indirectly to her American parents.

Speechlessly, Jela and Bob looked at each other; they had a present fort the bridal couple but nothing was foreseen for the little one. “She is the most beautiful woman in the world,“ the almost seven year-old continued full of admiration and explained to her jealous mother how the bride was dressed and that she had asked her whether she had seen her present yet. Lena was one of four children who were to hold the train of white wedding gown of the bride when she was entering the church. Jela told her that the present was in the car and the little one disappeared like a rocket

“Sybil‘s poisoned gift!” Bob said and did not look too happy: “Now we got to organize something for Lena.” Jela understood Sybil‘s message, too. As an over-dimensional ‘thank you` for Bob’s engagement in closing a Mega deal of many billions in China, Sybil had transferred twenty millions on an account with Lena`s name.

Bob didn`t want to accept this bonus, but Jela didn`t like to deprive Lena of the little fortune. Now they harvested the first problem from it!

Finally the ceremony started. Sybil was really of an extraterrestrial beauty in her white lace wedding gown with its long train held by Lena and three other girls. Lena did as if she were the bride. As always Sybil had her hair combed to one side to look a bit taller. Her perfect skin which had cost some thousand Euros increased the effect of her blue-green shining eyes which Bob had seen often from very close-by. She also wore a necklace, this one in white gold. Bob knew the best man: the elder brother of Sybil. Together they held the majority of the main family company. Walter was waiting at the altar. Both Americans didn’t understand much of the rest of the ceremony since it was in German. For Jela it was like a day-dream: she saw herself in white and Bob in a black suit and savored every minute of the wedding as if it was hers. She took Bob’s hand and cried while her mind trip went on.

As the guests of the ceremony gathered in the big tent for the wedding meal, the couple of honor made its turn among the assembled dignitaries and family members and so the two women met. Bob and Walter would have preferred to leave the scene but that would have been too obvious. So, as usual, Sybil opened the hostilities: “Well, how did you like the ceremony? Too bad you could not make it for the wedding shower last night!” Bob explained the problem with the flight again and handed over their modest present: a card with congratulations and the remark that the boat would arrive soon.

He was asked to be more precise and so Bob described that it was a wooden model of `Alinghi`, the Swiss Trimaran which won the America Cup. He was aware how serious Sybil was with her passion for big sail boats and how much she hated it when she could not participate in the Cup.

Sybil laughed and smiled at Bob. She was very much aware of the multiple messages of this present: “One can see that Bob learned a lot about well hidden messages in the Chinese prisons! As you all know: he is the inventor of the story of the rich and poor farmers which kept a lot of trouble away from us all.” She took Walter`s arm and was gone in a second. Jela was speechless! Sybil did as if she was not present and didn’t have the courtesy to talk to her. The old hatred crawled up inside Jela. Walter came back and made all the compliments Syil had obviously forgotten to express. Bob took the opportunity to ask for a creative solution for the problem Sybil had caused mentioning a present for Lena.

Later, during the dinner Walter appeared with a boy of roughly ten years and light blond hair. “I asked him what we could do with Lena and he had an idea. By-the-way, this young man is called Peer and he is the son of Sybil. As you know, the kids are eating in the other tent. If you don`t object he will hand this over to Lena.” And he pointed at a nicely decorated wooden box; an antique chess game with ivory figurines in it. The parents did not want to accept the gift, but the young man demonstrated already the same authority as his mother. He just took the box and walked out towards the other tent. Walter smiled: “In this family I am only playing the role of a caretaker.”

On the flight back, with excited eyes, Lena was only talking about Peer and his present and played with the figurines. Bob promised to show her how to play chess. With all the excitement, she didn`t notice that the gift was supposed to come from her parents. For weeks she asked to visit Peer but forgot it when her parents moved out the trip one time after the other. The little box was wrapped carefully and hidden high up in the cupboard of the parents` bed room.

For the following week, Bob had two main priorities on top of his work at his bank. One goal did not seem easy to achieve: he had to clarify the legal situations of the boys who were at their boarding school in Switzerland. He was in possession of their Arab passports but was not even sure whether he should use them. Their mother was convinced that they were in danger of being killed when their father fell in disgrace in his country. Actually, he could simply ask at the town hall but the risk was high that they would start a search for the parents, potentially only increasing the danger for the boys. Checking the internet, Bob`s concerns were only augmented. It turned out that is was already difficult and often took several years in France just to reach a ‚décision judiciaire d`abandon‘ a legal decision stating that a child was abandoned. This was the precondition for any adoption. It became obvious for him: he needed an experienced lawyer.

The other objective was a check-up of Dora`s foundation in Frankfurt. He considered this task more as a routine because he would be able to control the books via internet. This assumption turned out to be correct. Because of the positive development of the stock exchanges in 2013, Dora had heavy gains to distribute. Bob informed her with a proposal to reinvest the surplus after taxes in the same funds.

Scene 2: A Special Friday

Two weeks later Dora`s birthday was on the first Thursday in February. Jela and Lena had prepared a little program which took place after dinner. It turned out to be really funny because Lena had had the idea to involve the two babies. The dinner was enormous because both women wanted to demonstrate their European culinary competences. Also, everybody, especially the ladies, appreciated the Champagne. Because of his allergies Bob stayed with his favorite red wine.

When even Lena found the way into her bed, Dora made an explicit toast for her two friends. She told them how important it had been for her to be welcomed to their family when she broke with her father’s Mexican family. The same had happened again now after her husband had passed away. With every new compliment they rose the glasses and soon the two women were crying in each other’s arms. Bob reminded them that a few years back he had found the two ladies in the act and how unimportant it had become. “It’s a pity that the boys cannot be here today. They adore you very much, Dora, and our little Jaim is a big admirer of your beauty.” „Yes, it is also a pity that Fritz didn’t make it to today,“ sighed Dora, “but the most important thing for him was to see his child.”

And with this the day ended in a mixture of hope and grief.

The next morning, the two women forced Bob to get up early. He had to bring Lena to the school what he did with an aching head and murmuring unfriendly comments. He called his office and told them that he would work at home.

Lena was proud to have her daddy with her and introduced him to her new teacher: “Madame Michel, c´est mon papa!” she announced with a serious voice. Bob was totally surprised. The lady was not how he envisioned a high school teacher. At best, she was twenty-eight years old and a doll of a woman: hardly over one meter fifty tall in well-fitting jeans and a blouse which was so tied one could clearly see her little breasts. The teacher had a kind of Afro-look in Rasta-style and made a bold impression. “Ah, c`est vous, le fameux aventurier qui fréquente les prisons de la Chine!” Before Bob could ask how she had heard about it, the miniature teacher chased the children into the classroom and big papa found himself in the now totally quiet school yard.

On the way back, Bob took a detour to get his head clear. The doll of a teacher had done some damage in his mind. He asked himself how it was possible to have sex with such a small person. Arriving in the yard in front of the garages next to his house he noticed that Jela`s car had gone and heard one or both babies cry. He went into the house and shouted Jela`s name but didn`t get an answer. There was nobody in the dining room and in the floor he saw the buggy with Til and Carla who jelled full blast. He took both of them into his arms but they would not calm down.

That is why Bob went into the kitchen where he almost dropped the babies. The kitchen floor was covered by a red sauce and in the middle of it was Dora face down and with two big dark spots on her back. He walked backwards out of the room and sat down on the couch. He put the kids down next to himself and stared at the chair on which Dora sat in the morning.

After many minutes, he called Jela on her mobile phone. When she finally responded and very excitedly wished to tell him something, he just stopped her brutally: “Dora is dead. You need to come at once.” Then he called the police inspector who was in charge of his mysterious car accident: “Monsieur Latour, your favorite client Bob Horner on the phone. I got a new case for you!” After that his blood pressure went up like a rocket but based on his China experience he forced himself to take four aspirins at once. He sat down next to the babies who were so exhausted that they had stopped crying and fell asleep. When he came back to life, it was as if he was in a film but he was forced to be active, and there were so many things to do.

The first person arriving was Jela, white like a wall. Bob didn’t want her to go into the kitchen, but she forced her way in. “Don’t touch anything, for God’s sake!” he yelled at her and pulled her out of the kitchen. Jela fainted and he picked her up and put her on the other couch.

Then he called the school, Madame Michel was to send Lena immediately home. He searched in Dora’s room until he found her car keys together with others - most likely of their house.

Bob put everything that looked like baby stuff into a big suit case and carried everything to Dora’s car. Also, he put the buggy for the twins into the big break.

Then inspector Latour arrived with his colleagues and right behind them the local gendarmes. Bob explained everything he knew. He insisted that they questioned Jela right away because he wanted her to leave. All he understood was that she was called for a meeting at CERN because of a project.

When Jela had finished her interrogation, he put her in Dora’s car and brought her the babies. “You will wait now until Lena arrives. Then you go up to Dora’s house with all three of them. Establish yourself there for a few days.” He tried to comfort her: “We will get personal protection soon. I will call you to keep you posted on everything. I will try to call you every fifteen to twenty minutes. Be brave and drive carefully. But I don’t know whether or when I can follow you. Please, don’t let anybody, really anybody know where you are.”

Based on previous experience on how Jela dealt with extreme stress, Bob was very concerned. He needed to keep her busy before she had a chance to disappear in one of her deep depressions. He almost panicked thinking of how to survive with five children and a depressive wife.

The next problem was Lena. She didn’t want to let her daddy alone and was fighting with hands and feet not to be put into the car. After a short while, though, the teacher doll convinced her and she gave up.

Bob asked her in English how she had managed the wonder and she answered also in English but with a strong accent which he found charming: “I just told her that her daddy would explain everything to her but only if she would wait for him with her mother. Don’t forget it and think of something appropriate.”

The following problem was simply that he wasn’t allowed back into the house. The doll turned out to be practical; she put him into her car and drove him to Charley`s Pub in the center of town, only five minutes away from their house. She ordered a Whiskey for him and a coffee for herself. All of a sudden his battery was on empty. His head almost fell on the table. “Je m`appelle Sandrine“, she said, „What else can I do for you?” He assumed that she wanted to get back to the school but was totally wrong. She only wanted to help him.

So he asked her to call the inspector regarding the next steps and when he could get back in the house. She programmed his phone number and the one of Latour into her mobile and talked for a while with the police man. She didn’t not seem to agree with anything she heard. Finally she told Bob that he could re-enter the house now with a police escort to pack a suitcase for himself and his wife. He was not allowed to take more and he was not to leave France either. He asked why they were fighting on the phone and she came back with a very French response: “Ce con voulais même pas vous donner vos vêtements.” (This idiot didn’t even let you get your clothes.)

Despite the circumstances Bob laughed. The small woman was dynamite. She programmed her number into Bob’s mobile. Not only this, she wanted to book him and his family in the hotel close by but he turned it down. He wanted to see his family. So she organized something to eat for him and then brought him back to his house. During the trip he informed Jela, his boss in Geneva, and Walter in Bad Homburg. Perhaps they had an idea regarding to what had happened to him? But all of them were speechless. When Sandrine left him in his yard, he kissed her on the forefront: „J´apprécie beaucoup, Maîtresse!” (I appreciate a lot, Ms. Teacher!)

He gave the address and phone number of Dora’s place to Latour and asked for police protection for his family. Latour assured that he had already made the necessary steps and that the police was certainly planning for it. The following day from ten o’clock on they would be present. He warned however that they needed to be prepared for a search in Dora’s house also. He packed three suitcases with everything what he found inform of clothes and had the super idea to empty Jela’s bathroom closed.

The way to Dora`s house in Archamps was easy to find, even though he had to cross a bit of Switzerland which, correctly interpreted, he was not allowed to do. Jela and Lena were already waiting for him. Up to now he had been alone with his shock; now he had to help the two to better digest theirs.

On the way Bob had done some reflexions on how to help Jela best to keep her away from a depressive reaction. Feeling physically very bad he had the idea to give her the job to care for a husband with a heart condition. He didn’t even believe to be too macchiavellic because he had the feeling that his heart was turning on high speed.

Instead to call his doctor himself, he asked Jela to do so because he wanted to take care of Lena. Lying down on a couch he figured out that he had not had the time to prepare his approach as Sandrine had recommended. So he explained to the girl, not yet seven years old, that her aunt Dora was dead and that they all were terribly sad about it.

Lena asked the typical questions of children of that age: how it feels when one is dead or whether Dora could see Uncle Fitz now. It was extremely hard for Bob to stay calm and when Lena proposed to call the two boys in the boarding school, his voice got a little louder than usual promising to do it later. Being very sensitive, Lena stood up and left.

Indeed, having the responsibility for three children had helped Jela so much that she was surprised how logical she dealt with the situation. She even stopped down in the valley to do the shopping for her family. “To drive your father into committing suicide is the best preparation for a catastrophe like this,” she was thinking a bit cynically.

Her doctor lady filled out prescriptions for Bob and herself and sent them per e-mail to the pharmacy in the village. So Jela was forced to drive down to the village. To provide Bob with some minutes of calm, she took Lena with her.

As it is typical for those days when things go wrong, the ladies in the pharmacy had not even seen the e-mail and Jela was forced to push them to do so. Then they didn`t want to give her the medicine for her husband because she didn`t have his passport with her.

Jela was forced to call Bob who appeared just two minutes later and made such a fuss in his bad French that the village talked about it for at least the whole week. He didn`t have to show his passport. What the Americans could not know was that the pharmacy had the image of being the worst in Upper Savoy and all people present enjoyed the scene to a maximum.

Jela prepared something to eat and took care of the babies. The couple took their pills at dinner and sat down to watch some TV to think of something else. “Thanks to God, we don’t have the two boys this weekend,” was the last thing they heard of each other. Both fell asleep right away. Lena was somehow empathetic, turned the TV box off and went to bed, too, and that without her usual comments. She had a small room of her own under the roof since Fritz and Dora moved in. For the whole family there was no cleaning up on the agenda for that night.

The next morning, Jela tried to get some order into their schedule but at ten an army of Police and ‘Gendarmerie` appeared to turn the house upside down. They left two cars with their sirens on their tops in front to provide personal protection. One was parked directly in front of Dora`s house and the other one a few hundred yards higher up on the way to the Croisette in a small side road.