The Twelfth Department Read Online Free

“But you work all the time. Which is good, of course. The State needs hard workers.”
    “I have the next six days off.”
    “Six days?” Valentina said, raising her eyebrows. “Six days with no work at all?”
    “I’ve got to sign some paperwork this morning—on the Gray Fox investigation. But apart from that—I’m free as a bird.”
    Yuri’s eyes widened.
    “The Gray Fox investigation?”
    “A serious business—we captured the leader yesterday.”
    “He was a murderer,” Natasha told Yuri, lowering her voice. “And a bank robber. They called him ‘Needle’ because he killed seven men with an ice pick.”
    “A bank robber?” Yuri asked, looking to Korolev for confirmation.
    “Only one bank. Mostly post offices and factory safes. A tough customer—we were glad to catch up with him. I’ll tell you about it on the way to Petrovka, don’t you worry.”
    “You’re taking Yuri to Petrovka?” Natasha asked. “To Militia headquarters?”
    “I wasn’t going to,” Korolev said. “But I could do that. Shura said she might come up with us—there’s a concert in Hermitage Park. A jazz concert. I was going to drop Yuri and Shura off there, do my business, and join them later.”
    Shura was maid to their famous neighbor, Babel the writer, and a maternal figure to many of the children in the building, as well as, strangely, Korolev. Natasha’s face was a picture of longing and Korolev was detective enough to know it wasn’t the concert she was interested in.
    “Would you like to come as well?”
    “To Petrovka? To visit the Moscow Criminal Investigation Division?” Natasha asked, doing her best to sound offhand—and failing. “Yes, that could be interesting. Very interesting. Will there be criminals?”
    “Probably, but I’ll steer you clear of them,” Korolev said, looking to Valentina Nikolayevna—who looked amused.
    “And afterward, seeing as it’s such hot weather, we could go swimming.”
    “Swimming?” two young voices said in unison.
    “All Pioneers have to be able to swim long and fast. I wouldn’t want you falling behind in such a thing.”
    Yuri and Natasha agreed that this was something that should be avoided.
    “How about tomorrow morning for the zoo?” Valentina asked, making her way toward the small kitchen. “I’ll call Vera. First thing?”
    “Vera works at the zoo,” Natasha explained. “No one else is there in the morning, Yuri. We’ll see things no one else has ever seen. Animals eating other animals. That sort of thing.”
    Yuri looked impressed and Korolev felt relief—the children would get on, Yuri’s visit would be a great success. “Tomorrow sounds good,” he said. “First thing.”

 
    CHAPTER THREE
    “I’m sorry, Korolev, I heard you were in the building and I’m afraid I need you. Urgently. Bring Slivka with you.”
    Korolev placed the receiver back in its cradle, raised his eyes to the ceiling and considered asking it, or the Lord that resided some way above it, why he hadn’t cut his visit shorter. That was the thing about places of work—if you spent too long hanging about them there was always the chance someone would ask you to do something. His sigh drew Slivka’s attention. Even his old friend Yasimov looked up from the report he was working on.
    “The boss wants us,” Korolev said in answer to Slivka’s quizzical look. He attempted a smile—a poor attempt, he didn’t doubt. “Something’s come up. Something urgent, it seems.”
    His mood wasn’t improved by Slivka’s evident sympathy—or Yasimov’s, for that matter. The worst thing was it had been his own fault—he’d spent too long introducing Yuri and Natasha to his colleagues, taking them around the small internal museum, telling them about famous cases that Moscow CID had solved. He’d even shown them the cells and one of the interrogation rooms. By the time he’d sent them off to Hermitage Park with Shura, the best part of an hour had passed. Too long for papers