31
Final Chapter
I got a taxi and set out across the hushed city. Hushed, as in asleep… There were hardly any lights in the windows. Saturday morning was promising Moscow a gift of silence and solitude. Snow plows were at work all over the city.
When we passed along Yakimanka, I saw a tow truck being loaded up with a disfigured vehicle… the Volvo. Shards of glass could be seen all over the roadway, along with stains from some mechanical fluid… mostly likely oil.
“It was a terrible accident,” said the driver. He spoke with a thick Caucasian accent, “some five people died instantly. I almost crashed here myself. It’s scary to drive nowadays. Everybody’s lost their mind.”
I looked at him. A neat-looking, dark-haired man of about forty. The car was filled with strongly aromatized sweet ai
