Wolves Eat Dogs Read Online Free PDF

around, suddenly he’d change his route, like he was on the run.”
    “Like you,” Victor said.
    “Only he didn’t run far,” Arkady said. “He stayed in Moscow.”
    Hoffman said, “How could he go? Pasha always said, ‘Business is personal. You show fear and you’re dead.’ Anyway, you wanted more time to investigate. Okay, I bought you some.”
    “How did you do that?”
    “Call me Bobby.”
    “How did you do that, Bobby?”
    “NoviRus has foreign partners. I told Timofeyev that unless you were on the case, I’d tell them that the cause of Pasha’s death wasn’t totally resolved. Foreign partners are nervous about Russian violence. I always tell them it’s exaggerated.”
    “Of course.”
    “Nothing can stop a major project—the Last Judgment wouldn’t stop an oil deal—but I can stall for a day or two until the company gets a clean bill of health.”
    “The detective and I will be the doctors who decide this billion-dollar state of health? I’m flattered.”
    “I’d start you off with a bonus of a thousand dollars.”
    “No, thanks.”
    “You don’t like money? What are you, communists?” Hoffman’s smile stalled halfway between insult and ingratiation.
    “The problem is that I don’t believe you. Americans won’t take the word of either a criminal like you or an investigator like me. NoviRus has its own security force, including former detectives. Have them investigate. They’re already paid.”
    “Paid to protect the company,” Hoffman said. “Yesterday that meant protecting Pasha, today it’s protecting Timofeyev. Anyway, Colonel Ozhogin is in charge, and he hates me.”
    “If Ozhogin dislikes you, then I advise you to get on the next plane. I’m sure Russian violence is exaggerated, but it serves no one’s purpose for you to be in Moscow.” Ozhogin’s displeasure was a cue for any man to travel to foreign climes, Arkady thought.
    “After you ask some questions. You hounded Pasha and me for months. Now you can hound someone else.”
    “It’s not that simple, as you say.”
    “A few fucking questions is all I’m asking for.”
    Arkady gave way to Victor, who opened a ledger from his briefcase and said, “May I call you Bobby?” He rolled the name like hard candy. “Bobby, there would be more than one or two questions. We’d have to talk to everyone who saw Pasha Ivanov last night, his driver and bodyguards, the building staff. Also, we’d have to review the security tapes.”
    “Ozhogin won’t like that.”
    Arkady shrugged. “If Ivanov didn’t commit suicide, there was a breach in security.”
    Victor said, “To do a complete job, we should also talk to his friends.”
    “They weren’t here.”
    “They knew Ivanov. His friends and the women he was involved with, like the one who was here last night.”
    “Rina is a great kid. Very artistic.”
    Victor gave Arkady a meaningful glance. The detective had once invented a theory called Fuck the Widow, for determining a probable killer on the basis of who lined up first to console a grieving spouse. “Also, enemies.”
    “Everyone has enemies. George Washington had enemies.”
    “Not as many as Pasha,” said Arkady. “There were earlier attempts on Pasha’s life. We’d have to check who was involved and where they are. It’s not just a matter of one more day and a few more questions.”
    Victor dropped a butt in the soda can. “What the investigator wants to know is, if we make progress, are you going to run and leave us with our pants down and the moon out?”
    “If so, the detective recommends you begin running now,” Arkady said. “Before we start.”
    Bobby hung on to the sofa. “I’m staying right here.”
    “If we do start, this is a possible crime scene, and the very first thing is to get you out of here.”
    “We have to talk,” Victor told Arkady.
    The two men retreated to the white runway of the hall. Victor lit a cigarette and sucked on it like oxygen. “I’m dying. I have heart