This was the closest Arkady had ever come to the magic circle of the super-rich, and he was fascinated in spite of himself. However, Zhenya was miserable. When Arkady looked at the party through Zhenya's eyes, all color drained. Every other child was wealthier in parents and self-assurance; a shelter boy was, by definition, abandoned. The masquerade Arkady had planned was revealing itself as a cruel and stupid trial. No matter how spiteful or uncommunicative Zhenya was, he didn't deserve this.

"Going already?" Timofeyev asked.

"My friend isn't feeling well." Arkady nodded at Zhenya.

"What a shame, to be so young and not to enjoy good health." Timofeyev made a weak effort at a smile. He sniffed and clutched a handkerchief at the ready. Arkady noticed brown spots on his shirt. "I should have started a charity like this. I should have done more. Did you know that Pasha and I grew up together? We went to the same schools, the same scientific institute. But our tastes were entirely different. I was never the ladies' man. More into sports. For example, Pasha had a dachshund, and I had wolfhounds."

"You don't anymore?"

"Unfortunately, no, I couldn't. I… What I told the investigation was that we did the best we could, given the information we had."

"What investigation?" Not Arkady's.

"Pasha said that it wasn't a matter of guilt or innocence, that sometimes a man's life was simply a chain reaction."

"Guilt for what?" Arkady liked specifics.

"Do I look like a monster to you?"

"No." Arkady thought that Lev Timofeyev may have helped build a financial giant through corruption and theft, but he was not necessarily a monster. What Timofeyev looked like was a once hale sportsman who seemed to be shrinking in his own clothes. Perhaps it was grief over the death of his best friend, but his pallor and sunken cheeks suggested to Arkady the bloom of disease and, maybe, fear. Pasha had always been the swashbuckler of the two, although Arkady remembered that Rina had mentioned some secret crime in the past. "Does this involve Pasha?"

"We were trying to help. Anyone with the same information would have drawn an identical conclusion."

"Which was?"

"Matters were in hand, things were under control. We sincerely thought they were."

"What matters?" Arkady was at a loss. Timofeyev seemed to have switched to an entirely different track.

"The letter said apologize personally, face-to-face. Who would that be?"

"Do you have it?"

Rina called out from the casino. She shone in a silver jumpsuit in the spirit of the day. "Arkady, are you missing someone?"

Zhenya had vanished from Arkady's side only to reappear at the gaming tables. There were tables for poker and blackjack, but Rina's friends had opted for classic roulette, and there Zhenya stood, clutching his book and dourly assessing each bet as it was placed. Arkady excused himself to Timofeyev with a promise to return.

"I want you to meet my friends, Nikolai and Leo," Rina whispered. "They are so much fun, and they're losing so much money. At least they were until your little friend arrived."

Nikolai Kuzmitch, who had cornered the nickel market, was a short, rapid-fire type who placed straight-up and corner bets all over the baize. Leonid Maximov, the vodka king, was heavyset, with a cigar. He was more deliberate-a mathematician, after all-and played the simple progression system that had ruined Dostoyevsky: doubling and redoubling on red, red, red, red, red. If the two men lost ten or twenty thousand dollars on a bounce of the roulette ball, it was for charity and only gained respect. In fact, as the chips were raked in, losing itself became feverishly competitive, a sign of panache-that is, until Zhenya had taken a post between the two millionaires. With every flamboyant bet, Zhenya gave Kuzmitch the sort of pitying glance one would bestow upon an idiot, and every unimaginative double on red by Maximov drew from Zhenya a sigh of disdain. Maximov moved his chips to black, and Zhenya smirked at his inconstancy; Maximov repositioned them on black, and Zhenya, with no change in expression, seemed to roll his eyes.

"Unnerving little boy, isn't he?" Rina said. "He's almost brought the game to a standstill."

"He has that power," Arkady admitted. He noticed that, in the meantime, Timofeyev had slipped into the crowd.

Kuzmitch and Maximov quit the table in disgust, but they put on matching smiles for Rina and a welcome for Arkady that said they had nothing to fear from an investigator; they had been buying and selling investigators for years.

Kuzmitch said, "Rina tells us that you're helping tie up the loose ends about Pasha. That's good. We want people reassured. Russian business is into a whole new phase. The rough stuff is out." Maximov agreed. Arkady was put in mind of carnivores swearing off red meat. Not that they were Mafia. A man was expected to know how to defend himself and own a private army if need be. But it was a phase, and now that they had their fortunes, they firmly advocated law and order.

Arkady asked whether Ivanov had mentioned any anxieties or threats or new names, avoided anyone, referred to his health. No, the two said, except that Ivanov had not been himself lately.

"Did he mention salt?"

"No."

Maximov unplugged his cigar to say, "When I heard about Pasha, I was devastated. We were competitors, but we respected and liked each other."

Kuzmitch said, "Ask Rina. Pasha and I would fight over business all day and then party like best friends all night."

"We even vacationed together," Maximov said.

"Like Saint-Tropez?" Arkady asked. Bomb and all? he wondered.

They winced as if he had added something unpleasant to the punch. Arkady noticed Colonel Ozhogin arrive and whisper into Prosecutor Zurin's ear. Guards started to move in the direction of the roulette table, and Arkady sensed that his time among the elite was limited. Kuzmitch said that he was piloting his plane to Istanbul for a few days of relaxation. Maximov was coming along with six or seven agreeable girls, and Arkady could come, too. Things could be arranged. There was an implicit suggestion that there might be too many girls for two men to handle. Rina, of course, was more than welcome.

"They're like a boys' club," she told Arkady. "Greedy little boys."

"And Pasha?"

"President of the club."

"Rina straightened him out," Kuzmitch said.

"If I could meet a woman like Rina, I would settle down, too," said Maximov. "As it is, all this wine, women and song could be fatal."

"Where were you when you heard about Pasha's death?" Arkady asked.

"I was playing squash. My trainer will tell you. I sat down on the floor of the court and cried."

Kuzmitch said, "I was in Hong Kong. I immediately flew back out of concern for Rina."

"All these questions. It was suicide, wasn't it?" Maximov said.

"Tragically, yes." Zurin slipped up to the table. He held Zhenya firmly by the shoulder. "My office looked into matters, but there was no reason for an investigation. Just a tragic event."

"Then why…" Kuzmitch glanced at Arkady.

"Thoroughness. But I think I can assure you, there will no more questions now. Could you excuse us, please? I need a word with my investigator."

" Istanbul," Kuzmitch reminded Arkady.

"Give this man a day off," Maximov told Zurin. "He's working too hard."

The prosecutor steered Arkady away. "Having a good time? How did you get in?"

"I was invited, me and my friend." Arkady took Zhenya…

"To ask questions and spread rumors?"

"You know what rumor I heard?"

"What would that be?" Zurin kept Arkady and Zhenya moving.

"I heard they made you a company director. They found you a chair in the boardroom, and now you're earning your keep."

Zurin steered Arkady a little faster. "Now you've done it. Now you've gone too far."