V. Speys
The Shah twin diamond. Detective
Chapter 3
The University metro station is located on Tara’s Shevchenko Avenue, which starts perpendicularly on the main street of Kiev, Khreshchatyk. From the exit of the subway, I went to Shevchenko Avenue, crossing the street. Chkalov, who was going down to the lane leading to Igor’s house. Along the cobblestone pavement, I reached the Deli. It was necessary to buy something; it wasn’t decided to just go empty-handed to visit a not-so-familiar guy. On the counter in the alcohol department of the Deli there were different drinks, there were whiskeys of different overseas varieties, cognacs and wines. I looked at the drinks for a long time, and decided to stay on the Shabo cognac for five years, about which the workers and employees of our bureau spoke well. Having bought half a liter of this cognac and a stick of dry sausage, he headed to the house where Igor lived.
The house and the courtyard appeared before me as an exact copy of the vision that I saw in a dream. I was even a little puzzled by this. It’s like I’m not going to this three-story mansion for the first time, but as a familiar road and I am already climbing the brick steps to Igor’s apartment. Shaking off the first and wet snow falling at night from the shoe, he pressed the bell. Igor opened the door and let me into the hallway. A small corridor. The space seemed narrow with a high ceiling. The walls were full of a variety of safes. I was surprised to look at old copies of these iron boxes.
– This is from my grandfather still left. He repaired, one might say, dead safes, put them in order, and there was no end to customers, antique lovers. Each wealthy businessman had the honor to brag of his rare safe and give weight to his office, so to speak, the charm of efficiency. Look at these rare specimens, some of them are inlaid not only with enamel, but this one on crooked legs, completely covered with ceramics, the safe of Catherine the Great herself, as a gift to my great-grandfather, for opening the queen’s safe, locked with a broken key. A very expensive thing, but my grandfather did not want to sell it for the fabulous money that was offered to him, he always said that it was their family talisman of their family profession.
– Well, and you, Igor, how will you sell the relic?
– I have not yet figured out our family profession. – the guy answered evasively.
Putting slippers on my feet, I said: «I brought something here to cement our acquaintance.» Take it on the nightstand, please.
Igor came up and picked up cognac.
– Oh, five stars, class. Sausage is excellent. Well, let’s go straight to the kitchen, we’ll get to know each other.
There was already a laid table in the kitchen, on which stood a flat bottle of Armenian Noah brandy of twenty years old, and the loaded brandy Shabo wretchedly looked on the tablecloths next to the elite drink of the people, which is famous for its cognacs. Igor, saw my awkwardness, hastened to say: – This is all from the storehouse of my grandfather, left me a legacy. Mother at funeral tried with her new boyfriend get into the wine cellar. But my grandfather before leaving strictly warned me not to show anyone the treasures of winemaking that our family had been collecting for centuries.
«Do you have a hundred-year-old wine?» And not only. – Igor answered, look at this cognac, Noah was bought by grandfather fifty years ago, on this faded label you can make out that even then, in Yerevan, it was sold from a twenty-year-old batch.
«Wait, now he has an endurance of seventy years?!» I exclaimed.
«Not at all.» If he had been kept in an oak barrel all this time, then that would have been so, and in the glass he remains in the hypostasis in which he was bought, that is, in a twenty-year exposure. – Igor took the bottle and said, «Look, the quality of storage is still checked by the fact that the drink has no precipitation, well, if only a little, and if not at all, and even fifty years of storage, then we have the highest quality. At auction, this brandy can be sold very expensive.
– Well, and for how much?
«Well, a thousand pounds, I guess.»
«You’re a millionaire guy with such wealth, huh?»
– This is not entirely true, we are not England and not Europe.
– Not America and not China. – I picked up.
– Yes, what is there to argue.
With these words, Igor took a table knife and, shaking the sealing wax on a napkin, opened the bottle. Filling cognac glasses, he said:
– This drink needs to be breathed before drinking. This is because the taste is very combined with the filled aromas of the space of the room. Now we can smell this amazing smell of mountains, and the open spaces where this cognac grape variety is grown.
Listening to him, I began to catch the distant smells of eucalyptus leaves. Freshness of mountain air. And with a subtle breath of a distant bonfire. What is so appetizingly heard from the Armenian mountain expanses. Igor took a glass, stirred a drink with a glass.
– Well, now, you can feel the full sweetness of this drink. – And brought the glass clinking glasses with me, – Come on for friendship.
– For friendship! I repeated.
«You know; I won’t open your cognac.» We will now go down to the wine cellar, and I will put this bottle among Armenian cognacs in place of this cognac. Let stored for a long memory.
We also had a drink and had a bite of stuffed fish, which Igor ordered yesterday from a friend of his grandfather’s cook in an Armenian restaurant. The fish was delivered by a waiter in a passenger car, who refused to charge, citing the fact that the cook strictly ordered no charge. Igor said that the cook he knew was a friend of his grandfather, and that they had once fought together.
– Igor, have you tried to engage in your family business directly?
«How do you imagine that?» he asked in surprise.
«Well, by repairing the safes, opening the locks of the apartments, the owners of which accidentally slam the door and cannot get there.»
– You know that such a business is under special control of law enforcement agencies. Every month, I’ll tire of reporting to the tax office, taking permission to open a safe or apartment, and filling out declarations. And in general, more trouble than earning.
– Well, okay, you can still try, participate in any auction. If only the old safe of Catherine the Great.
«For two and a half million dollars?» – Igor said calmly. My hair moved on my head from such an amount.
«Well, this is an antique relic and belonged to your grandfather.»
«It’s not exactly what you think, Valentine.» Grandfather took this safe from Berlin, from a bombed house where our soldiers entered. Grandfather served in the quartermaster service for the export of stolen works of art from Germany. And this safe was delivered to my grandfather for repair, with subsequent transfer to the authorities after its restoration.
«And why did he get stuck here with you?»
– After the restoration, the grandfather turned to different authorities, even went to the historical museum with a request to hand over the relic. But everyone dismissed and did not even want to listen to him. So he took root with us. Imagine we stick with him at an auction. An heir will appear there and for a fee, a meager compared to its real value, he will take it for himself and he will already sell the safe at a decent price. Tell me do you need it?
– Yes of course. I heard that there are many clandestine antique buyers.
– Listen, Valentine, even so, everything is controlled by criminals. And if I declare the true value of the relics, as soon as they are found, the competent sculpted the papers, and will be taken away without delay, I don’t dare to dare to say about the price of this safe.
– And who knows about the values stored here?
– Sanzhik Sarkisovich, this is a grandfather’s friend, a cook. The rest are no longer alive.
«Have you told anyone about this?»
«No, of course, my grandmother, when she was still alive, reminded me of this almost every day.»
«And what prompted you to tell me about these antique relics?»
«I don’t have a friend like my grandfather had, and for some reason you turned out to be such that I can trust you.»
– I can keep my mouth shut so that you were not mistaken.
Igor filled his glasses again.
– Let’s drink for it.
We had a drink. Suddenly the doorbell rang. Igor ran to the door, looked through the peephole.
Then he returned to the kitchen.
«This is my mother’s boyfriend.» Apparently she chatted to him about the cellar.
Outside the door there was a knock on the door and a drunken grunt.
– Open, puppy. Your mother sent me, said that I brought a bottle from the cellar. This is her legacy.
Igor ran to the door and said, without opening the lock: – I’ll call the police and they will put you for hooliganism. Do you want?!
«No, you dare not.»
– Even as I dare! Get away from here! I give three minutes!
There were shuffling steps behind the door, calming in the distance.
– Gone? I asked for order.
– Still, the former prisoner had recently served for hooliganism. Here again for the old.
– Well, Igor, hold on. If they get it, then you can live with me, my mother will be glad. We have a three room apartment. We can provide you one, until all this has died down. Tell me, in the apartment, are there any values?
– No, all the valuables are demolished in the wine cellar. There a couple of Faberge eggs, grandfather brought from Germany, this safe in the corridor. But no one can take it out, because they dismantled the wall to bring it in, then they laid it, a heavy thing, you can’t take it without a crane.
– And in the wine cellar, how?
– There is a special door with double metal armor and a special hard alloy fireproof. So no cutting will take either gas or mechanical. Well, I’m not talking about castles. Come, I will show you my treasures. I got up, took a sip and drained my glass.
He led me to his room and to the wall that I saw in a dream with a portrait of a gray-haired man in a tailcoat. In the corner was a wardrobe. Igor went to the closet.
«Valentine help me push it aside.»
We rested, moved the closet to the side. A massive oak door opened. Igor with the key that he found on the bunch, opened the lock, and we were on the steps leading down. Having descended below the first floor, we stumbled upon a metal door, like a bomb shelter. Igor inserted a long key into the upper well and turned, there was a click, I heard the same click when he turned the key in the lower well of the lock. Then with two hands he began to rotate the wheel sticking out in the center of the door. The oval block of metal slowly opened, forming a fairly wide gap through which we penetrated into the dark basement room. Igor flicked a switch. A light flashed, and a gaze opened up to the space, completely laden with shelves with dust-covered bottles. In the center of the room was a safe on an antique table. Igor opened the lock of the safe with two keys, then the door. Two Faberge eggs stood on a shelf, illuminated by a safe bulb.
– These are two scripts of the famous jeweler Faberge. Nobody knows about these scripts where they are, and who keeps them in their secret collection. And in the closed compartment, in the upper part there is a famous diamond, lost in the Middle Ages. He is called differently by the Star of the East, and Aladdin, and there are still names. – With these words, Igor opened the upper part and took out a red velvet box from there. In it, with all the colors of the rainbow, a transparent rectangular diamond sparkled with a length of about thirty to forty millimeters, a side height of about eleven millimeters. The body of the diamond was engraved in Arabic script.
– This treasure that you hold in your hands is priceless! I exclaimed with admiration. «You, brother, are the richest man in the world!»
– Wow! But I didn’t think that it was so. – Igor smiled.
«Does Grandpa’s friend know about this?» I asked warningly.
– Sanzhik Sarkisovich, no, only I know about it, and now you will know.
«I am worried about these criminal elements your mother is with.» This is where the danger lies.
– Well, in the first mother never saw anything here. Grandpa wouldn’t let her in here. She was only rumored to know that grandfather had a wine cellar and that was it. By the way, she thinks that this cellar is in the country and that I bring wine from there. She grew up in this house in this apartment and does not know that behind this antique wardrobe there is an entrance to the vault.
«Well, then that changes the matter.»
Putting everything in its place, Igor closed the safe, then the wine cellar. Rising into the room, he put a bunch of keys near the oak door in the parquet floorboard, then covered the parquet gap with the floorboard. And, when we put the closet in place, again went to the kitchen. Having safely drunk cognac from my glass, I said goodbye to the owner of the treasures and went to the subway. There, sitting in the carriage, I thought how and where to help Igor sell at least part of the treasures or find money to start an antique business. And now to do this and nothing more, not thinking about how I will calmly continue to work at the plant, knowing about this fascinating business, promising an interesting life for an antique dealer and good wealth…
In the morning, the day after our meeting with Igor, he called me about 10 hours.
– Come, please, to me, we need to talk. – The voice was firm and confident, intuitively I realized that he wants to consult with me about something very important.
– Yes, of course, I’ll get together now and I’ll be with you for half an hour, since the metro works like a clock.
– Come on. Yes, don’t buy anything, I need you today, not gifts. Come on, I’m waiting.
«Are you going somewhere again?» – Mother asked uneasily.
– To Igor, we work in the technical bureau together, and, it seems, have become friends.
«Well, look, Valik, so that this friendship does not lead you to the bottleneck.»
– He is a serious guy, just like me, he doesn’t drink or even smoke. – I answered with a smile, gobbling up croutons, and drinking coffee, – Well, mom, I ran.
– Wait, where are you? Eat another serving.
– Thanks, mom.
Ten minutes later I was already in the subway, and after another 30 I clicked on the bell button of Igor’s apartment…
Chapter 4
It was 1945. In Berlin, at the headquarters of the Soviet Army, Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov summoned the first secretary of his office.
– Allow me to enter, Comrade Marshal.
– Come in Shitikov.
A taut, high officer with a red folder under his arm entered the office. He straightened up, standing at attention.
– Colonel Shitikov, at your order arrived. – Colonel struck in a firm voice, standing as if in a parade on a stand, quietly at the door.
– Come in, sit here. – Zhukov indicated the nearest place to his desk.
The colonel, with a chased step, came closer to Zhukov, sat down on a chair and laid out a folder on the long meeting table with chairs installed around the perimeter of the marshal’s desk. From his breast pocket he took out a fountain pen with a golden pen tucked with purple ink and began to listen to what the Marshal of Victory would say.
– That’s What Colonel, find me the commander of the Army of the First Ukrainian Front, Major Peremet Oleg Mikhailovich. Deliver here immediately. And tell me, let the adjutant write out a pass in the name of Comrade Major, so that he does not have delays. I will sign. That’s an order.
«Yes, comrade Marshal!» Let me do it?! – said the colonel in a military manner, rising from his seat.
«Yes, do it as soon as possible so that he is here.» «By emphasizing the last word, Zhukov added.
An hour later, Major Peremet was already standing in front of the Marshal. Zhukov got up from the table and walked closer to the major. He reached out and shook him, with the words:
– Oleg, I remember our conversation in Kiev, where before the war I was the head of the Kiev military district. You then literally broke into my office. – Zhukov opened his safe, took out a bottle of American whiskey JAMESON poured into glasses.
– Let’s drink Oleg for our victory. «And he served the whiskey to the major.»
– For the Victory, for Stalin, and for the Motherland! the major said loudly and drained the drink in one gulp.
Zhukov watched him with a grin, sipping whiskey in small sips.
– Well, how? – he asked.
– Wow, but our vodka is better. – with a grin said the major.
You remember, before the war, the soldiers of the building battalion built defense structures in great secrecy, and in my basement, according to my order, a bomb shelter was built with the latest lock system and the entrance from your room.
«Of course, everything was done according to your instructions.» I even sent my daughter to a boarding school where repressed children studied. Now they are evacuating with my wife in Kazakhstan.
«Well, I suppose your daughter is already quite an adult?»
– Yes, she even managed to study for one year at Shevchenko University. That’s just one bad jumped out early in marriage, and she was widowed right away, her chosen one died for the first time during the war.
– Say, let them return to Kiev, it is time to rebuild the city, and indeed the entire economy of the country.
I invited you on a very important matter. You are a professional antique dealer, besides a hereditary collector of antiquity. – Zhukov led the major to an antique small table with crooked legs, each inlaid with gilded faces. There was a small safe on this table. The marshal took the keys from his pocket and opened the safe. From it I got two objects of oblong shape. Put next to the safe.
– I want to know what it is? Is there any value in general that can be bailed out at an antique auction?
– Oh, Georgy Konstantinovich, these things have no price. This is from the royal collection of very valuable items. They were once donated by the king of France to the imperial throne of Russia. And during the fire in the Winter Palace, these two objects disappeared without a trace. It can be said only now that they have been found and will be returned to Russia.
«Well, suppose I know that without you.» But on the other hand, now in Russia the devastation associated with the war and the consequences of the war on the face. Banditry and mismanagement are everywhere. It is necessary to restore order, legality, and raise the national economy. So tell me, how valuable is this find?
– According to my estimates, and so on an estimate, each Faberge egg will pull one and a half million dollars, if you are guided by the prices that went before the war. But in fact, given the fact that the lost collection is found, the price can reach ten million for each. Of course with documented authentication.
«And how can this be done?» asked the marshal with extreme interest.
– I know that an authoritative and famous jeweler expert worked here in Berlin, many value’s throughout Europe used his assessment of the authenticity of jewelry.
«Did you know him?»
– And not only knew, but had some correspondence, because of which I almost suffered. Thank you Georgy Konstantinovich, you saved me then.
– Let’s remember the address and for the cause. I need documented evidence of the authenticity of the products. I will give you a special pass, you will look for him with security. For everything about all three days.
– Allow to proceed immediately. – Major readily spoke out.
– No not today. But tomorrow you will arrive here and with two machine gunners you will leave in search.
Zhukov gave the order to print the order on the business trip of Major Peremet O. M. in submission to the marshal, until further notice. With this order, the major appeared in the unit, and the next day with two submachine gunners from the scout squad began searching for an expert.
An examination established the authenticity of Faberge and diamond products, which were examined by an expert and issued certificates of authenticity for each product. Then the marshal sent a major with captured furniture to Moscow with a detailed description and an order to deliver to the Kremlin. To the treasures; Faberge eggs and Zhukov diamond wrote a handwritten order to deliver these masterpieces of jewelry to the Kremlin’s treasury. The major folded the sheet in four and hid it with diamond in the breast pocket of the tunic. The diamond, neatly wrapped in a scarf, remained there in a pocket to be stored right up to Moscow, then Kiev, suggesting that after restoration, he, along with the safe of Catherine the Great, and an antique table, would bring the diamond to the Kremlin’s treasury. The seine was taken along with furniture and the safe of Catherine the Great for restoration. In Moscow, a sealed wagon from Germany was met by a special person authorized by Lavrenty Beria. He thoroughly checked the list of objects, examining each. All delivered pieces of furniture, carpets, fashionable clothes and kitchen utensils had numbers and marked names in a long list.
When the turn came to the safe of Catherine the Great, the captain accepting the wagon asked: —
– And this item, why is it not marked here?
– This item is intended for restoration. I was instructed how to deliver it to an antique dealer in Kiev for restoration. Look, the locks do not work, the tiled lining is covered with cracks, and rust appears in some places. After restoration, it will be delivered to the Kremlin, to the Armory.
– Discover! – ordered the captain. The seine opened a creaky heavy door. On the shelves were two cardboard boxes.
«What kind of things are these?!» – sternly, looking at the major, the captain asked.
– These are already my two toys for children from my grandfather, gifts from the war. – The major was misleading, hoping for the captain’s lack of awareness of rare specimens of Faberge priceless jewelry.
– Unpack, you need to look, what’s there?
The seine took out two boxes, opened two huge and colorful Easter eggs wrapped in rags. Faberge masterpieces appeared in the world.
– They know how to make toys for children. Okay, you major must bring something for loved ones, after all, we went through such a war before our Victory. Close this junk, restore.
When the turn came to an antique table with four-legged faces, the captain asked: – What is this shabby table for restoration? He is not on the list.
– So, comrade captain, I’m an antique dealer, after restoration, both the safe and this table will be delivered to the Kremlin, by oral order of Comrade Marshal Victory Zhukov.
The captain completed the inspection on the second day. And already in the office, Lavrenty Beria took out the order of Georgy Zhukov from the red folder with the attached list of trophies from Germany to replenish the Kremlin’s historic chambers and rooms. After reading the order, Beria tore the sheet into two parts in front of the captain who was standing at attention. Then he went to his desk, took a piece of government letterhead with typewritten text and a red seal on it, and handed it to the captain.
– Here is a new order from the higher authorities. Follow the instructions in it. You will return the order form to me personally.
– There is! – the captain put a new order in the folder, turned in a military circle and left.
«So,» the captain began to say, sitting down on a bench lying in the compartment of the car accompanying the cargo from Germany, «this is the order of Comrade Lavrenty Beria, furniture, clothes, carpets and utensils to take Comrade Zhukov to the Moscow apartment. And things for restoration, there is this dilapidated safe and a table in Kiev. Transport and soldiers will be allocated for loading. Here is the Act of cargo acceptance, bill of lading to Kiev and passes for transport police and commandant’s office. Depart tomorrow, on a truck with cargo…
Furniture, carpets and some utensils by order of Lavrenty Beria was delivered to Zhukov’s Moscow apartment. And at the request of the Marshal, Oleg Mikhailovich an antique table with a safe, in which priceless treasures of Faberge eggs and a twin diamond Shah were stored, were delivered to Kiev to Peremet’s apartment, to a secret bomb shelter to other valuable specimens, where a collection of old wines was stored…
History reference:
«A year later, the famous «Trophy Case» took place in Moscow, during which the legendary Marshal of Victory was accused of misappropriation of various luxury goods. Georgy Zhukov admitted that he had indeed brought a lot of furniture, carpets and other fashionable utensils from Germany, and repented that he had not informed the higher authorities about this. As a result, he was transferred to the post of commander of the Ural Military District.
After Stalin’s death, the commander is returned to Moscow and, by order of Nikita Khrushchev, is appointed first deputy minister of defense, and later minister. By the way, Georgy Zhukov played far from the last role in the removal of Lavrenty Beria from power, who was his exposer in the Trophy Affair. According to most researchers, Marshal Zhukov became one of the key figures in the suppression of the 1956 Hungarian anti-communist uprising and carried out the rather bloody Whirlwind operation. After it, Khrushchev was frightened by the great influence of the Minister of Defense on the public and military leaders, so he achieved the complete removal of Georgy Zhukov from work and dismissed.»
And the priceless treasures delivered to Kiev became the property of the Oleg Peremet family
