The Boy Who Glowed in the Dark

CHAPTER 32

Nadia waited for a lull in the conversation between Simmy and Denys. They had segued into a debate over which of the two reigning Russian stars in the NHL was the better player, Ilya Kovalchuk or Alexander Ovechkin. Nadia had heard Bobby talk about both of them with his friend Derek when they watched games in her apartment. She knew they were two of the golden boys of professional hockey, but she had her eye on something with a more tangible golden hue: the necklace hanging around Denys Melnik’s neck.

She tried to think of a clever way to approach the topic but couldn’t conjure one. That left her no choice but to be painfully direct.

“That’s a nice-looking necklace you’re wearing,” Nadia said.

Denys lowered his chin and grasped it. He pulled the locket out from beneath his shirt. It looked identical to the one Dr. Arkady Shatan had given Bobby’s father, who in turn had passed it on to him. But Nadia couldn’t be certain until she held it in her hands.

“This?” Denys said. “My mother gave it to me. She said Dr. Arkady made the locket himself. I guess he was one of those Renaissance men. He could do anything. The guy was a genius.”

“Do you keep something special inside it?”

Simmy studied Nadia. He kept a straight face, but Nadia sensed he was wondering about her motives for asking the question.

“No,” Denys said. He narrowed his eyes, pulled the tiny clasp open, and revealed the inside. “I used to have a picture of my girl inside but we broke up.” He shrugged. “It’s empty now but I still wear it. I don’t know why. I guess I just got used to having it around my neck.”

“May I take a closer look?”

“Sure.” Denys slipped the necklace off his neck and handed it to Nadia.

As soon as Nadia palmed the locket she knew it had come from the same mold as the one Bobby’s father had given him. Same oval shape. Same depth and dimensions. Same contours.

“May I open it?”

“Sure.”

Nadia opened the tiny clasp. The locket was empty. Its interior mold was also identical. Nadia smiled at him. “I’d like to buy it from you. I collect lockets.”

Denys made a disapproving sound. “I don’t want to sell it. Dr. Arkady made it. I used to hang out in his office waiting for my mother to finish work. He was a weird guy but he was always nice to me. I guess the locket has sentimental value.”

“Sentimental value,” Simmy said. He pulled his wallet out of his pocket. “You can’t put a price on it, except you can put a price on everything, can’t you?”

Nadia examined the locket further. There was no evidence of any etchings beneath the gilding, but there hadn’t been any such signs on Bobby’s locket either. The only way to be certain was to remove the gilding. What were the odds this locket contained some part of the formula? Close to zero, Nadia thought. But she had to know.

“Listen,” Denys said, eyeing Simmy’s wallet. “I really don’t want to sell it.”

“I like your style, my boy,” Simmy said. “You’re a good negotiator. There’s a career for you in business once you hit forty and your illustrious hockey career comes to a glorious end.” He cracked the billfold open.

Nadia reached over and put her hand on top of his. She added sufficient pressure to close the wallet. Simmy cast a look of surprise at her. She gave him a quick, firm smile. Just because he’d shelled out fifty grand for an airplane rental for her didn’t mean she was going to rely on him to cover every expense.

“Denys, please,” Nadia said. “I can’t explain why, but if you sold this locket to me it would mean a lot to me. I’m pretty sure this isn’t real gold. It’s just made of steel with a nice coat of gold paint on top of it.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I know. My mother told me it was more a keepsake than anything valuable.” He glanced at Simmy’s wallet and turned back to Nadia. “What kind of price did you have in mind?”

“How about one hundred American dollars?”

Denys nodded as though it was a fair offer and lowered his head for a moment. When he raised it again he was blushing. “How about two hundred?”

Nadia gave him a traveler’s check for two hundred dollars, thanked him, and said good-bye.

“I need a knife,” Nadia said, on the way to the car.

“Music to a man’s ears,” Simmy said, “when a woman asks him for a knife. What for?”

“To scrape the gilding off this locket and see if there’s anything etched beneath it.”

“You don’t need a knife to do that.”

“I don’t?”

“No. You need one of my men to do it while we watch.”

They climbed in the SUV. One of Simmy’s men used the serrated edge of a hunting knife to strip the gilding from the locket. When he was done, he wiped it clean with a bandana, and handed it to Nadia.

Nadia examined the entire surface of the locket. There was nothing etched beneath it. She rolled her fingers over the bare iron and imagined running her fingers over the tiny indents that existed on the locket Dr. Arkady had given Adam. She wondered whether Genesis II had the same locket as Bobby or Denys Melnik. She wondered how Bobby was doing.

Simmy’s driver started the car and drove.

“I’m afraid you’re out of luck,” Simmy said.

Nadia considered his statement. “Not entirely.”

“How so?”

“We’ve discovered an identical locket. That means there are at least two of them. And we learned that Arkady Shatan made them himself. There very well may be a third.”

“Genesis II?” Simmy said.

“Yes.”

“Or shall we call her Eva?”

“I don’t know. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. That’s what I’m here to find out, right?”

“No. That’s what we’re here to find out.”

“Right. Sorry. That’s what we’re here to find out.”

Simmy’s reminder that he was now equally vested in her mission to meet up with Bobby and discover once and for all if a formula existed stirred mixed emotions. Without his assistance, she wouldn’t be in Kyiv. With his assistance, she was now indebted to another person.

One she still wasn’t certain she could trust.