Hide-and-Seek. Sergey Redkin

person of interest for Natasha. As far as I knew, she hadn’t made any moves towards his estate yet. Natasha had just enjoyed being seen surrounded by people who had coats of arms over their entrances. Be that as it may, I made a mental note about Christopher being mentioned but let it pass as well. “Right, I have a business appointment,” I said, looking for my robe.

      “I hope she’s worth it,” she said laughing. Natasha wasn’t a jealous type, but she liked to joke about it.

      “Nothing compares to you, dear,” I tried to sing the line from a famous song.

      “Sasha, you’re a terrible singer. When can I see you?”

      “I’ll give you a call tomorrow.” I found my robe and was ready to go to take that shower.

      “Okay.” She rang off. Natasha never wasted her time.

      Chapter 3

      Jared met me at the entrance to his office building in the early evening. I was on time and ready for any type of conversation thanks to a magic substance called Ching, which conveniently was in a tiny brown glass jar, snugged in my blazer’s inner pocket. I had picked it up from a reliable friend with pharmaceutical background on the way and had taken a bit of it to be extra ready.

      “Thanks for coming, Alex,” he said shaking my hand.

      “My pleasure,” I said.

      He had a similar casually expensive look. It seemed that he didn’t want to be bothered with anything that had buttons on and was sporting a dark blue linen T-shirt with no print on and a pair of black jeans with black deerskin sneakers. I’d say the whole ensemble was purchased in a Zegna boutique. A bit too humble for a man like Jared, but who was I to judge?

      Since it was an informal situation, I’d decided to keep it simple and to look like I was on my way to some sport event. I chose a doeskin wool two-button blazer from Ralph Lauren; you can’t go wrong with classic. Besides, it could get a bit chilly in the evening. A stretch checked shirt from Corneliani was tucked into a pair of cotton tailored trousers from Brunello Cucinelli. I also felt comfortable in my Carlos penny loafers by Santoni and was on time thanks to my dad’s discontinued blue dial AP Royal Oak. I had kind of tricked him into lending that horology masterpiece to me for a business meeting a few years ago. “It would go well with my shoes, don’t you think?” I believed my line was. I forgot to give it back to him after the meeting and he never asked about it either. Back then, we could forget about things like that.

      “Let’s get a pint and sit down by that window,” Jared said, pointing to the farthest corner of the pub.

      The place was not too far from Jared’s office, but I was a bit surprised that he chose this old unpretentious, like his wardrobe, place. People with new money often like to show they have it, but I imagine Jared wasn’t one of those people. Perhaps he owned the place. He probably bought it secretly to show other people how humble he was or something. I bet there would be some fancy kind of craft beer with a fruity flavor and healthy snacks.

      We grabbed our beers and sat down at an old table.

      “Cheers,” Jared said and drank a good half of his glass. “That’s more like it!” he said and put his glass down.

      I took a sip. The beer was good. Nothing pretentious, but a good old lager. I had some more and decided to let him talk.

      “Listen Alex,” Jared said after wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, “I just wanted to have a chat with you away from the office. So, there’ll be no shop talk tonight.”

      Great! I came here for nothing.

      “We’ll do all that next week,” he continued.

      Now, that sounds better. Let’s chat away.

      “Let’s finish these and order another round, shall we?” he said and, without waiting for my approval, he gave a sign to the bartender for more beer. “Bottoms up?”

      Now, that is the game I play well. We drained our glasses.

      “I come here all the time. Hugh, the bartender, knows me well and doesn’t mind bringing drinks over when I ask him,” Jared said.

      He definitely owns the place.

      “Okay,” I said.

      “They say it’s one of the best pubs in town,” Jared said, looking around.

      “Never been here.”

      “You’re probably wondering why we’re meeting here.”

      “That crossed my mind. Yes.”

      “Well, perhaps, you don’t know this, but I spent quite a bit of time overseas. Your family was good to my mom, and she was able to save some money so we could go to our relatives in the States.”

      I didn’t remember any of that. Why would I? Jared was not in my circle of friends. He was not on the same level as me socially either. In fact, I didn’t think I had ever talked to him much when we were kids.

      Hugh, a middle-aged man with tattooed hands and a goatee, brought our drinks and put them on the table. Jared just nodded to thank him.

      “I didn’t really want to go across the pond because I enjoyed my time here. The little cottage behind the main house my mother and I shared and the time playing with the local boys and …”

      “Charlie,” I ended the sentence for him.

      “And Charlie. Right.” Jared smiled and lifted his second glass. “Here’s to your little brother.”

      Jared took a hearty sip from his glass. I followed suit.

      “There was just something about that boy,” Jared said. “He was so kind and …what’s the word I’m looking for here?”

      “Gregarious.” I made my guess and meant it about my little brother.

      “Right. Kind and gregarious.”

      Jared emptied his glass. He was thirsty and I had no problems with that. I could be really thirsty if I wanted to. So I emptied mine as well.

      “Now, could I ask you to tell me exactly what happened?” Jared said after a short pause. “I mean, I know the story, but I haven’t been to the house ever since I left when I was a kid. I heard it from my mother, and I read something in the papers, but it’d be great to hear it from you.”

      Okay. So that’s what those two rounds were for – to soften me up and prepare for the sad story. It takes more than two beers to make me emotional. A delicious meal and a movie about little puppies in trouble might do a better job. Beer only makes me alert and curious. Well, up to three glasses that is. After that we either put the percentage of alcohol up a notch or we just keep at it until one of us cracks, goes to the bathroom, and breaks the seal.

      Well, Jared was my potential investor, my only potential investor, and he wanted to hear the story. As reluctant as I was, I had to comply. But I needed to use the restroom to “powder my nose” before taking a walk down memory lane.

      Chapter 4

      My brother was seven years younger than me. Despite the age difference, I remember us being good buddies. We had our brotherly disputes of course, and I used to be quite an ass to him, but Charlie liked everyone, and everyone liked Charlie. He was very inquisitive, sometimes to the extent of annoying the hell out of me and seemed to be interested in learning and collecting everything at once. From stones from our stream to postage stamps, from inspecting worms with his magnifying glass to learning star constellations – nothing escaped his awestruck attention. You could often hear him laughing victoriously somewhere in the house or outside when he made another discovery of the day. I aways wondered where that energy came from and why I didn’t have that element in my DNA. I did my best to keep him away from my so-called entrepreneurial attempts. He always wanted to be around me, but I didn’t always let him. There was nothing bad or negative about him. Despite all the nonsense that teenagers usually go through, I think I was proud of having such a brother even without realizing it at the time. When he disappeared, it felt like a black void