“Be quiet, you’ll wake up the boy. You raped me!”

“I’m your husband. We made love.”

“No,” she said, curling her lips with disgust. “That’s not what it’s called. It disgusts me to think that you . . . I’m scared to even be in the same room as you.”

“You wanted it. It was you. Don’t you remember?”

Maria frowned, trapped in thought. She momentarily lowered the muzzle, but hastily raised it again and took aim at Andrei.

Andrei moved to get out of bed, but Maria snarled with feral rage: “Don’t move, you animal!”

She held the pistol in her right hand and reached for Andrei’s duffel bag on the top shelf of the cupboard. She kicked the bag to the bed with a bare foot. “You need to go away for a few days. Or a few months. I need to work things out.”

“Now?”

“Yes, now. This very second. Your bag is packed. It’s been a month since you packed it.”

“How did you know that?”

“I’m a woman, I know when a man is planning to leave.”

“I thought the police were coming for me. That’s why I packed. But I can’t leave now. I can’t leave you alone.”

“Don’t you worry about me. I have Tykhon. And Mum. You wanted to go off to your parents. Well, go then! Or go to your army mates. Let off some steam at the shooting range. Fuck about with your guns.”

“You’re seriously kicking me out of my own flat?”

“Just be grateful I don’t shoot you right there. I wouldn’t get any more than three years suspended for you.”

“Look, we both need to calm down.” Andrei raised his hands.

He was finally starting to understand that she wasn’t messing around. Maria kept the weapon pointed directly at his head. Her finger hovered over the trigger.

“Yes, we both need to chill out. And that’s why you’re leaving. You can go away and learn some respect for me and my body. And to decide whether you want to live with this madwoman anyway. In the meantime, I’m going to track down my murderer.”

“What murderer?”

Maria shook her head.

“Enough talking. My hand is getting tired. Get dressed. There are your trousers,” she nodded in the direction of the chair by the bed. She reached with her free hand for a white shirt and threw it onto the bed. “There’s a shirt. It’s ironed.”

Andrei got up and dressed. Trousers, belt, shirt, wristwatch, documents, and telephone.

Holding her position with her back to the mirror, Maria waited for him to finish and go out into the hallway. She followed him.

He laced up his military boots in the hallway on the plastic sheeting-covered floor. He looked at her and grinned bitterly. “You’ve come to see me out?”