Panthera Spelaea

In the morning, Svetlana came in with an assistant. “You’re back,” I said with a big smile.

“I am sorry about yesterday,” she told me. “I went to my boss and complained. No one should be listening to me talking to my patients.”

“I don’t blame you for what Viktor did.” I would have reached out for her hand, but my wrists were still secured to the bed rails, and I still couldn’t get a television remote.

“Good news and bad news,” she told me. “The good news is that we’re going to give you a sponge bath.”

John Junior perked up at that news. He was going to be trouble around this one. “And the bad news?”

“Yulia is with our physical therapy department. She is going to stretch your muscles out and help you regain your motion.” I shuddered at the thought; just moving my body as much as the handcuffs allowed brought pain. The doctors didn’t tell me why. Yulia said something in Russian. “She said she worked on you while you were in your coma, but this session you would remember.”

I sure did. Everything was sore and aching, and my body rebelled against the movement and stretches. Yulia had a job to do and did it. “You are hurt, not injured, so stop whining,” Svetlana told me when she walked back in with the police officer. Yulia had finished with my lower body, so the officer moved my cuff points to my ankles so she could abuse my torso and arms. He stayed in the room, enjoying the looks of pain on my body over the next twenty minutes.

When the handcuffs were back on, the officer left, and Svetlana and I were alone again. “I believe you,” she told me when the door closed.

“I think you’re the only one outside my parents and my lawyer,” I replied. “Why?”

“You can’t fake what your body has been through,” she replied. “Your body is telling us that every muscle contracted at the same time, straining every muscle and tendon. That is consistent with electrical shock, not near-drowning or hypothermia.”

That made sense. “Why can’t the investigator accept that?”

“No entry or exit burns on your body. It doesn’t match what we would expect from electrocution.” She put her hand over mine. “Now behave. I need to give you a sponge bath, and if you get grabby, Ivan gets the job.”

“I’ll be good, but I can’t help my reactions.” That was an understatement. Svetlana was volcanically hot, intelligent, fun to talk to, and smelled wonderful. After a month in the field, there was nothing short of death that could stop my reaction.

Junior was up and about the whole time, standing tall under the towel like a periscope on a submarine. I tried to ignore it, and Svetlana was a professional. It felt good to get clean, especially under her gentle touch. She saved my tent for last, moving things around efficiently until I was clean. When she left, it took an hour for the swelling to go down.

I took a nap after lunch, waking to a commotion in the hall. I recognized one of the voices, and my eyes got wide. The police officer entered the room, followed by my Mom and my lawyer. “MY BABY,” my Mom said as she rushed to my side. She was hugging the hell out of me as I felt the handcuffs coming off, and the officer left. I hugged my Mom back, both of us crying for a minute until she finally let me go and backed up.

I rubbed my wrists as I looked over at Marina Federov. “What happened?”

“The Prosecutor agreed there isn’t enough evidence to support murder charges YET. You are still their main suspect and the only witness to what happened on the river. You aren’t under arrest as of now, so the handcuffs are off. However, you are a foreign national, and the investigation is still open. The police are allowed to continue holding your passport.”

“They won’t let me leave the country?”

“Yes,” Marina said.

“Mrs. Federov thinks it could be months before the investigation is complete,” Mom said. “I’ve talked to your father about this. He and I agree it would be best if you stayed here in Moscow, close to your lawyer.”

What would I do in Moscow? “I’d rather go back to work in Siberia,” I said.

Marina shook her head. “There is still an active murder investigation. The victims include one of the townspeople and two members of your expedition. You remain a suspect in those murders. You returning to the expedition is NOT going to happen, John. Even if the police allowed it, the expedition wouldn’t take you.”

The expedition was the culmination of my life’s work! I couldn’t accept that it was over. “What can I do? Where do I go from here?”

“Stay out of trouble,” Mom said. “I have to head home in a few days, but you won’t be without resources. You have your credit card, so find a place to stay.”

“And keep me up to date on where you are and what you are doing,” Marina told me. “If you want to go somewhere, I’ll give you the number of a security service that can provide a driver and a bodyguard for you.”

“A bodyguard? Why? Am I in danger?”

“You haven’t been watching the news, so you wouldn’t know,” Mom told me. “It’s all over the news, and they are not shy about calling you the prime suspect.”

Marina agreed with Mom. “You also don’t know the city or the language, and you are a rich foreigner.” She hadn’t seen my wallet. My Dad was rich, while I was on an allowance. “Your parents already set the account up, so all you have to do is call them at least two hours in advance. I’d recommend laying low until things die down a little. They have paparazzi here, too.”

“Fine,” I agreed. Having a driver would be convenient. Moscow’s subway system is world-famous, but if I couldn’t understand what the people around me were saying, it might not end well.

Marina relaxed a little when I agreed. “Here’s a list of hotels in the city and nearby that are good for foreign nationals.” She set the paper on my table. “By the way, stay away from the US Embassy. It’s fine if you call them, but since that is officially US territory, going there could be seen as an attempt to flee the country. Given the fluid status of the investigation, the US Embassy might turn you back over anyway.”

Great.

I wasn’t going to be in jail, but I’d lose some of my freedoms anyway.