Absolution. Aleš Šteger

from solitary, where you’ll have plenty of time to think things through.’

      ‘That’s enough, Farkas. Tomi gave you the envelope, the head of the Volleys. Where would a kid like that get so much money?’

      Farkas says nothing. Softly and steadily, Bely taps his fountain pen against the palm of his hand. Farkas’s bloodshot eyes bulge further as he studies Bely’s palms, one of which is injured. His eyes dart from the pen to Bely to Vila’s purple tail. The dog’s fur rises and falls with heavy breaths. He hears the ceramic fountain pen as it hits flat against Bely’s wounded palm, the vibrations that spread evenly across the room and bounce off him back to Bely. Bely feels the vibrations as they settle into his body. Watchfully he stares at Farkas’s big, bloodshot, never-shut eyes, which stare back at him. Tired, his corneas look like cocoons of heavily interwoven capillaries. As if the tiniest of the spiders were about to nestle in, the purple tail of the fountain pen, bloody trail, ceramics, blood-filled pools, soft Persian rug, the beating of a canine heart, heavy look, vibrations, the arching ground that opens up into the room, tick, tiring, they bend like sheets, tack, palm, eyes, tail, tick, pencil, breath, tack, pool.

      Rosa’s voice calls out to Bely to open his eyes. There’s something soft underneath him. His nose and mouth are stuffed with purple tail fur. It’s Vila, who lies on the rug beside him.

      ‘What happened? Where’s Farkas?’

      ‘Don’t worry, he’s safe, upstairs in the bedroom. I put him there before I woke you up. He managed to hypnotize you while you tried to hypnotize him. Never seen anything like it before. All of a sudden you stumbled and fell across one another.’

      ‘My head.’

      ‘You were lucky you missed the table, but the dog broke your fall, and you probably broke all of her bones, poor little thing!’

      ‘Come on, let’s go upstairs,’ says Bely, as he grabs the E-meter and staggers to the staircase.

      The bedroom door on the first floor is wide open. Farkas, still tied up, lies next to the bed, his mouth Scotch-taped. Bely pulls Farkas up and over to the mirror.

      ‘I should’ve practised more,’ mutters Bely. ‘I can’t get the hypnosis to work, not even before the mirror.’

      Bely leaves and returns with his coat, feels around the pockets and pulls out his little bottle of pills.

      ‘You’re not going to give him your fat-reducing pills, are you?’ laughs Rosa.

      Bely throws her a serious glance. He continues to feel around in his pockets. A small case, an ampoule, a needle, Bely attaches it to a syringe. Farkas tries to resist as Bely rolls up his sleeve. On his upper arm, a tattoo of the Maribor football club logo, a castle with a bird on the blossom of a violet. The needle pierces the castle, light tightening of the skin, a frozen moment. Farkas calms down, turns languid and mellow.

      ‘We’ve got about twenty minutes,’ says Bely. ‘The serum only works that long.’

      Bely tears the Scotch tape off Farkas’s mouth and turns on the Dictaphone.

      ‘Where did you get the envelope with the money?’

      Farkas stutters incomprehensibly. Bely grabs him by his shirt and slaps his face.

      ‘Answer me! Where did you get that money in the envelope?’

      ‘It’s a week’s worth of earnings from my Volleys.’

      ‘Your Volleys?’

      ‘Nobody knows about it, they all think that the Volleys are a bunch of football fans. But some of them are also members of a well-organized group, which I run.’

      ‘What group?’

      ‘Well, we do personal protection, primarily politicians, but also businessmen. It’s less likely that I’ll ever see you in court if you have our protection. We also deal with other stuff, but on a much smaller scale.’

      ‘Like what?’