The Doves of Ohanavank (41 page)

“But Yuri agreed with me. We tried for two days to kidnap her.”

“I’m glad you did not succeed. She will come with baggage. Not worth the trouble or the risk. Forget her.”

“Just forget her?”

“Now pay attention,” says Ari. “You cannot mix personal problems with this business. If you have a score to settle with your wife, you cannot work for us. If you’re serious and want to be a real professional, maybe we can work something out.”

“I’m not trying to settle a score with my wife,” says Hov, but he knows he has already lost this battle. “I just think she’s a perfect candidate.”

“She’s the furthest thing from a perfect candidate.”

“Why?”

“Never mind why. Let’s just say we don’t want the complications that some of her friends can bring.”

“Then why was Yuri keeping watch with me to kidnap her?” Hov’s tone is angry and defiant.

“And look where Yuri is now.” Ari’s arctic tone sends chills down Hov’s spine. Could he have been shot because of our attempts to kidnap Anna? How could that make any sense?

“What does his death have to do with kidnapping Anna?”

“You talk too much,” says Ari coldly. “And you ask stupid questions. If you want to be in this business, you have to sober up.”

Hov is quiet. Pride and ego are shattered. There is nothing he can say to save the moment. So he waits.

“You want to be in this business or not?” Ari sounds bored.

“Yes.”

“Then go back and pack your things. I do not trust you here, with your marital baggage. I’m sending you to Moscow to meet someone. You will receive your plane ticket, and will have accommodations in Moscow. Plus
you will receive two thousand dollars a month salary if we decide to keep you, which is
eight
times what you make here. But Moscow is more expensive. You will leave in a few days, as soon as I call you, for an initial meeting. When I call, you’ll have a few hours to get to the airport. In Moscow, you will follow every instruction, to the letter, given to you by someone called Nicolai. His recommendation will seal your fate. I’ll give you all the contact details that you need.”

This is probably more than Ari has ever spoken in one stretch. But he had to get all the basics out. Hov is unable to process the new information as fast as he heard it. He has never been out of Armenia before. Two thousand dollars a month? That’s probably more than the official salary of cabinet members.

“I need your answer now,” says Ari, bringing Hov out of his reverie.

“I have some questions.”

“Hurry up. I have to return to Yerevan.”

“Who is Nicolai? What will I do in Moscow?”

“I will not answer your first question now. And Nicolai will answer your second question in Moscow. Anything else?”

Hov feels like he is shipwrecked and has nothing to hold on to other than Ari. “Nothing else. My answer is yes.”

Ari takes an envelope from his pocket and offers it to him.

“Good decision. This is a down payment on your salary, even before we decide to hire you.” Hov approaches and takes the envelope.

“I’ll call you soon,” says Ari, getting in his car. Then he drives away.

Hov walks back to his car and sits behind the wheel thinking for a long time. He checks the contents of the envelope—one thousand dollars. So a down payment is fifty percent. He starts to laugh, and immediately feels silly for laughing. He does not start the car. He does not want to drive all the way to Stepanavan, not yet. He watches the gorge of Zovuni and the meadows below. He is not sure how long he has sat on this deserted road. A few cars have passed by, but he has barely noticed. He checks his watch. It is just past seven in the evening. He starts his car and drives toward Yerevan.

Before he knows it, he is parked at the same location where he and Yuri staked out Anna. It is almost eight-thirty, and darkness has fallen on the streets. He waits, unsure of what will happen next. The headlights of a moving vehicle shine on the wall around the corner. The bus stops, and Anna steps down. He starts his car and crawls around the corner.

The bus drives away, and the street is dark again. Anna is walking in front of him. His headlights are turned off. He drives slowly toward her and then suddenly accelerates and knocks her down. He makes sure not to run over her; just send her senseless to the ground. Then he jumps out and carries her to the back seat of the car. She is in shock. She has fallen onto her face and her nose is bleeding. He quickly drives around the block and off the road and jumps into the back seat with her. He starts ripping her clothes off, and as she comes to and starts struggling, he slaps her hard a few times, sending her back into a daze. He pulls off her sweater and rips her shirt, then undoes the buttons of her pants. Her underwear comes off with the tight pants. He grabs her knees, pushes them up to her chest, and forces himself into her with such ferocity that even in her stupor her eyes open wide in shock. He slaps her again and again as he rapes her.

“So you think you can outsmart me, don’t you, you silly bitch,” he mumbles under his breath. When he is done, he opens the car door and kicks her out. Anna rolls out, naked, into the dirt. He throws her clothes and purse at her, walks to the driver’s seat, spits in her direction and drives away.

It still gets cold in the evenings. Temperatures drop by several degrees immediately after sunset, and fall through the night. The cold ground helps bring Anna around. Her face is throbbing with pain, and she cannot breathe from her nose. She pulls herself to her knees and tries to stand up, but feels the ground spinning around her like a tornado, and sits back down. Then she feels semen flowing down her thigh, and realizes in horror that she is naked. She tries to look for her clothes and her purse.

She finds her sweater and slips it on; as it rubs against her face her nose turns into one excruciating ball of pain. She then finds her pants and slips in a leg at a time, still sitting, then pulls them up to her waist lying down, but a sharp pain in her lower back paralyzes her for a minute. She feels dirt and gravel stuck to her buttocks. She makes a heroic effort to ignore the pain and scrambles on her hands and knees looking for the rest of her clothes and her purse. She finds her shirt and underwear, then her purse. She finds her phone and dials Lara’s number.

“Lara,” she mumbles, her voice barely audible.

“Anna, what’s wrong?”

“Please come. I’m two blocks away from your apartment.” Anna’s nose is full of clotting blood and her voice is so faint and garbled that Lara
barely makes out what she said. She figures if Anna is two blocks from her apartment, she is either only a block away from her own place, or, if she is two blocks in the other direction, then she’s five blocks away from her own place. It would save a lot of time if she knew.

“Are you between your building and mine?” she asks, keeping her voice as calm as she can.

“Yes, hurry.”

“Coming. Keep your phone in your hand all the time.”

Lara runs out of her apartment, flies down the top flight of stairs and calls the elevator. She almost gives up and heads back toward the staircase when the elevator doors open. She runs toward Anna’s apartment. She sees her, sitting at the side of the road. She runs up to her and sits next to her. It is dark, but she can see her disfigured face and torn clothes. She does not have to ask what happened. She only wants to make sure it was not a random attack.

“Hov?” she asks.

Anna nods.

“Let’s go,” says Lara, helping her up to her feet. Anna feels a sharp pain in her lower back and buttocks. That’s when she remembers the car hitting her. It is difficult to walk. “I can’t let you go to your place like this. You’re coming with me.”

Lara grabs her purse and tries to put her arm around her waist to steady her, but Anna winces. She takes her arm instead, and they slowly manage to get to her apartment building. The elevator is still on the ground floor. Lara sees her in the light and for a second stops breathing. Anna’s entire face is covered with blood. She holds her upright in the elevator, careful to avoid her waist and lower back. Going up the last flight of stairs is more difficult than walking on the street, but they manage.

“
Astvadz im!
” Oh my God, exclaims Diqin Alice as they enter the apartment. “
Bala
jan, what happened to you?”

“Sorry, Diqin Alice,” says Lara. “This is my friend Anna. She had an accident. She needs a bath, and maybe a doctor. I will have her stay in my room tonight.”

“Ha
balés
, what can I do?”

“Nothing, let her rest a little and then I’ll help her bathe.”

Lara calls Laurian, and hurriedly explains what has happened, keeping her voice calm and coherent.

“Just in case, do you know a doctor I can call? It is past nine o’clock, and she is in no shape to go to a hospital now.”

“I’ll give you a name and a number,” says Edik. “I’ll call him right now and explain everything. I’ll give him your name and number. His name is Dr. Suren, and he is a good friend of mine.”

“Thank you.”

“Lara, one more thing. Take pictures of Anna, many pictures. Use your phone if you don’t have a camera. Everywhere you see bruises and cuts, take photographs. Now, before she washes, and also after. Take pictures of her back and even her buttocks if they are severely bruised, don’t be bashful. This will be important evidence later. We’ll go all the way with this. The police cannot ignore something this serious.”

“Ha Edik jan, let me go take care of her.”

Lara snaps a few pictures of Anna with her phone, and then walks her to the bathroom. She brings a chair from her room and makes Anna sit in front of the sink. She washes her face as carefully as she can, softening the clotted blood with soap and warm water and then wiping it away. Her nose looks broken and crooked, and there are deep abrasions on her right cheek and the right corner of her forehead. Her head must have been tilted slightly left when she hit the ground.

There is sticky, clotted blood also in her hair, but that has to await the bathtub. She runs her fingers lightly over Anna’s skull.

“Does that hurt?” she whispers.

Anna shakes her head. Lara is relieved that there are no obvious head injuries. She uses cotton swabs to clear blood from her nostrils. That is painful, but she manages to clean enough for Anna to breathe more easily.

“Let’s see if you can bathe,” she says, and starts filling the bathtub. A doctor will be here soon.” Anna stares at her blankly.

Lara takes off Anna’s sweater, careful to avoid any contact with her face. Her bra is still on, but her breasts are out of the cups. She undoes the bra and takes it off. She checks her shoulders and arms. The right shoulder is bruised, and both her elbows have deep scratches and cuts. She snaps pictures.

She gently leans her over and checks her back. There are no bruises on her upper back.

“I’ll help you stand up for a minute,” she says taking her arm. Anna stands up, falters at first, then steadies herself. “Let’s take these pants off.”
Anna reaches for the button, but Lara unbuttons the pants and slips them down to her ankles. They are full of dirt from the road.

From the lower one-third of her buttocks down to the middle of her thighs, there are black and blue and red patches.

“Sit back down,” she whispers, helping her. She slips the pants off her ankles and takes off her shoes. Surprisingly, there are only light scratches on her knees. But there is a dark bruise on her left side. She looks carefully, and sees that the bruise has a vague, semicircular pattern right above the hipbone.

“Did he kick you?” whispers Lara.

Anna gives her a blank stare. Why on earth should the kick matter, given everything else that he did?

“I think so,” she mumbles. “I think he kicked me out of the car, when…when he was done.”

“Let’s get you into the bath,” says Lara. “I did not make the water hot, so it won’t burn your bruises. Just lukewarm. It should feel good.”

She walks her to the tub and helps her step into it. Anna winces as she sits down, and gasps for air as she reclines. Her back and buttocks are on fire. But she lies down and shuts her eyes. Lara pours water over her head, trying to avoid spilling too much on her face, and washes her hair.

Her phone rings and she jumps.

“Dr. Suren here,” says the voice. I think I am at the entrance of your building. Which floor do I come to?”

Lara explains, and goes back to Anna. She quickly finishes rinsing the shampoo from her hair.

“I’ll get you one of my nightgowns,” she says. “We need to get you dry and in bed. The doctor is here.”

Chapter Thirty-Five

T
hanks to Dr. Suren’s tranquilizers, Anna sleeps relatively peacefully most of the night. I borrow an old duvet from Diqin Alice, fold it in half, spread it on the floor next to the bed, and lie down on it, but sleep is elusive.

Every rape and beating that I have endured, and every horror story that I have heard from other girls returns and plays out in front of my eyes all night. Hov is gone, gotten away with what he did. The anger begins to well in my chest. It must be a Galian trait. This should not stand, my inner voice screams until it deafens me.

Dr. Suren puts my mind at ease that Anna’s physical injuries are not life threatening.

“She could have been in much worse shape,” he says. “The impact of the car is actually much smaller than the bruises would indicate. Scary as they look, the bruises are superficial. Had the car moved a little faster, it could have shattered her tail bone, it could have left her paralyzed for life, it
could even have killed her. The car hit her under the buttocks, on the back of her thighs. Upon impact, her back jerked backward, and then her body was tossed forward, causing traumatic shock to the spinal column. Once her bruises get better, she’s going to need to see a good chiropractor. I can recommend one, when the time comes.”

“What about her face?”

“Her nose is broken. When I sedated her I straightened the bridge, but she’ll need to see a specialist. I’ll give you a name and number to call. The nose will heal. Her face will remain swollen for several weeks. The abrasions on her forehead are deep, but have not affected the skull. She may have a small scar, barely noticeable. Every physical injury will heal in time. She has to have the strength to heal herself emotionally.”