'Thanks, Viktor, could you be any louder? I'm deafened now with you shouting right in my ear like that!' Sergey replied in mock anger.
Viktor laughed and punched Sergei playfully on his arm. 'Well, I didn't want you to miss it, did I? Otherwise, we could have been driving around and around all day looking for a space!'
'Bullshit,' muttered Sergei. 'I had already seen it anyway.'
'Sure, sure,' Viktor laughed, shall I go?' He hadn't waited for an answer and already had the passenger side door partway open, even before Sergei had come to a stop.
'Yeah, go on then, and tell the bastard to answer his phone, OK?'
'Will do,' Viktor replied, heaving himself out of the seat and walking over to the building's entrance, he pushed the button to the lift, and once it had clanked open, selected the fifth floor.
Agni's apartment was number fifteen, and as Viktor had been there many times before, he had no trouble locating it and began immediately banging loudly on the door, shouting, 'Agni, Agni mate are you there? It's me, Viktor.'
He waited impatiently for a few moments and was just about to bang again when he heard Agni from the other side of the door.
'Yep, hold up, Viktor.'
The door swung open, and seeing Agni standing there, Viktor burst out laughing. Agni looked tousled, his hair standing up in spikes, his cheeks above his beard red and blotchy. He was obviously unwell and in some distress.
'What is it you're wearing, man?' Viktor laughed, taking in Agni's scrubby old cardigan, tracksuit pants, and worn slippers, which showed the tips of Agni's toes.
Agni didn't laugh back. 'What do you want, Viktor?' he asked wearily.
'It's Saturday, man. Sergey and I are off to the forest. He tried ringing you, but you didn't answer, so we've called by on our way out there to pick you up.'
'Bloody hell, I forgot. Sorry mate, but I'm sick as a dog with this cold and am not up to going anywhere, let alone to the forest. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to give this weekend a miss.'
'Are you sure? I feel lucky today, I reckon we're going to find something.' Viktor reeled back in mock horror as Agni started coughing uncontrollably. 'On second thoughts, you stay home, man, go back to bed and get well, make yourself a vodka toddy. No-one wants to be around you and your germs!'
Agni thought for a few moments. He had a summer cold, nothing serious, but he felt totally miserable. He didn't want to miss going to the forest this weekend; he had not missed a summer weekend since moving permanently to Yekaterinburg.
'Alright then, I'll come. The fresh air and sunshine will probably do me good. Give me five minutes, and I'll be down.'
Walking back to his bedroom to get changed, Agni glanced at the photo on his dresser, the one of May he had taken unbeknownst to her at their last picnic in the park together. She had been watching a couple of young dogs chasing a stick thrown to them by their owner, and she was laughing at the attempts to retrieve it back from the dogs. The setting sun had been behind her, casting copper highlights to her hair, her green eyes were bright with happiness. His heart skipped a beat as it always did when he looked at the photo, and he was filled with the same familiar regret he had felt ever since the day he said goodbye to her at the Koltsovo Airport.
He dressed, gathered up the backpack, which held all of the equipment he needed and headed out of the apartment to the lift.
Back in the car, Viktor had explained to Sergei that Agni was sick but had decided to come anyway. 'He can sit in the front with you.' Viktor exclaimed as he climbed into the back seat of the car. 'I don't want him coughing and hacking all over me!'
Sergei drove them to the forest, the three of them always went together and had been taking turns at providing the transport for the last few years.
As usual, they had made arrangements to meet up at Pigs Meadow with the rest of the group early in the morning; first light, if possible, so that they could make the most of the day and the fine weather. Because they had been delayed calling in and waiting for Agni, the others were already there and ready to start when they finally arrived.
'Stay away from Agni today!' Viktor shouted as they walked across the clearing to the rest of the group. 'He's sick as a dog and likely to kill us all!' Viktor doubled over laughing, slapping his thighs in mirth.
'Yeah, the man's a comedian.' Agni replied, smiling wanly at everyone.
'Glad you could make it Agni,' someone commented, it's going to be an excellent day for it today.' Greetings over, they began to disperse in small groups across the area.
Having initially started off as an enjoyable past time for their amateur history group had turned into something of an obsession over the years. The members of the group now considered their task to be a challenge, to succeed where countless others had failed over the years since the grave containing the Romanov family had been found in July 1991.
They were searching for a second grave, and not just any one, but the burial site belonging to the two missing children, Alexey and his elder sister, Maria.
They knew it was there somewhere. Everyone who lived in Yekaterinburg knew that, and from all accounts, it was not too far from the original gravesite, however, its location continued to be, after all this time elusive.
'Let's try over here.' Sergey suggested as he and Agni headed towards a clearing that was surrounded by tall silver birch trees.
'Waste of time guys,' called Viktor. 'I searched that spot myself when we were here last weekend.'
'Yeah, and we all know how useless you are, don't we?' Sergei laughed, ducking as Viktor half-heartedly threw a pine cone at him.
Sergey was glad that Agni had decided to come after all. He always made sure that he managed to partner up with him during a search; he liked working with him. Agni was professional about it; he knew what he was doing. And it was a serious business, almost a personal one for Agni. Sergey knew from the little Agni had said that he had been involved back in 1991, but he did not know the full details of his involvement. To Sergey, Agni seemed driven, totally focused, and intent on finding the grave.
The two men started poking around, carefully removing the fallen leaves and other undergrowth from the area they had chosen. Neither of them was trained archaeologists; however, Sergey had studied as many books on the topic that he could find, taking careful notice of what Agni and the two experts in their group did whenever they found anything of interest during one of their searches.
'Why don't you take the lead today, Serge?' Agni suggested, sitting down to rest on a fallen pine log. 'I’ll just rest up a bit here, I'm a bit out of breath already.'
Sergei knew it was vital that he did not disturb the soil under the foliage too much while he was clearing it, and once satisfied that all the debris had been removed, took the slim metal pole he used as a probe from his backpack and carefully and methodically started inserting it into the exposed ground. He worked in a self-designated pattern, moving from the right to the left of the patch of dirt, keeping a distance of four centimetres between each probe. The soil was relatively dry, which made it easy for him to see the holes that he had already made.
He continued in this way for twenty minutes or so, stopping once to stretch his back and have a drink from his water bottle. He took off his jacket. The sun was up now, its rays filtering slowly through the trees, and the air was starting to warm up.
'Great job Serge.' Agni commented, smiling up at him as he stopped for a drink. 'Do you want me to take over for a bit? The sun is doing wonders, and I'm starting to feel much better.'
'Nah, I'm all good for now, mate. Rest up while you can.' Sergei smiled back, and Agni leant back against his tree stump, closing his eyes in contentment. He loved this forest, despite its tragic history, found it to be a place of peace and beauty. Every time he came here, something new and different was discovered. Off in the distance, he could hear a nightingale song, and once, on one of his solitary walks, he had encountered a lynx. They had stared at each other for long moments, Agni in awe at its be
auty, before the animal disappeared into the undergrowth. For the millionth time, he wished fervently that May was with him to share the moment.
'Anything yet?' Viktor called from where he was working a spot about a metre away from Sergey. 'I told you that you were wasting your time, I don't miss much!' Viktor threw his head back and let out a bellowing laugh, which reverberated off the trees and sent birds flying startled from the tops of the birches above them.
'We're going to have to find something soon,' Sergei answered. 'My wife is getting sick of being a weekend widow to this forest and is threatening to divorce me if I don't start spending more time with her!'
'Ha! I told you not to get married. You should have been like me and stayed single, then you could do whatever you wanted to without anyone complaining!' Viktor roared.
'You're only single because no-one will have you!' Agni joined in laughingly.
Sergey continued probing in this manner, slowly and methodically, for a few more hours, and then they all stopped for lunch.
Viktor joined them, and the three men sat, backs resting up against one of the birch trees, just in front of the area Sergey had searched. The forest was quiet; there was no-one else there apart from their group, the only sounds the birds and the low murmured voices of the others as they chatted over their lunch.
'Cheese and pickle sandwiches again, Viktor?' Sergey teased, 'maybe you do need a wife to make you something different now and then?'
'I happen to very much like cheese and pickle,' Viktor responded indignantly, offering a sandwich to Agni, who declined with a shake of his head. 'A million Russians were raised on cheese and pickle!
They laughed, and sat for a few moments, enjoying the warmth of the sun, and for Sergey and Viktor, a chance to ease their sore muscles.
'I love it here.' Sergei stated, in an echo of Agni's earlier thoughts. 'It never ceases to amaze me when I think about what happened here.'
The three men involuntarily as one looked across the clearing to the Romanov gravesite marked now with a few faded plastic flowers and scattered icons.
'Come on, let's go. ' Viktor chirped, hoping to coax them out of the melancholy that had suddenly befallen them. 'We don't want to waste the rest of this glorious day.'
Sergei set to work again, happy to continue as Agni watched, and then after what seemed like only seconds later, stopped abruptly again as he heard a loud crunch from the ground directly below where he had just inserted his probe.
He carefully removed it and inserted it again, this time a centimetre from the last place. He heard the crunching noise again.
'Sounds like you may have found something Serge.' Agni said, leaning forward, his face animated.
'I heard it too,' Viktor hurried over. 'What do you think, Agni? A stone maybe?'
They had been disappointed many times before, having excitedly dug up lumps of coal or small stones, sometimes even petrified wood or the bones of small animals and birds, so they didn't hold high hopes that this might be anything different.
'Let's see.' Agni said, standing up to remove a small trowel from his backpack. He kneeled close to the spot where Sergey's probe still stood and slowly and carefully began removing the top layer of soil, taking care to place it to one side in a tidy pile, just in case it needed to be sifted later.
'There!' exclaimed Sergei. 'What's that?' He took a small paintbrush from his pocket and started carefully brushing the soil from an object he had uncovered. His hands were shaking so much, he had to stop for a moment, taking a few deep breaths to compose himself before his hands had steadied enough to continue.
'Take it easy, Serge, you're doing great.' Agni smiled encouragingly.
'It looks like a bone to me, a small piece.' Viktor observed, leaning over to look closer as Sergei continued brushing. 'There's another one just there too, see?'
'It's most likely an animal, a rabbit or something, the fragments are so small.' Sergei muttered disappointedly.
'That's not an animal skull.' Agni replied softly, pointing to another bone fragment that Sergei's brushing had partially uncovered. 'That's part of a human skull, a child's one at that!'
They looked at each other in astonishment, hardly able to believe what they were seeing.
'Grigory! Sonia! Over here!' Agni shouted into the stillness of the forest. The two archaeologists, who had been working some distance away, came rushing over.
'What have you found?' Sonia asked, kneeling down next to Sergey. 'Oh, my God.' She exclaimed as she took a closer look at what their excavations had uncovered.
'Do you think they're human?' asked Viktor.
'Oh, most definitely, yes,' breathed Grigory. 'But this is just wonderful! Well done!'
Agni quickly told them what Sergey had done so far, then stepped back to watch as Grigory and Sonia began a thorough search. He was elated at the thought that they had perhaps found what they had been looking for all this time.
'Without a proper examination, I believe that we are looking at the fragments from a skull and a pelvis.' Sonia confirmed as they carefully laid the recovered bones on a tarpaulin. 'They are in the most appalling condition; very damaged. See here? This damage shows signs that they have been doused with acid and then burned. We need to be very careful when removing them, they are so fragile, they could disintegrate.'
'Do you think it's them? Alexey and Maria?' Sergey asked.
'We won't know for sure, obviously, until after a proper examination, but I would go so far as to say it's extremely likely,' Grigory responded.
'It's them.' Agni said softly, his eyes fixed on the remains.
'I need to go back into town to alert the authorities and get them taken to the morgue at the hospital. Agni, I'm anticipating that you will want to come with me seeing as you will most likely be leading the examination?'
'Of course.' Agni responded.
Sensing his reluctance to leave, Sonia tried to reassure him. ‘Don't worry Agni, I'll make sure they are looked after here and exhumed with the greatest of care.' Sonia smiled knowledgeably. 'Past mistakes will not be repeated, I assure you.'
Agni nodded his thanks, and before moving off with Grigory, slapped Sergey on the back. 'Thank you, my friend,' he said softly. 'You have no idea what this means to me. Tomorrow I will buy you as many drinks as you want and explain it all to you.'
'Yes, congratulations, mate!' Viktor echoed heartily, 'it seems that you are the better searcher after all!'
'This isn't just a summer hobby for you, is it Agni? It's personal.' Sergey asked astutely.
'Personal?' Agni replied. 'Oh yes, Serge, my friend, finding Maria and Alexey certainly is personal. It is the fulfilment of a promise made to a wonderful young woman a very long time ago.' He took a deep breath, 'I had begun to give up hope that we would ever be able to deliver on that promise, but by God! We've done it today!'
The three men embraced, each still in disbelief, barely able to think of the ramifications, and of the importance of their find.
Sonia continued to carefully remove items from the ground and lay them gently onto the tarpaulin.
Sergei quickly counted at least forty-four bone fragments, along with some teeth, bullets, and the remainders of what appeared to have been ceramic containers.
'This is interesting,' said Sonia, holding up an item heavily stained with soil. 'It's cloth by the looks of it, perhaps the remains of a piece of clothing?' She examined it more closely. 'I think it might have been part of a dress.'
Grigory soon returned with Agni's team from the hospital, and the remains and other items were carefully placed in containers and removed from the forest then taken to the morgue where Agni waited for them.
‘Serge here has an angry wife to get home to,’ Viktor laughed as the team left the forest, and I’m going to have to think of something else to do on my weekends if there’s no point in searching Koptyaki Forest anymore!’
Agni felt surreal as he gazed down at Maria and Alexey, a sense of Deja vu, memories of the autop
sy tables in 1991 crowding his mind. He wished that May was here, sharing this moment. The sharp pain at her loss sat permanently under his breast bone as he thought about the years he had missed without her as part of his life. How happy she would be that Maria and Alexey had been found and smiled imagining the look of joy on her face. Perhaps she will come home now, he thought.
Epilogue
Pigs Meadow, Koptyaki Forest. Yekaterinburg.
September 2007
May stood outside the terminal at the Koltsovo Airport, waiting for her rental car to arrive. She had just disembarked from the early morning flight from Heathrow.
She couldn't quite believe that she was here on Russian soil again, although her decision to come back had not been a difficult one once she had read about the discovery of the two bodies in Koptyaki Forest.
She had read the articles in the newspapers over and over and had searched the Internet daily for updates. Officially, the bodies had not been identified as being those of Alexey and Maria, but May knew, deep inside her soul, that it was them. Since hearing the news, she felt as if she was living in a state of shock, and sitting around at home doing nothing without knowing what was happening had been unbearable.
The car arrived, and the porter lifted her suitcases into the back seat. She took another quick glance at the map of Yekaterinburg that she had purchased in London and then placed it within easy view on the passenger seat. She had studied it in detail on the flight over and was reasonably confident that she would be able to navigate her way to Koptyaki without too many problems. She also felt comfortable at the thought of driving around Yekaterinburg, even though she had not done a lot of driving when she was last here. Agni had driven me everywhere then she thought, then chided herself for letting thoughts of him side-track her from what she needed to do this morning. She knew she would have plenty of time to think about Agni later.
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