Diane woke up at half past four. We need to pack up and get out of here before it’s all holy. She had never experienced such shame in her life before. Why had all this happened. What a fool she had been!
After her daughter started living in a rented apartment, Diane stopped cooking at home. She had lunch every day at a small cafe near their office. One day, while the woman was eating lunch, Mark sat down with her. They got to talking and then began an affair. The man was slightly younger than Diane, but the noble gray hair made him not only brutal, but also a little older.
Mark wooed handsomely. They went to restaurants, he gave her flowers and invited her for walks under the moon. After a while, Diana lost her head from her new acquaintance. She looked forward to his every call and always visited a beauty salon before her date. She was head over heels in her new relationship and kept dreaming about how their relationship would develop in the future.
She even planned their wedding in her dreams and was on her way to a honeymoon in a warm country.
A little over a week ago, Mark had invited her to a vacation at a tourist resort. They decided that they would go there on Friday evening and return on Sunday. She was looking forward to this romantic weekend. She had already imagined that he would propose to her on the shore of a picturesque lake.
On Friday afternoon, Mark called her:
– I had to drink a little, so we’ll go in your car.
– Okay.
They met after work, and she noticed that Mark was pretty drunk. She decided that by the time they got to the campground, her lover would be fine. An hour later they were there and checking into the cabin that Mark had pre-booked. He opened the doors of the cabin, as if he was inviting his traveling companion to a new life. She felt like a queen.
After they arrived, they went to a coffee shop. Quiet music was playing there. They made an order and Mark ordered cognac:
– Will you have some on your own?
– We decided, to relax. It will be all right. – Mark answered her.
Diane’s first husband had died of alcoholism, and so she had absolutely no tolerance for alcohol. Mark knew that. Within an hour Mark was drunk out of his mind. He started dragging Diane to dance, but she refused. After that he went to dance himself, and there some girl hung on him. At first they were just dancing, and then they started acting completely indecent. After a while a security guard came up to them and asked them to leave the cafe.
After that, Mark and the girl walked over to their table and emptied the entire bottle in the blink of an eye, after which he said to Diane:
– “Honey, don’t wait up for me tonight.
– You’re an old woman compared to him,” the girl told her, and they left the cafe together.
Diana’s eyes darkened with resentment and she couldn’t even find a way to answer them. She just burned with shame. She was roused from her torpor by a waiter, who brought her an ice cream cone:
– This is from the house!
Tears came pouring out of her eyes while she was eating the ice cream. At first she wanted to go home immediately, but then she decided to wait until morning. When she got home, she immediately put everything in the wash, so that even his smell would not remind her of him. When she opened her bag, she found her shirt covered in Mark’s blood. She did not know what to do, because if he was killed, she would be the first under suspicion, because she had a reason for it.
The woman decided to call her neighbor, who worked for the police in the clerk’s office.
– Diana, are you out of your mind, it’s six in the morning.
Diane sobbed into the receiver and could not really explain.
– I’m on my way, open the door. – her neighbor told her.
After listening to Diana’s confused story, she dialed someone’s number:
– Good morning! Who’s working today as an expert. I’ll be there in thirty minutes.
To Diana.
– I’m afraid that they might arrest me.
– Keep on being afraid, but give me your shirt and your boyfriend’s telephone number.
An hour later, Diane got a call from her neighbor:
– Don’t worry, the shirt’s got pig’s blood on it, and your Mark is a crook. I’ll tell you everything in detail when I get there.
Diana couldn’t figure out who the crook was. When the neighbor flew into the apartment, the first thing she asked was:
– You sold your parents’ house, and where did you put the money? On the card? Is your card tied to your phone?
– The card is in the closet, and the phone is not tied to it.
– And your Mark knows the code, of course.
– Yeah, we were talking about what year is on the card.
– You need to block the card right now.
Diane saw that her card had been paid for at the diner just a few minutes ago.
– They planted the blood on your shirt so you could sit tight until they removed the money from your card. Now let’s go write a statement before they realize you’ve blocked the card…
