He paid the five ruble entry and wandered around the tired fun fair, watching the people. Exhausted parents battling to control excited children; teenage lovers returning from the bushes, red-faced and guilty; elderly couples strolling quietly together along the unkempt pathways. At one point, when he was sitting on a bench looking out across the river, he noticed a young woman walking briskly in his direction. She was holding tight to the hand of a little boy who trailed at her side. The child, he guessed, would have been seven or eight, still dressed in his school uniform despite the late hour. The girl herself not much more than twenty years older, but by their resemblance and the playful, loving way they communicated they were almost certainly mother and son. She was striking. Tall, with a flurry of white blonde hair, with long, slender legs and slim hips and a smile that danced across her face as she chatted animatedly with the little boy at her side. Then, as they approached, Nikolai noticed the sway of her walk.
