Part 15: Meet the Belussovs

Update 6 – Meet the Belussovs







I'm a private detective and I'd like to ask you some questions.

I'm investigating a criminal organization based in this building.

Exactly! I'm looking for a criminal and I need a mature opinion!
Yeah?! Well, come into the apartment!

We follow him inside.




A little crowded in here. Didn't expect Belussov to be a family man.

Inspect the plump woman
Coping with difficulty.

Inspect the strapping lad
Clearly terrified of you.

Inspect the old woman
She resents her daughter-in-law.

Inspect Belussov
A jovial type. Possibly alcoholic.

Good evening.
Good evening.
I didn't invite you in!
Ugh. How rude.



Charming family you have!
My mother. Mother, this man is here on business!
What business?
How should I know? He only just come in!
Bizness! Not like the old days. In them days, any bizness and you earned a bullet.!
Please mother, this is important business. This is my wife Nonna Vladimirovna. Silly cow. And Mitya. Get us a drink, Mitya!



This stuff isn't half bad.
So, how can I help? Shut the baby up...You hear what I say, cow?
It's your baby too, Pasha! Why d'ya put vodka in his cabbage water? He's sick, poor thing. Go to bed Mitya.
Snug apartment!
Damn Easterners and Georgians! Get all the apartments! I'm a Russian! Supposed to have 5 square meters each! Had to kill my damn dog when the last baby came. No room!
I had to kill it, you mean! He was still alive when you finished clubbing him...
Poor dog.
Shut up, you cow. You don't know nutt'n!
You said he went to live with uncle Roma in the country!
You was told to go to your bed! And those Armenian exploiters with all their money! Selling radioactive lettuce. Who cares? Any swine can afford their prices deserves to glow in the dark, har har!

Ask for...a cigarette
A cigarette?! Haven't smoked for months. You seen the black market prices?

Talk about...prices
Know what I think? I think the...
Mitya, I told you to...
I don't want to go to bed!
It's late! Just do what you're told or I'll swipe you!
What'd I tell you, Pasha! She's beating your son!
Look, I'm tryin' to discuss problems here!
Doesn't sound like it! You're just gabbin' about nutt'n, while this cow is beating my grandson. If your father...
Okay, okay. No more gabbin'. Just ask your questions, okay? Mitya, go to bed. No, give us a drink.



Uh, well... That's enough talk. Time to get down to business.
I'm trying to trace someone called Hollywod.
Hold on. Nonna, shut that kid's face!
He's sick! He had too much dinner.
Pasha always had vodka in his tea when he was a baby! Made a man of him. Turned into a good for nothing when he married you!
Mitya, go to bed. I put clean sheets in the bathtub. A man! Huh!
The tap leaks! I'm all wet in the mornings! Why can't the baby...
Well, sleep with your head under the tap. That way, you'll never get thirsty. Har har!
...about Hollywood?
Who's he? Never heard of him. Doesn't live here.
I don't get the feeling that Belussov's Hollywood. He seems more like a petty crook to me. Oh well, maybe I can still get some useful information out of him.

Ask about...the neighbors in general
Ach! Filth. Not fit to live in the same building as my boy!
Nothing suspicious. Respectable types. Except for those two sluts in apartment 7, Chizkhova and Ponomareva. Nymphomaniacs! Anything in pants...
Except you, of course.
Anatoli Sytenko in apartment 6 is probably a black marketeer: he runs the meatshop with not much meat!
Aha. Another suspect.

Ask about...the Ulyanovs
Just old farts! Think they're better than everyone else.

Ask about...Yasakev
That fairy?! Mad, he is. Talks to himself!

Ask about...the Nakhimovs
That beardy spends his time sniffing around the sluts in apartment 7.

Ask about...the Sytenkos
Poor oaf's wife died. Keeps himself to himself.

Ask about...Ponomareva and Chizkhova
Randy as rabbits! Always giving you the come on, you know?

Ask about..comrade Chevchenkova
Senile old hag. Feeds cats outside. Now they're all over the place. Complained about my dog. He used to love chasing them!

Ask about...strange goings on in the building.
You mean like suspicious stuff? No, nutt'n I ever seen.

Ask about...the bar
Just a bar. I sometimes go in for a beer.

Ask about...the Enthusiastic Progress Club
Only people in there are black marketeers and lowlifes.

Ask about...the meatshop
Just a meatshop with not much meat.

Ask about...local crime
How should I know? I work all the time.

Ask about...his job



Your brother-in-law the manager there?



You started there when you left Lefortovo?
How the hell should I know, stupid cow! Stupid thing to say!
I told you this would...
Shut your stupid face, cow! I don't know anything about Lefortovo! Why should I? What kind of a question...
Pasha's a good citizen! His father fought at...



Too late, Belussov. I know everything! You've got problems, moron.
Those two cows blabbed! Listen, I'm leading an honest life now. I swear!
You mean you were sniffing round those two again! I told...
It wasn't nothing, Nonna! I swear! They was leading me on!
All the same! Can't resist a real man!
A real man, this drunken dogbrain?! And those bitches in heat!
Okay, okay. Nutt'n happened. We just talked some. You know.
Yes, I know. Peabrain.



Start talking, or that Moscow resident's permit gets torn up!

That's a labour camp for traitors and suchlike scumbags. Afterwards, he lived in Novosibirsk or some damn place, and he only got to Moscow because of Sakharov and Gorbachev! The little runt spends his life spying. He's your criminal, not me! So leave me alone!

We find ourselves back out on the landing.

I'm just glad to be out of there. So, Ryumin, apartment 4. He could be my man, but I doubt it. Hollywood's a black marketeer, not a spy. Though I suppose he could be both. Still, I'll try him and see what he knows.

We head down the stairs.





Why do you ask?



I'm a private detective and I'd like to ask you some questions.



Remember Wrangel Island?
Dear God! You'd better come inside!

Luda, please don't worry. This man knows about my stay in the gulag.
Oh, Edik! Will the torture never end?




I'm looking for criminals. And I thing you can help me.
Oh God, Edik! He thinks you're a criminal!




Kliment Kruglov. I represent the red banner bicycle brake unit.
What do you want? Please be brief. My wife is unwell.
I'm trying to find someone called Hollywood.
Dear God! I don't know what you're talking about? Who is Hollywood?
Leave God out of this, you traitor! Tell the truth, or else!
Lord, help us now. Edik, we must pray!
Yes my love. Dear God, forgive our torturers...



God was purged and liquidated a long time ago!
God forgive you your blasphemy!
I want full details of your present criminal activities.
You're all the same! You think distributing bibles makes me a gangster!
Tell me what you know of untrustworthy people in this building.
The club, go there. They are all godless gangsters.
How do you know? Tell me about the club.
We would never go there! I know none of them. Just to see them is enough to know they are wicked!
Tell me about your neighbors. Anything criminal?
I'm not the militia! Those two young women in apartment 7 are undoubtedly prostitutes. Belussov is a hooligan! Anatoli Sytenko in apartment 6 clearly has dealings with black-marketeers: the only clients he's had in his meatshop since his poor wife died are gangsters and they certainly never buy meat! He doesn't seem to have any!



Tell him to go, Edik!



No sooner have the Ryumins kicked us out than...







Whew. I guess they didn't notice me. Anyway, Ryumin said some interesting things. I doubt Zhanna and Klara are prostitutes. It's true that Belussov's a hooligan, but he's not much more than that. Sytenko, though... That's three people that have mentioned his empty meatshop. I'd better take a look.