Chapter 44 - Housewarming
The next two months were a mix of pleasure and hard work. Jinny and Guignard were having a blast acting as gophers for Roger and Gwen respectively. They got to know Charleston pretty well, driving here and there, calling this person and that outfit, researching on the web, buying this and that from this shop and that store. When they got stumped on how to make something happen, they learned to go to Gale for advice rather than bothering Roger or Gwen with details. On their own they started looking for a place to live that they could afford. Jinny kept telling Guignard he could go out and make money the old fashioned way, by stealing or scamming it, but she would have none of that. At some point soon the Junes would disperse the proceeds of the operation, and they would have money of their own. Later, Guignard said, she might entertain some of Jinny’s creative money generating ideas.
Peter and Pater also thought of moving out of the June’s house, as Henric’s academy financing would begin soon. For now they were happily ensconced on the June’s third floor, and spending time each week with Selgey and Bart developing a business plan for their entrepreneurial adventure. Helstov began spending time at the Charleston Library Society, the membership library on King Street. Coincidentally, Richard Adams also started spending time there. He began to write more seriously, and she began to read more seriously. How convenient.
Slevov spent a lot of time in the June’s orbit. Some of it was spent with Gwen, and the remainder was spent taking long walks around the old section of the city, or on the beach. She had a lot of thinking to do about her future, and Constantine’s future. How much time would they spend in Charleston? How much in Saint Petersburg? How much time together; how much apart? She also got involved in learning French cooking. Sometimes she would do this with Gwen, and sometimes with Gale, and sometimes by herself. The June’s house never had smelled so good, but one time there was a problem. Slevov was sautéing some shallots and leeks in a pan when she found two small straight gray-blue hairs in it. She picked them out, held them up to the light, then swiveled her head to glare at the two Russian cats who were watching the cooking demonstration with intense concentration. Slevov gave them the evil eye, trying to intimidate them into leaving. No dice. Then she tried hissing at them while giving them the eye. No dice. Next she picked up a large kitchen knife and simulated stabbing them. No dice. Well, they weren’t her cats, and this wasn’t her kitchen, so she gave up and went back to ignoring them. She would, however, tell Gwen about the hairs in the olive oil.
Roger, Jinny, and Salvator worked on the objects in the warehouse. So far they had inventoried 214 items, accounting for size, type, age, and estimated market value. It was a diverse collection that included small furniture, china, lamps and chandeliers, paintings, rugs, hardware, and textiles. Roger’s Divvy Sense had performed at a level he didn’t know he possessed. One day he sat back in his chair at the warehouse and scanned through the printout of the inventory. He was amazed by two things. First, the quality that the Hermitage people considered to be grade C, the stuff they sent out for storage in the distant warehouses. Many of these objects were quite remarkable. The second thing was that he had selected these objects from among thousands he had scanned in the forty some warehouses they had unlocked during the five hours of the theft. He was pleased with himself.
Roger sat at a long table set up with laptop, internet access, and printer. Jinny would bring an object front and center, Roger would analyze it and make remarks to Salvator, who would begin an internet search for information. Salvator would feed this information back to Roger who would process it mentally and enter it into a simple database: description, origin, type, dimensions, recent auction comparables, and finally, an estimated worth. The boys spent days and days doing this; but they enjoyed it, even Jinny. After all, he was looking at his cultural heritage, and he was very proud of having stolen it.
Gwen and Guignard worked just as hard on procuring the two properties as quickly as possible. Have $6M in cash helped the process considerably. The team all had agreed that the first use of the money would be the two houses. That was only fair to Constantine and Henric, who had done so much to make the mission successful. The additional $3M needed to finance the remaining parts of the operation was in the works, and Constantine expected delivery in a few weeks. He apologized with the simple explanation, “Market volatility.” Guignard learned a lot about real estate, and showed an interest in it, but Gwen told her, “Honey, there’s lots of uncertainty in dealing with real estate as a profession. Let’s find you something you enjoy doing but with a little more security to it.”
Constantine and Henric left to fly back to Saint Petersburg for a few weeks to deal with business matters. Before they left, Gwen’s father found, bought, and sent to Gwen a Petrova .45 caliber and a Brusshev 10mm. Gwen presented these to Constantine and Henric one day at lunch in the June’s dining room, after they had feasted on a delicious coq au vin prepared by Slevov. The Russians went nuts, and demanded an immediate trip to the Forest Service target range up in Awendaw. The Petrova was a beast of a gun, not very accurate, but Constantine loved it. Henric took the Brusshev, and at least was able to hit the person-sized target at twenty-five yards.
Gwen showed what she could do with her Glock. She consistently filled the centers of the targets with tight clusters, and the boys were impressed. They joked that Jinny was lucky he had not fucked around with Roger or her that first night he had met them in the French restaurant, and Gwen appreciated the humor.
The Sullivan’s Island house was first to close. As the closing date approached, Gwen and Guignard shifted into high gear, designing, decorating, and buying everything from sofas to slipcovers. They enlisted Gale as volunteer consultant, promising her as compensation full participation in all future social events held on the property. The Rodstras left this in their capable hands. The real interior decorating challenge was to integrate the Hermitage stuff with the non-Hermitage stuff, and in order to do that, Gwen had to work with Roger to pick a set of Hermitage objects that worked together. There were days when practically the whole crew was in the warehouse, watching as Roger and Gwen worked together to select the items. Jinny and Salvator ran around like rabbits, bringing this object with that object, matching one painting with one table, taking objects away that were rejected and bringing forth others. Watching them was like watching a team of surgeons making sure all the body parts in the body were complementary and in their right places. When they selected an object, they made a mark in the inventory database.
The closing day came, and the totebag of cash was presented. Then the cleaning and landscaping teams took over for a week. Then the days of designing and decorating commenced. First, all of the selected Hermitage objects were moved into place. With this as the foundation, Gwen and Gale built upon it with new items, spending long days at this, having fun and taking lunch breaks on the upper deck. Trucks came and trucks went. Delivery men entered bent under loads and left standing upright. Things fell into place, Slevov participating when she felt like it. Constantine stayed away, saying he would judge it when it was done, and in two weeks, the house was complete.
There was no rest for the team. The Kiawah house closed, the second totebag appeared, the cleaners came and went, and the same process started again. Days in the warehouse, days on the phone talking with suppliers, days on the computer buying things from auction houses and specialty firms and interior decorating concerns. Roger made sure the value of the Hermitage objects were equivalent in both houses, and also that he had lots left over for any other Russians who might show up to join the expatriate community. He reminded Gwen about the ship’s captain and ship’s cook, both of whom had expressed the intention of appearing, and neither of whom had money. Gwen said, “Them I’ll worry about later.” In three weeks the Kiawah house was complete.
The long-awaited housewarmings occurred a week apart on Saturday nights.
The Rodstras hosted the first event on Sullivan’s Island. In addition to the usual suspects, Selgey and Bart invited three visiting members of the San Francisco Ballet, Jinny invited the president of the Charleston Huguenot Society, Richard invited three local writers of note, Roger invited the owner of the Bordeaux estate Chateau Plistroud, who was visiting his daughter who is attending the College of Charleston, and Gale invited the Mayor and his wife. Gwen invited Roger’s auntie because she knew none of this would have happened if Little Jinny Blistov had not tried to scam the old girl with the fake circa 1737 Heppleworth end table.
The food, wine, and social interaction were fabulous, with lots of energy and lots of fun and some new friendships formed. All the Russians saw a good future ahead of them, surrounded by a high quality of life. The scenario was replayed a week later down on Kiawah, with a difference. Fewer guests outside the core group were invited, which was fine with the Gromstovs, and Jinny had arranged a dramatic event.
In the newspaper he had seen a notice of an airshow in Columbia, SC. The airshow featured the Air Force Blue Angels, but included planes from other eras and countries, including a privately owned Russian MIG 23 Flogger combat aircraft. This baby was right out of the 1970s cold war.
So as part of the Kiawah housewarming party, Jinny bought a private performance of the plane, and with Guignard’s help, he organized the Kiawah event. Everyone was at the house at 5pm. He allowed one hour for the champagne aperitifs to perform their duty. At 5:45 he and Guignard herded everyone outside and onto the beach, champagne coupes in hand. He did everything he could to enhance the mystery of the event, saying there would be a big surprise in a few minutes. Roger noticed that every minute or so, Jinny looked at his watch. Gwen asked Guignard what was up, but she said Jinny had refused to tell her. At 5:55 Jinny raised his hand for quiet. He stood looking out towards the water, but had the group face him with their backs to the water and demanded, “Quiet, absolute quiet please, no talking.” They shushed. “Everyone, something is going to happen in a minute. You must be quiet, and you must listen to me and do exactly what I say.” He had their attention. He looked at his watch, which showed 5:58. “Listen, listen, and when I tell you to, turn around and look out at the water.”
The first sound was sensed by the group, coming from behind them, the sound of an engine. The sound was high pitched, rhythmic, and powerful. Quickly the sound grew louder, deepened in pitch, and increased in volume. It was the sound of a plane engine….a jet engine. Jinny looked over their heads into the distance, but he kept their eyes on him and their ears focused out over the water. Then he saw it in the distance, bright red, low over the waves. He waited another fifteen seconds, holding them in the suspense created by the ever growing growl, hum, and roar of the sound. Then he said loudly, “Turn around.” As they turned, he ran around in front of the group and pointed into the distance, out over the water, yelling, “Look for the red, look for red!”
And then they saw it, the red dot, the red object far out over the waves. They knew it was a plane, but what did it have to do with them?
They found out. The red dot approached the shore fast. One second it had appeared far out to sea, and the sound was muted. Thirty seconds later they recognized the thing as a fighter jet, and the sound mushroomed into a dull roar. Jinny jumped and down on the beach, pointing at the growing spectacle, waving his arms. “MIG jet,” he yelled, “MIG jet.” The group was mesmerized, and then it was upon them. A Russian MIG 23 Flogger combat aircraft flying at 300 miles per hour tore over their heads, not more than 200 feet off the ground, the Mikoyan-Guervich engines screaming at a volume that almost made their ears bleed. There was a flash of red color, and a form accompanied by a blast of hot air, and then it was gone; gone over Kiawah, gone over the island, banking back out over the ocean, then gone from sight.
Everyone stood with their hands over their ears, shell-shocked. Everyone turned slowly and looked at Jinny, who still was dancing on the beach, hands to the sides of his head. Everyone said aloud or to themselves, “Holy shit.”
Well, that was the highpoint of the Gromstovs housewarming party. The food and wines were great, and everyone loved the decorating job Gwen and Gale and Guignard had done, and Helstof and Henric loved their Hermitage artifacts, and they loved their new house. It was a success. As people headed to their cars and the drive back to Charleston, Roger took Jinny aside and asked, “How much?”
He said, “$75,000.”
Roger said, “Where’d the money come from?”
Jinny just shrugged and smiled. Roger let it go at that. These Russians were full of surprises. An hour later Jinny was lying in bed staring at the ceiling, the sound of the MIG engine still reverberating in his ears. He let his mind flow over the events of his time in Charleston.
Chapter 45 - Little Jinny Blistov
His memories started that night in the French restaurant when Gwen was alerted to something unusual in the air by the sound of Roger racking the slide of his gun under the table. The table was covered by a white cloth upon which sat the wine menu from which Roger was trying to decide on the ’89 Chateau Latour or the ’90. Jinny got his first glance at Gwen, who was staring at him, he being the cause of Roger’s concern. Gwen hated Jinny in those first moments. She hated his height, she hated his shoes, and she hated the way his beard wound around the sides of his neck. And she really hated the threat he presented to the man she loved. Jinny sensed this animosity, but at the same time he sensed her charisma. What a woman.
So much had happened since that night some ten months ago. Jinny could do nothing about his height, but he no longer wore hideously ugly sneakers that Gwen wanted to feed to the local gators, with his feet still in them. He let Pierre shave him at least once a week, and was a slick dresser. Jinny now knew that large wine glasses with bulges were for burgundy, and that connoisseurs drank their champagne out of white wine glasses, not flutes. He had a wonderful girlfriend in Guignard, and they were in love.
Jinny didn’t know exactly how he was going to earn his living, but he had his share of the mission proceeds in his pocket, and Guignard had hers. It was quite a chunk of change, and should last them until the next batch of wealthy Russians showed up in order to avoid really cold Russian Februarys. Jinny was delirious knowing that more than 200 objects from the Hermitage now graced his newly adopted town of Charleston. His new friends Peter and Pater were here, and they were doing well. The adventurous escape from Russia at the hands of the Gromstovs and Rodstras had formed a bond with them. Together they could explore the results of Czarish influences, via French Huguenots, in Charleston.
Next to falling in love with Guignard, the best thing Little Jinny Blistov had accomplished in the ten months since that night in the restaurant, had to do with Catherine Deneuve and Gwen June. Those things that happened in France were just so weirdly important. What had happened? He wasn’t sure. Something great and not wholly understandable. What had gone on between those two women in the car, and in the vineyards, and in the hotels? Who was this woman, The Deneuve? What was it about her that was so compelling, not only to men (that was easy to understand….the world’s greatest beauty) but also to women. What was this power that had been transferred in France from Deneuve to Gwen, and what was happening now between Gwen and Slevov? These things fascinated Jinny, and he wanted to experience more of them.
What did the future in Charleston hold for him, his woman, the two gay guys, the heavy duty gangsters, for Roger and Gwen, for Gwen and Slevov, for Helstof and Richard Adams? What was this strange and interesting future that was unfolding? And lastly, Jinny wondered, what exactly was up with those two Russian cats?
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Richard Dorrance lives in America's most beautiful town,
Charleston, South Carolina.
You can look at other books on his website: richarddorrance.com
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Aristocratic Thieves Page 45
