Alexis found the print-out she had and studied it. Sergei Kanishchev had no criminal record other than the custody charges and some minor looking stuff from the few years before that, all of which clearly arose out of the arguments Zander had already described and a few minor, resolved problems with the IRS that were really old.

She looked at her skip traces. He was wealthy enough to make Oksana look like a small timer - in fact, wealthy enough to make the Quartermaines look like small timers. The probation and parole office report that V. had sneaked for her showed he was in Daytona racing cars, and slowly getting back into the swing of things. His lawyer's name was there. Alexis thought about calling him.

Sergei was in his middle 60s, and must have been quite an older man to Oksana, Alexis thought. But he had not been married before and he didn't have any older children. He had been admitted to the US in the late 1970s as an asylee, along with Oksana. It was easy in those days for any Soviet citizen to claim asylum in the west - if you wanted to reject the Soviet Union by leaving it forever, such proof of the evils of living under a communist government was too good for any government in the west to pass up, especially the United States.

Sergei and Oksana had been naturalized as US citizens about the earliest year they could have, in the mid 1980s, on the same day. She pulled up the copies of their old certificates, which, in the blank where people put their former countries, they had, like other cold war defectors, entered the word "stateless."

She tried to imagine what that would feel like, but though her own family had a Russian emigre past, that was nothing like this. The whole family had fled (she hadn't even known for sure it was her family until relatively recently), they'd had the money to flee, and to live as they liked and be welcomed anywhere. It had been over 40 years before Alexis was even born and up to 80 years now. The Soviet Union could fall, but there was still no connection left. Nobody with that past had anyone in Russia to run back and see now that it was opened.

But this was a different kind of case, Alexis recognized. These two had to find some opening for escape, have the nerve to take advantage of it, and to leave their families, presumably for good, even exposing their families to some danger of reprisal. They had nothing when they first came, to the U.S., so they must have fought hard to establish themselves at all, let alone become as rich and successful as they had. Alexis realized how easily these two took big risks. She started getting some idea what they must be like.

Then to have their original country just open back up unexpectedly - the possibilities to both of them, arising out of that, must have looked pretty extensive.

She could see Sergei had gone from restriction, in fact, oppression, to relative freedom, in fact, he hadn't realized how restricted he still was, thus the problems with the IRS. Then he'd found an unexpected boon - the place he'd fled from as too repressive had become a place where he could get away with just about anything; his years in America only giving him an advantage - knowledge about what to do with all that freedom his ex-countrymen might have barely understood yet.

She called the lawyer, Tom Zemsky. He took Alexis at her word about who she was, and was professionally friendly, and pretty upbeat about Sergei, saying he was going to be fine if he just stayed away from his damned ex-wife and his kids. The restraining order against Peter was pretty serious; if Sergei disregarded it, he could get into a heap of trouble, and Tom had no doubt whatsoever that Oksana was going to file to enforce the order the minute after Sergei might violate it.

"The one on your client just leaves it all up to your client. So if Sergei talks to him, if that son wants to, he can file to enforce the order, but the penalties aren't as severe. This son doesn't have to do anything, by the same token, so he can talk to Sergei at his own option. This son can have the order declared null and void if he wants to."

"When Peter's 18th birthday comes around, does that order change?"

"It switches over, so that it's the same as with your client's order."

"But, Oksana can't do anything if Zander, that is, my client, talks to Sergei."

"No. The law is funny, I guess it just figures when you're over 18, boom, you can handle it all yourself. I recommended to Sergei not to push it, if this kid is in college somewhere, it's just going to become a problem, let the kid decide and don't push him at all; if you must, wait until he's 21 or even 25."

"Good advice." She went on to explain Zander's problem with the medical history.

"Sergei has an interesting history," Tom said. "I remember that much. I don't think he even knew his parents. Like the Soviets sent them off to the camps, or something." Oh, hell, Alexis thought. It began to dawn on her that it might be difficult to track down this side of the family or to know what they might naturally have died of.

"What is he like?" she asked Tom. "Hot tempered?"

"Not really. No, I wouldn't describe it that way. Hot tempered in a way that it doesn't show, you know? He took his sons over to Russia, and I think he knew he was violating the court orders. But then people generally aren't that respectful of domestic relations orders. By the time you talk to him awhile, you can end up convinced he really was doing it for their good, or that he's convinced of that himself. He must have known he was violating the law, yet he came back over to the US just to get them, as if he didn't realize how quickly they would enforce it against him or how bad the penalty would be."

"Impulsive?"

"Yes, very. But really charming. He could sell snow to the Russians and coal to Newcastle. He's not really a schemer; I think he got himself into this because he just thought he had an opening to get his ex-wife out of his hair."

"How'd he get to defect, anyway?"

"I'm not sure, something about traveling with the athletic team - that was what got him into the US. Yeah, he was a skating coach. He started out with a sporting goods business, just ice skates and related stuff, and then to sporting goods in general, and then he went from there to chains of sporting goods and from there to public relations companies, professional teams, and up from there to other types of companies and out to merging and trading. Still likes the race cars, and sponsors them."

"Was he there in Daytona his whole life in the US - I mean, did he ever live anywhere else? - besides at Uncle Sam's Hotels."

Tom laughed. "Besides the Federal Country Clubs, I think he was always here in Daytona."

"You wouldn't mind if I called him about this medical history? Or do you think it's better to talk to him first?"

"I'll talk to him - I think I should because it involves this kid - I want to advise him it doesn't make any difference to the order, and I could help you out just advising him that it's ok for him to talk to you. Then you won't have to try to explain it all."

"OK, thanks. I appreciate your help."