A summary of "The Well and the Butterfly" by Elena Mikhalkova

This book is a detective story about a missing cat and a complex murder, set in 2024. An ordinary, elderly cat named Yakov Solomonovich, missing one ear and one eye, suddenly becomes the center of a crime. Real passions unfold around the bald animal.

This work is part of the popular "Investigations of Makar Ilyushin and Sergey Babkin" series. It ranks thirty-third in the series. The series also includes such well-known works as "Look, Turn Away, Look" and "Dead Rabbit, Live Rabbit."

The loss of the talisman

Makar Ilyushin and Sergey Babkin take on an unusual case. A ginger, elderly, and very sick cat was stolen from the small jewelry store "Margalit" on Myasnitskaya Street. Yakov Solomonovich was considered a kind of living mascot for the store. The owner, Valentin Kasimov, and his employees, Olya and Lyudmila Markovna, are deeply grieving over their missing pet.

Detectives review surveillance footage and discover that the cat was stolen by a young man named Ilya Gabrichevsky. Soon, investigators find Ilya murdered in Bitsa Park. He had been shot in the temple. The cat was missing. Babkin and Ilyushin begin to unravel Gabrichevsky’s connections. The detectives try to understand the motives behind this strange theft of the animal and the cause of the young man’s death.

Detectives suspect that Gabrichevsky’s killer was not a professional. The perpetrator drove the body to the edge of the park in the young man’s car, abandoned it in the courtyards of Biryulyovo, and fled.

Two parallel lives

The story takes us to Natalya Gorbenko. Natasha works as an art teacher at the "Atlant" leisure center, where she works with retirees. She helps the elderly develop their creative abilities through drawing and appliqué. The story details the teacher’s daily life. Her class is filled with colorful characters: the timid Zinochka, the boisterous Rimma Chizhova, the good-natured Lidiya Vasilyevna, and the scandalous Yegor Petrovich Vykhodtsev. Vykhodtsev constantly bullies the women, brings them to tears, and provokes conflicts.

One of her clients, a wealthy pensioner named Maria Semyonovna Fedoseyeva, loses half a million rubles. The elderly woman is being scammed by telephone scammers. Natasha uncovers the details of the scam. She suspects that the scammers knew Fedoseyeva’s personal passport information, as well as her real name. Natasha concludes that the scam is the work of someone close to the elderly woman. Suspicion falls on Fedoseyeva’s family. The elderly woman has an adult son, Dmitry, and daughters, Tatyana and Alina.

Meanwhile, detectives discover that Ilya Gabrichevsky attended the "Knock-Knock" literary course. It was taught by the popular writer Lyubov Yarovaya, an old school friend of Natasha Gorbenko. Gabrichevsky behaved provocatively during the classes, constantly clashing with the course participants. Ilya bullied businessman Miron Kudesnikov, who, under the pen name "Safran," wrote strange books about cat invaders.

The detectives find another clue. Ilya was a regular client of the fortune teller Olesya Stryapukhina. The fortune teller operated under the name Miroslava Kama. The detectives visit the fortune teller. They discover a gorgeous woman in a short dress. Olesya behaves brazenly and presses the alarm to drive away the uninvited guests.

Soon after this visit, the fortune teller goes on the run. An eccentric woman named Elsa Strout helps her escape. Elsa had also attended Yarovaya’s writing classes. She loved to shock the public with her naive demeanor, meaningless poems about whales, and her striking figure. She pretended to be a fool, but in reality, she was very calculating. Ilya tried to woo Elsa.

Secrets of loved ones

Natasha Gorbenko visits the Fedoseyeva family. The old woman is throwing a feast to celebrate her name day. The celebration quickly devolves into a huge scandal over something trivial — cilantro in Olivier salad. Tatyana’s husband, Alexander, humiliates his wife in front of all the relatives. He gleefully reveals that Tatyana gave her personal savings to her young pianist lover, who ran off with the money. Her brother and sister rise to Tatyana’s defense. Dmitry fights with his brother-in-law and throws him out of the apartment.

Natasha watches the argument. She understands that the Fedoseyeva children love their mother and each other dearly. They would never commit such a vile act as stealing their mother’s money.

Natasha returns home late in the evening. An unknown assailant attacks her in the archway of her home. The man attempts to strangle Natasha with a clothesline. She narrowly escapes. She hits the attacker over the head with the plastic toy dragon she bought for her daughter. The attacker flees.

Investigation by a teacher

In parallel to her misadventures, Natasha is conducting her own mini-investigation. She breaks into the accounting department of the Atlant center and verifies the addresses of clients. Natasha discovers that the pensioner was swindled out of her money by fitness trainer Zhanna Garkalina. Garkalina taught Fedoseyeva private classes. Zhanna stole the bank card of her client’s deceased neighbor and used it to transfer the stolen money. The trainer used the proceeds to buy herself an expensive orange bag.

Natasha has to deal with her ex-husband. Stas shows up and asks her to sell him the car. He lies, claiming to have been diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor. He shows her a fake medical certificate. Natasha almost agrees to give him the car. But she calls a mutual friend just in time. He tells her that Stas is healthy. He’s simply raising money for a dubious business selling roses from Abkhazia. Natasha becomes completely disillusioned with her ex-husband. She sends him away, saying, "It’s time for you to get some electrotherapy."

Unraveling the Tangle

Ilyushin and Babkin identify Gabrichevsky’s killer. This person turns out to be the writer Lyubov Yarovaya. The detectives discover that she has absolutely no writing talent. All the plots for her successful books were overheard from Natasha Gorbenko. For years, Natasha eagerly shared with her friend the stories of the elderly women she assisted. When the friends quarreled over a small loan, Yarovaya lost her source of inspiration. She had nothing to write about.

Yarovaya turned to the fortune teller Stryapukhina. She asked the sorceress to cast a love spell on Natasha Gorbenko. The fortune teller, determined to get rid of her annoying client, gave Yarovaya a task she knew was impossible. The writer was to perform a ritual on an old one-eyed cat and a lock of Gorbenko’s hair. To accomplish this, Yarovaya tricked Natasha’s hair into being cut off during a conversation on the café veranda.

The writer spotted a suitable cat at the Margalit store. Yarovaya persuaded Gabrichevsky to steal the animal. When they met in a deserted park, the young man became hysterical. He attacked her in the car. Yarovaya killed Gabrichevsky in self-defense. She struck him in the temple.

Yarovaya’s husband helped hide the evidence. Yuri didn’t know all the details. He decided that Natasha Gorbenko was threatening his wife’s career and wanted to write books herself. Yuri tracked Natasha down in the archway and attempted to strangle her.

Detectives Ilyushin and Babkin force Yarovaya to confess to everything. They drive to her country property. That night, the detectives dig up a locked box. Inside, buried alive, is Yakov Solomonovich. The weakened, dirty, but alive cat is rescued. The animal is brought to the store and returned to its happy owners in the middle of the night. Yakov Solomonovich greedily eats food and washes himself.

Natasha Gorbenko shares her findings about the fraudulent coach with the detective. Makar praises her insight and advises her to believe in herself more. Natasha triumphantly puts the rude old man Vykhodtsev in his place in her study group. The scandalous pensioner is expelled from her classes. Natasha feels newfound confidence, inner strength, and inspiration for further work.