red moscow

Chapter 2568 Murder in the secret room

Sokov and Sokolovsky talked about the current situation between the Soviet Union and the United States. While talking, Sokov kept glancing at various corners of the room, fearing that the United States had hidden some eavesdropping devices in these places, so that the conversation between him and Sokolovsky would be eavesdropped by the other side. If some radical remarks were used by people with ulterior motives, they might cause a diplomatic incident.

Sokolovsky saw Sokov's worry and said with a smile: "Misha, don't worry, my room has been checked by security personnel and there are no eavesdropping devices, so you don't have to worry about our conversation being overheard by others."

After hearing what Sokolovsky said, Sokov felt much more at ease. As long as there were no eavesdropping devices in the room, even if he said something confidential, only he and Sokolovsky would know it.

Just as he was about to express his true opinion, there was a knock on the door.

Sokolovsky raised his hand to stop Sokov from speaking, then stood up and shouted to the door, "Come in!"

The colonel who brought Sokov in came in from outside. After saluting Sokolovsky, he said with a serious expression: "Comrade Deputy Commander, something has happened!"

"Something happened?!" Sokolovsky raised his eyebrows and asked, "What happened?"

"One of our female translators died."

"The female translator is dead?" Sokolovsky's face showed anger: "Has the murderer been caught?"

The colonel paused and said hesitantly: "Comrade Deputy Commander, it was not murder but suicide!"

"Suicide?! How can you be sure it was suicide?"

"This is the suicide note she wrote." The colonel handed a piece of paper to Sokolovsky and said, "The doors and windows of the room were closed, there was no sign of intrusion, and she did not show any signs of struggle. It was undoubtedly suicide."

Sokolovsky took the suicide note and read it out unconsciously: "I have committed an unforgivable crime. Only death can wash away my shame."

After reading the contents of the suicide note, Sokolovsky continued to ask: "Who came to investigate the scene, the German police or the American military police?"

“Both,” the colonel replied. “After repeated examinations, they confirmed that it was suicide.”

Sokolovsky did not speak, but turned his head to look at Sokov who was sitting next to him and asked: "Misha, what do you think about this?"

"The female translator did not say what unforgivable crime she had committed, so I think the authenticity of this suicide note is questionable."

"General Sokov," the colonel retorted as soon as Sokov finished speaking, "We have consulted her colleagues and found that the suicide note is indeed written by her. In addition, when her body was found, the doors and windows were closed and there was no sign of outsiders breaking in. It must be suicide."

Although the colonel said with certainty that the female translator committed suicide, Sokov was still full of doubts: "Comrade Colonel, I want to ask, since you said that the door and windows of the room where the female translator lived were closed, how do you know that she died in there?"

"Yes, Colonel." Sokolovsky thought Sokov's question made sense, so he asked casually, "How did you find her dead in the house?"

"That's right, Comrade Deputy Commander." Although Sokov was the first to raise the question, the colonel still reported to Sokolovsky: "She originally had translation work today, but when her colleague went to knock on the door in the morning, there was no movement inside. The colleague thought she might be unwell and left. After dark, the colleague still didn't see her, so he knocked on the door again, but there was still no movement. So the colleague found the hotel waiter and asked her to open the door with a spare key. When the waiter opened the door, she found that the door was locked from the inside. The hotel's plumber happened to pass by, so the waiter asked him to look through the small window above the door to see what was going on inside..."

"I see," Sokolovsky interrupted, "the plumber found the translator dead in bed, so he asked someone to open the door, is that right?"

"Absolutely correct, Comrade Deputy Commander."

"So it must be suicide." Sokolovsky waved his hand at the colonel and said to him, "I'll leave this matter to you."

"Wait a minute, Comrade Colonel." Just as the colonel turned to leave, Sokov stopped him and turned to Sokolovsky and said, "Comrade Deputy Commander, I think this matter is very strange. Can you allow me to go to the scene and take a look?"

"Of course." Sokolovsky nodded, and then ordered the colonel: "Colonel, take Misha to the scene."

After Sokov followed the colonel out of Sokolovsky's room, he realized that criminal investigation was not his forte. If he wanted to find out the truth, he had to ask Bayer for help. Although he was equivalent to a household registration policeman, he was known as a "living archive" after all. Even if he had never participated in solving a case, he should have learned about the cases handled by the police station through the files. With his help, he might be able to see some clues.

Thinking of this, Sokov said something to the colonel and then walked towards his room.

When she opened the door, Adelina was the only one in the room. She was happy to see Sokov coming back. But when she saw the colonel coming in, she immediately realized what might have happened and asked, "Misha, what happened?"

"Ajelina, come with me." Sokov grabbed Ajelina's hand and pulled her outside, saying, "There's a case downstairs, and I need Officer Bayer to go to the scene and help me analyze it."

Ajelina immediately understood what Sokov meant. The other party wanted her to act as an interpreter, so she followed Sokov to the next door, called Bayer, and followed the colonel to the crime scene on the first floor.

The room where the accident happened had been blocked off. Many people in Soviet uniforms stood behind the cordon, pointing at the location of the room and talking in low voices.

When the colonel and Sokov were about to cross the cordon, they were stopped by a German policeman. Bayer hurried forward and explained his intentions to the other party. The policeman hesitated for a moment, but finally let Sokov and others pass. After entering the room, Sokov saw the female translator lying on the bed. She was wearing a brand new lieutenant uniform, lying there motionless, with the quilt covering her chest. If Sokov did not know in advance that she was dead, he would think she was sleeping soundly.

Two American military policemen and a German police officer were chatting. When they saw someone coming in, they immediately stopped talking, came over, and said unhappily, "This is a crime scene. Outsiders are not allowed to enter casually."

The colonel snorted coldly and said in English, "You have to understand that the dead are my subordinates, and this is the area where our Soviets live. When something like this happens, we have the right to participate in the investigation."

"General," the German police officer said to Sokov, "We have investigated it. It is just a suicide. There is nothing to be surprised about."

Since Sokov was here, he naturally wanted to get to the bottom of the matter. After Ajelina translated the police officer's words, he looked at him and asked, "Mr. Officer, since you have already inspected the scene, have you found anything suspicious?"

"No, General, we didn't find anything." The German police officer explained to Sokov, "When we came, we checked carefully. The door was locked, the windows were closed, and there was no sign of struggle on the body. It must have been suicide."

While Ajelina was still translating what the police officer said to Sokov, Sokov unexpectedly saw Bayer walk to the window, leaning forward slightly, as if checking something. He immediately realized that the other party might have thought of some important clues, so he quickly walked over and asked in a low voice: "Officer Bayer, have you found anything?"

Unexpectedly, after listening to Ajelina's translation, Bayer shook his head and said with disappointment, "Two years ago, a similar case happened in Berlin. The victim was murdered, but the murderer used very clever means to disguise the crime scene, making the investigating police think that the victim committed suicide. But after our careful investigation, we finally found some clues, which confirmed that the victim was not killed by suicide, but was murdered. But I just checked and didn't find any useful clues."

When Sokov heard this, he immediately felt that there was hope. Since a similar case had happened two years ago, Bayer would definitely be able to provide him with some ideas. He asked eagerly, "Officer Bayer, tell me quickly, where did you check?"

"Here, this is it." Bayer pointed to the latch on the window and said to Sokov, "This latch has a movable rod and a nose. Usually the rod part is fixed to the window, and the nose is fixed to the window frame."

"Yes, that's right." Sokov was a little puzzled, thinking that for windows that slide outward, aren't the latches installed like this? He continued to ask, "Did you find anything wrong?"

"The murderer pulled out a long hair from the victim and tied it to the elbow of the bolt." Bayer continued, "He jumped out of the window, closed the window, and pulled the hair hard. As the hair broke, the bolt fell down and stuck into the nose, which made people mistakenly think that the victim closed the window from the inside, thus successfully disguising a homicide as a suicide."

Sokov looked at the bend of the rod and didn't find any hair, so he asked Bayer tentatively: "Officer Bayer, did you overturn your guess in your mind because you didn't find any hair at the location of the rod?"

"That's right, Comrade General, that's what I judged."

Although Bayer's experience did not provide him with any help, Sokov had a new idea in his mind. He said to himself: "Maybe I have a way to successfully close the window from the outside without using the dead person's hair."

After hearing this, Ajelina's eyes widened in surprise: "Misha, you said you can close this window from the outside without using hair, right?"

"Yes, Ajelina, I do have a way, but I need your cooperation." After saying this, Sokov called the police officer, "Mr. Officer, please come over here."

The police officer came to Sokov and asked respectfully, "General, how can I help you?"

"I want to restore the truth and show you how I closed the window from the outside." Sokov said, "But I need your help."

Knowing that Sokov had a way to close the window from the outside, not only the police officer, but even Bayer became interested: "Comrade General, what are you going to do?"

"Bring me a chair." Sokov said as he opened the window. "I need to get out of the window first."

When the colonel who was leading the way saw Bayer moving a chair over and Sokov standing on it, preparing to climb out the window, he hurried over and asked in surprise, "General Sokov, what are you going to do?"

"I plan to help the police solve the case." Sokov said to the colonel as he climbed out of the window: "Let them see how I closed the window from the outside."

Everyone's eyes were focused on Sokov, wanting to see how he did it. Sokov pulled up the rod, hung a small part of the elbow on the iron bracket next to it, and then slowly closed the two windows. When the windows were closed, Sokov exerted force from the outside, and with a slight sound, the elbow broke away from the iron bracket and fell directly into the nose, and the window closed.

As the window closed, everyone in the room stared in surprise. They had never dreamed that they could actually close the window from the outside in this way. The most surprised person was Bayer, because he had seen similar closed room murders in the archives, but the other party used a long hair of the deceased to control the bolt, while Sokov did not even use hair, but directly used the inertia of the window closing to let the bolt fall directly into the nose of the window frame.

After Sokov closed the window, he knocked on it again, signaling the person inside to open the window and let him in. Bayer and the police officer did not dare to neglect it, and quickly opened the window and reached out to pull Sokov in.

After jumping back into the room, Sokov said to the police officer and Bayer, "You two, now you will no longer simply think that the deceased died of suicide, right?"

The two policemen nodded in agreement with Sokov's statement. But the colonel next to him said unconvincedly: "General Sokov, even if you can close the window from the outside, it doesn't mean that the female translator was murdered, right?"

"It snowed here today." Sokov pointed outside and said, "When I went out just now, I saw a row of footprints outside the window. If I'm not mistaken, they should be left by the murderer. Mr. Officer," he said to the officer, "I suggest you go outside immediately to collect shoe samples. Maybe you can find the murderer who killed our female translator based on the shoe samples."

The colonel hurried to the window and looked out. In addition to a bunch of messy footprints outside the window, there was indeed a line of footprints leading from the window to the distance. He shrank back and said to the police officer, "Why are you still standing there? Send someone to collect shoe samples quickly. Maybe we will rely on shoe samples to find the real murderer in the end."

The police officer did not dare to delay and hurriedly agreed. He quickly walked to the door, called one of his subordinates, and went outside to collect shoe samples.