“But I didn’t know anything!” Olga raised her tear-stained face. “Mom, I swear, I didn’t know he was planning to kill his wife. If I had known, I never would have…”
“I believe you. And the investigator will believe you too. That’s exactly why she wants you to give voluntary testimony. Show the correspondence with Pavel. Tell what he promised you. This will prove he had a motive for murder.”
Olga wiped her tears and nodded.
“Okay. I’ll do it. I have to. That woman… His wife… She almost died because of me.”
“Not because of you,” Larisa corrected. “Because of him. Because of his greed and meanness. You have nothing to do with it.”
The next day, Olga met with Daria Saltykova at the Investigative Committee building. The girl was terrified, trembling all over as she handed her phone with the messages to the investigator. Daria studied the messages carefully. Pavel wrote to Olga almost every day. He promised an apartment in the city center, help opening a coffee shop, a future together. In one message sent two days before the attempt on Kira, he wrote: “Soon I will resolve all issues with my wife. Divorce won’t solve all problems, otherwise I’ll be left with nothing. Need to resolve this issue differently. But don’t worry, my love, I’ve thought everything through.”
“What did he mean by ‘resolve differently’?” asked Daria.
Olga shook her head.
“I don’t know. I thought he would just find a way to divorce without losing property. Maybe through a good lawyer or something. I never thought he… that he was capable of murder.”
“And after that evening when it happened, did he write to you?”
“Yes. The next day he wrote: ‘Soon everything will be decided. We will start a new life. I promise.’ I was so happy. Thought he finally divorced.”
Daria took screenshots of the entire correspondence and printed out the most important messages.
“Olga, you have helped the investigation greatly. These messages prove that Pavel had a clear motive for the crime. Now I need you to give official testimony.”
“I will. I’ll tell everything I know.”
For the next two hours, Olga detailed her relationship with Pavel. About how they met, what he promised, how often they saw each other. About the fact that he never mentioned his wife owned a successful business and large capital. Daria recorded every word. When the interrogation ended, Olga looked exhausted, but relief could be read in her eyes.
“What will happen to me now?” she asked quietly. “Will I go to jail?”
“No,” Daria replied confidently. “You did not commit a crime. You were misled. But you need to cease all contact with Pavel Lavrentiev. No calls, no messages. If he tries to contact you, inform me immediately.”
Olga nodded.
“I don’t want to see him anymore. Never.”
Meanwhile, Daria received the restaurant surveillance footage. A technical expert scrolled through the recording, stopping at key moments.
“Here,” he pointed at the screen. “21 hours 43 minutes. The woman gets up from the table and leaves. Presumably to the toilet.”
On the screen, it was visible how Kira stood up and headed toward the exit of the hall. Pavel remained alone. The camera captured him in profile. He looked around to check if anyone was watching him. Then, with a quick movement, he took a small vial from his jacket pocket, poured the contents into Kira’s glass, and hid the vial back. All of this took no more than ten seconds.
“Excellent,” Daria paused the recording. “This is direct evidence. I need several copies of this recording in high resolution.”
“Will do,” the expert nodded.
Daria also pulled up Pavel’s financial documents. The picture was depressing. Debts to five microcredit organizations totaling 520,000, overdue payments, calls from collectors. The history of betting on sporting events showed that he had lost over a million in the last six months. Then she studied Kira’s will. According to the document drawn up a year ago, the sole heir to all of Kira Lavrentieva’s property in the event of her death was her husband, Pavel Lavrentiev.
The motive for the crime was obvious. Huge debts, a mistress who needed money, and a will under which he received everything after his wife’s death.
“The picture comes together perfectly,” Daria said to her colleague, laying out the documents on the table. “We have a medical report on the fact of poisoning, a camera recording where he puts poison in the glass, his correspondence with his mistress where he promises her everything after ‘resolving the issue’ with his wife, financial documents proving his catastrophic situation, and a will under which he is the sole heir.”
“This is more than enough to open a criminal case and arrest him. When do we take him?” asked the colleague.
“Soon. But first, we need to lure him out under a plausible pretext. Let him come to us himself, suspecting nothing.”
Daria called Kira, who had been in Gordey’s apartment all this time.
“Kira, we are ready to act. The plan is this. First, the police will call him, report that a woman’s body has been found in the forest belt, identified by documents as you. They will invite him for official identification in three days. This will lull his vigilance; he will decide that everything went according to plan. And the next day, the bank will call him regarding inheritance. That’s when we’ll take him.”
“How will it happen?” asked Kira. Her voice was calm, but Gordey, sitting next to her, saw how tense she was.
“We will summon him to the bank under the pretext of a consultation on the will. He will come confident that he will receive all your property. And there we will be waiting for him: you, me, and officers of the Investigative Committee. You personally will hand him the divorce papers, and I will officially present the charges.”
“I want to see his face,” Kira said quietly. “When he realizes I’m alive.”
“You will. I promise…”
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