Maybe the patient let something slip. Maybe his wife told her own relatives. Maybe someone on the staff got scared and talked. In a small town, secrets rarely stay secret for long.
Whatever the source, the official in question quickly understood how exposed he was. He decided to destroy the evidence and discredit the doctor who had created it. That plan would protect everyone involved in the stabbing and cover-up.
On September 28, the senior investigator from the local police department, Kislitsyn, appeared at the hospital. He was a thin, tidy man with a sharp, unpleasant gaze. He stepped into Nina’s office, sat down as if he owned the place, and opened a folder.
He informed her that Dremov had filed a formal complaint alleging theft. According to the statement, a large sum of money had gone missing from his clothing while he was in the hospital. The amount listed was an astonishing $6,500.
The accusation was absurd on its face. For a poorly paid rural surgeon, that kind of money was enormous. It represented roughly two years of wages.
A theft of that size could bring serious prison time. Nina flatly said the claim was nonsense. Under no circumstances had she touched the patient’s personal belongings.
He had been brought in on a gurney in blood-soaked clothing, which had been put away immediately. Nina herself had spent that entire night at the operating table. In those critical hours, she had neither the time nor the inclination to go through anyone’s pockets.
Kislitsyn listened without expression, wrote something down, and left. Three days later he was back. This time he brought news that hit Nina like a blow to the chest.
Nurse Bulakhova, who had assisted during the surgery, had signed a statement against her. According to the report, the nurse had seen Nina going through the patient’s things. Nina was so stunned she could hardly process it.
She ran straight to the older woman’s house, desperate for an explanation. The frightened nurse locked herself inside and refused to open the door. Only through the wood did she finally speak.
Through tears, she begged Nina to forgive her. Local officials had threatened to get her only son fired from his job at the logging company. Without that paycheck, she said, the family would have nothing to live on.
That son worked as a tractor operator in the very enterprise run by Dremov. The system was simple, cynical, and brutally effective. The officials had leaned on a vulnerable woman and gotten the witness statement they needed…
