She was now 78. To the investigators’ good fortune, her memory was still sharp. She remembered the hard years of the early nineties in remarkable detail.
Krylova said those strange invoices first began appearing in late 1991. Principal Gromov always brought them to her personally, bypassing the secretary. He explained that the school was participating in a new government supply program.
According to him, it involved humanitarian support for selected schools in the form of imported goods. Krylova had been used to trusting administrators and didn’t dig into the details. Besides, the principal had broad authority over the school budget.
The paperwork looked proper on its face. So she stamped and filed it without asking many questions. But one evening she happened to go down to the basement archive to look for old records.
There, in the far corner, she saw a large stack of boxes under a tarp. They were heavy cardboard cartons with bright foreign labels on the sides. Krylova didn’t read English, but she easily recognized the printed image of liquor bottles on the boxes.
Out of simple curiosity, she asked Savelyev what the shipment was doing in the school basement. He answered sharply and with obvious menace. He told her it was temporary storage for the principal’s personal property.
Then he warned her not to stick her nose into matters that didn’t concern her. After that, she never asked again. At this point, the larger picture was becoming clear.
Gromov had been using the public school as a discreet storage point for black-market goods. Imported products and other questionable merchandise were being hidden there for local criminal businessmen. In the lawless atmosphere of the early nineties, that kind of off-the-books operation could bring in serious money.
Savelyev actively helped him with the logistics. He unloaded shipments at night and guarded the basement stash. For that work, he received a healthy cut of the profits.
The money was enough for Savelyev to buy a large apartment in the regional city within a year. Putting the evidence together, Kuznetsov finally understood the motive. The senior class had accidentally become witnesses to a nighttime delivery on May 23.
Those kids had seen something that was supposed to remain hidden. Based on the evidence and testimony, Kuznetsov reconstructed the events of that night step by step. On May 23, the seniors of class 11-B were cleaning the auditorium after rehearsal.
Their volunteer work ran later than expected. But the students were in good spirits and in no hurry to go home. Graduation was only days away, and they were full of plans.
At the same time, Gromov and Savelyev were unloading another shipment of illegal goods through the side entrance. They were storing the imported products in the far corner of the basement. Normally they did this only late at night or on weekends, when the building was empty.
By their calculation, the school should have been deserted. But that evening the students stayed late, and the smugglers’ timing failed. Around nine o’clock, several of the stronger boys volunteered to take out the trash.
The side exit from the auditorium led directly toward the basement stairs. Igor Rybakov, the class president, went first down the dim corridor. There, in the half-light, he came face to face with Principal Gromov and Savelyev.
The two men were carrying heavy boxes toward the far end of the basement. Foreign labels and logos were clearly visible on the cartons. Even through the packaging, there was a sharp smell in the air.
Igor stopped short and blocked their path. Gromov froze, startled, a box still in his hands. Realizing they had been caught in the act, Savelyev swore under his breath…
