Penny Criminal Case. Alexander Cherenov

give me…”

      “I’m not giving it!” Lapin “worked on the interception energetically”. “You will finish it later, and now run to the school! Ask if Petin molested the girls? Particular emphasis will be on Kotova: maybe, he harassed her. Pimply youngsters – they are all the same!”

      “I’m already running, comrade major!”

      Lapin pressed the key with his finger with force, and turned to Starkov with the air of a winner.

      “Abgemaht, bro! Requests? Questions?”

      Instead of answering, Starkov silently extended his hand to him and left the office.

      CHAPTER SIX

      On the nature of the work “among the object”, Starkov could have a complete idea even “on the distant approaches” to the Petrov’s office. The characteristic “aw, aw, aw!” was already flowing in a continuous stream, interrupted occasionally by no less characteristic sounds of dull beats, “of course, even remotely having no similarity with non-procedural methods of interrogation”.

      The picture, which Starkov opened behind the door, that opened a little earlier, for some reason did not strike the imagination: all in tears and snot, with disheveled red hairs, Petin was actively “subjected to explanatory work among himself” from two sides: Lieutenant Colonel Petrov and Captain Andrey. But everything was “grand, noble”, without deviant assault. Continuous cuffs from Captain, who was standing behind the “client”, fit into the norm fully and corresponded to the “local customs”.

      True, a purple-faced Petrov so energetically leaned towards the “object of work”, that he almost rested against his physiognomy, while trying to keep his distance, so as not to catch someone from aggressive acne.

      “Will you talk, you bastard?!”

      The “creative process” was interrupted by the appearance of Starkov. Petrov slowly moved away from the object, and, turning to Alex, negatively moved his head from side to side.

      “I think, Boris, we must give the suspect time to think about his difficult position… almost hopeless…”

      Starkov “made a proposal” deliberately in a loud voice, obviously not so much for the lieutenant colonel, as for Petin, who was choked up in snot. Clever Petrov not only did not begin to ask again in surprise, but did not even use a “surprised” shoulder to demonstrate a lack of understanding.

      “Captain, take… this… to the camera. Let him sit there and think.”

      When the door behind the “object” and the guard closed, Petrov immediately, but very slowly, headed for the tiny rest room behind the commanding chair, where there was a sofa, a refrigerator and even a wash basin. Thrusting his head under the tap and snorting noisily, he freshened up with cold water and rubbed vigorously with a dry towel. Then he removed a bottle of mineral water from the refrigerator, and, without asking Starkov’s wishes, he poured it into two tall glasses of thin glass.

      Clutching glasses with Starkov, Petrov swallowed mineral water. Then, noisily puffing and belching, he slowly looked at Starkov.

      “Well, what is in the dining room today?”

      “Have I been there?”

      The lieutenant colonel blew his lips in surprise.

      “And what did you do?!”

      “I gave the task to Lapin about the school. Marat has already sent Koval there.”

      “It’s reasonable,” the lieutenant colonel approved. “It is possible, that the ‘legs’ of this case grow from school.”

      “Well, maybe not of the case, but of the version – for sure.”

      Starkov slowly sips “finalized” the glass.

      “It is possible, that this pimply jerk has a past, albeit of a ‘school bottling’. He probably ‘loves’ girls for the fact, that they ‘love’ him ‘even more’. Conflicts of ‘mutual misunderstanding’ are not excluded… But…”

      Starkov shook his head doubtfully.

      “You think we waste time with him?!” Petrov joined energetically, immediately determined with the continuation of the insidious “but”.

      “It seems so. No, it is necessary to work out ‘in full’, of course. You, bro, put your ‘cop’ into his cell.”

      “This has already been done,” Petrov frowned.

      They paused.

      “What have you gained?” Starkov interrupted pause.

      The face of the lieutenant colonel immediately “snapped of vinegar”.

      “Nothing interesting.” He shook his hand irritably. “This jerk says that when he came back from school, he stained his sneakers with mud… sneakers, they say, were new, so he decided to ‘wash’ them. Then he allegedly hung sneakers on a fence around the house… well, to dry it.”

      “Does he hints, that they were stolen?”

      Starkov, as if deliberating, shrugged vaguely.

      “The version, of course, is shaky, but theoretically… And what about the comb?”

      “It was stolen also!”

      Petrov added anger and crimson to the “vinegar” on the face.

      “Under what circumstances?”

      “He says, that his comb… well, because of this comb, many boys in the class were jealous. And, so, allegedly, when he was on physical education, someone ‘took away’ the comb from the locker room.”

      Petrov shook his head and, with a frown, “aimed” at Starkov.

      “What do you think?”

      “We need to check it,” Starkov didn’t even bother to think. “That’s why we need information from school… Although…”

      Starkov chewed his lips, with doubt on his face.

      “It may well be, that this pimple invented the story with a comb for the ‘excuse’. He could lose his comb easily at the scene of the murder…”

      “And I have the same opinion!” Petrov caught fire immediately.

      Starkov twitched his cheek condescendingly.

      “Don’t get excited, bro. Listen first. I’m not saying that a comb, lost or abandoned at a crime scene, is proof that this jerk is murderer. Even if we prove the loss of a comb in the right place, we cannot draw the necessary conclusion from this.”

      Petrov moved his eyebrows displeasedly.

      “What do you mean by that?”

      “He could lose his comb there before the time of the murder, and after. For example, knowing, that the girl is always looking for the cat-reveler in the same place, he could watch her out there to clarify the relationship, but he was late: someone had already found out his relationship with her before him. The jerk got scared, of course, fled the crime scene and lost the comb!”

      The lieutenant colonel sighed sadly and shook his head slowly.

      “You are right, bro. It could well have been… And what remains for us?”

      “And what remains for us?”?”

      Starkov did not become “artistically”, a la Sherlock Holmes, to think using tobacco and a proud profile.

      “Well, first of all, we will work out Petin Jr to the end.”

      He raised the little finger of his right hand.

      “Then we have a couple of cigarette butts… By the way, does this jerk smoke?”

      “I did not ask!” Petrov wrinkled face irritated. “There was no time: I beat out