Red Moscow

Sokov and Sokolovsky chatted about the current situation between the Soviet Union and the United States. While talking, Sokov kept glancing at every corner of the room, fearing that the United States might hide some eavesdropping devices in these places. , then the conversation between himself and Sokolovsky will be eavesdropped by the other party. If some extreme remarks are used by people with ulterior motives, they may cause diplomatic incidents.

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 bugging devices, so you don't have to worry about the two of us." Talk and be heard.”

Hearing what Sokolovsky said, Sokovsky felt much more at ease. As long as there was no eavesdropping device in the room, even if he said something confidential, only he and Sokolovsky would know. .

Just when he was about to talk about his true views, there was a sudden knock on the door.

Sokolovsky raised his hand to stop Sokov who was about to speak, stood up and shouted toward the door: "Come in!"

The colonel who brought Sokovsky came in from the door. After saluting Sokolovsky, he said seriously: "Comrade Deputy Commander, something happened!"

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

"One of our female translators died."

"The female translator is dead?" An angry look appeared on Sokolovsky's face: "Has the murderer been caught?"

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

"Suicide?! How are you sure you committed suicide?"

"This is the suicide note she wrote." The colonel handed a piece of paper to Sokolovsky and said at the same time: "The doors and windows of the room were closed. There were no signs of intrusion by outsiders, and she did not show any signs of struggle. It was Suicide is certain."

Sokolovsky took the suicide note and read it unconsciously: "I committed an unforgivable crime, and I can only wash away my shame by dying."

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

"Both." The colonel replied: "After repeated examinations, they confirmed that they should have committed suicide."

Sokolovsky did not speak, but turned to look at Sokov sitting next to him and asked: "Misha, what do you think of this matter?"

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

"General Sokov," as soon as Sokov finished speaking, the colonel retorted: "We found out from her colleagues that the suicide note was indeed her handwriting, and when her body was found, the door and window They were all tightly closed, and there were no signs of intrusion. It must have been suicide.”

Although the colonel categorically said that the female translator committed suicide, Sokov was still full of doubts in his heart: "Comrade Colonel, I would like to ask, since you said that the doors and windows of the room where the female translator lived were closed, how did you know? Did she die inside?"

"Yes, Colonel." Sokolovsky felt that Sokov's question was reasonable, so he asked casually: "How did you find her dead in the house?"

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

"I understand," Sokolovsky interrupted after hearing this: "The plumber found the female translator dead on the bed, so he asked someone to open the door, is that right?"

"Exactly, Comrade Deputy Commander."

"So, it should be suicide." Sokolovsky waved to the colonel and said to him: "I'll leave this matter to you."

"Wait a minute, Comrade Colonel." Just when the Colonel turned to leave, Sokov stopped him, then turned to Sokolovsky and said: "Comrade Deputy Commander, I think this matter is very serious. Qi Qi, can you allow me to go and take a look?"

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

After Sokov followed the colonel and left Sokolovsky's room, he thought that criminal investigation was not what he was good at. If he wanted to find out the truth, he had to ask Bayer for help. Although he is equivalent to a registered police officer, he is known as a "living file" after all. Even if he has never participated in solving a case, he should have learned about the cases handled by the police station through information. With his help, Maybe we can see some clues.

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

Pushing open the door, Agelina was the only one in the room. When she saw Sokov coming back, her face lit up with joy. But when she saw the colonel walking in right behind her, she immediately realized what might have happened and asked, "Misha, what happened?"

"Agelina, follow me." Sokov grabbed Agelina's hand, pulled her and walked outside, saying: "There is a case downstairs, and I need Officer Bayer to go there." Help me with the analysis on site.”

Agelina immediately understood what Sokov meant. The other party wanted her to be the translator, so she followed Sokov to the next door in cooperation, called Bayer, and followed the colonel to the crime scene on the first floor.

The room where the incident occurred has been sealed off. Many people wearing Soviet uniforms stood behind the cordon, pointing towards the location of the room and talking quietly.

When the colonel and Sokov were about to cross the cordon, they were stopped by a German policeman. Bayer quickly stepped forward and explained his purpose to the other party. The policeman hesitated for a moment, and finally let Sokov and others pass.

After entering the room, Sokov immediately saw the female translator lying on the bed. She was wearing a brand-new lieutenant's military uniform. She was lying there motionless, with the quilt covering her chest. If Sokov hadn't known in advance that she was dead, he would have thought she was asleep.

Two U.S. military police officers and a German police officer were chatting about something. When they saw someone walking in from outside the door, they immediately stopped talking and came over to greet them. They said displeasedly: "This is a crime scene. No one can enter casually. "

The colonel snorted coldly and said in English without condescension: "You have to understand that the dead people are my subordinates, and this is the area where our Soviet side lives. If something like this happens, we have the right to participate in the detection operation."

"Mr. General," the German police officer said to Sokov: "We have already investigated it. It is just a suicide. There is nothing to make a fuss about."

Now that Sokov is here, he naturally wants to get to the bottom of the matter. After Agelina translated the police officer's words, he looked at the other party and asked: "Mr. police officer, since you have already investigated the scene, have you found anything suspicious?" The place?"

"No, Mr. General, nothing was found." The German police officer explained to Sokov: "When we came, we checked carefully. The door was locked, the windows were closed properly, and there was no struggle on the body. There are no traces of suicide.”

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

Unexpectedly, after listening to Agelina's translation, Bayer shook his head and said with disappointment: "Two years ago, a similar case happened in Berlin. The deceased died of murder, but the murderer used a very clever method. We disguised the crime scene to make the investigating police think that the deceased committed suicide. However, after careful investigation, we finally found some clues, which confirmed that the deceased did not commit suicide but died of homicide. But I just checked. But no useful clues were found.”

When Sokov heard this, he immediately felt that there was something interesting. Since a similar case happened two years ago, Bayer must be able to provide him with some ideas, so he asked with some urgency: "Officer Bayer, tell me quickly, what did you check?" what is the place?"

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

"Well, yes, it is indeed like this." Sokov was a little puzzled, thinking to himself, isn't this how the bolts of windows that push outward are installed like this? He continued to ask: "Did you find anything wrong?"

"The original murderer tore off a long hair of the deceased and tied it to the elbow of the bolt." Bayer continued: "He jumped out of the window, closed the window, pulled the hair hard, and then When the hair is broken, the rod falls off and is inserted into the nose, which makes people misunderstand that it is a window that the deceased closed from the inside, thus successfully disguising a murder as a suicide. "

Sokov stared at the elbow of the pole, but did not find any hair, so he tentatively asked Bayer: "Officer Bayer, did you not find hair at the location of the pole, so you overturned it in your mind?" My own guess?"

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

Although Bayer's experience did not provide him with any help, Sokov had new ideas in his mind. He said to himself: "Maybe I can find a way to do it without using the hair of the deceased. Successfully closed the window from the outside."

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

"Yes, Agelina, I do have a way, but I need your cooperation." After Sokov said this, he immediately called to the police officer: "Mr. police officer, please come here."

The police officer quickly came to Sokov and asked respectfully: "Mr. General, is there anything I can do for 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."

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

"Get me a chair." Sokov said as he opened the window, "I need to climb out of the window first."

When the colonel who led the way saw Bayer move a chair over and Sokov stood on the chair and was about to climb out of 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 suddenly 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 was closed.

As the window closed, everyone in the room widened their eyes in surprise. They never dreamed that they could close the window from the outside in this way. The most surprised person was Bayer, because he had seen similar murder cases in the archives, but the other party used a long hair of the deceased to control the bolt, while Sokov did not even use the hair, and 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 the window with his hand, indicating that the person inside should 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 police officers 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 killed, 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 am not mistaken, this should be left by the murderer. Mr. Officer," he said to the officer, "I suggest you go outside to collect shoe samples immediately. Maybe you can find out the murderer who killed our female translator based on the shoe samples."

The colonel hurried to the window and looked out. In addition to finding a pile of messy footprints outside the window, there was indeed a row of footprints leading from the window to the distance. He shrank back and said to the 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 officer did not dare to neglect it. He hurriedly agreed, walked to the door quickly, called one of his subordinates, and went outside to collect shoe samples.