Page 185
My eyes stay on Vlasov.
“Why take her hospital identification?” Roman asks.
“To make it look as though she disappeared by choice.”
“Then why leave her car?”
Vlasov shifts against the cuffs. “Kireev panicked when a truck came under the overpass.”
Roman pushes Marina’s card closer to him. “You killed her because she noticed stolen medicine.”
“She noticed the men,” Vlasov says. “The medicine led her to the ambulances, and the ambulances led her to Zarya. Next thing we knew, she was asking questions about the routes.”
Leonid closes the file in front of him. “That’s enough to tie Vlasov to the murder.”
“It doesn’t bring her back,” Maksim says.
“No,” I reply. “But it gives Vera the truth.”
A printer begins working behind Yuri. Sheets slide into the tray, carrying transfer records from Zarya and payment lists from New Harbor.
“We have the missing patients,” Yuri says, separating the pages. “Four never existed. Their files were created to cover stolen medicine. Five were Belov’s wounded men admitted under false names.”
“And the others?” I ask.
“Two were witnesses,” Abramov answers, reading the message on his phone. “One died months ago. The other is alive. Roman found her drugged in a private room beneath Zarya.”
“Name?”
“Sofia Melnik. She saw Chernov’s men unload rifles from a medical-waste truck.”
“Get her real doctors,” Maksim says. “No one attached to New Harbor.”
Abramov sends the order.
Petrov closes the folder. “Do we take control of the accounts or close them?”
“Close every account,” Maksim says.
“The hospital passes were already canceled before midnight,” Petrov replies. “Chernov’s trucks are impounded, and Ilya has closed the warehouse.”
“What about the estate printer?” I ask.
Kirill stubs out his cigarette and opens the final printer log. “We found the file on the small printer recovered from the service-garage locker. The user erased the record, but he forgot the printer keeps its own memory.”
A guard’s photograph appears on-screen.
“Konstantin Mironov,” Abramov says. “Night security clerk. He printed Misha’s picture, sealed it, and hid it in the chapel supply room for Anton.”
“Where is he?”
“In the service garage. He tried to leave during the first warehouse fires, but Ilya stopped him.”
“Payment?”
Petrov taps the account beside Mironov’s name. “Chernov’s collection office.”
The camera captured Misha’s courtyard photograph. Mironov accessed the file and printed it, then Anton carried the sealed envelope to the gate. Belov had two men inside the estate, and each knew only his own task.
