Summary

18 March – Leo reads the autopsy report notes he has taken at Hospital 379. Larisa received multiple stab wounds from a blade of unknown length, experienced extensive damage to her torso and internal organs, was raped either before or after death, and her mouth was full of soil, perhaps to silence her. With the ground frozen solid, Leo realizes the soil must have been brought with the killer, meaning there was intention and preparation – premeditation. He decides to do what he should have done with Fyodor’s son – view the body.

Leo wonders what he is doing, for he knows he can hardly change the course of the investigation, and has no authority to do so. Yet he persists, meeting with Dr. Tyapkin, to see the body. Tyapkin, like Leo, was demoted and sent to Voualsk. Tyapkin explains that the doctors’ own lives depend upon keeping...