"White, Black, Scarlet..." by Elena Topilskaya, summary Automatic translate

"White, Black, Scarlet…" is a detective novel by Elena Topilskaya, published around 2000, also known as "The Soft Paw of Death." Written from the perspective of Maria Sergeevna Shvetsova, an investigator in the St. Petersburg district prosecutor’s office, the book stands out because the author is a practicing lawyer and herself served as an investigator in the prosecutor’s office, so the procedural fabric of the novel is crafted with rare precision. The book is part of a series about Masha Shvetsova. This series also includes other novels by Topilskaya, including "Fatal Role," "Heroes Are Not Killed," "A Trap for Blondes," and several other works.

Murder at the dacha

One autumn evening, successful entrepreneur Dmitry Chvanov brings groceries to his family’s dacha. He steps outside with a candle when the only light in the house goes out, and is immediately stabbed in the back. An unknown assailant wearing a mask made of black tights enters the house and attacks Chvanov’s wife, Olga, who sits motionless in front of the fireplace. Despite the desperate resistance of the woman and their two children — nine-year-old Eldar and younger Eli — the killer stabs Olga multiple times. Both spouses are killed; the children survive. The assailant leaves without taking anything from the house.

The case is handed over to local detectives, who arrest a certain Prutkin, a petty thief who specialized in thefts from empty dachas. He confesses, and the case is considered solved. However, in court, Prutkin recants, claiming pressure. The court returns the case for further investigation, and it ultimately ends up in the hands of senior investigator Maria Sergeyevna Shvetsova, in the neighboring district prosecutor’s office.

Masha Shvetsova takes up the case

Shvetsova is an experienced investigator in her mid-thirties, living with her son Gosha and her lover Alexander. She already has eleven cases pending, and her boss, district prosecutor Vladimir Ivanovich, hands over "Chvanov" to her with obvious awkwardness: the case is a lost cause, "rotten," as the prosecutor himself describes it, and the time limit is exactly one month.

Leonid Korablyov, an operative from the Regional Department for Combating Organized Crime (RUOP), is assigned to Shvetsova — an old acquaintance, a lazy, witty, and impenetrably unflappable man. Together with fellow investigator Alexey Gorchakov, they form an informal working trio, which is tasked with unraveling the mystery.

Masha immediately sees the weaknesses in the case against Prutkin: the children pointed out not his jacket during the identification parade, but another one — one that, as it turns out, belonged to Korablyov himself, which he had borrowed for the procedure; the blood was on the lining of Prutkin’s jacket, not on the outside, even though the killer, according to the children, was wearing a buttoned jacket; and finally, Prutkin himself was a thief, not a robber, who never went "wet." He had no way to get to the Chvanovs’ dacha during the evening break between buses, and he couldn’t have failed to notice the Mercedes at the gate.

Version with the Tsarsky Bank

From the case file, Shvetsov learns that shortly before the murder, Chvanov’s company won a mansion in a prestigious location in the city from a major bank, Tsarsky Bank. The bank’s executives lost the arbitration case and, according to available information, hired criminals to pressure Chvanov. The businessman had already signed a contract with a security firm — the bodyguard was supposed to start work on Monday, but he was killed on Friday evening.

At the same time, it was revealed that the head of the company’s own security service, retired FSB officer Oleg Petrovich Skorodumov, suffered a heart attack on the day the conflict with Tsarskoye began and was effectively sidelined. His name does not appear in the criminal case.

Denshchikov’s parallel case

At the same time, the prosecutor feeds Shvetsova material from a complaint filed by a certain Skorodumov against the actions of city prosecutor Igor Denshchikov. When Korablyov mentions the name from the complaint, both realize that the complainant and Chvanov’s former head of security are the same person.

Denshchikov is a notorious figure in the city prosecutor’s office. Back in practice, he managed to abandon a criminal case in a sauna, then lost it twice while drunk, and after dropping the case against members of a gang named "Vertolet," his wife purchased a 100-square-meter apartment in the city’s historic center for a symbolic eighteen thousand rubles from the firm "Bishop," affiliated with the same Vertolet. The connection is obvious, yet Denshchikov continues to serve and even rises to the rank of investigator for particularly important cases.

Skorodumov comes to Shvetsova

Skorodumov shows up at the prosecutor’s office himself — and immediately impresses Shvetsova as someone who wants to say something but is afraid. As soon as the conversation turns to Dmitry Chvanov’s murder, Skorodumov suffers a heart attack right there in the investigator’s office. Before losing consciousness, he manages to hand Shvetsova a thick, unusual wallet, insistently asking her to keep it safe. Shvetsova seals the wallet in an envelope, seals it, and puts it in the safe. Korablyov and Gorchakov bring out a stretcher. The doctors confirm a second heart attack and rush to transport Skorodumov to the cardiology department alive.

Parallel investigations and the explosion

Against the backdrop of the Chvanov case, Shvetsova is also conducting another investigation — an explosion in an apartment building. In the attic of the entrance, she discovers a knotted condom filled with urine: the man watching the building clearly didn’t want to leave any traces of his presence, but something or someone prevented him from taking the improvised "evidence" with him. Together with forensic expert Zadov, forensic scientist Boleshchikov, and Lieutenant Colonel Burachkov, the investigator is pursuing leads, including odor testing — a method of identifying a person by smell.

What’s in the wallet?

Skorodumov is handing Shvetsova more than just personal belongings — the wallet apparently contains documents or information related to the affair surrounding Chvanov and the Tsarsky Bank. It’s impossible to immediately determine this: the investigator is acting strictly within the law, and the envelope is sealed. Skorodumov is fighting for his life in intensive care. Korablyov, with his usual laziness, promises to call the hospital that evening.

By the end of her month-long sentence, Shvetsova faces a crucial choice: turn a blind eye to Prutkin’s obvious innocence and send the case against him to court, or continue digging — to the intersection of the interests of Tsarsky Bank, Vertolet, the corrupt investigator Denshchikov, and the mysterious wallet of a dying security guard.