A summary of Elvira Baryakina’s "Coffin with Music"

This book is an ironic detective story, written in 2000, set in Nizhny Novgorod around the investigation of the mysterious murder of the director of a major newspaper alliance. The most important detail of this work lies in the unexpected moral dilemma of the ending: the protagonist, having unraveled the entire chain of tragic events, deliberately decides to conceal the identity of the real culprit for the sake of preserving long-standing friendships.

The beginning of the investigation and a gruesome discovery

Alexey Kobets, known to his colleagues simply as Lyokha, heads the legal department of a newspaper alliance. He’s known as a seasoned womanizer and is regularly late for work. He’s assisted in the office by two law student interns, Nastya and Tanya. Lyokha decides to spend Friday evening in the company of the charming Sveta Ogurtsova. Kobets mentally nicknames her "Nymph" for her fragile beauty.

Young people head out of town in search of solitude. Their romantic stroll ends abruptly when the couple stumbles upon a lifeless man’s body. Sveta instantly faints from numbing terror. Kobets unsuccessfully tries to revive her, slapping her cheeks and shaking her shoulders. Realizing the situation requires immediate medical attention, he abandons his companion and runs for help. Returning to the scene, Lyokha discovers a frightening emptiness. Not only Sveta, but also the body they found, has vanished without a trace.

Victim identification and corporate maneuvers

Soon, the city police discover the missing body. The horrific truth is revealed: the murdered man was Sergei Izmailov. He served as the general director of the very same newspaper alliance where Lyokha works. His body was recovered from the Levinka River, where the perpetrators had thrown it from a high bridge. A medical examination establishes the exact cause of death: a massive cerebral hemorrhage caused by a severe blow to the head with a blunt object.

The death of the director triggers a series of corporate reshuffles. His deputy, Boris Igorevich, rushes to fill the vacant director’s seat. A true anarchist by nature, he smokes expensive cigars right in the deceased boss’s office, turns everything upside down, and imposes his own rules. Lyokha begins to seriously suspect Boris of involvement in Izmailov’s murder. The motives seem perfectly obvious to Kobets: a struggle for absolute power within the alliance, control over financial flows, and simple jealousy over women.

Love twists and turns and alliances formed

The situation at the office is complicated by the arrival of a new employee, the rather striking Yaroslavna. Kobets deploys his full arsenal of seduction, persistently trying to start a romance with her. She remains completely unmoved by his professional advances. Instead of Lyokha, she clearly prefers another man, Gennady Igorevich Grushkov. His wounded male pride drives Kobets to intensify his search for his boss’s killer, distracting him from his romantic woes and proving his intellectual worth.

In his search for the truth, Lekha joins forces with his longtime friend, Valeria Gronotop. Those around her call her simply and simply, Top. She works as the editor-in-chief of the scandalous youth publication "New Me." Top is distinguished by her assertive character, well-developed muscles, and an extremely cynical outlook on life. She actively helps Lekha unravel the complex intricacies of their mutual colleagues’ motives.

Meanwhile, Kobets learns the fate of the missing Sveta Ogurtsova. She is in the local city hospital. She is alive, but due to a severe blow to the head and the nervous shock she suffered, she is completely unable to clarify the details of that fateful night. Lyokha regularly visits Nimfa, feeling a tremendous moral responsibility for the tragedy that occurred.

The role of the widow and the criminal subplots

The protagonist’s investigation is constantly interrupted by mundane household chores. The murdered director’s widow, Olga Izmailova, begins to show an unmistakable feminine interest in Lyokha. She sincerely hopes that Kobets will become a full-fledged father figure to her young son, Nikita. The child even begins calling Lyokha’s mother his grandmother. Kobets tries to distance himself from Olga as delicately as possible, his thoughts being preoccupied with the unapproachable Yaroslavna.

Meanwhile, other criminal events are unfolding within the alliance. A corrupt employee nicknamed "Mayonnaise" is jailed for paying a large bribe. The oppressive atmosphere of chaos and complete impunity only fuels Lekha’s fervent desire to uncover the absolute truth.

The official version of the city investigation

Events quickly reach a climax during a meeting with investigator Polonin. Top presents an incredibly detailed and logically flawless version of the crime to the experienced police officer. According to her convincing account, the tragedy occurred on the quiet grounds of the Voroshilovets camp. An acquaintance of Top’s, a slight young man named Alik Yamin, decided to play a cheeky trick on Izmailov. Alik danced provocatively in front of the stern director with a cigar, instantly provoking him into aggression.

Izmailov was deeply offended and began to violently strangle Alik right there in the cramped radio room. At this dramatic moment, Gennady Grushkov happened to be passing by. Seeing his close friend being killed, Grushkov grabbed a heavy garden rake lying on the ground and struck Izmailov over the head with tremendous force. Top confidently asserts that Grushkov killed the alliance director solely out of a noble desire to save Alik’s life. The blow proved fatally misjudged in its force and resulted in instant death.

The fate of a random witness

Top calmly continues her shocking story to the mesmerized investigator. According to her verified version, while Grushkov was carefully leading the shocked Alik to the car, Sveta Ogurtsova accidentally entered the radio room. Upon seeing the bloody, dead Izmailov, the frail girl immediately lost consciousness. In the sudden fall, she hit her head hard on the sharp corner of the heavy radio control panel.

Returning to the scene of the brutal crime, Grushkov concluded that Sveta was also irrevocably dead. He had to hastily hide the two bodies. The top firmly asserts that Grushkov quickly loaded Izmailov and Ogurtsova into the trunk of his personal car. Along the way, the accomplices threw the director off a high bridge into the frigid Levinka River, and cowardly abandoned Sveta in another remote location. Alik Yamin, deathly pale and shaking with fear, fully confirms this convenient story.

The true state of affairs

Investigator Polonin happily accepts Valeria Gronotop’s version at face value, without bothering with lengthy, grueling investigations. The criminal case is officially closed. Gennady Grushkov is already buried in the damp earth, so all the heavy blame is conveniently placed on the deceased, who is physically incapable of defending himself. Alik receives a humane two-year suspended sentence and enjoys his long-awaited freedom. Lyokha Kobets enthusiastically prepares to move to Moscow with Yaroslavna, who has finally reciprocated his sincere feelings and agreed to live together. Sveta Ogurtsova makes a safe recovery and is happily discharged from the hospital.

In the final epilogue, Lyokha dutifully repays an old debt to Top, diligently washing her dirty car in a stuffy garage co-op. His girlfriend sits languidly in a fold-out chaise lounge, lazily leafing through a glossy magazine and sarcastically making fun of his imminent departure for Yaroslavna. Kobets diligently cleans the cramped interior and reluctantly reaches the cluttered trunk. While clearing out years of accumulated trash, he suddenly notices a small, shiny object in a dark corner.

Silence as the highest sign of devotion

Lyokha carefully picks up the unexpected find and instantly recognizes it as a small woman’s earring with a bright red stone. Sveta Ogurtsova had worn exactly the same earring before that dreadful Friday night, but the earring was suspiciously missing from her earlobe in the hospital room. Suddenly, disparate, insignificant details coalesce in the lawyer’s clear mind into a coherent picture. Kobets clearly recalls Top’s recent words about Grushkov allegedly transporting two bodies in the trunk of his cramped car. But the trunk of Grushkov’s luxury car is so small, barely big enough for a small house cat. Lyokha also clearly recalls how the cunning Top discreetly discarded the ill-fated rake with someone else’s fingerprints on it during their trip to the camp.

Realization hits Lyokha like a heavy concrete weight: the real killer was Valeria herself. It was she who accidentally witnessed the fight, reflexively grabbed a rake, and cold-bloodedly struck Izmailov, loyally defending her weak protégé, Alik, who always called her a second mother. She secretly loaded the two motionless bodies into the spacious trunk of her car and later masterfully concocted a plausible story about Grushkov’s death to forever deflect any suspicion from herself. Kobets, deeply confused, clutches Nymph’s earring tightly in his sweaty fist. After carefully weighing the pros and cons, he firmly decides not to tell his old friend anything. The young lawyer discreetly drops the glittering piece of evidence through a rusty grate directly into the drain, forever burying this dark, bloody secret for the sake of preserving their strange friendship.