Rolia Kama - The path to the stars

In the morning, I was awakened by a knock on the door.

«Take your Breakfast.»

– What time is it?»

– 6 o’clock in the morning.

I wanted to leave the cell, but I see an aluminum plate with some porridge on the floor, next to an aluminum glass with tea, a piece of bread on it. When I saw the food, I felt very hungry, and for the second day I didn’t eat or drink anything. I took my food and went into the cell. You should have seen how greedily I ate porridge with bread, I hardly ate bread at home. And then I ate porridge with bread.

My thoughts are refreshed from sleep, my strength is increased, but still this wild accusation drives me mad. They’ll figure it out, and I’ll sue this Sangaa operative.

At 8 o’clock in the morning, I am taken out of the cell to be taken to the district court. I meet Anya in the corridor. I ask with surprise and indignation:

«What’s going on, Anya?»

– I don’t know, I’m in shock. Who is Pavlova? – what is it? «she asks me.

– I don’t know, I wanted to ask you. I thought it was your real estate client.

– You know we don’t have a client with that name.» I thought you were involved somewhere.

– I thought you were planning something against me.» Mongush Z. when did you put the apartment up for sale?

– In August 2007, there is a contract for receiving a Deposit. After receiving the money, she and her family moved to a dacha.

– So they lived in their own apartment in may?» Maybe they killed this Pavlova, and now they want to blame it on us?

We and the other men were taken to a building on the territory of the district court and placed in a cell. I tell Ana how I was snatched from my house. She told me that they called her and asked her to come to the police station with her passport, and there they held her for several hours and charged her, after which they placed her in an IVS. Anya says:

– It can’t be that Mongush Z. and his family want to blame the crime on us. She knows both of us, but she doesn’t know my brother and my husband.

– Exactly. We need to ask that she and her family members be called to face-to-face with us.

– Who is this witness?» Who needs to talk about us?

By this time, a Russian operative who was present in the office when I was hit had entered the room. He told the court escort that he wanted to pick me up. I shouted:

– I’m not going anywhere, they beat me!

Perhaps my words had an effect, and the chief of the judicial escort refused to let me out of the cell, after which the operative left. After a while, Sangaa came in, apparently waiting on the street. He started talking rudely to the guards so that they would give me to him. From this pressure, the chief of the judicial escort also replied in a raised tone:

– The detainee is currently under my responsibility, and I have no right to violate the instructions. In addition, the detainee stated that she was subjected to physical pressure.

The operatives left. Apparently, they were charged with getting me to turn myself in before the trial. You’ve run into the wrong one, my dears.

Vladimir appeared with my things. Anya closed part of the grate with my fur coat so that I could change. While I was dressing, Anya and I told Vladimir our proofs. Later, I learned from Ani that she and Vladimir had previously known each other and worked in the same police Department.

When Anya and I were brought into the courtroom, we saw that Andrey (Anya’s husband) and Valera (Anya’s brother) were behind bars, and we were allowed to go to them. They had the same indignant look, and they eagerly asked us in one voice:

– What’s going on?»

We told them about the owner of this apartment, where we allegedly committed a murder. They did not know where this house was located, the owner of the house, or all the details related to the sale of this apartment. After what we told them, they calmed down a little.

They announced the beginning of the trial to consider the request of the Investigative Committee for detention for two months. We requested to see the court’s materials. In the materials of the court there were testimonies of Kostyuk as follows:

«At the beginning of may, in 2007, I was in apartment 18 at 17 Paroturbinnaya street with Kama and Anya, drinking alcohol. The apartment was on the second floor. It contained a table, one chair, and two iron-mesh beds. After a while, the door opens, and Andrey and Valera lead a terrified woman into the apartment. Then they began to beat the woman severely. Kama and Anya joined the beating. I asked them to stop. The four of them beat the woman to death, wrapped the corpse in a blanket, and Andrey and Valera took her somewhere.»

What horror. They lowered us below the sewers. We are quite wealthy people who drink alcohol in a half-empty apartment with a woman they don’t know and beat the woman to death. Where is the motive? Or for fun? Horror. A normal person would not dream of such a fantasy.

Kostyuk is a mutual friend of mine and Anya, she was a real estate client. Andrey and Valera ask us:

– Who’s he? Do you know her?»

«Yes, she was our client. She looks like a heavy drinker. Did she kill this woman? Anya, when did you show her this apartment?

– in September. We drove it together, remember, this apartment was empty then.

– Kostyuk probably thinks that this apartment was empty in may.

– So, she committed a crime and wants to blame us, – says Andrey. Everyone was silent, thinking.

– If this is the work of Kostyuk, then how does she know Andrey and Valera? the lawyer asked. Andrey and Valera looked at me and Anya with a question. Only Anya can know that answer, and I stared at her as they did.

– In the 90s, I was in the same cell with her in prison. She’s a repeat con artist. Then she wanted to turn the camera against me because I was a former Prosecutor. But her cellmates threw her out of the cell. Since then, I met her for the first time on the road from our Fazenda to the city, in July 2007. I didn’t think about the incident in the cell. Just chat. She said she was released last fall.

Andrew and Valerie were silent, the question of how he knew them all, had been exhausted.

In General, this is a separate story, we can say, a deep tragedy of a family that turned into a blood feud. At that time, I didn’t know all the details. I will definitely write to you.

Meanwhile, the trial has been announced. The judge came in, a woman with a beautiful Asian appearance, tall, slender and well-groomed. Her expression shows that she is happy enough.

So, we were denied our request to call the landlady of the apartment and to call Kostyuk, arguing that this is the actions of the preliminary investigation. We were taken into custody for two months.

We were taken to the prison, the box is clean, but smoky to the point of nausea. Employees came and started searching us, down to our underwear. While examining us, one of the employees asked:

– There haven’t been any like this before, on 159th (fraud)?

– No, on 105th (murder), – Anya answered. The employees were slightly surprised.

– Who was killed?»

– A woman, they say. We don’t really know.

– How can we not know?»

– Charged with the murder of a woman we don’t know.

– Clearly. Well, never mind, they’ll sort it out and let you go, they do that sometimes.

– We think so, too.

«Are you going to take a shower?» There is no hot water in the cell.

I didn’t think female employees in prisons could be so polite. Usually in the movies evil women of the prison.

We were led through the labyrinths of the prison, finally reaching the shower. We had nothing with us, so we were given a thin towel, a piece of soap that stinks, aluminum dishes, bed linen, mattress, blanket and pillow. We stood under hot water, and then it seems that the fatigue has gone and the thoughts have cleared up.