Major Grom #3

Plague Doctor, part 3

A serial killer wearing the Middle Ages plague doctor's mask is operating in St. Petersburg. Having declared himself the only savior of the cultural capital of Russia, which is ill with "plague of iniquity and injustice," he immediately starts to clean up the city. First of all, the "doctor" deals with the son of the City Attorney, Kirill Grechkin (who had struck and killed two pedestrians and escaped from justice) by burning him alive in his car. Media and the blogosphere argue about who he is - the ideological fighter or the Messiah...

The police detective Igor Grom and his rookie partner Dima are trying to understand maniac's motives. On one hand, he's literally crazy about the culture of the Middle Ages, wears the plague doctor mask and predicts the imminent massacre of all the "contagious." On the other - he has a clear stance and the definition of a "patient" can fit to almost any dishonest official. The number of potential victims is increasing hour after hour...

Grom questions prostitute Violet, recent "acquaintance" of Kirill. It turns out that on the day they met (a few months prior to the tragedy) the attorney's son got strongly drunk while celebrating something important and planned on "turning the page". Igor and Dima are trying to find Grechkin's mysterious friend with whom he wanted to bid farewell to the murky past, but there are no clues...

Igor accidentally gets into a fight with two armed bikers, attempting to prevent a robbery. Their victim is Julia Pchelkina: she's working on a scandalous article about some deputy's illegal activities, and he struggles to stop her. The conversation switches to the subject of The Citizen and the girl shares a shocker: it turns out that a few months ago Kirill Grechkin spent a lot of money on a costly celebration of FC "Zenith" victory in the "Third half" bar, but it was forbidden to write about it by the order from "the top". Major Grom realizes that Julia is talking about the very day when Violet met Kirill and his friend!

Grom rushes to the bar and solves the mystery at once! It turns out that Grechkin's buddy is the infamous warrant officer Sorokin: there's a picture on the wall of the two friends celebrating, taken on the day of the victory of FC "Zenith". Major Grom tries to reach the police officer, but it's too late: Sorokin is found dead at Gostiny Dvor, where he used to beat protesters...