Dead Grain

6 hrs. 9 min.

Language Russian

Author Igor Tomin

Narrator Anton Cheskidov

Description

1975, Bryansk region. At dawn, by the roadside, among wheat, they find the cinematographer Sasha dead—no traces, as if no crime had been committed.

From Moscow to the village a team is sent: investigator Tumansky, operative Voronov, and forensic expert Grayva. First on the suspect list is the wife of the dead man, Nadezhda: she behaves too evenly, and her motives can be counted by the dozen.

The accountant Andreev also comes under suspicion—Sasha used to look after his daughter, so hatred on the part of the father is more than enough.

Attention is also drawn to the warehouse manager Borshchev: pleasant to the point of sweetness, smiling at everyone, but in his answers there is clearly what he doesn’t say.

The police focus on the radio amateur nicknamed Bear—his strange remarks scatter over the airwaves for many kilometers.

Even the director of the state farm Utkin doesn’t look flawless: his reports are too neat and smooth—too correct to be true.

A few days later, the body of the district officer is pulled from the river. The day before, he managed to tell Tumansky that he had “almost everything figured out.” And the village is like a wall: everyone stands together, alibis are built precisely, each person insists they’re telling the truth.

One version replaces another and falls apart. Only calculations and documents remain—but even there, something doesn’t add up. The truth is very close, only there are no witnesses for it.