‘So you returned here to pick them up?’
‘No. We arranged a meeting point at Verdandskovo.’
‘So there was no possibility of Agayans being aware of any security men gathering outside his home?’
‘None whatsoever,’ assured Panchenko. He thought the other man’s disability made him appear ominous and threatening.
‘Continue.’
‘The Comrade Director answered the door himself. He was a bachelor, as I have said in the report. He lived alone.’
‘The door opened at once?’
‘Yes.’
Malik inferred the colonel’s impatience at being taken entirely through an episode he believed already properly accounted for. Further to irritate the impatience, Malik said: ‘You haven’t set out in the report what his attitude was at being confronted by you.’
Panchenko hesitated, then said: ‘Surprise.’
‘Surprise would have been obvious,’ said Malik. ‘What about fear?’
‘Not until after we entered the apartment.’
‘Before which there was some conversation?’
‘Yes.’
‘Who spoke first?’
Again there was a pause, as if for recall. Panchenko said: ‘We practically spoke together. The Comrade Director asked what we were there for as I announced I had orders for his arrest.’
‘What was Agayans’ reply to that?’
‘He asked for what offence. I told him I did not know.’
Malik isolated Panchenko’s mistake and decided to wait to use it to undermine the stiff-backed attitude later. Hurrying on to prevent Panchenko realizing it, Malik said: ‘What then?’
‘He asked upon whose authority – I said yours,’ recounted the security chief. ‘He said he had done nothing wrong and asked if he could get dressed: that’s how he got to the bedroom.’
‘Dressed?’ queried Malik.
‘When we got to the apartment Agayans was in bed,’ reminded Panchenko. ‘It’s in the report.’
‘What time was this?’
‘Approximately nine.’
‘He was wearing nightclothes at nine o’clock at night?’
‘And a robe.’
‘At once,’ prompted Malik.
‘I do not understand,’ complained Panchenko.
‘You told me earlier that when you knocked the door was opened at once by Agayans,’ said Malik. ‘If he had been in bed – and before answering the door had to put on a robe – there should have been a delay.’
‘I…’ started Panchenko and stopped. Then he resumed: ‘It appeared to me that the door opened at once: I agree now there would have been some slight delay.’
‘So that part of your report is wrong?’
‘Yes,’ conceded the colonel tightly.
‘You agreed to his getting dressed?’
‘Although he was under arrest upon your orders I did not think I should detain a Comrade Director in his nightclothes.’
‘You said Agayans showed fear, after his initial surprise,’ prompted Malik. ‘So far I don’t get any impression of fear. It seems almost a normal conversation.’
‘The request to get dressed was made very subserviently,’ insisted Panchenko. ‘It was anything but a normal conversation.’
‘Tell me about going into the bedroom.’
Panchenko swallowed and said: ‘He walked directly from the main room into the bedroom. With my squad I remained in the living area. After a while it occurred to me that Agayans was taking a long time to get ready. I hurried into the bedroom. He was on the far side with the bed between us. The gun was already against his head. The moment I entered, he fired.’
Malik intentionally let the silence build up between them, all the time staring fixedly at the colonel. Panchenko remained rigidly to attention: Malik supposed the man would have learned to remain immobile like that on a hundred parade grounds. He said: ‘Does the main living room lead directly into the bedroom?’
‘No,’ conceded Panchenko.
‘You said he walked directly from the main room into the bedroom,’ reminded Malik.
‘I meant to convey there was no further conversation between us,’ said Panchenko. ‘There is a corridor leading to the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.’
‘So without any further conversation between you, Igor Fedorovich Agayans walked from the living room, down the corridor and into his bedroom?’ Malik was not sure but there appeared to be a sheen of perspiration upon the other man’s forehead. Raising his voice to make the demand, he said: ‘The corridor is straight, from the main living area? With the bedroom at its far end?’
‘No,’ admitted Panchenko, in further desperate concession. ‘The corridor bends, halfway along.’
‘So you did not know if Agayans had gone directly into the bedroom?’
‘There was only the bathroom or kitchen, as alternatives.’
‘When you assembled your men on Verdandskovo you went at once to Gogolevskiy Boulevard?’
‘Yes.’ In his caution Panchenko’s stance broke, the man’s head going slightly to one side in his effort to anticipate a new direction.
‘Without any outside reconnaissance of the block? Obtaining plans, even?’ Like I did, Malik thought.
‘There was no outside reconnaissance,’ conceded the security man.
‘There might have been a fire escape from the unseen bathroom into which Agayans could easily have gone!’ said Malik. ‘A fire escape down which he could have fled. Is it normal for you, as an arresting officer, to allow a detainee to go out of sight?’
‘No,’ said Panchenko, tightly again.
‘Desperate enough, he could have returned instead to shoot all of you rather than shooting himself, couldn’t he?’
‘I walked with him to the beginning of the corridor,’ blurted Panchenko.
‘That isn’t in your report,’ challenged Malik at once. ‘You said: “I – and my squad – remained in the living room”.’
‘I… we… did. I went with him to the commencement of the corridor: he went from there by himself.’
‘Why walk to the beginning of the corridor and then stop?’ demanded Malik. He shifted, trying to alleviate the shoulder ache.
‘He said he wanted privacy to get dressed.’
‘A detainee giving an order to the arresting head of security of the First Chief Directorate!’ said Malik, allowing the incredulity.
‘A mistake,’ admitted Panchenko, collapsing further.
‘Twice you’ve told me there was no further conversation after Agayans asked to dress,’ reminded Malik. ‘That was a lie, wasn’t it?’
‘It was not a lie,’ tried Panchenko desperately. Sweat was visibly leaking from the man now.
‘But you said nothing about the request for privacy.’
‘It did not seem important.’
‘Not important!’ exclaimed Malik, incredulous again. ‘It allowed the most vital witness in an ongoing inquiry to kill himself! They were probably the most important words he spoke!’
‘Probably,’ mumbled Panchenko, his voice difficult to hear.
‘Isn’t it regulations, having once taken a person into custody, that that person shall remain at all times under observation, until placed in a cell?’ persisted Malik relentlessly.
‘At that precise moment I did not consider I had taken Comrade Director Agayans into custody,’ avoided
