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The Procuracy General in its examination of the case drew on material in the Algoritm file, and also on information from the investigation committee. It is highly likely that the police had recruited Gorin as an informer back in the 1990s. In return for his freedom, he was made to tell all he knew. By the time the Procuracy General's team began work in 2002, Gorin as a particularly well-informed source had become a key figure in the impending investigation. Could this have been the main motive behind his disappearance? Indeed, he knew a lot. In a region where people were being killed for far less, this was almost a death sentence.
There is a second and no less plausible for his supposed murder. The authorities had intervened in the mafia turf war in St Petersburg, and facts from the past began to emerge. Facts that could only have known to people trusted by the gang. In other words, someone was feeding information to the police, and the gang members began to hastily cover their tracks. Might they have recalled Gorin's contacts with the police?
All the leads given above, based on Gorin's role on Tambov's organised crime scene, are entirely plausible. Whichever is the correct one, his fate was sealed by the laws of the underworld. So why did Demidov, the investigating officer handling the case at the regional procuracy, not follow them up? On the basis of my own experience, I can only assume that had he done so he would now be a civilian. Or a corpse. It was fortunate for him that the case was made political by those above him. So fortunate, that he became a hero and a TV star.
It is my assertion that Pichugin was convicted in the Gorins' case because of the negligence of that Tambov investigating officer. His staff failed to carry out elementary procedures. For example, the simple measure of sealing off the crime scene (and we shall return to this later) could have removed all doubt. Instead, Aleksey was sentenced to a monstrous term in jail. There is plenty of evidence of a slovenly and incompetent investigation during the initial, non-political, stage.
Chapter 6
The preliminary investigation in detail
It's worth following the detectives' actions at the point where events dealt them the best hand. Izmaylov, the Gorins' eldest son, said during questioning that the leader of the masked gang made some calls from the Gorins' phone. In one of these conversations, Izmaylov sensed an ingratiating tone in the man's voice and supposed that he was talking to the unidentified person who was calling the shots. The conversation was also full of nicknames.
The defence asked if a check had been carried out on all landline calls made that night from the village of Raduzhnyy. There had been no checks at all! It would have been no problem to find out which numbers had been dialled from the Gorins' phone on the night of the crime.
The attacker asked the children where their parents were. He had an odd way of stressing some of his words. But no linguistic analysis was carried out to locate this particular dialect - although all the stories about Wild Boar, for example, note his distinctive mannerisms.
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