The Night of Three Deaths

1970. In a small village in the Mordovian wilderness, three brutal murders were committed in one night. Each time, the killer seemed to relish his fantasy. He strangled and sawed apart an elderly pensioner, ambushed a young girl in the park and bludgeoned her with a stone, and drove a middle-aged woman to a monument at a mass grave, where she hanged herself with her own clothing. Investigator Anatoly Parshin realizes: the locals are not capable of such acts. It appears that a 'traveler' was at work. But what is the reason for such cruelty? For profit? It doesn't seem so: the criminal's loot was only fifteen rubles… The mystery unfolds when the detective accidentally discovers another well-concealed corpse…