"Within just two days, the city was swept by a nigh full-fledged war, which alerted the whole country. So much violence, death, and murder in such a short span of time. And we still don't know what happened exactly. Every explanation about the incident is based solely on assumptions, built on certain facts and clues. Unfortunately, no one can tell us anything, and those who are informed will never disclose it."

"And what's your interpretation? The main one that you adhere to?"

"Mine?"

"Yes. You must favor one explanation over others, right?"

"I don't favor; I choose the appropriate one based on experience and evidence," the detective corrected her, then sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I stick to the official version."

"Probably a strange question, but why?"

"First, we discovered the bodies of Matvey and Mari Lumenko. The case unraveled from there. It was in their apartment that we found a photograph that helped us track down the rest of the gang members and link them together. Almost all of them were identified immediately. Matvey Lumenko himself, known in criminal circles as Malu, a gofer of Pierre Flusie, known as Arrow. Then Inna Syuniurye, eighteen years old, Alexander Bortsov, seventeen years old, and Nurdauleth Lapier. At that point, we were just hypothesizing their connection."

"Then the shooting of Nurdauleth Lapier's house by unknown assailants has been reported. And there was also an explosion in an apartment building, where two underlings of a Hassa soldier were killed. Literally, the day after the bodies of Matvey and Mari Lumenko were found, there was an attack on the Hassa clan people, and Pierre Flusie was killed. And finally came a report of the disappearance of Alexander Bortsov, a student of the thirteenth school of the eleventh class 'B,' one of those pictured in the photograph. And all these events coincided with the bank robbery. This served as a reason to believe that they were all connected. After the arrest of a bartender from the Hassa soldier's bar who agreed to testify in exchange for witness protection, we were able to construct an overall picture of what happened."

"As I've already said, it all started with a feud between Matvey Lumenko and Pierre Flusie over photographs from Dubov's house. After this, Flusie bore a grudge against Lumenko. We still don't know why Flusie wanted to rob the bank of the Kun-Suran House, but according to available data, no one from the Hassa clan gave their permission, and it was entirely his initiative. Therefore, he hired those he considered the most promising for the job. Presumably, the first robbery, in which all four participated, was a kind of warm-up before the upcoming job. A peculiar test of abilities - to see what the teenagers were capable of. After this, the bank was robbed. We still couldn't find out what they took from there besides money, but it seriously alarmed the Kun-Suran House. What follows are only assumptions based on the known data, but you can find them in public sources."

"By the end, we had five bodies on our hands: twenty-three-year-old Cohen Bird, fifty-two-year-old Alberto Ricci - both shot, in the temple and back of the head. Alexander Bortsov had been beaten and disfigured, then also shot. We found them a month after the incident - homeless people looking for scrap metal discovered them in the basement of an abandoned factory. Matvey and Mari Lumenko were found in their apartment. Inna Syuniurye, like Nurdauleth Lapier, are wanted, with Lapier also being considered missing."

After his monologue, the detective sighed, reached off-frame, and pulled out a half-liter water bottle. He took a sip, placed it back, and seemed lost in thought. He remained silent for a few seconds before he continued.

"This is a damn mess of a story. The kind that makes you want to wash your eyes out with soap or just forget altogether. You know what's the worst part about it?"

"What is it?"

"Teenagers. Looking at this, I start to understand just how rotten the world is, how low people can sink into despair, and how far they can go. Beyond their principles, their faith. Beyond basic humanity. As far as we know, Alexander Bortsov was dating Mari Lumenko. She was blind. From what I could find on Alexander and Mari, I assume he was raising money for her surgery, just like her brother was. Inna Syuniurye had a child. She gave birth to her daughter at fourteen. According to hospital records, the kid had rudiments. Maybe she was raising money for her treatment, or maybe she wanted to hide because her child was taken away by the social services due to improper upbringing and living conditions."

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"What about Nurdauleth Lapier? What, in your opinion, did he need the money for?"

"His sister was ill. She had attacks due to impulse, and at that stage, only surgical intervention could help," he sighed, leaning back in his chair. "They were all... as harsh as it sounds, just victims. They were used. Their youth, their ideals and desires, this eternal confidence of the young that they can make things work, and so on. And then they were discarded, like useless trash, as is often the fate of such gangs."

"Do you feel sorry for them?"

"Sorry? I don't even know what to call it... I've seen a lot of people, and believe me, sometimes you look and think: what the hell... How did you end up like this? One killed a girl's father to protect her from beatings. Another slit the throat of the mother's suitor, who raped her. Someone else committed a robbery to feed himself because they wouldn't hire him after prison. You look at this and understand that they broke the law, but you feel sorry for them because you understand their motives. Here, too, everyone, if you forget what they did, had really good intentions in their own way. Help a girlfriend and a sister regain sight. Save a sister. Find happiness with your child, where you won't be persecuted. Young and foolish, eternally chasing a dream."

"Do you know what happened to the girl?"

"No. No leads. She never showed up anywhere again. I suppose Inna Syuniurye left the country. We were informed that the girl who lived in that apartment had a child, possibly the one she gave birth to and who disappeared from the orphanage. But we only found out about that after everything had happened. She probably hid so that no one could take the child away or hold her accountable. I feel sorry for this girl, honestly. There's very little information on her, just like the rest of the group, but even based on what we have, it's safe to say she didn't have a happy childhood. An unwanted child who got pregnant at a young age. Moreover, rumors circulated that she was caught crossing the border by the house people and killed."

"I see..." The interviewer's voice indicated that she was somewhat taken aback by this turn of events. "What about Lapier?"

"He's listed as missing, but I believe he's no longer alive."

"Why?"

"When I interrogated his father, who ironically served in the police at the time, he couldn't provide any specific details about his son or what he knew. We are certain they had a call, but we don't know what the conversation was about exactly. The surprising thing was that after the incident, the Kun-Suran House unexpectedly paid for his daughter's surgery and even took the family under protection. An unprecedented act of kindness from the house. And Nurdauleth Lapier himself disappeared. This isn't part of the official narrative, but I'm practically one hundred percent sure that his father turned him over to the house."

"That's terrible..." the interviewer murmured.

"I don't know who had it worse at that moment. The son who was betrayed, or the father who was forced to sacrifice one child to save the rest of the family. It became apparent that Nurdauleth was involved in the robbery right after his home was attacked. Such events don't coincide for no reason. The house also knew how to put the facts together; they're not fools. They had connections in the police, everywhere possible. A regular policeman against a house - you don't have to be a brilliant detective to understand that this game is a losing one for the former. So, he had to choose what to do next. And Yerofey Lapier made that choice."

"What can you tell us about Nurdauleth Lapier himself?"

"He was the strangest one in the whole group. No predispositions to crime. Father - a police officer, mother - a teacher. Two loving twin sisters. And then... this. I have to admit, he was pretty smart, managing to pull off the bank robbery and emerge from the fight with a clan soldier and his men as the undisputed winner. It's just unfortunate that he channeled all his extraordinary abilities in such a way. They say some people have a predisposition for it - some won't go down that path even under the threat of death, while others will and succeed."

The brief silence hung once again, which was first broken by the host.

"Do you know what happened to the Lapier family?"

"I know that Yerofey Lapier left the police force after what happened. He and his wife and daughters moved away from Khanksk, and they seem to be living happily now. His daughter, Nataliel, had surgery, but she's now paralyzed from the waist down. However, that doesn't stop them from moving on, and, as far as I know, they live more or less happily. I can only hope that their family will never have to go through something like this again and they will forget this as a horrible nightmare, but... such things are not forgotten. All that's left is to live with it. The punishment for the living is to remember the dead."