Original subtitles

Do you hear me?

Do you hear me?

How did you get here?

- I need to go home. - I'll take you.

I am totally fine.

Produced by Pronto Film

Idea by Artyom Litvinenko

Kirill Kyaro

Ivan Oganesyan

Nina Gogayeva, Marina Anikanova

Agne Grudite, Nikolay Chindyaykin

Make-up by Ludmilla Semashko

Wardrobe by Elena Rukavishnikova

Sound by Sergei Stepansku

Music by Nikita Moiseev

Casting by Alla Samoylenko

Artwork by Petr Vyzhikovski

Cinematography by Vladimir Zapriagalov

Director of Photography Graham R. Frake

Line Producer Sergey Lysyaniy, Tatyana Ditkovskaya

Producer Viktor Mirski

Screenplay by Artem Litvinenko Andrey Babik

Directed by Artem Litvinenko

THE SNIFFER

And still, what were you doing in the port?

I've got an exacerbation of allergic rhinitis,

and the doctor advised me to breathe river air.

That is, you were just walking around.

- Yes. - What about the convulsions?

An allergic reaction.

To ragweed pollen.

Clear.

What's with the finger? Have you cut yourself?

It's nothing serious.

Bless you!

Thank you.

This allergy, damn it.

Well, I have to go.

Already?

- I've got things to do. - Too bad.

- Hope you'll get better. - Thank you.

You're welcome. Bye!

See you!

- Get well soon! - Thanks.

The law enforcement refrains from commenting for now,

but the criminal's pattern is much too familiar.

Five years ago,

our city was shaken up by terrible murders.

It seems like the grim maniac

known as Professor is back.

The shocked passers-by don't want to leave,

they are waiting for explanations from the law enforcement.

How's your rhinitis? Won't it disturb the investigation?

Everything is fine.

- Will you mind if I work a bit? - Not at all.

Well?

The victim was killed two days ago, and not here.

First she was put to sleep with chloroform and then strangled.

They brought her here in a van.

Which brand?

Just kidding.

How did you find out that it was a van?

Hydro-silicic acid.

Class C automobile tires, produced in Europe.

They don't put those on regular cars.

- Produced in Europe? - As a rule,

they use technical carbon obtained by burning natural gas.

But European producers, to save their costs,

replaced technical carbon with hydro-silicic acid.

Now to the killer.

He wore a protective suit and did not leave any smells.

One more detail.

The victim's clothes were dry-cleaned not long before her death.

That's all.

Being a sniffer, what can you say? Have you managed to smell anything out?

Three years ago, six identical murders were committed.

In each case, the victim was a woman

who had been strangled and tied to the chair.

The murderer planted the chair

with the victim in busy places of the city.

He also applied

make-up on their faces used in a children's TV program

"Professor Positron's Academy".

It was on air in the 80s.

I remember it. Professor Positron and the Prism.

The first victim of the maniac was Yelena Orlovskaya,

the actress who had played Prism.

Orlovskaya's body was found by the backstage crew

in the theatre she had worked in.

The press immediately named the killer Professor.

What's with the actor who played Professor Positron?

He died eight years ago from a heart attack.

Also tied to the chair here.

According to the program's plot, Prism was disobedient

and misbehaved all the time, so Professor Positron

often punished her.

Once, he tied her to a chair.

Experts who were creating a psychological profile of the killer

believed that he was reproducing this scene.

Most probably, he was five or six

at the time the program was aired,

and the episode with punishment

became a traumatizing experience for him, with further fixation.

This means that now, the killer is about 40 years old.

The last murder, the sixth one, is the most remarkable.

A certain Lyudmila Mikheyeva was killed in her own apartment.

But the killer did not manage to finish applying make-up.

Mikheyeva's daughter, Polina, suddenly came back home.

She started shouting,

the killer attacked her and tried to strangle her,

Polina jumped from the fifth floor window

trying to save herself and the killer fled.

- And she died. - Strangely enough, no.

She was delivered to the emergency room with spinal fracture

and then disappeared in three days.

- What do you mean, disappeared? - She was kidnapped.

And the murders stopped immediately.

It's strange that the killer stopped killing then

and started now.

We need to find out what happened to this...

Polina Mikheyeva.

I don't know this.

They found the video at his place.

I have to kill him.

I've come about that fingerprint on the table's surface.

I digitized it.

- Any matches? - Not in our database.

Please compare it with these fingerprints.

Who do they belong to?

It's not important for now.

This looks like a quiet and cozy city park.

Nobody could imagine that another terrible murder...

would be committed here.

Let's do it once more, I've made an unnecessary pause.

Can we start?

This looks like a quiet and cozy city park.

Nobody could imagine...

Not more than half an hour has passed,

and our law enforcement is already here.

And I hope that now, we'll receive exhaustive answers to all questions.

Tell me, how long will the maniac keep killing innocent people?

Please, move away from the barrier.

Well, chasing the journalists

away from the barrier is for now the only thing

our law enforcement is capable of.

Film it. Film it.

She was killed at night, in a room with tiled floor.

She was brought here in a van.

Before death, her clothes were dry-cleaned in the same facilities

as the clothes of the previous victim.

So we have to look for the drycleaner.

- Plus the smell of benzyl benzoate. - What's that?

A medicine to remove lice and itch mites.

Used for sanitizing skin and hair.

Clothes from drycleaner's.

Sanitization.

The first victim still hasn't been identified.

Maybe all victims are linked to the same social protection center?

- There's one more thing. - What?

The killer's smell.

Weak and indistinct, but it is there.

A man, 35 to 40 years old. He dyes his hair.

That's all from me, I'll get going.

Here he is! The killer!

Where were you between 9 AM and 5 PM?

At work, in the cutting room.

I was working on a crime news program.

Can anybody confirm that?

The guard.

Did you have any contact with the body?

No.

I've got somewhat different information.

You know, I...

I am a professional journalist,

I've worked for 15 years, you have seen my programs for sure.

And it's for the first time in my career that I had this...

absurd and annoying incident.

When I was filming a lead to the report...

One more terrible murder in cold blood.

It might seem like your ordinary park in the morning, and nothing...

I stumbled and...

Did you film that?

...and I fell on...

on the body.

Terribly unprofessional.

Who can confirm that?

The camera technician.

He's got the video.

But I'm asking you not to show it to anybody.

If somebody finds out about it... that would be the end of my career.

Unfortunately,

the rehabilitation of patients with grave psychological traumas

is often an unpredictable process,

and it is hard to understand what's happening

with the patient's mind.

This means she won't recover soon.

Hardly in the nearest future.

Poor girl.

Please give these magazines to her.

If she is able to read them, of course.

They arrive here.

They leave their clothes for disinfection here,

then they take a shower, undergo sanitation,

and receive clean clothes at the exit.

If their clothes are much too worn out, we give them new clothing.

Where do these people spend the night?

Actually, it's forbidden to spend the night here.

But there are people who simply have nowhere to go.

And we let them stay here.

Did both victims spend the night at your place?

No, only Katya.

And Vera is not homeless, she's just lonely.

She came here and helped us.

Very kind and good-spirited.

- Are there any guards on night duty? - What do they have to guard here?

They need to be here.

Okay.

Wait a minute!

You're Tatyana Voskresenskaya's friend, right?

- Yes, what's the matter? - Let's move aside.

I don't want us to be seen together.

I really ask you to.

That's absurd.

Your friend was taking pills and feeling sick.

When she stopped taking them, she got better.

But the head doctor found it out and is now giving her forced injections.

Her condition is grave. She needs to be taken away from here.

Here are these pills. Save your friend.

She's in danger.

That's absurd.

Investigator!

Investigator!

You were here about Katya's and Vera's murders, right?

Well?

I don't know, maybe I'm making things up,

but on the day when Katya went missing, there was a van driving around here.

What kind of van?

I couldn't see the brand and the color. It was dark.

I wanted to come closer and look,

but it speeded right from that spot and disappeared.

Do you remember the license plate number?

No.

But it had C class tires.

So you didn't see either the license plate number

or the brand but made out the tires?

I didn't. I've got poor vision.

But very good hearing.

When I worked as a car mechanic,

I determined any breakdown by sound.

In your car, for example...

the hydraulic lifters are clattering.

- Maybe you could repair them, then? - No.

Here. Ulnar nerve palsy.

Occupational injury.

Damn it!

Yes, I remember this girl very well.

Extremely grave spinal fracture, spinal cord injury.

If the car roof hadn't absorbed the shock, then...

Tell me about the day she was kidnapped.

We hadn't had things like that before, that's for sure.

The whole shift on duty passed out, imagine that.

They were obviously put to sleep.

But when they came to their senses, several hours afterwards,

the door to the ward was ajar and Mikheyeva was missing.

No bed, lung ventilation equipment stolen,

X-rays and clinical record also disappeared.

As if there hadn't been such patient in our facility.

I've read this in the report, you tell me something I don't know.

When we were X-raying her spinal cord,

we found an external object in her stomach.

We conducted a gastroscopy and extracted it from there.

Turned out to be a finger.

- A finger? - A ring finger from a man's right hand.

She had obviously bitten it off

when she was struggling with the attacker.

Why didn't you tell the police about that?

Mikheyeva had acute renal failure,

we were fighting for her life all night long

and hardly managed to bring her back. Everyone simply forgot about the finger.

Then, when the girl was kidnapped, the finger also disappeared.

But it was already too late to report.

It looked like negligence on our part.

1:15 PM.

Mikheyeva was kidnapped together with lung ventilation equipment.

This means they weren't going to kill her.

She needed surgery, so she was probably transferred

to another traumatology department.

Possibly under a false name.

Mikheyeva's kidnapping was organized very well.

She knows something, so she's a very valuable witness.

- We have to find her. - Got it.

What's with the journalist's alibi?

On the nights of the murders, he was in the cutting room

of the broadcasting center.

This is confirmed by the guards at the desk.

And all of his fingers are intact.

We have to let the journalist go.

Speaking.

The fingerprints match.

Are you sure?

It's a 100 % match.

She came back to her office

and found that something weird was happening.

Some flasks were mixed up, and the others were missing.

So what?

Someone must have infiltrated her office.

Why do you think so?

She might have mixed it all up herself.

The most suspicious thing is that the blood sample of Barkov

who had shot himself was gone.

What's in it for me?

Or do you think I did that?

How could you even think that about me?

We've known each other for so many years.

Then why have you come?

Irina says

that you studied this Barkov's blood sample that's gone now.

Was there anything unusual there?

There was only hy-po-cla-min.

A medicine used to treat hypertension.

Nothing else.

I got it.

Is that all from you?

Then, with your permission, I'll go to bed.

I'll go make a round. Will you stay here?

Good night.

Good night, Yelena.

Lena!

Lena!

Lena!

A new day brings a new murder.

Now no one can feel safe.

Professor might be looking for his new victim at this very moment.

Who'll become this victim? You, you...

Or maybe me?

We shouldn't have let him go.

Well?

I can't say anything about the killer but I know where the murder took place.

In a room with tiled floor?

Yes. In a boiler house working on peat.

- Why a boiler house? - There is a smell of peat.

And of nylon slate added to fuel bricks.

It was a boiler house.

But this smell hadn't been there before.

No, it hadn't.

And now it's become colder, and the heating season has started.

Look for a boiler house working on peat.

And don't forget to put it under surveillance.

- Maksim! - Yes.

Organize 24-hour surveillance over the social protection center

and start checking boiler houses.

We are interested in the ones working on peat.

Got it.

He used to kill only women.

Viagra for women?

None of your business, sweetheart. Go make us coffee.

Yes, it's her.

She was transferred to us from some district hospital.

Here's her clinical record.

Ivanova Polina Ivanovna.

Ivanova?

Not Mikheyeva?

Ivanova.

A very difficult case.

I operated her twice, but to no avail.

She remained paralyzed from the neck down.

She could chew and swallow, but the rest...

But for her father...

Father?

Yes. He practically never left her.

He bandaged and fed her himself.

He nursed the girl, if I can say so.

Describe him, please.

Average height,

a regular-looking man. It was a long time ago.

Maybe some distinguishing feature in the way he spoke, or his gait?

No. Just your regular man.

- Goodbye. - Goodbye.

Did you see Ivanova after she had been discharged?

No. Her father took her away and that's all.

I'll take her clinical record with me, if you do not object.

Of course, you may.

And if you remember any details or something unusual,

please contact me.

Okay.

I'll see you off.

Wait!

Wait, I... I remembered.

I remembered.

When Ivanova was in our hospital, we celebrated

the 50th anniversary of our hospital.

I was preparing a photo album.

I was taking pictures of wards, patients with their parents,

all that.

So, once I was taking picture of our corridor,

and Ivanova's father got in the picture.

He came up to me without saying a word, grabbed my camera,

took out the film and spoiled it.

I was shocked.

I couldn't even say a word,

everything happened literally in a second.

Do you still have this album?

Unfortunately, we didn't make it.

We developed the films

but didn't have enough money to print the photos.

- Do you still have the films? - Yes.

- I've got them at home somewhere. - I'll need them.

Is it you? What happened?

So if I came, it means that something happened?

Purge regime activated.

Delicious.

This variety is called Da Hong Pao.

There are only six bushes of this tea in the world.

And all of them grow by Chang Shing monastery in China.

You don't say so.

When we met, you drank the most ordinary tea.

Do you remember?

Time flies.

Sometimes, I even regret that we broke up.

- Well... why this reaction? - Sorry.

You don't seriously think that... No, it was a joke.

Actually, I came for a reason. I need your advice.

My friend has mental problems,

and she buys some medicine from her doctor.

Without a prescription, for cash.

And lately, she has started feeling worse.

So she wants to know what kind of medicine is that,

but she's too shy to ask her doctor.

And you're a genius in these things. You know it all.

Well, maybe you could say what is this?

This is a familiar smell.

Where did you get this package from?

I don't know what you are talking about.

Wow.

Phenyl ethylamine.

A psychoactive substance causing altered mental states.

It provokes nervousness and hallucinations.

The doctor who gave this medicine to your friend is a criminal.

She needs to go to the police at once.

Yes.

Did you find it?

I'll be right there.

We were checking yet another boiler house,

and the guard noticed that there was a new lock on one of the doors.

Well, we broke off the lock and found...

You'll see for yourself now.

This way.

He killed his victims here.

He put them to sleep with chloroform and then strangled.

A protective suit.

That's why he didn't leave his smell on the victims.

He knew about me.

But now, I also know who he is.

He does the cutting work here.

CUTTING IN PROCESS, DO NOT DISTURB

Well...

Not more than half an hour has passed,

and our law enforcement is already here.

Our law enforcement is already here.

It's a recording.

He escaped through the window.

This is how he was creating an alibi.

He would escape the cutting room through the window,

kill the victim and then come back.

This is how simply he outsmarted the investigation.

Or, to be more precise, one of our employees expecting a raise,

which I already doubt he'll receive.

Why does he kill people? He's not a maniac.

He's Journalist of the Year.

He became a celebrity thanks to Professor.

And then it was all over.

Just two small articles.

He was forgotten,

so he decided to remind about himself using such cruel methods.

I always hated these deceitful journos.

They are ready to do anything to get in the picture.

Then why did he touch the body during his report?

Probably his smell leaked through a tear in the protective suit,

and to hide it, he staged this incident during filming.

And where do we look for him now?

I confess that I committed three murders,

two women and a man.

I wanted to become famous with the help of Professor,

but I'm not him, just a despicable imitator.

But they were just bums, nobody ever wanted them, just stinky bums!

Stop it. Stop it.

I behaved badly.

I behaved badly, I must be punished.

The profession of criminal journalist is hard and perilous.

We are always in the avant-garde fighting against the crime.

Unfortunately,

sometimes, it is impossible not to become a victim.

One of these victims is our talented and promising colleague

who has been killed by an insane maniac.

One more celebrity journalist.

Not anymore.

Looks like the real Professor came back.

I can't say anything, it's cat's smell everywhere!

Start.

During the repeated test of Barkov's blood,

I used the method of spectral analysis.

I managed to find an unknown substance.

Its chemical composition is close to phencyclidine.

What is that?

A preparation for intravenous anesthesia.

Synthesized in the US, in the 1950s.

But soon, it was recalled and prohibited for use.

Why?

Even in case of insignificant overdose, the preparation caused seizures,

psychomotor agitation, and muscle convulsions.

Now, it is synthesized only in surreptitious laboratories.

Drug dealers call it the "angel dust".

Angel dust?

Why does all this shit always receive such poetic names?

Phencyclidine blocks D4 receptors of prefrontal cerebral cortex.

It causes a feeling of euphoria, hallucinations, confused mental state,

alienation, and negativism.

A person can be subject to a suggestion

and given any information and orders.

Phencyclidine is considered the reason behind a series of strange suicides

among party officials after the disintegration of the USSR.

It is assumed that they received a suggestion

to keep some kind of information to themselves.

They must have known something.

Yes.

They must have known something.

I assumed that the substance found in Barkov's blood

is similar to phencyclidine in its operation.

I also checked the blood sample of Stepanov,

the mental hospital convoy.

It also has traces of this substance.

As I understand, they were injected this substance

and programmed for killing.

Possibly.

What was the trigger?

The trigger for action?

Directly before the murder,

each of them received a call from a hidden number.

The caller might have pronounced a code word,

which launched the action program.

And we never found the caller.

He arrived.

This is the father of Polina Mikheyeva, the last victim of Professor.

He kidnapped his daughter from an emergency room

and finished her treatment in another hospital under a false name.

After the completion of treatment,

he took off with her in an unknown direction.

And this is Salamatin,

commanding officer of unit 1354.

- The same person. - Very interesting.

Polina Mikheyeva's mother was not officially married,

so we have no new data about Salamatin.

Riddles all around.

One more thing.

We had the blood sample of guard Barkov stolen from our lab.

Do you know who did it?

Yes.

So it's you.

I waited for you to find everything out.

We have to talk.

I have nothing to discuss with you.

You'd better go with me.

Damn, he passed out! Faster!