Mtrulumi, western Mktvartvelo
"This does not feel a very inspiring place", Merab told Sofiko. They had already spent five hours in Mtrulumi, and Merab seemed to have had enough already.
"It's not been a very productive journey, but c'mon", Sofiko replied, "this kind of place isn't really that when you grew up here.
"You come from somewhere nearby, isn't it?", Merab asked.
"That's right", Sofiko answered. "My hometown is about 80 kms from here. And this place must be five or six larger than that".
"I’d rather be a taxi driver in Azavrelia if I had to live here”, Merab added.
Sofiko just shrugged. “And how have you ended here?”, she scolded him.
“There are things that I obviously messed up”, Merab replied without much passion. “This must be the place”. He suddenly realized about a man smoking a cigarette, with two policemen at both of his sides.
“Ah”, the man said, “Detective Arsenidze, I suppose?”.
“That’s me”, Merab replied.
“Nice to meet you”, the man said. “I’m the mayor. I hope you don’t have a problem coming here. Was your journey pleasant?”.
“I see”, Merab answered. “Yes, mostly. No, it was easy to find this place...This is Sofiko, Sofiko Talakahadze”.
“A pleasure, Miss Talakahadze”, Mayor Ivanishvili said. “I’m afraid you had to come to our town for these unpleasant circumstances”.
“Don’t worry”, Sofiko coldly replied, “that’s our job, after all”.
“I suppose so”, the mayor said. “I hope your day was productive enough. If you need anything, let me know”.
“Thanks”, Merab replied. “But it’s not that we found much collaboration. People don’t seem keen to share anything”.
“It’s understandable, I guess”, the mayor replied. “The police commissioner told me the same. Let’s walk for a bit, if you don’t mind”, he had added pointing out to a path along the playground.
“Sure”, Merab replied. “Are such situations common?”.
“Oh, not at all”, the mayor answered. “There are always misunderstandings, of course. That’s usual in every place. But this a small and calm town, violence is rare here”.
“The church was built about ten years ago”, the mayor continued. “The land belonged to a Vanoran investor, who had been personally involved in the chemical plant in this province. After the factory closed, he sold his properties. Although I was not living here at the time, I believe that the move was surprising. Some families later moved here, they bought some abandoned farms nearby the old football stadium. They rarely participate in the community activities, as far as I know. Despite this, incidents are rare. About three years ago, there was an sad occurrence in which a Christian girl killed herself. A tragic but isolated incident”.
“Some of them describe other incidents”, Sofiko said, “such as graffiti on the church walls, or throwing stones against some of the houses in the past”.
“That may be true”, the mayor replied. “There is obviously an issue of both means and trust. In the last two decades, our town has lost about one third of its population. We have tried hard to revert that trend, but it hasn’t been easy. There has been an increase of criminal activity, particularly with some teenagers, who may cause some problems. We have limited financial means to deal with those problems. On the other hands, there is a problem with some families, as some parents reject to bring their children to the school, as they claim that the textbooks are anti-Christian and other reasons. We have been pushed by the governorate on this and other problems, but we can’t do as much as we would like to. In any case, I don’t think this incident was not caused by some troubled teens, whatever the motivations were”.
“I feel that’s right”, Merab said. “But we need to be sure. Was there any similar incident recently?”.
“Not that I’m aware”, the mayor insisted. "At the beginning, people were rather indifferent, I must say. In the last years however, tensions occassionally increased, particularly as some young people, particularly girls, joined the community. The neighbors weren't too happy about that. There were, of course, conflicts from both sides. There were a huge fuss two years ago, after some Christian children called "vampire" an assistant priestess who was on pilgrimage to a nearby shrine. I had to personally intervene to avoid any confrontation".
Merab erupted in a short but noisy laugh. "Those tiny demons!".
"However, while such rare conflicts have happened", the mayor insisted, "they rarely result in any violent incident. We take them very seriously...Anyway, I have to return to my duties, I’m afraid. But if you need anything more, you can call my office. I’ll help you in anything I can”.
“Understood”, Merab replied. “I’ll do so”.
“What do you think?”, Sofiko asked Merub after the mayor had left.
“Without valuable witnesses, there is not much we can do”.
“Are we leaving with empty hands?”, Sofiko asked.
Merab shrugged. “We are losing our time here. The governorate wanted to do something, and we did so. Look, I am not willing to spend a third day in this place. Let’s move, Otar must be waiting already”.
“Alright”, Sofiko said.
“Oh”, Otar said, “Detective! You are here”.
“So we are, indeed”, Merab replied. “So when will we receive the results?”.
“I’m not sure”, Otar replied. “The samples were sent to Tsnumi, there should be about in a week?”.
“You took them, what’s your opinion”, Merab insisted.
“Well, in appearance, the ingredients were quite simple, but there had some addictive that make the flame and the fires much more corrosive and adhesive. Whover prepared them, he knew what he was doing”.
“Any similar attacks in the past?”, Sofiko asked.
“Not that I know”, Otar answered. “But the person, or people, behind, probably had some particular formation or experience. That’s the reason it could cause that much damage on the main door and so quickly. Without the backdoor, it would have likely resulted in a more deadly result”.
“Maybe someone who had military formation?”, Sofiko asked again.
“Yes, that’s possible”, Otar replied. “Particularly, someone that received specific training. But it’s only a guess”.
“Sure, that only leaves half of the population out”, Merab replied.
“Not that much, I’d say…”, Otor replied. “But it wouldn’t enough in itself. Was the information about the tires useful?”.
“Not really”, Merab replied. “There are more than one hundred motorbikes like that in the area. Maybe your men can continue this search”.
“I guess so”, Otar replied. “You can ask the police commissioner. But it’s a very popular model around here”.
“What’s that smoke?”, Sofiko asked, as she saw a dark smoke coming from the other side of the town.
“Oh”, Otar, “there is nothing much there...Just the river. I guess they must be burning brushwood”.
“Well”, Merab said, “we rather go. We need to visit those houses nearby the petrol station before returning to the motel.
“Alright”, Otar replied, “Good luck! I’ll go back to the police station as well.
“Thanks!”, Sofiko said. “See you tomorrow”.
Meanwhile, the next morning in Ktsatskuri, capital city of the Unitary State of Mktvartvelo...
“We have arrived, sir”, the chauffeur said, as he parked his car in front of the embassy of Samantra.
The car had a more compact look that other government vehicles, being one model particularly used by Mktvartvelo’s Ministry of National Defense.
“Alright, call the embassy we are here”, Vazha Virsaladze replied. “I’ll wait outside”.