Definitely Maybe Chapter 3 - The Investigation and the Disappearance

This is Part 4 of my chapter-by-chapter retelling of Definitely Maybe by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (ISBN 978-1-61219-282-6). Start from the introduction if you’re new to this series.

Morning After

So it’s morning now. Lidochka cleaned the kitchen before going back to bed. That’s a very Soviet-woman detail, by the way. Even as a mysterious guest in someone else’s apartment, she cleaned up. The Strugatskys knew their characters.

Malianov expects a knock from Snegovoi. That’s the routine. Snegovoi is leaving today, so he should come by to drop off his apartment keys like always.

But the knock comes from someone else entirely.

The Men in Sunglasses

Three men show up. They’re wearing sunglasses. In a Leningrad apartment hallway. If you grew up in the Soviet Union, three men in sunglasses at your door is not a pizza delivery. Your stomach drops.

One of them is a criminal investigator named Igor Zykov. He shows his credentials. Malianov immediately thinks of the phrase “Tonton Macoute” in his head. That’s a reference to the Haitian secret police under Duvalier. Brutal enforcers. The fact that a Soviet astrophysicist in the 1970s thinks of the Tonton Macoutes tells you something about how the Strugatskys saw their own system. They couldn’t write “KGB” directly, so they used a foreign reference that every Soviet reader would understand anyway.

And that’s a trick the Strugatsky brothers used a lot. Say the quiet part loud, but in a different language.

The Interrogation

Zykov starts questioning Malianov about Snegovoi. What does he know about his neighbor? When did he last see him? What did they talk about?

Then Zykov grabs Malianov’s notebook from the desk. He sees a graph and claims it matches crime statistics patterns. This is one of those Strugatsky moments that seems absurd but isn’t. An astrophysicist’s mathematical curves matching criminal behavior data? That’s actually not impossible. Patterns repeat across disciplines. But the way Zykov says it is unsettling. Almost unhinged. Like he’s connecting dots that shouldn’t connect but somehow do.

The investigator is weird. There are moments where he seems professional and sharp, and then moments where he seems to be reading from a script he doesn’t fully understand. Sound familiar? It should. Lidochka had the same vibe. People who are here for a purpose they can’t quite articulate.

The News

Then Zykov tells Malianov the truth.

Snegovoi is dead. Found that morning. Shot in the right temple with his own gun.

But here’s the problem. Snegovoi was left-handed.

Think about that. A left-handed man shoots himself in the right temple? That’s physically awkward. Unnatural. It’s the kind of detail that turns a suicide into a murder investigation.

He was holding the phone in one hand and the gun in the other. All the lights in the apartment were on. His suitcase was packed for tomorrow’s trip.

Everything about this scene screams that Snegovoi didn’t do this to himself. A man who packed his bag, turned on all his lights, picked up the phone, and then shot himself with the wrong hand? No. Something else happened in that apartment.

Remember from Chapter 2: Snegovoi said he was predicted to die at 83 in Greenland. And once a gun misfired when pointed at his head. So fate was protecting him. Until it wasn’t.

Malianov Is a Suspect

Zykov casually mentions fifteen years. That’s the prison sentence for murder in the Soviet Union.

And then, in a perfectly surreal Strugatsky moment, they sit down and drink cognac together. The investigator and his suspect, sharing the cognac from that mysterious delivery box. It’s absurd. It’s exactly how things sometimes worked in the Soviet system. Formality and chaos living side by side.

I’ve seen this in real life, by the way. Not murder investigations, but situations where the rules say one thing and everyone does another. That’s just how life worked in the USSR. The Strugatskys captured it perfectly.

Lidochka Is Gone

Malianov needs an alibi. Lidochka was with him all night. She can confirm he never left the apartment.

So they go to Bobchik’s room where she slept.

She’s gone.

Not just “went out for a walk” gone. Really gone. No suitcase. No jacket. No trace. Just the cat sitting next to a broken clay pitcher on the floor.

Think about the logistics. This is a Soviet apartment. Small. One entrance. How does someone leave with a suitcase without making any noise? Without Malianov hearing the door? Without the three investigators in the hallway seeing her?

She didn’t leave through the door. She just… wasn’t there anymore.

And now Malianov has no alibi. His neighbor is dead. An investigator is hinting at fifteen years. And his only witness dissolved like smoke.

The Sealed Door

The chapter ends with Malianov standing in front of Snegovoi’s apartment. The door is sealed with wax. That’s how the Soviet police marked a crime scene. A wax seal on the door.

It’s real. Snegovoi is really dead. The prediction about dying at 83 in Greenland was wrong. Or maybe the prediction was never meant to comfort him. Maybe it was just another distraction, like the food delivery, like the wrong phone calls, like Lidochka herself.

Then someone else arrives at the door. A cliffhanger.

My Take

Chapter 3 is where the book stops being creepy and starts being scary.

In Chapters 1 and 2, the strange events were annoying but harmless. Wrong numbers. Free booze. A pretty visitor. You could explain each one away.

But a dead neighbor with a gun in the wrong hand? That you can’t explain away.

The Strugatsky brothers are tightening the noose. Malianov was being distracted from his work. Snegovoi, who seemed to understand what was happening, is now dead. The one person who could vouch for Malianov’s innocence has vanished into thin air. And a possibly unhinged investigator is sitting in his kitchen drinking his cognac.

Whatever force is preventing scientists from making breakthroughs, it’s not just sending temptations anymore. It’s killing people.

And that’s the moment you realize this isn’t just a quirky Soviet sci-fi story. This is a horror novel wearing a science fiction suit.

Previous: Chapter 2 - Wine, Neighbors, and Warnings Next: Chapter 4 - Coffee with Vecherovsky

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