Nikita Rukhin

Nikita Ruhkin (Rus: ) was a the killer of diamond magnate Ilya Tretyakov in Fast Track to Murder (Case #16 of World Edition).

Profile
Nikita is a 59-year-old ticket inspector for the Trans-Siberian Railway. He has short grey hair and wears a blue jacket lined with fur and a cap. He also has a gray scarf with a badge of the Soviet Union's symbol. It is known that Nikita smokes cigarettes and eats pelmeni.

Role in Case(s)
Nikita became a suspect after he managed to identify the victim. He says the victim sometimes took the train for his diamond business, always in first class. When Carmen Martinez asked him if he noticed anything suspicious prior to the murder, he said he did see some suspicious littering outside the train after they stopped. This prompted the player to check outside to see if it was someone attempting to dispose of evidence.

Nikita was interrogated again regarding a death threat he sent to the victim. Though he tried to avoid answering, he eventually said he wanted nothing to do with him as he claimed it was men like him that ruined the USSR. He felt times were better during then, and was furious that there were now capitalists who are plundering national resources.

At the climax of the investigation, the evidence pointed to Nikita as Ilya's killer. As Carmen laid out the pieces of evidence she found against Nikita, the latter accidentally spilled that he should not have turned his back against Ilya, prompting him to confess to the murder. Nikita revealed his hatred of the victim, saying that diamonds should belong to the people rather than to oligarchs. He had also returned the diamonds, which he took from Ilya, to communist hands in China. Ilya found out and confronted Nikita, prompting the latter to knock him out and hang him. Nikita then stopped the train because it was his job to report railway incidents, and also to hide the evidence in the ice cave.

Rather than taking Nikita to the courthouse, Carmen video-called Judge Adaku and had the trial held by phone on the train. Nikita pleaded guilty for the murder, though he claimed his intentions were pure. The judge questioned him about how his actions were pure if blood was shed, and Nikita explained about how he was helping the Communist cause. Nikita also told the judge that in 1918, Lenin had told his citizens to hang “rich bloodsuckers”, inspiring the ticket inspector to do so when Ilya confronted him. The judge explained that his ideological zeal did not change the fact that he killed a man and was forced to do a video-linked trial, and so he sentenced Nikita to 25 years in prison.

Chief Ripley arrived in the train lounge to tell the player that the MGB, the agency Anya Ivanova worked for, had been watching Nikita because they believed that Nikita’s communist brothers were smuggling more than diamonds. However, when Carmen and the player interrogated Nikita again, the latter claimed that the communists wanted to build the USSR again. All he did for them was pick up packages at different stations along the rail line and drop them off at a different place. Nikita told the player that the last package he was supposed to take to Mongolia was in the cave, prompting them to go there.

Case Appearances

 * Fast Track to Murder (Case #16 of World Edition)