stairs on my own.”
“Why don’t we just walk her to the hole? You could pop her there. Then all we’d have to do is pitch her in.”
“Noise,” she said. “Suppose she starts screaming?”
“Nobody’s gonna hear her. Not out there.”
“Never can tell.”
“There you go again,” he said. “The Queen of Caution.”
“That’s me. Did you pack?”
He stepped into his pants, then shook his head. “I’ve been digging.”
“Ever since I left?”
“Ground is hard as a rock.”
“I’ll pack for both of us then.”
He shook his head. “No,” he said, “you won’t. We don’t have to leave for the airport until seven. I’ll finish digging, you pop her, and then we’ll pack.”
“How come?”
“Because, I’m not going to take hardly anything, and you aren’t either. The days of me being your pack animal, lugging stuff you’re never gonna wear, are over. From here on in, every place we go, you can afford to buy new clothes.”
“Goody,” she said. “Paris, here we come.”
Chapter Forty
“Her name, ” Edson Campos said, “is Vitoria Pitanguy.”
“Vitoria Pitanguy?” Goncalves said. “The pharmacist?”
“She’s not a pharmacist. Her boss is the pharmacist. She just manages the place. Doctor Polo thinks the world of her. I’ve always thought she was a bitch.”
Goncalves smacked his forehead.
“What?” Silva said.
“When we were looking at that list you put up on the wall, studying the description? And it wouldn’t come to me? Well, it just did! She’s the one I was trying to remember. I met her in the pharmacy. She came in using this perfume that smelled like berries, berries and… something else.
“Bergamot,” Campos said.
Silva looked at him. “What?”
“Bergamot. That perfume I was talking about. Promesse. It smells like bergamot and berries. Vitoria drenches herself in it, calls it her signature scent.”
“She’s got a boyfriend,” Goncalves said. “The girl in her shop said she has a boyfriend.”
Edson nodded. “Samuel Arns, the locksmith. His shop is next door.”
“Damn,” Hector said.
Silva turned to his nephew. “I don’t believe this. You met her too? When you were talking to Arns?”
“She dropped by his shop when I was interviewing him. We weren’t introduced. But the perfume? I remember that.”
“How come you didn’t mention it before?” Arnaldo said.
“Why should I? Lots of women wear perfume. It wasn’t until Campos here mentioned bergamot that-”
“Wait a minute. You know what bergamot is?”
“Sure. It’s a citrus fruit, like an orange.”
“And you happen to know that because?”
“They use it to flavor tea. Earl Grey tea. Gilda drinks the stuff.”
Arnaldo might have said more, but Silva put a hand on his arm. “It’s all coming together,” he said. “Vitoria is Arns’s girlfriend, and Arns makes the keys for Juraci.” He turned to Hector. “Have you got the telephone number of his shop?”
Hector nodded and tapped the pocket over his notebook.
“And you, Haraldo,” Silva said. “Have you got one for the pharmacy where Vitoria works?”
“ Si, Senhor.”
“Call both places, make sure both of them are on the job.”
“And if they are?” Hector said.
Silva waved his hand vaguely. “Think of something that doesn’t make you sound like cops and hang up.”
Goncalves and Hector went out to where they could get better signals for their cell phones.
“She used me,” Edson said. “She used me to get information about carrier pigeons.”
“How long ago was this?”
Edson thought for a moment.
“Six months ago, maybe seven.”
“Tell me about it.”
“I was talking to one of her girls about my pigeons. She butted in. Next thing I know she’s asking me all sorts of questions. She even asked if she could come over and look at my birds.”
“And you agreed?”
“Sure.”
“You didn’t find this sudden interest of hers a bit strange?”
“Carrier pigeons are my hobby. I’m crazy about them. So, no, I didn’t find it strange at all. Not then.”
“But you did later?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Why?”
“Because, after her visit, and after all our talk, and after lending her three books on the subject, she just dropped it.”
“Dropped it?”
“One week she couldn’t talk to me enough about carrier pigeons. The next week, when I went into the pharmacy and asked her if she’d bought any birds, she told me she’d gone cold on the idea, that she was no longer interested.”
“All this was six months ago?”
“At least.”
“And four or five months would be sufficient to train pigeons?”
“Hatch them and train them,” Edson said. “No doubt.”
Hector walked in, shaking his head. “The telephone at Arns’s shop has been disconnected.”
Goncalves was next. He still had his phone in his hand. “Vitoria Pitanguy resigned,” he said. “As of yesterday, she no longer works at the pharmacy.”
“Uh oh,” Arnaldo said.
“Tell me, Senhor Campos,” Silva said, “do Arns and Pitanguy live together?”
“Yes.”
“Here in Granja Viana?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Just up the street.”
Chapter Forty-One
