‘Two sources. Your husband’s eldest son and my father’s journals.’
‘Your father and Raul knew each other?’
‘They were in business together for some years in Tangier.’
‘What business?’
‘I think it’s my turn to be coy with the facts now, Dona Consuelo,’ said Falcon.
‘Anyway … what you were saying … Raul’s attraction could have been quite innocent,’ she said. ‘It certainly wasn’t illegal.’
‘He was seeing the prostitute Eloisa Gomez who was not under-age but certainly looked it.’
‘He was married to me and had three children by me, too.’
‘Let’s not go back to being bellicose, Dona Consuelo. I only want to know why he felt the need to reward Edu- ardo Carvajal,’ said Falcon. ‘This is off the record and anything you say will not be construed as an admission of guilt. I want a pointer, that is all.’
‘I always tread carefully when everything that’s presented to me appears to be to my advantage.’
‘I’m sure, even here in Seville, you’ve maintained an ear well-tuned to the cracking of ice.’
‘That’s not much use to you if you’re already a long way from the river bank.’
‘Then tread carefully.’
She played with a new cigarette and the lighter.
‘You have a new theory,’ she said, pointing at him with the lighter.
‘I’m running an investigation. My job is to think creatively around insoluble problems. I never give up on old theories, but in the absence of breaks I have to examine new possibilities.’
‘I had no idea that police work could be so demanding.’
‘It depends on how you approach it.’
‘And
‘He never thought very highly of my decision to join the police force.’
‘Even post-Franco I imagine it was full of undesirables,’ she said. ‘What made you join?’
‘Romance.’
‘You fell in love with a policewoman?’
‘I fell in love with American movies. I was entranced by the idea of the individual struggle against the ranged forces of evil.’
‘Is that how it turned out?’
‘No. It’s much messier. Evil rarely does us the favour of being pure. And we in the front line are not always as good as we should be.’
‘You’re rekindling my admiration, Don Javier.’
The thought that he might ignite anything in her gave him a strange satisfaction. Lights flickered in those byways of the spine. She lit her cigarette, blew smoke over his head.
‘Eduardo Carvajal … ‘ he said, to remind her.
‘So you think my husband’s killer might be an abused boy taking his revenge?’ she said. ‘I don’t think so, Don Javier. He was never that way inclined …’
‘A paedophile ring is rarely just abusing one child. They are numerous and with different tastes. Perhaps he is an abused boy taking revenge on behalf of others.’
‘Do you think someone like that would kill the prostitute as well?’ she said. ‘Surely they would consider themselves fellow victims?’
‘According to Eloisa Gomez’s sister they had become intimate to the point that he had given her hope. If he then revealed that his relationship with her had been for the sake of expediency she could become a dangerous entity, someone who might at a later date find herself needing to cut a deal with the police, for instance. She would be too dangerous to leave out there.’
‘You’ve thought this out.’
‘I only pursue it because of the reward your husband gave to Carvajal.’
‘You know what you’re doing, Don Javier?’
‘No.’
‘You’re putting me to work.’
‘You don’t know why?’
‘I never met Sr Carvajal.’
‘That might indicate that there was no business relationship between your husband and Sr Carvajal,’ said Falcon. ‘Had there been, you would have known him, no?’
‘He wasn’t involved in the restaurant trade.’
