‘How’s your leg?’ asked Falcon.
‘The leg is good,’ said Paco. ‘Any news yet?’
‘Not yet.’
‘Look, another thing,’ said Paco. ‘There’s going to be eight of us now on Sunday.’
Silence.
‘You’ve forgotten, haven’t you?’
‘I’ve had my hands full,’ said Falcon. ‘You remember Ramon Salgado, Papa’s dealer? He was murdered yesterday morning. I’ve got that and two other killings, so I haven’t been …’
‘Somebody
‘That’s right. His funeral’s this afternoon.’
‘I can’t think why anybody would go to the bother.’
‘Well, somebody did.’
‘Anyway … there’s eight of us for Sunday.’
‘Remind me.’
‘We’re coming to your house for Sunday lunch, we’re all staying the night, we’re going for lunch the following day down by the river and then the bullfight, followed by dinner out. We’ll come back here to the finca on Tuesday morning.’
‘I’d forgotten.’
‘You’d better call Encarnacion.’
He hung up and called Encarnacion, who said she’d prepare the rooms but wouldn’t be able to cook on Sunday, but she had a niece who would. She told him to leave some money out and she’d buy all the food later that morning. He went to the ATM on Calle Alfonso XII and took out 30,000 pesetas. The phone was ringing when he got back at nine. It was Pepe Leal saying he’d been given Pedrito de Portugal’s slot. Falcon offered him a bed, but he preferred to stay with his team in the Hotel Colon.
‘I’ll come over on Sunday night,’ he said. ‘We can have a talk. You can prepare me for Monday, steady my nerves.’
Falcon told him about Paco’s famous retinto bull and he sensed the boy’s excitement that everything was finally coming together for him.
By 9.30 a.m. Falcon was calling Felipe, the forensic, to see if he’d come up with anything. No prints had been left in Salgado’s house. They were working through the blood samples now, but so far it all belonged to Salgado. Falcon called the Medico Forense wondering what had happened to the autopsy report. The Medico Forense hadn’t written his report because they were waiting for some blood-test results to come back from the lab.
‘When I got the victim up on the slab I noticed that he had three contusions around his right eye,’ he said. ‘All the other contusions were at the back and side of his head, these were the only three on the front. They were also different. They had not been made by something hard and sharp but by something blunt and comparatively soft, like a fist. The killer had punched him three times in the face and I wondered why he would do that. The way the marks lay on the face I could see that he’d hit him with his left hand, but I know the killer is right-handed.’
‘How?’
‘If you’re going to remove somebody’s eyelids who’s already secured to a chair you would stand behind them and tilt the head backwards. The initial incision with the scalpel on the victim’s left eye was made from left to right and the same with the right eye.’
‘So why do you think he hit him with his left hand?’
‘Because his right hand was occupied.’
‘In what way?’
‘It was stuck in the victim’s mouth. He was biting him.’
‘Can you prove that?’
‘After he chloroformed him to perform his operation he removed the socks from his mouth so that the victim wouldn’t choke while he was unconscious. As the victim came round he stuffed the socks back in, but he either wasn’t quick enough or there was a reflex action by the victim.’
‘But how do you know all this?’
‘I found blood that was not his own in his mouth and soaked into the socks. The victim is O+ and this blood is AB+. I’ve just given instructions for a DNA test to be done.’
He hung up and his mobile started ringing. It was Felipe with confirmation that one of the blood spatters was AB+ blood. The position of the spatter mark was 1.20 metres from the front chair leg in the direction of the doorway. As he spoke, the fixed line started to ring. This time it was Consuelo Jimenez.
‘How did you get this number?’
‘I called the Jefatura and they said you weren’t in yet.’
‘They don’t give out this number and you already have my mobile.’
‘I’ve had this number for years. Ramon gave it to me as a favour,’ she said. ‘Your father and I used to speak occasionally.’
‘Have you got something for me on Sr Carvajal?’
‘I read in the newspaper that Ramon Salgado has been murdered by the same killer as my husband. You didn’t
