‘You don’t think he was lying?’
‘Why should he admit to something as terrible as that?’
‘Apart from making you feel better about yourself? Well, it gives Ramon a certain mystique … something that was totally lacking in his personality.’
‘All I can say was that you didn’t hear him say those words. You didn’t see what it cost him.’
‘All right,’ said Falcon. ‘It’s true. That was forty years ago …’
‘You went back that far when you were investigating Raul’s murder,’ she said. ‘You said it was background. Here’s some more background.’
‘The problem now is that my superiors and I need some foreground,’ said Falcon. ‘I can’t even show that your husband and Ramon were in Tangier together. Not even that tenuous link exists.’
‘Raul introduced Ramon to your father. He gave him a letter of introduction to take with him to Tangier.’
‘What happened between Raul and my father?’ asked Falcon, momentarily fascinated by the digression. ‘As far as I know once they arrived in Seville they never saw each other.’
‘I don’t know. He never spoke about it. I asked and he ignored me.’
‘All right,’ said Falcon, getting back on track. ‘Tell me about the present-day relationship between Ramon and your husband.’
‘What relationship was that?’
‘Ramon introduced you to Raul, didn’t he?’
‘Twelve years ago is present day to you,’ she said. ‘When does history start?’
‘What about Expo ‘92? The names I gave you were linked by …’
‘That’s only nine years ago. You’re becoming more modern, Inspector Jefe.’
‘If you were abused as a child, how long do you think that would stay with you?’
A silence, so deep and prolonged that Falcon had to ask if she was still there.
‘What names are linked and what do they have to do with abusing children?’ she said, angry now.
‘That is part of a police inquiry and will have to remain confidential,’ he said. ‘But you know one name … Eduardo Carvajal.’
‘If you are saying that either my husband or Ramon had anything to do with a paedophile ring you will have me and my lawyers to answer to.’
‘Keep reading the newspapers,’ he said, and she slammed the phone down on him.
In seconds his mobile was ringing. He still hadn’t moved from the phone since he’d come back from the ATM. The whole world was converging on him.
‘Where are you?’ asked Comisario Lobo.
‘I haven’t been able to get out of the house,’ said Falcon. ‘I’ve been taking one call after another.’
‘Good,’ said Lobo. ‘I’ll be in one of those cafes inside the Plaza de Armas at the end nearest the Avenida del Cristo de la Expiracion. Fifteen minutes.’
Lobo had never met him outside the office before, and what a place to meet. This could only mean that whatever was up for discussion was too sensitive for the all-hearing concrete walls of the Jefatura.
Falcon reached the patio just as the fixed-line phone rang again. He went back, snatched the receiver to his ear. Silence.
‘What do you think of Ramon Salgado now, Tio Javier?’
‘Hola, Sergio,’ he said, the only thing that broke through the adrenalin burst.
‘Don’t call me that.’
‘Then don’t call me uncle,’ said Javier.
‘You didn’t answer my question about your old friend’s Hieronymous Bosch collection … the perfect place to keep them, wasn’t it?’
‘They were obscene, but, you know, we have laws in this country against child abuse and we have appropriate and severe punishment for offenders. You don’t have to …’
‘I see where you’re going now, Inspector Jefe. Raul’s liking for young girls and Ramon’s for tortured boys … very interesting.’
‘And Eduardo Carvajal.’
Silence.
‘Stop the killing, Sergio,’ said Falcon. ‘You don’t have to do this any more.’
‘I haven’t killed any one,’ he said. ‘I haven’t had to.’
‘How’s your thumb?’ asked Falcon, and the phone went dead.
He clenched the receiver to his head. He’d lost him. All the questions and strategies arrived in his head seconds late. He slammed the phone down and went to meet Lobo.
