being ruthless. She seems to have been rather disgusted by her husband’s sexual interests and his business infidelity. She has not done enough to make me believe that she couldn’t possibly have hired someone to carry out this gruesome business. And, if she did hire him, and he has now killed his accomplice, it may be that she has made a poor choice, because he seems to be off the leash.’
‘Do you think we should attempt to communicate with him?’ asked Falcon.
‘And what are we going to say to this
‘Let’s profile him … now,’ said Calderon.
‘I’ve already said he’s bold and playful,’ said Falcon. ‘I’d like to add creative. He’s into film, the idea of the eye, sight and vision. He’s interested in the way we look at things. How clearly we do or don’t see them — the sight lesson.’
‘There’s going to be more of those,’ said Calderon.
‘He’s also interested in the way we present ourselves to the world and how at odds this is with our secret lives and possibly our secret history.’
‘He does his research,’ said Ramirez, ‘filming the Familia Jimenez, discovering the change in the move at Mudanzas Triana.’
‘He must have charm, maybe good looks and an understanding of the unfortunates of this world if he’s capable of persuading Eloisa Gomez to be an accomplice,’ said Falcon. ‘A woman like her really doesn’t need visits from the police and she must have known she was going to get them, even if he told her he was just going to steal a few things.’
‘What does he do?’ asked Calderon. ‘There’s money coming from somewhere. He has access to camera, video and computer equipment.’
‘He went to Madrid to post the pornographic movie,’ said Ramirez. ‘He wouldn’t leave that in the hands of just anybody. He has time.’
‘Anybody who’s obsessed has time,’ said Falcon. ‘He could be working in the film industry, that would give him access to the equipment and if he was working freelance he’d have the time and the money.’
‘The Medico Forense said he showed some surgical skills.’
‘All sorts of people are good with their hands,’ said Calderon. ‘You said he’s obsessed, Inspector Jefe.’
‘The second time he called me he left me in no doubt that he had a story to tell and that he was going to tell it in his way. There was anger and perhaps bitterness.’
‘So we could unsettle him by interfering,’ said Calderon. ‘We might force a mistake by making him angrier.’
‘You know what creative people hate more than anything else?’ said Falcon. ‘Criticism from people that they think are unworthy to judge. Believe me, I know — I’ve seen my father’s rage.’
‘But his work,’ said Ramirez, ‘this work … what can you say about it?’
‘We could talk to him about his mistakes,’ said Falcon. Tell him about the chloroform rag, the sighting in the cemetery. How unprofessional he’s been.’
Calderon nodded. Falcon took out his mobile with clammy hands. There were two messages. The first was a text message, which he instinctively played because he was rarely sent them.
‘He’s beaten us to it,’ he said, and handed Calderon the mobile.
The text message was a riddle in the form of a poem.
The lover is blind, her fire burns no more. Never again will she open her eyes nor speak to madmen. Her shoulders lie in peace where the shadows move. Now she sleeps in darkness with her faithful lover of celebrity.
‘You can tell him his poetry is shit, that should annoy him,’ said Calderon, handing back the mobile.
‘He’s killed her,’ said Falcon. ‘And he’s telling us that he’s put the body in the Jimenez mausoleum in the San Fernando Cemetery.’
‘Call him,’ said Calderon. ‘Tell him.’
Falcon pulled up Eloisa Gomez’s number from the mobile memory and punched it in. No reply. The three men left the building, got into Falcon’s car and drove along the river to the cemetery. They ran up the cypress-lined avenue to Jesus de la Pasion, Falcon trying Eloisa Gomez’s number all the way. As they neared the Jimenez mausoleum they heard a mobile ringing from inside. Falcon terminated the call and the ringing stopped.
The mausoleum door opened to a push. The stench indicated that putrefaction had already started. Eloisa Gomez was lying on her back on the shelf underneath Raul Jimenez’s coffin. Her mobile was on her stomach and tucked underneath it was an envelope on which was written: Sight Lesson No.2. Her skirt was rucked up, revealing black underwear and a suspender belt to which only one stocking top was attached. The other leg was bare.
Her head lay in darkness at the back of the small mausoleum. Falcon took out a pen torch and played it over
