Something is always left hanging. The other day you said there are no files relating to your husband’s presidency over the Building Committee for Expo ‘92. Yesterday you said to Inspector Ramirez that he can only look at the packing cases with the home movies in it and no other. You threaten him —’
‘Well, now you reveal something else to me. The Jefatura is as fallible to the culture of deviousness as the outside world,’ she said, delighted. ‘You can look into any of those packing cases you like. They are ancient history to me. They don’t relate to my life with Raul at all. He’s something of a bull, that Inspector Ramirez.’
‘So that is all you’re doing, is it?’ said Falcon. ‘Protecting your privacy.’
‘Why should I let you intrude into areas which don’t concern your investigation?’
‘How do you know they don’t?’
‘Because I didn’t kill my husband and I didn’t have him killed.’
‘Your reticence forces us to intrude.’
‘Tell me what you’ve got, Inspector Jefe, I can’t bear the suspense any longer.’
‘I’d like to know what Marta Jimenez knows about the structure and design of high-traffic buildings in relation to security.’
She blinked, crushed her cigarette out.
‘I’d like to know the nature of your husband’s relationship with Eduardo Carvajal.’
She lit another cigarette.
‘I’d be interested to know about any other business arrangements you might have with … what was his name? One of Raul’s old Tangier friends …’
‘Don’t play with me, Inspector Jefe.’
‘Ramon Salgado.’
She swallowed, resumed smoking. The sound of sizzling nylon reached him as she sawed her legs together.
‘I’m not discussing any of this without my lawyer present,’ she said.
‘That doesn’t surprise me.’
‘But I will tell you one thing: this line of inquiry will not solve your murder case.’
‘How can you be so sure?’ he said. ‘You always speak as if you know things. You must have realized that it is this reticence which is breeding the ruthlessness down at the Jefatura.’
‘I am protecting
‘Did you know Ramon Salgado before you came to Seville?’ he asked.
Silence.
‘From the Madrid art world?’ he added.
More silence.
‘Did Ramon Salgado introduce you to Raul Jimenez?’
‘You’re like a bad surgeon, Inspector Jefe. You open people up and poke around looking for something diseased to cut out. What worries me is that you might cut out something perfectly good just to show that you’ve done some work.’
‘Co-operate, Dona Consuelo, that’s all I ask.’
‘I have co-operated with you in the investigation into my husband’s murder. You only encounter reticence when you stray into areas which should not concern a homicide detective.’
‘Would you co-operate with someone sent down from Madrid? One of those investigators with special powers and an expertise in corruption and fraud?’
‘Threats have a habit of putting people on the offensive.’
‘We have become bellicose, haven’t we?’
‘I know who started it,’ she said, stubbing out her cigarette.
They looked at each other through the drifting battle smoke.
‘You’re a perceptive woman,’ he said. ‘You know where my interests lie. I have a limited interest in embezzlement and fraud. I understand that businessmen have favours to repay. They have to show their appreciation to friends, pay an advance on the right words in the right ears or reward silence. That it can be done with public money is understandably expedient. Only the State has such depths to its coffers.’
‘I’m glad you’ve rediscovered your urbanity,’ she said.
‘I can understand your husband’s relationship with all these people … except one,’ said Falcon. ‘Eduardo Carvajal. And I am not in a position to ask him anything as he is no longer with us.’
‘I think he died in a car crash.’
‘A few years ago,’ said Falcon. ‘He was part of a paedophile ring, who were all subsequently convicted.’
‘I pity you, Inspector Jefe,’ she said. ‘You have to spend your time in the darkest, coldest places on earth.’
‘Your husband fell in love with his first wife when she was barely thirteen years old.’
‘How do you know that?’
