'Height, weight, frame?'
'Two guys about the same height, one eight-five to one ninety metres, who looked around the hundred-kilo mark. The third guy was very short and stocky. She said he was noticeably wide and muscular. Thick neck. She thought he might have been a bodybuilder. One of the taller guys was carrying a full bin liner. The other thing was that, although she couldn't see their features, she knew they weren't Spanish. Something to do with their head shape.'
'The description of that last guy is very interesting,' said Falcon. 'That squares with a witness description I've got to the double killing in Las Tres Mil.'
'We picked that up on the police radio.'
'Tell Ramirez that the two bodies in the drug dealer's apartment in Las Tres Mil are connected to what he's doing. Anibal Parrado is the instructing judge for both cases. We'll all meet within the Edificio de los Juzgados this evening, time to be arranged. What about those three businessmen's names I gave you to check out?'
'Juan Valverde is in Madrid right now and Antonio Ramos is in Barcelona, but where they're going to be is a different matter. Their personal assistants have been told not to give out that kind of information,' said Ferrera. 'So I lifted all their data from their ID files and sent it to a friend of mine in the Comisaria General de Informacion, who works in counter terrorism. They've got access to airlines, trains, private jets, and can find out if these people are moving around at all in the next few days… assuming they've made bookings. They'll check out the American consultant, Charles Taggart, too. I got his data from the visa office. I couldn't find out where he is at the moment. He's not directly employed by I4IT Europe. All I can say is that he wasn't in their office in Madrid, nor in Horizonte's Barcelona office.'
'I didn't really mean for you to go into that kind of detail,' said Falcon. 'We need to talk to those men face to face. I just didn't want to go to Madrid and find they were in Frankfurt.'
'I thought it was more sinister than that,' said Ferrera. 'Still, my friend will get all the information and you can use it against them if they start getting difficult. Inspector Ramirez wants a word.'
'Just to warn you, Javier,' said Ramirez, 'Comisario Elvira has been on the phone asking where you are. And I've just seen your friend and mine, the Jefe Superior Andres Lobo; after giving me one of those 'fuck off' salutes of his, he also wanted to know where you were.'
'Why don't they just call me?'
'In my experience, they never do that when they're going to give you a kicking,' said Ramirez. 'Upset anyone recently?'
'Have you heard of a guy called Alejandro Spinola?'
'That smarmy fucker.'
'So you've met him?'
Pause.
'No,' said Ramirez, as if that was obvious. 'I just know a smarmy fucker when I see one. And I know he works in the mayor's office and he's the Juez Decano's son… so I don't call him a tosser to his face.'
'He introduced Marisa to Esteban Calderon.'
'Aha!' said Ramirez, as if the whole case had fallen open into his lap. 'What the fuck does that mean?'
'We had a very interesting little fencing match,' said Falcon. 'He's a bit of a maestro. I'm beginning to think it might mean that the June 6th conspiracy is still alive and moving on another front, or that perhaps it was attempting to develop two spheres of influence – parliament and the mayor's office.'
'And they blew it with trying to control the regional politics so now they're trying to infiltrate the mayor's office?' said Ramirez. 'Don't you think you might be reading too much into very little, Javier?'
'I can smell something on Spinola,' said Falcon. 'That guy is an operator and he's ambitious. I get the impression that in his family circle Esteban Calderon has been held up as the paragon of intelligence and capability. And Alejandro has spent his life trying to prove himself equal. He didn't have the brains to become a lawyer, but he's got other qualities.'
'And he's used them to fuck up his cousin?'
'It wouldn't surprise me.'
'Hold on a sec,' said Ramirez. 'Cristina has just told me you've been given the summons. Elvira does want to see you, and it seems to be pressing.'
'And that in itself is a symptom,' said Falcon. 'The forces are gathering. Tell the Comisario I'll be there as soon as I can.' Consuelo sat in a T-shirt and pants, hair wet, face lit by the computer screen. She had been stupid and impetuous; now she was going to slow down, consider her next move more carefully than her first. She had written down the dialogue from the phone call, as best she could remember it, on the computer. She read it over, made adjustments each time her memory flung up another half-remembered phrase.
The work had a dampening effect on her hysteria. After her shower, she'd got dressed with the notion that she would call Javier, go straight out to meet him and confront him with the latest development. Only when she reached for the phone did she realize that this was what was expected of her. She'd stripped off, just in case the impetuosity struck again, and sat down to start doing some serious thinking.
She began by answering the kidnapper's question: Why had Dario been taken? Because they didn't like the intrusion of Javier's investigations. In kidnapping Dario they knew that she would call directly on Javier's position and experience in criminal investigations. Perhaps they had expected that Javier would not give her the reason behind Dario's kidnap and would become directly involved in trying to find the boy. This would divert Javier's attention from his investigation that so concerned them. But Javier had insisted on the Crimes Against Children squad being involved in the kidnapping, which meant that the Russians' application of indirect pressure had not had the desired effect. Now she was being used as their agent to draw Javier into Dario's predicament. They wanted her to use her considerable influence with Javier, who would be feeling profoundly guilty, to induce him to corrupt himself by stealing back their money and the disks from the Jefatura. Their strict condition, that there should be no involvement of other agencies and resources or it would result in harm to Dario, might mean they had informers in the Jefatura. If Javier was caught stealing evidence he would be immediately suspended from duty, and that would be a good result for the Russians.
This was the first logical chain of thought she'd managed since Dario had been snatched. It gave her strength, she felt her brain tightening around the problem.
So far I've done exactly what you expected me to do, she thought. You've sweated me for forty-eight hours until I was so desperate I'd do anything you asked. Now it's my turn to show you what sort of an opponent you've decided to take on. Comisarios Lobo and Elvira, Falcon's bosses. The odd couple. The Beast and the Accountant. The former, with his thin dark lips in a cumin complexion, looked as irritated as if he had sand in his teeth, while the latter restored even greater order to his already well-organized desk.
'What cases are you working on at the moment, Javier?' asked Elvira mildly, while Lobo stared on, leaning slightly forward as if it would take only the slightest provocation to make him violent.
'The murder of Marisa Moreno is my primary concern, as I believe it's linked to the two murders in Las Tres Mil.'
'You were seen recently in Madrid, where you spoke to Inspector Jefe Luis Zorrita about 'digging around' in Esteban Calderon's case,' said Elvira. 'Which, as you know, comes up for trial here in Seville at the end of the month.'
'What's all that about, Javier?' asked Lobo, unable to restrain himself any longer.
'Politeness.'
'Politeness?' said Lobo. 'What the fuck has politeness got to do with anything?'
'I was telling Inspector Jefe Zorrita that I was going to look at Marisa Moreno. I'd read the case notes and listened to the Calderon interview, and there were some anomalies which merited attention. I was informing him because it might have an impact on his case, which as you've just…'
'And after the meeting with Zorrita, where did you go?' asked Elvira. 'The driver of the patrol car said you 'hid' in the back seat.'
'I had some CNI business which I'm not able to discuss with you.'
'You are, and have been, under a great deal of strain,' said Elvira, wanting to move things along to the conclusion he already had in mind.
'We have an agreement with the CNI about your secondment to their duties,' said Lobo, who wanted to run this meeting without Elvira.
