'If you do, I don't know what it is.'
'The essential element is that your work for them must not have a deleterious effect on your duties as the Inspector Jefe del Grupo de Homicidios,' said Elvira. 'If it does, then we have to decide where your resource would be better concentrated, so that you can be relieved of some of that pressure.'
'The CNI have made inquiries as to the work stress you're under here,' said Lobo.
'Have they? You mean Pablo has spoken to you?'
'Higher than Pablo,' said Lobo.
'As your commanding officer,' said Elvira, 'I am in possession of your career records, where it is clearly documented that you suffered a serious nervous breakdown in April 2001 and did not return to full duties until the summer of 2002.'
'Which was four years ago and I think you'll agree that, not only were the circumstances extremely unusual, but also that I've made a full recovery to the point of successfully conducting one of the most complex and demanding investigations in the history of the Seville Jefatura, that of the Seville bombing three months ago,' said Falcon. 'And, I might add, at the same time I made some very delicate interventions for the CNI, which resulted in the prevention of a major terrorist attack in London.'
'We also understand that your partner, Consuelo Jimenez, has seen her youngest child kidnapped two days ago,' said Elvira.
'Which reminds me: you can take the police guard off my house in Calle Bailen. I don't need protection,' said Falcon.
'It was a temporary measure,' said Elvira.
'Don't tell me, Javier, that all this isn't enough stress for even such a man as yourself to bear,' said Lobo. 'We all know the promise you made to the people of Seville on TV last June and, whilst we don't know the ins and outs of the CNI work, they have made inquiries to us about your mental reliability. Added to that, three murders for your department to investigate and the kidnapping of Dario Jimenez…'
'And what if I tell you that it's all connected?' said Falcon.
'The intelligence work as well?' asked Elvira.
'That is an inevitable development from the situation that occurred back in June,' said Falcon. 'Pressure is being applied in the most inventive way possible to get someone to do what is against their nature. I am responsible for that person being in that position. I cannot desert him.'
'But what has it got to do with what is happening here in Seville?' asked Lobo.
'I'm not sure, other than that the same situation exists here: pressure is being applied to all sorts of people to get them to perform,' said Falcon. 'And I include this meeting.'
Lobo and Elvira looked at each other and then at Falcon.
'This meeting?' said Lobo, with the threat level in his voice close to red.
'You're just transferring to me what's been applied to you,' said Falcon.
'If you mean by that that the CNI have been in touch with us…'
'Not just the CNI.'
'I don't understand why you're resurrecting the Calderon case,' said Elvira, his discomfiture making him testy. 'Is it because of your ex-wife?'
'It seems,' said Lobo, irritated by Elvira's departure from the script, 'that it's not just the CNI who are concerned about your mental state. I had a call from the Juez Decano complaining about your interruption of a press conference in the Andalucian parliament in order to question his son about how exactly he introduced Marisa Moreno to Esteban Calderon. He seems to think, and I agree, that it was unnecessary harassment.'
'My methods have been questioned before,' said Falcon, 'but never the results.'
'We think you're doing too much, Javier,' said Elvira.
'Two comments about your mental state from different sources on the same day,' said Lobo. 'That rings alarm bells with us, Javier.'
'Given your history,' added Elvira.
'What you mean is that the Juez Decano – who, by the way, I did not see – was persuaded by his son that my behaviour was unstable,' said Falcon. 'Do I appear mad to you? Have any members of my squad, who are the people closest to me and most able to observe any changes, expressed concern about my behaviour?'
'Even I can see you're tired,' said Elvira. 'Exhausted.'
'We're not taking any chances with you, Javier.'
'So what's the deal?'
'The deal?' said Lobo.
'Any further comment about concerns for your mental state and you'll be suspended from duty,' said Elvira.
'And for my part,' said Falcon, 'I promise not to talk to Alejandro Spinola on any matter relating to Marisa Moreno or Esteban Calderon.'
The two men looked at him, eyebrows arched.
'Wasn't that the purpose of this meeting?' asked Falcon. It was early evening and the temperature had just dropped below 40°C for the first time since 11 a.m. Inspector Jefe Tirado sat in Consuelo's living room, preparing to give her a short report on the developments in her son's kidnapping. He was disconcerted by her poise. Most women who'd been made to sweat for more than forty-eight hours without hearing a word from the kidnappers would be on the verge of a breakdown by now. Most mothers he'd dealt with had been reduced to a state of tearful exhaustion by the constant oscillation between hope and despair within the first twelve hours. They'd look at him with begging eyes, pleading with every cell in their bodies for the thinnest sliver of good news. Consuelo Jimenez sat before him dressed and made up, even with her toes and fingernails painted with red varnish. He had never encountered a woman under these circumstances who'd shown such total composure, even refusing support from family members. She made him nervous.
He talked her through the interview with Carlos Puerta, her stalker back in June.
'He said that?' said Consuelo, outraged but remembering her instability at that time. 'He put his hands up my skirt, stole the money from my handbag and then kicked it down the street. At the very least it was a mugging.'
'I found a shot of this man. I've been around the neighbourhood here, and nobody has seen him in Santa Clara, certainly not recently,' said Tirado. 'The Narcotics guys down in Las Tres Mil say he's been a permanent fixture down there for the last two months.'
'So you don't think he's involved in Dario's kidnapping?'
'He was also in very poor condition,' said Tirado, flipping through his notes. 'I understand from the sound engineer that there have been no communications here.' Consuelo shook her head. The strain of keeping what she knew from Tirado was making her absurdly conscious of the functioning vertebrae in her neck. She realized, in that instant, that the phone call she'd made to the kidnappers had transformed Tirado into someone she could no longer trust.
Tirado looked up when he heard no reply.
'No,' she said. 'Nothing.'
'I've also been to Dario's school,' said Tirado, 'and conducted a number of interviews with the teachers and children. I'm afraid I have nothing to report from there, although they asked me to give you this.'
He handed over an envelope. She opened it and drew out the handmade card. The drawing on the front in coloured crayons showed a boy with standing-up hair in the sunshine, with trees and a river behind. Inside it said: Dario is all right. We know he will come home again soon. It was signed by everyone in his class.
Only then did Tirado discover what was going on underneath. Consuelo closed her eyes, her mouth crumpled, and two silvery rivulets crept hesitatingly down her face.
17
Plaza Alfalfa, Seville – Monday, 18th September 2006, 18.00 hrs
La Galeria Zoca was owned by a venerable old gentleman for whom the word senorial had been invented. He
