The Silent and the Damned aka The Vanished Hands

did.'

'I haven't had a good look at that passport yet, but someone who's totally innocent doesn't keep a false document in their freezer,' said Ramirez. 'You've already had people drifting past your front door with stolen plates, and the smell of Russians is very strong down at Vega Construcciones. So we know there's something in this case that's not right. We're finding things out every day. Eventually one of those things will be a motive.'

'I've got to go,' said Falcon, looking at his watch.

'Oh, yes, shrink night tonight. Maybe I'll have to start seeing her,' said Ramirez, grinning, tapping his temple. 'She can help me straighten out my noodles.'

'Still no news on your daughter?'

'Not until they're completely finished.'

Falcon drove home. He needed another shower and time to relax before he saw Alicia Aguado. As he came into the house he had the same sense of unease he'd had the night before. He found himself listening again.

He dumped the Ortega file in his study and went upstairs, showered and changed into jeans and a black T- shirt. He came back down to the kitchen and drank water. He went to his study and lay down on the chaise longue. He did some breathing exercises and was beginning to feel quite calm when he was transfixed by something alien on the pinboard above his desk which he hadn't seen earlier. He got up slowly, as if stealth was important. He walked in a crouch to his desk and leaned against it. On the board was a photograph of Ines. It had been stuck there by a pin with a red plastic head which pierced her throat.

By 9.30 p.m. he was sitting in the S-shaped chair in Alicia Aguado's consulting room. She put her fingers to his wrist. She needed this technique even more now that she'd lost the last vestiges of her sight to retinitis pigmentosa.

'You're tired,' she said.

'I'm at the end of the second day of a new investigation,' he said. 'A double death and lots of emotional upheaval.'

'You're anxious again.'

'I had another 'shit' dream during my siesta,' said Falcon. 'They always come in the afternoons.'

'We've talked about them before,' she said. 'So what are you anxious about?'

'The shit dream was different this time. I woke up with a clear idea in my head and a sense of purpose.'

He told her about the Sebastian Ortega case, what he knew about it at the time of the dream (including the state of Pablo Ortega's house), and what he discovered subsequently from Montes.

'Is that a common occurrence?'

'Quite often evidence that's not admissible in court shows unquestionable proof of a defendant's guilt,' said

Falcon defensively. 'Police and prosecutors will then use nuance and emphasis to secure the 'right' conviction.'

'But that's not the case here, is it?' said Aguado. 'A victim has been manipulated to give an exaggerated account of what happened to him. Who was the judge on the case?'

'The conviction was never in doubt. What they wanted to secure was the maximum sentence, but… I don't want to get into specifics and personalities,' said Falcon. 'The point was that I didn't know about that before the dream and yet I woke up with a strong sense of wanting to help this young man, who is not connected to me in any way.'

'That's good,' said Aguado.

'I think so, too. It's the most boring thing about depression – the time you have to spend with yourself,' said Falcon. 'I'm glad to be breaking out of my self-absorption.'

'What drew you to Sebastian Ortega's predicament?'

'There are some interesting connections there. Pablo Ortega knew Francisco Falcon. He was a friend of his. He had even met me before, when I was eighteen, but I didn't remember him. Like Francisco, he's charismatic and someone who can summon up tremendous fury. He also said things which I subsequently found out were not true. It was quite difficult to disentangle the truth from performance. It's possible that he is hiding things from himself. In a later interview someone said that they'd always assumed that he was either homosexual or asexual.'

'My God… we are talking about Pablo Ortega the actor, aren't we?'

'Yes, but don't go ringing the Diario de Sevilla,' said Falcon. 'He'd kill himself if that broke.'

'I can see the comparisons with your own situation,' she said.

'I think I've subconsciously identified with Sebastian, which is why I want to help him.'

'Because?'

'Because I want to help myself.'

'This is good, Javier,' said Aguado. 'I just want to go back to Pablo Ortega…'

'That stuff about him being homosexual – there's no proof. It was just something that this particular interviewee had always assumed to be the case.'

'That's not what concerns me,' she said. 'Why was Pablo Ortega so angry?'

'He was furious at Juez Calderon…'

'So he was the judge on Sebastian Ortega's case as well?'

'You found me out.'

'I thought there was something more complicated at work there.'

'If there is, I don't know what it is.'

'I remember you saying while you were investigating the Jimenez murder that you liked Juez Calderon. You told me that he was one of the first people you'd considered a possible friend since your training in Barcelona.'

'That was before I knew he was seeing Ines.'

Her fingers jumped off his pulse as he said her name.

'Has something happened with Ines?'

'Yesterday he told me they were getting married,' said Falcon. 'I nearly called you.'

'We've dealt with Ines.'

'I thought we had.' 'You were expecting them to get married, ' said Alicia Aguado. 'And you told me that you'd accepted it.'

'The concept, yes.'

'And the reality was different?'

'I was surprised at how bitterly disappointed I was by the news.'

'You'll get over it.'

'That's why I didn't call you,' said Falcon. 'But just before I came out to see you this evening I found a photograph of her stuck up on the noticeboard above my desk with a red pin through her throat.'

Silence. Falcon thought he felt Alicia shiver.

'Did you stick it up there?' she asked.

'That's what concerns me,' said Falcon. 'I don't know.'

'Do you think you might have done it subconsciously?' asked Aguado.

'I don't even recognize the photograph.'

'What about the other prints?'

'I bought a digital camera last week. Work has been slack until yesterday and I've been out on the streets taking snaps, getting used to the technology and then downloading stuff on to the computer, erasing shots, printing out others, throwing some stuff away. You know, playing around with it. So… I… I just can't be certain. Maybe I did snap her without realizing it. We don't live that far from each other. I see her occasionally in the street, as you do in Seville.'

'How else could it have got on to your noticeboard?'

'I don't know. I did get very drunk last night and passed out…'

'You shouldn't let this worry you,' said Aguado.

'But what do you think it means?' said Falcon. 'I don't like the idea that my mind is operating independently of me. This was what was happening to one of the victims in my investigation.'

Falcon explained Vega's bizarre note, how he'd traced over it.