thought they had hit it off in bed. But now he realized there had been something withdrawn about her, something held back. It was as if she couldn't let herself go to the animal edge of her being. Something in her head told her that this was not quite how she should behave.
Was that true? Is this what the mind does when you've been drawn to another partner? Persuade you that the last one wasn't up to much? Maybe that was what Calderon had seen as well. That with Ines there is none of that difference that Isabel Cano spoke about. Ines is beautiful, intelligent and attractive, but he knows how it's all going to unfold. And it was at that moment, just as his mobile had started to vibrate in his pocket, that he realized it was over. It was none of his business. It didn't matter to him any more. He didn't give a shit about Ines or Calderon or what the hell happened to them in their miserable lives. Something gave way inside him. He had a physical sensation of release, of tension breaking, of ropes flying off and whipping back into the night. He grinned and looked around himself at the whole cafe's magnificent unconcern and then took the call from Alicia Aguado asking him where the hell he was.
Because this wasn't a consultation they kissed hello and she immediately noticed a difference in him.
'You're happy,' she said.
'A few things have fallen into place.'
'You've had some sex.'
'I don't believe you can tell that,' he said. 'And anyway, this isn't an appointment.'
They drove out to Santa Clara for the meeting with Pablo Ortega. There was no answer when Falcon rang the bell by the gate, but he noticed that the wooden door had been left open. They coughed at the stench from the cesspit which Falcon had warned her about. Aguado held on to Falcon's elbow as they made their way to the kitchen on the other side of the house. There was no sign of Ortega and it was past eleven o'clock.
'He's probably walking the dogs,' said Falcon. 'We'll take a seat in the shade by the pool and wait for him.'
'I don't know how he can live with that stink.'
'Don't worry you don't notice it inside. He's had that part of the house sealed off.'
'Walking into that everyday would make me suicidal.'
'Well, Pablo Ortega is not a happy man.'
He sat her down at the table by the pool and walked along the edge towards the deep end. He stood on the small diving board and looked down. There seemed to be a sack sitting on the bottom. He found a pole lying by the side of the pool. It had a net at one end and a hook at the other.
'What are you doing, Javier?' asked Alicia, concerned by his silent activity.
'There's a sack in the bottom of the pool. Something like an old fertilizer bag.'
The sack was heavy. He had to push it along the bottom to the edge of the pool and then drag it down to the shallow end where he pulled it out. It must have weighed thirty kilos. He undid the twine at the neck of the sack and gasped at its horrific contents.
'What is it?' said Alicia, on her feet, disorientated by the sounds he was making, panicked.
'It's Pavarotti and Callas,' said Falcon. 'Ortega's dogs. This doesn't look good.'
'Someone has drowned his
'No,' he said. 'I think he's drowned his own dogs.'
Falcon told her to stay sitting by the pool. He went to the kitchen door, which was shut but not locked. He opened it and the horrific stink of the cesspit was thick in the room. There were two empty bottles of Torre Muga on the table. He went into the sitting room where there was another empty bottle of wine and the box of Cohibas Ortega had offered him last night. No glass. The smell of raw sewage was more powerful and he realized that the seal to the other part of the house had been broken. The door to the hallway was open and across the corridor the door to the room with the cracked cesspit was ajar.
On the floor in the corridor was an empty bottle of Nembutal with no top. He pushed the door open. There were wooden boards and plastic sheeting thrown against the wall, which had a large subsidence crack in it. A hole in the floor had been opened up by workmen so that they could inspect the damage. Fragments of Ortega's shattered wine glass were all over the bare concrete and tiles. There was a burnt- out cigar stub as well. In the hole, just below the surface of the sewage, was the white and yellow sole of Pablo Ortega's right foot. Falcon called the Jefatura on his mobile. He specifically asked that Juez Calderon be notified as the death might be relevant to the Vega case. He also asked for Cristina Ferrera but instructed that Ramirez should be left alone.
He backed out of the room and went up the corridor to the master bedroom. On the smooth untouched burgundy cover of the bed were two letters, one addressed to Javier Falcon and the other to Sebastian Ortega. He left them where they were and went back to Alicia Aguado, who was still sitting by the pool, very frightened. He told her that Pablo Ortega appeared to have committed suicide.
'I can't believe this,' said Falcon. 'I saw him last night and he was on his way to becoming very drunk, but he was affable, charming, generous. He even said that after our meeting today he was going to show me his collection.'
'His mind was made up,' said Alicia, who was holding on to herself as if she was freezing cold in 42°C.
'Damn,' said Falcon to himself, 'I can't help feeling responsible for this. I've stirred things up and it's -'
'Nobody is responsible for another person killing themselves,' said Alicia firmly. 'He has a whole history that won't have been changed, or even particularly stirred up, by talking to Javier Falcon for a couple of hours.'
'Of course, I know that. I suppose what I mean is that I've precipitated it by pushing him too hard.'
'You mean you weren't just talking to him about Sebastian?'
'I thought he had information that might help my investigation.'
'Was he a suspect?'
'Not exactly a suspect. I could just see that I was making him nervous. The questions I was asking him, whether they were about his son or the Rafael Vega case, for some reason disturbed him.'
'Just out of interest, from the psychological point of view,' she said, 'how did he kill himself?'
'He got drunk, took some sleeping pills and drowned himself in the cracked cesspit.'
'He's planned it out pretty carefully, hasn't he?' she said. 'Drowning the dogs -'
'I asked after his dogs last night,' said Falcon. 'He said they were sleeping. He'd probably already killed them.'
'Any suicide note?'
'Two letters: one to me and the other to his son. I've left them until the Juez de Guardia gets here.'
'He knew you were going to be the first person in here this morning,' she said. 'No nasty surprises for anybody but the professional. The gate and doors conveniently left open. He thought it all out down to the last detail of throwing himself in the cesspit.'
'What do you mean?'
'I thought you said that part of the house was sealed off.'
'I did.'
'So he went to the trouble of breaking the seal because it was psychologically important for him to drown himself in shit… his own shit,' she said. 'I'm sure the pills and alcohol would have done the job on their own.'
'Alcohol can induce vomiting.'
'All right. So he was making sure of it as well… but he could have used the pool. Less private, but it was good enough for his dogs.'
'Assuage my guilt, Alicia. Give me a theory,' he said.
'As you know, there's been a build-up of events even before you started coming to see him about Rafael Vega,' she said. 'His son has been jailed in a high-profile case for a nasty crime. He himself was ostracized by his community so that he had to leave his apartment, and there's a story behind that which you still don't know. He's moved here to a place which, on the face of it, suits him. A garden city, a wealthy community, peace and quiet. But it didn't turn out like that. He felt dislocated and craved the involvement of the barrio. The house he bought developed an unpleasant and antisocial problem. To us that would seem an irritating and expensive inconvenience, but to Pablo Ortega it probably achieved some sort of significance in his mind. Then his neighbour died…'
'He wanted to know if Sr Vega had committed suicide.'
'So it was already on his mind,' said Alicia. 'I've left out the fact that his son didn't want to see him either… another isolating factor. Then Javier Falcon arrived on the scene, perceiving an injustice in Sebastian's case and wanting to help. As you know, from your own experience, you can't help without stirring things up. And what came
