those days. Most people thought you cold and unapproachable, and therefore arrogant and patronizing. I saw something I didn't understand. So, the first way, the most natural way for me to understand you was to seduce your wife. What did this beautiful, muchadmired woman see in you, that I didn't have myself? That's why I seduced her. And the irony of it was, she gave me no insight at all. But before I knew it, it was no longer just an affair as I'd intended; we became an open secret. She was always way ahead of me in public relations. She could manipulate people and situations with consummate ease. So, we became the golden couple and you were the cuckold, who people enjoyed laughing about behind your back. And I admit it now, Javier, just so that you know what I'm like: I enjoyed that situation because, although I didn't understand you, which made me feel weak, I had inadvertently got one up on you, and that made me feel strong.'
'Are you sure you want to tell me this?' said Falcon.
'The next item isn't so personal to you,' said Calderon, batting him down with his hands, as if Falcon was thinking of leaving. 'It's important that you know me for the…I was going to say 'man' but I'm not sure that's appropriate now. Remember Maddy Krugman?'
'I didn't like her,' said Falcon. 'I thought she was sinister.'
'She's probably the most beautiful woman I never went to bed with.'
'You didn't sleep with her?'
'She wasn't interested in me,' said Calderon. 'Beauty-I mean, great beauty-for a woman is both her good fortune and her greatest curse. Everybody is attracted to them. It's difficult for normal people to understand that pressure. Everybody wants to please a beautiful woman. They spark something in everybody, not just men; and because the pressure is so constant, they have no idea who has good intentions, who they should choose. Of course, they recognize the poor, slack-jawed fools who drool on to their lapels, but then there are the others, the hundreds and thousands with money, charm, brilliance and charisma. Maddy liked you because you brushed aside her beauty…'
'I don't think that was true. I was as much affected by her beauty as everybody else.'
'But you didn't let it affect your vision, Javier. And Maddy saw that and liked it. She was obsessed with you,' said Calderon. 'Of course, I had to have her. She teased me. She played with me. I amused her. That was about it. And the worst of it was that we had to talk about you. I couldn't bear it. I think you knew that it was eating me up inside.'
Falcon nodded.
'So when we got into that final and fatal scenario with Maddy and her husband…I had to lie about it afterwards,' said Calderon. 'I perjured myself, because I couldn't bear your fearlessness. I couldn't stand the poise with which you handled that situation.'
'I can tell you that I didn't feel fearless.'
'Then I couldn't stand the way you overcame your fear and I was left sitting on the sofa, paralysed,' said Calderon.
'I've been trained for those situations. I've been in them before,' said Falcon. 'Your reaction was completely natural and understandable.'
'But it was not how I saw myself,' said Calderon.
'Then your standards are very high,' said Falcon.
'Ines was marvellous to me after the Maddy Krugman affair,' said Calderon. 'You couldn't have wished for a better reaction from a fiancee. I'd humiliated her by announcing our engagement and on the same day, I think it was, I ran off with Maddy Krugman. And yet she stuck by me. She picked up the pieces of my career and self- esteem and…I hated her for it.
'I stored up all her kindnesses to me and mixed them with my own bitterness into a rancorous stew of deep resentment. I punished her by having affairs. I even fucked her best friend during a weekend at Ines's parents' finca. And I didn't stop at affairs. I refused to look for a house. I made her sell her own apartment, but I wouldn't let her buy the sort of house she desperately wanted. I wouldn't let her change my apartment to suit her. When I started hitting her-and that was only four days ago-it was just the physical expression of what I'd been doing to her mentally for years. What made it worse was, that the more I abused her, the tighter she clung to me. Now there's a story of denial for you, Javier. Ines was a great prosecutor. She could persuade anybody. And she persuaded herself, totally.'
'You should have left her.'
'It was too late by then,' said Calderon. 'We were already locked in our fatal embrace. We couldn't bear to be together, we couldn't wrench ourselves apart.'
The key rattled in the door. The guard put his head in.
'Comisario Elvira wants to see you in his office. He said it's urgent.'
Falcon stood. Calderon raised himself with effort, as if he was stiff or under a great weight.
'One last thing, Javier. I know it will seem incredible after what I've just told you,' said Calderon, 'and I'm quite prepared to face the punishment handed down to me for her murder, because I deserve it. But I need you to know that I did not kill her. You might have spoken to that Inspector Jefe from Madrid, and he might have told you that I gave a very confused account of what happened that night. I have been in a fairly wild state…'
'So who did kill her?'
'I don't know. I don't know what their motive could have possibly been. I don't know anything, other than that I did not kill Ines.' The Comisario was not alone in his office. His secretary nodded Falcon in. Pablo and Gregorio were there, along with the chief forensic pathologist. They all sat wherever they could except for the pathologist, who remained standing by the window. Elvira introduced him and asked him to give his report.
'The mosque is now empty of all rubble, detritus, clothes and body parts. We have conducted DNA testing on all body parts, fluids and blood that we've been able to find. That means we have tested every square centimetre of the available area in the mosque. We have all the results of these tests, except for the final two square metres closest to the entrance, which was the area containing the least DNA material and was the last batch to be sent off. We have been able to find matches to all DNA samples supplied by the families of all the men believed to have been in the mosque. We have also matched a DNA sample retrieved from the Imam's apartment with some in the mosque. However, we have been unable to match DNA samples taken from the Madrid apartment belonging to Djamal Hammad and Smail Saoudi with any found in the mosque. Our conclusion is that neither of those two men were in the mosque at the time of the explosion.'
41
Seville-Saturday, 10th June 2006, 07.00 hrs
Falcon woke up early, with renewed determination. Once the pathologist had left the night before, after his stunning revelation, they discussed what could possibly have happened to Hammad and Saoudi. Pablo updated Comisario Elvira on the intelligence they'd received from Yacoub, whose group believed that a total of 300 kilos of hexogen had been sent to Spain. The bomb disposal officer had thought, as a 'conservative' estimate, that 100 kilos of hexogen had exploded in El Cerezo on 6th June, which would leave between 150 and 200 kilos still at large. They all agreed that having secured the remaining hexogen, Hammad and Saoudi would have either gone to ground or left the country.
Elvira put a call through to the Guardia Civil about the route of the Peugeot Partner last seen at a service station outside Valdepenas at 4 p.m. on Sunday, 4th June. There'd still been no sightings of the van on any of the main roads in the Seville, Cordoba and Granada triangle. There was now a huge operation underway, looking for sightings on the smaller routes, but it was an impossible task, given the anonymous quality of the vehicle and the fact that the journey was made nearly a week ago. Falcon sent Perez and Ferrera back to El Cerezo to check with the residents that the Peugeot Partner had not been seen until the Monday morning of 5th June.
The meeting broke up with Elvira drafting a press release about Hammad and Saoudi and announcing the reinstatement of spot checks on vehicles coming into the city. This was to be aired on the TVE ten o'clock news and on Canal Sur. Gregorio had come back with Falcon to his house on Calle Bailen, where they made another unsuccessful attempt to reach Yacoub. They drafted a report about Hammad and Saoudi, including photographs, which Gregorio pasted into the clipboard of the CNI website to send to Yacoub later, in the hope that he could
