knew nothing about their structures, nor their aims, other than a preparedness to kill. Had the one movement learnt from the other: declare no coherent agenda, operate a loose command structure, create selfcontained, unconnected cells who, having been remotely activated, carry out their destructive mission?
Talking this through to himself produced a moment of clarity. That was one cultural difference between Islam and the West: whenever an Islamic attack occurred, the West always looked for the 'mastermind'. There had to be an evil genius at the core, because that was the order that the Western mind demanded: a hierarchy, a plan with an achievable goal. What was the chain?
He worked back from the electrician who'd planted the bomb. He'd been brought in by a call from the Imam, who in turn had been given the electrician's card by Miguel Botin. The card was the connection between the mission and the hierarchy who'd ordered it. Neither the electricians, nor the council inspectors for that matter, had been in the building at the time of the explosion, and both sets of people were as much a part of the plan as the card. This would not be how an Islamic terrorist cell would operate. That would mean, logically, that the only other person who could have activated Miguel Botin was Ricardo Gamero. Why had Gamero committed suicide? Because, in activating Miguel Botin with the electrician's card, Gamero did not realize that he was making him the agent of destruction of the building and all the people inside.
That would be reason enough to take your own life.
On the day of the bombing, the CGI antiterrorist squad couldn't move because of the possibility of a mole in their ranks. Only on day two could Ricardo Gamero have got out and demanded to see someone senior-the older man in the Archaeological Museum-from whom he demanded an explanation. That explanation had not been good enough to prevent his suicide. Falcon called Ramirez.
'Has that police artist come up with a sketch of the man Gamero met in the museum yet?'
'We've just scanned it and sent it to the CNI and CGI.'
'Send a copy to the computer in the pre-school,' said Falcon.
'The witness Jose Duran is due here any moment. We'll show him the shots of the licensed explosive handlers, but I'm not holding out much hope,' said Ramirez. 'The bomb could have been made up by somebody else and left in the mosque, or he could have been an assistant to an explosives expert and learnt everything necessary.'
'Keep at it, Jose Luis,' said Falcon. 'If you want a really impossible task, try looking for the fake council inspectors.'
'I'll add that to the list of two and a half million hernia ops I've still got to go through,' said Ramirez.
'Another thought,' said Falcon. 'Contact all the Hermandades associated with the three churches: San Marcos, Santa Maria La Blanca and La Magdalena.'
'How's that going to help?'
'Whatever's happening here has some religious motivation. Informaticalidad recruits from church congregations. Ricardo Gamero was a devout Catholic attending San Marcos. The Abdullah Azzam text was sent to the ABC, the main Catholic newspaper, and it included a direct threat to the Catholic faith in Andalucia.'
'And what do you think the Brotherhoods in these churches could have to do with it?'
'Maybe nothing. You'd be too exposed as a known Brotherhood but, you never know, they may have heard of a secret one, or seen strange things going on in the churches that might give us some leverage with the priests. We have to try everything.'
'This could get ugly,' said Ramirez.
'Even uglier than it is already?'
'The media are all over us again. I've just heard that Comisario Lobo and the Magistrado Juez Decano de Sevilla are going to give another press conference to explain the situation following Juez Calderon's dismissal,' said Ramirez. 'I heard the one at the Parliament building earlier today was a disaster. And now the television and the radio are full of arseholes telling us that since Calderon's arrest on suspicion of murder and wife abuse, our investigation has completely lost credibility.'
'How has all this got out?'
'The journalists have been all over the Palacio de Justicia, talking to Ines's friends and colleagues. Now they're not just talking about the evident physical violence, but also a prolonged campaign of mental torture and public humiliation.'
'This is just what Elvira was frightened of.'
'A lot of people have been waiting a long time to get Esteban Calderon down on the ground and, now they've got him there, they're going to kick him to death, even if it means our investigation is effectively destroyed.'
'And what do Lobo and Spinola hope to achieve in this press conference?' asked Falcon. 'They can't talk about a murder investigation that's in progress.'
'Damage control,' said Ramirez. 'And they're going to talk up del Rey. He's due to come on afterwards, with Comisario Elvira, to give a recap of the case so far.'
'No wonder he was so word perfect with us,' said Falcon. 'Maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea for him to talk about what we're working on now.'
'You're right about that,' said Ramirez. 'You'd better call him.' Del Rey had switched his mobile off. Maybe he was already in the studio. Falcon called Elvira and asked him to give a rather cryptic message to del Rey. There was no time to explain the detail. Falcon picked up the sketch from the computer operator in the preschool. At least it looked like a drawing of a real person. A man in his sixties, possibly early seventies, in a suit and tie, some hair on top with a side parting, no beard or moustache. The artist had included the man's height and weight as given by the security guard, he was on the small side at 1.65m and 75 kilos. But did it look like the man they wanted to find?
Back in the car he took a look at the lists given to him by Diego Torres, the Human Resources Director at Informaticalidad. Marco Barreda was not one of the employees who'd spent time in the apartment on Calle Los Romeros. Maybe he was too senior for that. He called the mobile number David Curado had given him and introduced himself with his full title.
'I think we should talk face to face,' said Falcon.
'I'm busy.'
'It'll take fifteen minutes of your time.'
'I'm still busy.'
'I'm investigating an act of terrorism, multiple murder and a suicide,' said Falcon. 'You have to make time for me.'
'I'm not sure how I can help. I'm neither a terrorist, nor a murderer, and I don't know anybody who is.'
'But you did know the suicide, Ricardo Gamero,' said Falcon. 'Where are you now?'
'I'm in the office. I'm just on my way out.'
'Name a place.'
Deep breath from Barreda. He knew he couldn't brush him off forever. He named a bar in Triana.
Falcon called Ramirez again.
'Have you got the printout of all calls made on Ricardo Gamero's mobiles?'
Ramirez crashed around the office for a minute and came back. Falcon gave him Barreda's number.
'Interesting,' said Ramirez. 'That was the last call he made on his personal mobile.'
'While I think about it,' said Falcon, 'we need the list of calls the Imam made on his mobile. Especially the one he made in front of Jose Duran on Sunday morning, because that is the electricians' mobile number.' The bar was half full of people. Everybody was looking at the television, ignoring their drinks. The news had just finished and now it was Lobo and Spinola. But Ramirez had been wrong, it wasn't a press conference; they were being interviewed. Falcon walked through the bar, looking for a lone young man. Nobody nodded to him. He sat down at a table for two.
The interviewer, a woman, was attacking Spinola. She could not believe that he hadn't known about the campaign of terror conducted by Calderon against his wife. The Magistrado Juez Decano de Sevilla, an old-school pachyderm with saurian eyes and an easy, but quite alarming, smile, was not uncomfortable with his moment in the hot seat.
Falcon tuned out of the pointless argument. Spinola was not going to be drawn. The female interviewer had lost herself in the emotional aspect of the case. She should have been hitting Spinola on Calderon's ability to perform and his integrity as a judge in the investigation. Instead she was looking for some riveting personal revelation and she had gone to precisely the wrong man for it.
