Madrid, you fucking wanker.'
Falcon turned back to Marco Barreda, who looked stunned by the reaction around him.
'Fuck off back to Madrid, cabron'!
The bar owner stepped in and changed the channel before someone put a glass bottle through the screen. The men settled back into their chairs. The fat guy nudged Falcon.
'The other judge, he beat his wife, but at least he knew what he was talking about.'
The television showed another current affairs programme. The interviewer introduced her two guests. The first was Fernando Alanis, whose introduction was lost in applause from the bar. They knew him. He was the one who'd lost his wife and son, and whose daughter had miraculously survived and was now fighting for her life in hospital. Falcon realized that this was the man they were all going to believe. It didn't matter what he said, his tragedy had conferred on him a legitimacy that Juez del Rey's vast experience and command of the facts totally lacked. In the other chair was Jesus Alarcon, the new leader of Fuerza Andalucia. The bar was silent, listening intently. These were the people who were going to tell them the truth.
Barreda excused himself to go to the toilet. Falcon sat back from the table in a state of shock. He'd lost all the leverage he'd just created. Why hadn't Elvira given del Rey the message that he shouldn't mention the other angle of the investigation? Now that the mistake had been made, it was clear that, even as an enquiry, let alone a possible truth, it was totally unacceptable to the local populace.
The topic of the TV discussion was immigration. The interviewer's first question was irrelevant, as Fernando had come to the cameras well primed. There wasn't a sound in the bar as he started to talk.
'I'm not a politician. I'm sorry to say this in front of Sr Alarcon, who is a man I've grown to respect over the days since the explosion, but I don't like politicians and I don't believe a word they say, and I know I'm not alone. I am here today to tell you how it is. I'm not an opinion-maker. I am a labourer who works on a building site, and I used to have a family,' said Fernando, who had to stop momentarily as his Adam's apple jumped in his throat. 'I lived in the apartment block in El Cerezo which was blown up on Tuesday. I know from the media people I've met over the last few days that they would like to believe, and they would like the world to believe, that we live in a harmonious and tolerant modern society here in Spain. In talking to these people I realized why this is the case. They are all intelligent people, far more intelligent than a mere labourer, but the truth of the matter is that they do not live the life that I do. They are well off, they live in nice houses, in good areas, they take regular holidays, their children go to good schools. And it is from this point of view that they look at their country. They want it to continue in the way that it appears to them.
'I live…I mean, I lived in a horrible apartment in a nasty block, surrounded by lots of other ugly blocks. Not many of us have cars. Not many of us take holidays. Not many of us have enough money to last the month. And we are the people living with the Moroccans and the other North Africans. I am a tolerant person. I have to be. I work on building sites where there is a lot of cheap immigrant labour. I have a respect for people's rights to believe in whichever god they want to, and to attend whichever church or mosque they want to. But since 11th March 2004 I have become suspicious. Since that day, when 191 people died in those trains, I have wondered where the next attack is coming from. I am not a racist and I know that the terrorists are very few out of a large population, but the problem is that…I don't know who they are. They live with me, they live in my society, they enjoy its prosperity, until one day they decided to put a bomb under my apartment block and kill my wife and son. And there are many of us who have lived in suspicion and fear since 11th March until last Tuesday, 6th June. And now it is we who are angry.'
Barreda came back from the toilet. He had to go. Falcon followed him out into the heat and fierce light of the street. All his advantage and initiative had gone. They stood under the awning of the bar and shook hands. Barreda was back to normal. He'd recomposed himself in the toilet and perhaps been strengthened by listening to Fernando Alanis's speech on his way back.
'You didn't tell me what Ricardo said to you in that final phone call,' said Falcon.
'I'm embarrassed to have to talk about it after…what we've said about him.'
'Embarrassed?'
'I didn't realize how he felt about me,' said Barreda. 'But then…I'm not gay.'
30
Seville-Thursday, 8th June 2006, 14.05 hrs
'So why weren't all these other lines of enquiry written up in a report?' asked Comisario Elvira, looking from del Rey back to Falcon.
'As you know, I've been helping the CNI with one of their missions,' said Falcon. 'I've had to maintain the enquiry into this murder which happened prior to the bombing, and I've since acquired a suicide to investigate. However, all these enquiries, I believe, are linked and should be moved forward together. At no point have I deviated from my initial intention, which was to find out what happened in the destroyed building. You have to agree that there has been a breakdown of logic in the scenario, and it's my job to create different lines of enquiry to find the necessary logic to resolve it. I didn't hear what happened on television, but it has now been explained to me that it was the interviewer who interrupted Juez del Rey and said: 'So you believe it was one of our own people that committed this atrocity?' It was that question which caused this public relations problem.'
'Problem? Public relations catastrophe,' said Elvira. 'Another one, on top of this morning's debacle.'
'Did you talk to Angel Zarrias of the ABC?' asked Falcon.
'We're a bit shy of the media right now,' said Elvira. 'Comisario Lobo and I are having a strategy meeting after this to see how we can repair the damage.'
'Juez del Rey has done a great job bringing himself up to speed on a very complicated and sensitive investigation,' said Falcon. 'We can't allow the thrust of our enquiry to be dictated by the media, who have seen an opportunity to manipulate a nervous population by playing games with us on television.'
'What we're playing with here is the truth,' said Elvira. 'The presentable truth and the acceptable truth. And it's all a question-'
'What about the actual truth?' said Falcon.
'And it's all a question,' said Elvira, nodding at his little slip, 'of timing. Which truth is released when.'
'Have the translations of the Arabic script attached to the drawings been completed?' asked Falcon.
'So you didn't see the news before we went on,' said Elvira. 'And nor did we, which was why the wretched interviewer seized on what Juez del Rey was saying. Only afterwards did we find out that the evacuations of the two schools and biology faculty had been filmed, and a translation of one of the Arabic texts was aired with it.
'Each text gave full instructions on how to close off each building, where to hold the hostages and where to place the explosives in order to ensure maximum loss of life, should special forces storm the building,' said del Rey. 'There was a final instruction in each text, which was that one hostage-starting with the youngest child in the case of the schools-was to be released every hour and, as they made their way to freedom, they were to be shot, in full view of the media. This process was to continue until the Spanish government recognized Andalucia as an Islamic state under Sharia law.'
'Well, that explains why there was nearly a riot in the bar I was in,' said Falcon. 'How did the media get hold of the text?'
'It was delivered by motorbike to Canal Sur's reception in a brown padded envelope, addressed to the producer of current affairs,' said del Rey.
'An enquiry is underway,' said Elvira. 'What were you doing in this bar?'
'I was interviewing the last man to speak to Ricardo Gamero before he killed himself,' said Falcon. 'He's a sales manager at Informaticalidad.'
'This isn't the old guy who was seen talking to Gamero in the Archaeological Museum?' said del Rey.
'No. This was the last call Gamero made on his personal mobile,' said Falcon. 'I presume that all members of the CGI's antiterrorist squad would be vetted, Comisario, including their sexuality?'
'Of course,' said Elvira. 'Anybody with access to classified information is vetted to make sure they're not vulnerable.'
'So it would be known if Gamero was homosexual?'
