past.'
'Now you're thinking: what were Hammad and Saoudi going to do with 100 kilos of hexogen in Seville?'
'The GICM are not interested in returning Andalucia to the Islamic fold,' said Flowers. 'Their priority is to make Morocco an Islamic state, under Sharia law, but they do hold the same feelings about the West as those people we call al-Qaeda.'
'Is it certain that Hammad and Saoudi were GICM?'
'They've worked for them before.'
'So what was the hexogen going to be used for?'
'And was there more of it elsewhere?' asked Flowers. 'Those are the big unanswerable questions. It was probably still in its raw form when it exploded. We can only hope for more clues when we get into the mosque.'
'What would have had to be done to it to make it usable?'
'Normally they'd have mixed it with some plastique so that it could be moulded. The best clue would be to find what they were going to pack it into. The hardware.'
'But if you wanted to destroy a building, you could just stick it all in a suitcase, put it in the boot of a car and drive it through the entrance?'
'That's correct.'
'Do you know what the CNI are working on?' asked Falcon, realizing now that his conversation with Flowers was no longer evolving.
'You'd have to ask them,' said Flowers. 'But my advice to you is to do what you're paid to do, Javier. Stick to the past.'
Falcon's mobile vibrated. It was Ramirez. He took the call in the kitchen, well away from Flowers.
'We can confirm a sighting of Tateb Hassani in Rivero's house,' said Ramirez. 'We weren't having any luck on the outside, but Cristina spotted a woman coming out of the house who happened to be the maid looking after Hassani's room. She first saw him on 29th May and last saw him on 2nd June. She didn't work weekends, none of the maids in the main house do. She's not absolutely certain, but she doesn't think he left the house the entire time he was there. He worked in the Fuerza Andalucia offices at the front of the building and took most of his meals over there.'
'What news about Angel Zarrias?'
'That's why I'm calling. He's just arrived at Rivero's house about five minutes after Jesus Alarcon turned up. They're all here. It must be a Fuerza Andalucia strategy meeting.'
'Tell Cristina she has to find someone who was working at Rivero's house on Saturday evening. There must have been some kind of dinner for Tateb Hassani, which means cooks, serving staff, those kinds of people.'
34
Seville-Thursday, 8th June 2006, 21.50 hrs
'I think we should get Eduardo Rivero on his own,' said Falcon, 'without any sense of support from Jesus Alarcon and Angel Zarrias. Tateb Hassani was in his house, as his guest, and he was murdered there in his offices. If we can break him first, I'm sure he'll give us the rest.'
'What about the transport?' said Elvira. 'Can we get our hands on the car that took the body from Rivero's house to dump it in those bins on Calle Boteros?'
'The only sighting we've had of that car has been by an elderly alcoholic who was looking down from a height of about ten metres at night. All we've got from him is that it was a dark estate,' said Falcon. 'Ramirez is round there now, with Perez, trying to find a more reliable witness. We're also checking all the cars in Rivero's name, and his wife's, to see if any match the basic description.'
'And who's watching Rivero's house?'
'Serrano and Baena are keeping Angel Zarrias under twenty-four-hour surveillance. They won't leave until he does,' said Falcon. 'What about a search warrant for Rivero's house?'
'I'm worried about that, Javier,' said Elvira. 'Rivero might not be the leader of an important party, but he is a huge figure in Seville society. He knows everybody. He has important friends in all walks of life, including the judiciary. The trump card you hold at the moment is surprise. He doesn't realize that you've identified Tateb Hassani and located him at his house in the days before his murder. If I apply for a search warrant I have to make the case and reveal everything to the judge. The vital advantage you have has more opportunities to leak.'
'You'd rather I tried to break him first?'
'There are risks either way.'
'They're having a meeting now and they'll probably have dinner afterwards,' said Falcon. 'Let's see what the next hours bring us and we'll confer before we make the final move.'
Falcon went back to his house to have something to eat and to think about the best way to get Eduardo Rivero to talk. Inspector Jefe Luis Zorrita called, wanting to talk to him about Ines's murder. Falcon told him that now was the only moment he could spare.
Encarnacion had left him some fresh pork fillet. He made a salad and sliced up some potatoes and the meat. He smashed up some cloves of garlic, threw them into the frying pan with the pork fillet and chips. He dashed some cheap whisky on top and let it catch fire from the gas flame. He ate without thinking about the food and drank a glass of red rioja to loosen up his mind. Instead of thinking about Rivero, he found his mind full of Ines again, and it was playing tricks on him. He couldn't quite believe that she was dead, despite having seen her lying by the river. She'd been here only…last night, or was it the night before?
It was stuffy in the kitchen and he took his glass of wine and sat on the rim of the fountain in the patio, under the heat, which was still sinking down the walls like a giant, invisible press. They'd made love in this fountain, he and Ines. Those were wild, exhilarating days: just the two of them in this colossal house, running naked around the gallery, down the steps, in and out of the cloisters. She had been so beautiful then, in that time when youth was still running riot. He, on the other hand, was already carrying his ball and chain, he just didn't know it, couldn't see it. It occurred to him that he'd probably driven her into the arms of Esteban Calderon, the man who would eventually kill her.
The doorbell rang. He let Zorrita in and sat him down in the patio with a beer. Falcon had just finished describing his marriage to Ines, her affair with Calderon, their separation and divorce when his mobile vibrated. He took it in his study, closed the patio door.
'We've had some luck with the car,' said Ramirez. 'There's a bar on Calle Boteros called Garlochi. Strange place. All decked out with pictures and effigies of the Virgin. The bar has a canopy over it like a float from Semana Santa. It's lit with candles, they burn incense and the house cocktail comes in a glass chalice and it's called 'Sangre de Cristo'.'
'Suitably decadent.'
'It's always been shut when we've checked the area before. The owner tells me he was closing up on Saturday night, or rather, early Sunday morning, when he saw the car turn into the cul-de-sac and reverse up to the bins. He described it just as Cristina's witness had, except that he got a good view of it when the car reversed out of the cul-de-sac. He recognized it as a Mercedes E500 because he wanted to buy one himself but couldn't afford it. He also looked for the registration because he thought the three guys were behaving suspiciously, but that was nearly a week ago. All he could remember was that it was a new type of number which began with 82 and he thought that the last letter was an M.'
'Does that help you?'
'Baena just called me to say that three other cars have now turned up at Rivero's house,' said Ramirez. 'We've checked the plates and they're owned by Lucrecio Arenas, Cesar Benito and Agustin Cardenas. We're running a search on those people…'
'Lucrecio Arenas introduced Jesus Alarcon to Fuerza Andalucia through Angel Zarrias,' said Falcon. 'I don't know anything about the other two.'
'Listen. Agustin Cardenas's car is a black Mercedes Estate E500 and the registration is 8247 BHM.'
'That's our man,' said Falcon.
