LITMIR.BIZ

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gave him the bad news that Lucena was on his way up to Marciano Ruíz’s apartment on the eighth floor.

      ‘I know that name,’ said Calderón. ‘Isn’t he a theatre director?’

      ‘And a well-known mariquita,’ finished Ramírez.

      ‘I don’t understand,’ said Calderón.

      ‘He was fucking them both,’ said Ramírez. ‘He said he was fucking her because she reminded him of his mother.’

      ‘What’s all this about?’

      ‘Lucena was trying to offend Inspector Ramírez,’ said Falcón.

      ‘But not you,’ said Calderón smoothly. ‘Are you going to arrest him?’

      ‘First of all, I don’t think these people are stupid enough to walk into the security cameras … ‘

      ‘Unless they’re being very intelligent and subtle about it,’ said Calderón. ‘For instance, we never see the lover in the Familia Jiménez movie, do we? We only see his address.’

      ‘You’re forgetting the prostitute, Eloisa Gómez,’ said Falcón. ‘If Lucena was the killer he would have been in the apartment, filming her having sex with Raúl Jiménez as we saw on the movie. The girl was taped leaving the building at three minutes past one and was back on the Alameda at one-thirty. Basilio Lucena was still in the Hotel Colón with Sra Jiménez. I’ve worked on the timings to see if it’s still possible, and it is, but highly improbable.’

      ‘Well, that was nearly exciting,’ said Calderón. ‘When did Lucena leave the building?’

      ‘No record,’ said Falcón. ‘He says he left in the morning with Marciano Ruíz.’

      ‘Why no record?’

      ‘The camera links in the garage had been cut,’ said Ramírez, which was news to Falcón. ‘According to the Policía Científica they were severed with pliers.’

      ‘So that was the way in?’ asked Calderón, trying to get through to more interesting information.

      ‘It was definitely the way out,’ said Falcón. ‘The problem, though, was not just to get into the building without being seen, but to get into the apartment as well. Raúl Jiménez was very security conscious. He always locked his door, which needed five turns of the key — and that was confirmed by the prostitute, who heard him while she was waiting for the lift.’

      ‘So how did the killer get in?’

      Falcón gave him the theory of the lifting gear on the back of the Mudanzas Triana removals truck. Calderón played with that idea in his head.

      ‘So he gets into the apartment, which admittedly is empty, but he hides in it for twelve hours and he’s even brought his video camera with him to record Raúl Jiménez with a whore? That doesn’t sound …’

      ‘If that was the case, I don’t think that part of it was planned,’ said Falcón. ‘I think he did that in a moment of arrogance. He wanted to show us that he’d been there all the time. If he hadn’t filmed them we’d have known much less. We’d probably still be wasting our time with Basilio Lucena. So we can thank the killer for that small slip, along with the forgotten chloroform rag, because with each of these mistakes he’s telling us something about himself.’

      ‘That he’s an amateur,’ said Calderón.

      ‘But an amateur with nerve,’ said Falcón, ‘He’ll take risks and he likes to tease.’

      ‘Psychopathic?’

      ‘Driven and playful,’ replied Falcón. ‘With not a lot to lose.’

      ‘And some surgical expertise,’ said Ramírez.

      Falcón gave him the second scenario — Eloisa Gómez letting in her lover or low-life friend to kill Raúl Jiménez.

      ‘Nothing was stolen,’ said Ramírez. ‘The place was practically empty, so the only reason for getting in there was to kill Raúl Jiménez.’

      ‘How did she stand up to the interrogation?’

      ‘She toughed it out,’ said Ramírez.

      ‘You’ll go back to her though, won’t you?’ said Calderón.

      In the quiet that followed their nods Falcón gave Calderón a short report about his discussion with Lobo on the level of corruption in the building of Expo ‘92 and Raúl Jiménez’s involvement. He mentioned the warning he was given by the Comisario.

      ‘If there’s corruption associated with this murder I have to be free to talk about it,’ said Calderón, eyes alight, suddenly the crusading judge.

      ‘You are, of course,’ said Falcón. ‘But there are some sensitive issues here and important people, who, even if they’re clean, might not like the associations. You remember who was in those photographs from your side: Bellido and Spinola, to name two.’

      ‘It’s ten years old, anyway,’ said Calderón, idealism instantly doused.

      ‘That’s not so long to hold a grudge,’ said Falcón, and the two men looked at him as if he might be holding several simultaneously.

      Falcón gave a report on his conversation with Consuelo Jiménez and handed over the print-out of the address book, mentioning that the killer had stolen Raúl Jiménez’s mobile. Calderón ran his finger down the list. Ramírez yawned and lit another cigarette.

      ‘So what you’re saying,’ said Calderón, ‘is that despite that terrible scenario the killer left in the apartment, despite all the interviews and statements so far … we actually have no definite leads?’

      ‘We still have Sra Consuelo Jiménez as the prime suspect. She is the only one with defined motive and she has the means to execute it. Eloisa Gómez is a possible accomplice to a murderer acting on his own.’

      ‘Or not,’ said Calderón. ‘The killer could still be paid for by Sra Jiménez and, if that’s the case, I’m sure she wouldn’t want to draw attention to herself by giving the killer his own key. She would have told him to find his own way in.’

      ‘And he’d use the prostitute or the lifting gear?’ asked Ramírez. ‘I know what I’d do.’

      ‘If he used the girl to get in why would he film her?’ asked Calderón. ‘That doesn’t make sense. It makes more sense the other way round — to show us how brilliant he is.’

      ‘There’s possibilities and improbabilities in both scenarios,’ said Falcón.

      ‘Do you both have Sra Jiménez down as a serious candidate for having her husband killed?’

      Ramírez said yes, Falcón no.

      ‘Which way do you want to take the case, Inspector Jefe?’

      Falcón cracked his knuckles one by one. Calderón winced. Falcón didn’t want to have to come clean just yet about what his instinct was telling him. He needed more time to think. There were enough extraordinary things about this case already without him suggesting that they take a look at what had happened to Raúl Jiménez in the late 1960s. But he was the leader and as such he had to have the ideas.

      ‘We should work on both scenarios and on Raúl Jiménez’s address list,’ he said. ‘I think we have to maintain a presence in and around the building to try to find a witness who will corroborate one theory of the killer’s entry and possibly give us a description. We need to interview the removals company. And we should keep the pressure up on both Consuelo Jiménez and Eloisa Gómez.’

      There was no argument from Calderón.

      They were driving back to the Jefatura on Blas Infante. Ramírez was at the wheel. As they crossed the river to the Plaza de Cuba, the advertisement for Cruzcampo beer triggered

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