The Legacy of the Bones. Dolores Redondo

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СКАЧАТЬ pulled a weary face.

      ‘I know your thoughts on the matter, but it’s imperative we solve the case as soon as possible. The Mayor was on the phone earlier. He sounded extremely concerned.’

      ‘I’m sure the culprits will turn out to be some young tearaways.’

      ‘Well then, arrest them and give me some names; that’ll get the Archbishop off my back. They’re in a panic over this and, while it’s true that they’re inclined to exaggerate when it comes to Church affairs, I’ve not seen them this stirred up over other, more sensational cases of desecration.’

      ‘Don’t worry. I’ll do all I can. As you know, we have a patrol car stationed outside the church. That should reassure them, and maybe they’ll stop pestering you.’

      ‘I hope so,’ he said.

      Amaia stood up and walked towards the door.

      ‘Thank you, sir.’

      ‘Hold on, Salazar, there’s one more thing.’

      Amaia stopped in her tracks and waited.

      ‘It’s been a year since Inspector Montes was suspended after what happened during your investigation of the basajaun murders. Having looked into the matter, Internal Affairs recommend he be reinstated. As I’m sure you’re aware, that will only happen if the other officers involved – in this case, yourself and Inspector Iriarte – give Montes a favourable report.’

      Amaia kept quiet, waiting to see where the Commissioner was going with this.

      ‘Things have changed. Then you were the detective leading the investigation, now you’re head of the murder squad. If Inspector Montes is reinstated, he’ll be under your command like everyone else. I have the last word over whether to assign him to your team or not, but your team is one short, so if you don’t want Montes, I’ll have to assign another permanent officer.’

      ‘I’ll think about it,’ she said frostily.

      The Commissioner sensed her animosity.

      ‘I’m not trying to influence your decision, Inspector, I’m merely keeping you informed.’

      ‘Thank you, sir,’ she replied.

      ‘You can go now.’

      Amaia closed the door behind her and whispered:

      ‘No, of course you aren’t.’

      The Navarre Institute of Forensic Medicine was deserted at midday. Between showers, a hesitant sun shone on surfaces glistening from the recent rain; the number of spaces in the car park showed it was lunchtime. Even so, Amaia wasn’t surprised to see two women throw away the cigarettes they had been smoking and walk over to her as soon as they saw her. She found herself resorting to a memory cue, as she struggled with their names: ‘Lazaro’s sisters’.

      ‘Marta, María,’ she greeted them. ‘You shouldn’t be here,’ she said, knowing full well that there was no obvious place for family members to go, and that they would either remain in the doorway or in the tiny waiting room until their loved one was released. ‘You’d be better off at home, I’ll let you know as soon as the …’ She always found the word autopsy, with its sinister connotations, impossible to pronounce in the presence of family members. It was just another word; they all knew why they were there; some of them even used it themselves. But, knowing what it entailed, for her it was as painful as the scalpel making a Y-shaped incision on the corpse of their loved one. ‘… As soon as they’ve finished all the tests,’ Amaia said.

      ‘Inspector.’ It was the older sister who spoke, Marta or María, she could never be sure. ‘We realise there has to be an autopsy because our mother was the victim of a violent crime, but they told us today that it could be a few more days before they release her … well, her body.’

      The younger sister burst out crying. As she attempted to stifle her tears, she gasped as if she were choking.

      ‘Why?’ demanded the older sister. ‘They already know who killed her. They know it was that animal. But now he’s dead and, God forgive me, I’m glad, because he died like the filthy rat that he was.’

      Tears started to stream down her face too. She wiped them away furiously, for unlike her sister’s, they were tears of rage.

      ‘… And yet at the same time I wish he was still alive, locked up, rotting in prison. Can you understand that? I wish I could strangle him with my bare hands, I wish I could do everything to him that he did to our mother.’

      Amaia nodded. ‘And even then, you wouldn’t feel any better.’

      ‘I don’t want to feel better, Inspector. I doubt anything in the world would make me feel good right now. I just wish I could hurt him, it’s as simple as that.’

      ‘Don’t talk that way,’ her sister implored.

      Amaia laid her hand on the angry woman’s shoulder.

      ‘No, you wouldn’t. I know you think that’s what you want – and to some extent it’s normal, but you couldn’t do anything like that to anyone, I know you couldn’t.’

      The woman stared at her. Amaia could see she was close to breaking down.

      ‘How can you be so sure?’

      ‘Because to do the things he did, you’d need to be like him.’

      The woman clasped her hands to her mouth; from the horror on her face, Amaia saw that she had understood. Her younger sister, who had appeared the more fragile and defenceless of the two, placed one arm around her older sister, and encountered no resistance as with her free hand she gently tilted the woman’s head on to her own shoulder, in a gesture of reassurance and affection which Amaia was sure she had learned from their mother.

      ‘We assumed we’d get her back after the autopsy. Why is it taking longer?’

      ‘Our mother lay abandoned for five months in a frozen field. Now we need time with her, time to say our goodbyes, to bury her.’

      Amaia studied them, assessing how resilient they were. Against all the odds, and despite evidence to the contrary, relatives of missing people show great resilience, which is nourished by the belief that their loved ones are still alive. But the moment the body appears, all the energy that has been keeping them going collapses like a sandcastle in a storm.

      ‘All right, now listen to me, but bear in mind that what I’m about to tell you relates to an ongoing investigation, so I’m counting on you to be discreet.’

      The two women looked at her expectantly.

      ‘I’ve been honest with you from the start, from the day you asked me to authorise a search for your mother because you were convinced she hadn’t disappeared voluntarily. I’ve kept you informed every step of the way. And now I need you to carry on trusting me. We’ve established that Quiralte killed your mother. However, it’s possible he wasn’t the only person involved.’

      Their anticipation gave way to astonishment.

      ‘You СКАЧАТЬ