The Silent and the Damned. Robert Thomas Wilson

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СКАЧАТЬ mother died and I inherited some money,’ said Maddy. ‘We thought we’d take a break and be in Europe for a while…visit our old honeymoon haunts: Paris, Florence, Prague. But we went to Provence and then Marty had to see Barcelona…get his Gaudí fix, and one thing led to another. We found ourselves here. Seville gets into your blood. Are you a Sevillano, Inspector Jefe?’

      ‘Not quite,’ he said. ‘When did all this happen?’

      ‘March last year.’

      ‘Were you taking a break from anything in particular?’

      ‘Just boredom,’ said Marty.

      ‘Your mother’s death, Sra Krugman…was that sudden?’

      ‘She was diagnosed with cancer and died within ten weeks.’

      ‘I’m sorry,’ said Falcón. ‘What was boring you in America, Sr Krugman?’

      ‘You can call us Maddy and Marty if you like,’ she said. ‘We prefer to be relaxed.’

      Her perfect white teeth appeared behind her chillired lips in a two centimetre smile and were gone. She spread her fingers out on the leather arms of the chair and switched her legs over again.

      ‘My job,’ said Marty. ‘I was bored with the work I was doing.’

      ‘No you weren’t,’ she said, and their eyes met for the first time.

      ‘She’s right,’ said Marty, his head slowly coming back to Falcón. ‘Why would I be working here if I was bored with my job? I was bored with being in America. I just didn’t think you’d be interested in that. It’s not a detail that’s going to help you find out what happened to the Vegas.’

      ‘I’m interested in everything,’ said Falcón. ‘Most murder has a motive…’

      ‘Murder?’ said Maddy. ‘The officer on the gate told me it was suicide.’

      ‘Self-murder,’ said Falcón. ‘If that’s what it was. It’s all motivated, which means I’m interested in everybody’s motives for doing anything. It is all indicative.’

      ‘Of what?’ asked Maddy.

      ‘A state of mind. Degrees of happiness and disappointment, joy and anger, love and hate. You know, the big emotions that make things happen and break things down.’

      ‘This guy doesn’t sound like a cop,’ said Marty in English, throwing the line over his shoulder to his wife.

      Her eyes were on Falcón, digging deep, excavating his cranium in a way that made him think that he must look like somebody she knew.

      ‘What was so wrong with America that you had to leave?’ asked Falcón.

      ‘I didn’t say anything was wrong,’ said Marty, bracing his shoulders as if he was at the start of the Olympic sculls final. ‘I was just bored with the grind of daily life.’

      ‘Boredom is one of our strongest motivations,’ said Falcón. ‘What did you want to get away from? What were you looking for?’

      ‘Sometimes the American way of life can be a rather enclosed world,’ said Marty.

      ‘There are a lot of Sevillanos who’ve hardly been outside Andalucía, let alone Spain,’ said Falcón. ‘They don’t see the need for it. They don’t think there’s anything wrong with their enclosed world.’

      ‘Maybe they don’t question it.’

      ‘Why should they when they live in the most beautiful place on earth?’

      ‘Have you ever been to America, Inspector Jefe?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘Why not?’ asked Marty, indignant.

      ‘It’s the greatest nation on earth,’ said Maddy, bright, cheerful and ironical.

      ‘Probably…’ said Falcón, thinking it through as he spoke, ‘because what I’d be looking for there has gone.’

      Marty slapped out a beat on his shin, delighted.

      ‘What would that be?’ asked Maddy.

      ‘What had transfixed me as a boy…which was all those black-and-white noir movies of the forties and fifties. They were the reason I became a detective.’

      ‘You’d be disappointed,’ said Marty. ‘Those streets, that life, those values…we’ve moved on from them.’

      ‘You’ve made a big mistake here, Inspector Jefe,’ said Maddy. ‘America is Marty’s favourite topic. We get out of there and suddenly that’s all he wants to talk about. He wakes me up at night because he has to tell me his latest theory. What was it last night, honey?’

      ‘Fear,’ said Marty, his dark peepers flashing from deep in his head like tropical birds escaping into the jungle.

      ‘America is a society based on fear,’ said Maddy flatly. ‘That’s the latest. It’s sad that he thinks he’s the first one to think them.’

      ‘Well, now, I suppose, in the post September 11th world…’

      ‘Not just now,’ said Marty. ‘It’s always been fear.’

      ‘Forget the pioneering spirit,’ said Maddy, hurling her hand over her shoulder.

      ‘There have always been pioneers,’ said Marty. ‘The strong and fearless men…’

      ‘This is very interesting,’ said Falcón, seeing his mistake now. ‘And it would be fascinating were it not for the fact that I have a double death to investigate.’

      ‘You see, he’s not that interested in your motives,’ said Maddy, and Marty flicked a dismissive finger at her. ‘And by the way, Inspector Jefe, he still thinks it’s the greatest nation on earth, despite…’

      ‘When did you last speak to the Vegas?’ asked Falcón.

      ‘I spoke to him yesterday evening about seven o’clock in the office,’ said Marty. ‘It was a technical conversation, nothing personal. He was businesslike, professional…the usual.’

      ‘Were you aware of any financial difficulties that might have put pressure on Sr Vega?’

      ‘He was always under pressure. It’s the nature of construction. There’s a lot to think about: the building, the machinery, materials and labour, budgets and money…’

      ‘And you?’ Falcón said, turning to Maddy.

      ‘Me?’ she replied, coming out of some deep, distracting thought.

      ‘The last time you spoke to Sr Vega?’

      ‘I don’t…I can’t think,’ she said. ‘When would that have been, honey?’

      ‘Dinner last week,’ СКАЧАТЬ