by Hylton Smith
*
Manuel received confirmation of Gretz’ flight arrival time on his communicator. It was a welcome punctuation of the growing discord between him and his mother. She begged him not to get involved any further, stating the old cliché that nothing could bring Konrad back. Manuel recovered his composure sufficiently to bring the conversation to a close in a reasonable manner. “Mama, I know you have been ultra-loyal to father all of your life. I appreciate what may have been at stake. He was much better placed than I was to help Konrad, but he declined. He kept that from both of us until he was forced by Konrad begging for my help, to enlighten you. I respect the duty you feel toward him, and you must reciprocate with mine to my brother. Yes Mama, I still think of him as my brother – always. Don’t worry, I will be careful.” He took the items she had brought for him and they left.
When Butragueno informed Duarte of the conversation he astonished her by suggesting she should accept the invite. “Remember he said there was something familiar about the tattoo and other stuff. He may have recalled the detail. Just be on your guard.”
She riled at this insinuation. “I’m not a rookie Sir, I know the ropes.”
“Sure, but he’s a journalist with a reputation for exposing big time crooks and politicians, and you think he is a bit special.”
Now she was angry. “I beg your pardon?” Duarte smiled and challenged her.
“Ok, go ahead deny it, but he will have noticed – the same as I did.” She blushed and rounded on him.
“Then why don’t you have a coffee with him?”
“Because he thinks you will be an easier target. Look, I’m not worried about your professional capability. This has the potential to benefit us and hurt us. I was going to suggest you let him know you are going to Barcelona. I’m sure he will try to convince you what a coincidence that is, as he was planning to start there himself. Think about it, we have given a verdict but not closed the case – he knows that, and he’ll have a pretty good idea who you are going to see, because he has the list. I think he may be able to get more from witnesses if you have to put up with a minder from the locals. Are you keeping up with me here?”
“Yes. I’ll think about it. However, I may need more information on some things before I can decide. You’re right this could hurt us, me more than you, you know – I am nowhere near retirement yet.”
*
Pierze had prepared his paperwork for the examination of the head. It was to be carried out by his department’s people. He admitted to Duarte that this would not only annoy the coroner, but would probably ensure Antonio Salina’s rage. “Don’t worry Chief Inspector I have a ready-made solution if he does try to block it. It may help if you inform him and show him my application as he is more likely to show his true reaction to you, and you are just doing your job. It may even give you the ideal opportunity to bring up the DNA discrepancies, and he will know it was coming at some time because of Manuel’s trip to the lab, as witnessed by his mother.” Duarte wanted to ask about something which had troubled him for a little while, but he decided it was not the moment. He acquiesced to Pierze’s request. He wanted things to pick up pace. He was not to be disappointed.
Antonio Salina was feverishly trying to recall Olmeda from the airport. He eventually managed contact after what had seemed like hours of the lawyer’s communicator being busy. He had got through by putting out a public address announcement. He wasn’t making much headway in getting Olmeda to return on the basis of his claims of the police bullying Manuel into complying with DNA and fingerprint tests. His exasperation resulted in him yelling into the mouthpiece. “As if that wasn’t enough, Duarte has just informed me of a request to perform post-mortem invasive tests on Konrad’s head. How can they do this if the verdict is suicide?”
“It is irregular, especially as Duarte’s pronouncement of suicide was officially endorsed by both you and me. Who is the request from?”
“I don’t know at this stage, he is on his way with the documentation. I’m sorry that I did not heed your advice when you wanted to stay. Please come back.”
“I will return to see the documents, but whether I stay beyond that is an open question, it may take more than an apology.” Salina breathed a sigh of relief.
*
Butragueno came out of the shower and after drying herself down she looked at herself in the full length mirror. She was quite critical of her recent neglect of her body, particularly the lapse of her gym membership. She then admitted to herself she would not have been so unhappy if she did not have a ‘date’. Despite initially laughing this off, she found herself not simply pulling something out of the wardrobe, putting it on and departing. She tried several garments and spent much longer on accessorising. She got annoyed that her hair did not adapt to her mental picture of the change of style she was planning at the hairdresser. ‘Duarte was right, I’m obsessing, why?’ She decided it was the wrong context for a dress, quickly donned one of her smart trouser suits and tousled her hair the way she liked it. After all it was only a coffee and she was going to be grilled, albeit skilfully.
*
When Olmeda checked back into the Riu Principal, Salina’s demeanour was distinctly downcast. He passed the wad of paper to his lawyer. “This is bad Antonio, very bad. We have somehow been hoodwinked. As we have rubber-stamped Duarte’s conclusion we have really tied ourselves into resisting this request. The only other choices open are to challenge it yourself with a personal plea, and stress the completely separate nature of that to your professional responsibility. The second option is to find valid reasons for the coroner to come up with something or find his pressure point. I don’t like mixing personal pleas with one’s duty of office. If I proceed to speak with the coroner, I must convince him that it is only me who has a problem with the request – and that you don’t like it but won’t stand in the way. My major concern is that if we were successful, it would require us to avoid ever joining in or leading an enquiry into any of the other deaths. Anything short of that would open up avenues which we have worked so hard to bury. I have to ask you a difficult question. Apart from any justification of top secret status of our investigation, is there anything you have not told me about Konrad’s claims?”
“Absolutely not. We both know that the scientist who disappeared is crucial to our ability to prosecute the objective we hope to achieve. It is therefore imperative that we do not overtly show any interest in finding him. That I fear, would guarantee his fate. We must avoid any premature knowledge surfacing to encourage others to join the search. We know Pierze’s boss is on it; after all it was their man. We must keep ahead of them, and we can only do that if we are not excluded by our own default. I hear what you say about personal and professional conflict, but my wife and son could object on compassionate grounds, and I remain neutral, explaining my agony, but upholding my responsibility. I actually think my son would relish being a thorn in my side.”
Olmeda agreed and suggested acquainting Senora and Manuel Salina with the situation. Salina nodded. “I will brief my wife. See if you can pin down Manuel.”
*
Butragueno picked up her date at his hotel and asked what kind of coffee he preferred.
“Surprise me,” he replied. She took him to ‘Ground Zero’ as she knew the quality and the owner very well. When they arrived she asked if he had eaten anything at all during the day.
“It has been a long flight and a trying time for you – would you like a snack – they have some unusual light-bites here?”
“Let’s see how we get on with the business stuff first over a coffee, and if there’s anything worth progressing, maybe you would join me for dinner. Does that appeal or am I being too obsessive?”
She was cautious. “I have plans later tonight. They are not set in stone but unless we stumble on something of strong mutual interest over coffee, I’d like to keep the arrangement with my friend.”
They ordered and he was straight to the point. “I do und
erstand Duarte’s dilemma. All of the concrete evidence says ‘close the case’ but leaves an uneasy feeling about the unsupported claims of Konrad, who said it was the only way to bring them under public scrutiny. I actually understand fully, because Duarte is at the decision point I was at myself a few months ago with Konrad, and I made the wrong call.”
“Yes, well maybe we can start with any further recollections you now have with the stuff we have shown you.” He smiled and then surprised her by his revelation, not so much of its content, but that he had obviously played for time when first confronted with the data. He had needed time to think, possibly because of his new remit.
“Of course, it’s all to do with Futureworld. You know, I refused Konrad on many occasions when he banged on about the game making everything clear for me. It just made his claims look even more preposterous – that is before he hanged himself. The time of death which you recorded, he wanted to be as precise as possible. If you rattle the numbers off without punctuation we have time of death as 202208082022. That is twenty-two minutes past eight on the eighth of August this year. He had sent me information to try to force me to access his SACRED account after his death. The ID part of his log-on was 202508082022. You were three minutes early D.I. Butragueno, so your willingness to drop everything and rush to the scene alm… er.. almost saved him.”
Her eyes widened and filled up; she wanted to touch his hand. She resisted and he recovered his poise. “The tattoo was his coat of arms of his society membership for his character within the game. It’s necessary for me to give you what I know about this game from my conversations with Konrad, otherwise you’ll think I am crazy.” She was transfixed. He continued. “Can I call you something other than Detective Inspector, as it seems overly formal?”
“Duarte calls me by my family name.”
“Is there something in between, a nickname or abbreviation you like?”
She laughed out loud and took out her notepad. “I almost forgot; when Duarte is annoyed with me for reminding him of an oversight, he sometimes calls me ‘El But’ – because I say ‘but what about such and such?’ or perhaps, ‘but forensics show’. That’s shorter than Butragueno.”
He also laughed and complained at the same time that it implied negativity. “I can use the first part as it is presumably pronounced the same way as your given name, without it being excessively familiar?”
“Ok, El it is then.”
“Great, now getting back to Futureworld, it’s only one of many games available on SACRED but is the only one of its kind. Konrad told me that it is the most realistic approximation to real life anyone could conceive. Although there is a finite level set for combination of attributes in the opening character templates, they are there in abundance. The game mechanics are apparently capped by certain events which the users cannot change, but apart from that you set out your life and get on with it. It’s possible to design your education, actually sit exams and apply to university. On the other hand there’s nothing to stop you from walking the tightrope of criminal activity with the attendant risk of the punishment. Bribery, joining influential organisations, inventing new things and applying for patents – he said it was ‘unbelievable’. His later concern was that it was too believable. His tattoo was the State Security Department membership, obviously not the real one – the one in the game. It is clear to me now that he still wants me to experience this. The problem is of course the ID log-on code. Although he changed it relatively recently to what it is now, it is only part of the access requirement. The others are DNA registration, stored and matched to facial vectors. So El, he also knew I wouldn’t be able to get in with what he left me. That’s the thing I must start with. I can sign up and join but not with his character. It also occurs to me that if I can somehow overcome this difficulty, I could be in danger myself. He repeatedly told me that if, for example, you are killed in a war or murder incident, it’s terminal. You can’t just load a saved character. You may begin again but you would be on a different timeline and at a serious disadvantage. This apparently drove some of his friends mad with rage.” She said this was worth pursuing and made the call to her friend to re-arrange the gym session.
“How will you try to get into his character?”
His slow smile was followed by him touching the end of his nose in a gesture of confidential leverage. “I may have just the contact for that.”
Chapter 10
Pierze had hit the jackpot again. Although the corpse in Africana had no head or identification paraphernalia, including a passport, he had been logged at immigration in Londonis the day before Konrad’s suicide, and departed late on the night of that suicide. “It is progress Duarte. We now have very strong circumstantial evidence to propose a valid connection between the two of them. I hope Butragueno finds something we can latch on to in Barcelona –it would give this further momentum. Did you get any objection from Salina about the post-mortem request?”
“Nothing heavy, but his body language says you’re going to need your plan B. On the other hand Manuel didn’t seem too surprised, despite Olmeda lobbying him to object.”
“He will regret it if that becomes his course of action, but I am secretly hoping he goes that route.” Duarte felt that this was all he was going to get, if he didn’t persist.
“I’ve been thinking about Manuel Salina. Maybe he can be of use to us.” Pierze was not sure he wanted to hear this and indicated that there were more than enough complexities to deal with.
“Absolutely,” said Duarte, “but that is not going to stop him, and more importantly, it won’t stop his sponsor. The analogy of shooting the messenger comes to mind.”
“Alright Duarte, out with it, what are you brewing up?”
“All I ask is that you recap the picture our eyes describe and the differences we overlay with our investigative acumen. Then instead of continuing to look at this through ‘still frames’ we apply dynamics to any correlation about which we feel certain.”
A frown blanketed Pierze’s face. “You are losing me.”
“I don’t think so Ricardo – may I address you as Ricardo?” Pierze was impatient.
“Get on with it Duarte.” He took that as an affirmative.
“I’m going to list what I consider to be the salient points. That obviously acknowledges there may be missing links which you, and all of the Salinas, have not shared with me yet.” The barb was deliberately angled to give pain at either going with the flow or trying to wriggle away. “Please do not interrupt Ricardo,
One – we have all but made it public that this was not simply a suicide.
Two – we have continually growing evidence of a link between the deaths on the list.
Three – that link has another sub-link by association with SACRED.
Four – We now have four investigations all of which serve different objectives.
Five – there are powerful resources behind all but one of those investigations, namely my precinct.
Six – even though the objectives are different, the likely route to them is more or less common, both in terms of who and what we uncover in the process.
Seven – the winner will be the one who puts the fragmented knowledge together in the most efficient order.
Eight – we need to avail of both straight-edge and miscellaneous pieces of the jigsaw, but the fit of single and aggregated parts must be constantly re-jigged to avoid regret that it should have been an obvious conclusion in hindsight.”
Pierze was completely lost for words but eventually mustered, “I don’t want to seem rude Chief Inspector, however you are talking so much out of character that I am compelled to ask if you have been fortified by some special tincture?”
“Not at all, I’m merely talking in the kind of riddles which I’ve been fed by the other investigating bodies. You need to be concerned as to whether the cooperation we are currently enjoying is exclusive or non-exclusive, because the others are not standing by idly. I get the imp
ression that it’s not possible for you and Central Security to work together, and the same applies to Manuel and his father. The arithmetic is blindingly obvious, and furthermore, the list I have just wittered on about does contain pockets of pith. Manuel Salina has indicated his sponsor has offered virtually unlimited resource. We can’t afford to miss out on this, so being open to approach can be useful. Another point of common currency is your missing scientist. You either truly do not know where he is, or you do know but pretend not to. If it’s the latter I’ll find out, and although Manuel Salina doesn’t know yet that he will be looking for him, it will occur to him one way or another as he proceeds. I’m not certain about his father but I haven’t discounted his burning desire to get there before you, since he undoubtedly knows of the disappearance via his field officers. Is this beginning to make sense?”
“Yes, you want to know more about our missing man despite my feeling that it would not be beneficial.” Duarte was almost exasperated.
“That is important, and finding him first is paramount, but with the appropriate help, and that would be not a disaster if we are ready for what it means to the bigger picture. He’s a crucial pawn, but still a pawn. I can understand you don’t want to seem anxious in your search, for fear of over-emphasising his importance, but that has convinced me of precisely how critical he is to our progress. You must be aware that I can, upon the receipt of new evidence admit my error and declare the death of Konrad Salina as suspicious. Think about it Ricardo.” The pronunciation of the ‘R’ was emphasised.
*
As he made his way back to his office Duarte pondered over whether he had overplayed his hand. He couldn’t however rid himself of the notion that despite his liaison with Pierze, he was only being tolerated until his usefulness had expired. In apparently upping the ante with Manuel Salina in particular, he had hoped to goad Pierze into a cooperative triad which would endure until the end of all enquiries. It not only failed to achieve that, it didn’t even elicit an answer to the burning question which had incessantly bugged him. Why had the first meeting with Pierze been a full squad and all subsequent contact been solo? Where had the hired help gone and why? Typical of his doggedness, he decided to tail Manuel Salina himself, even though he had asked Pierze to take care of this. He suspected Pierze may have his team on something else, but would claim he had carried out the task without discovering anything.
