The Silent and the Damned aka The Vanished Hands

by Robert Wilson

'Are you out of your mind, Javier?'

  'Not always,' he said.

  'You now want to give her everything we've been fighting over for the last six months. You're prepared to take a loss of, God knows, half a million euros. Why don't we throw in the contents as well?'

  'That's not a bad idea,' said Falcón.

  She leaned over the desk at him, long black hair, dark brown, almost black eyes, a beautiful, fierce and haughty Moorish look that could wither most of the fiscales in the courts at a hundred metres.

  'Is that shrink still tinkering about in your head?'

  'Yes.'

  'Has there been a change in medication?'

  'No.'

  'You're still taking the drugs?'

  He nodded.

  'Well, I don't know what's going on in there, but it must be very loud,' she said.

  'I don't want to live in that house any more. I don't want to live with Francisco Falcón. Manuela does. She's obsessed by the place… but she doesn't have the money.'

  'Then she can't have it, Javier.'

  'Just think about it.'

  'I've thought about it and rejected it – instantly.'

  'Think some more.'

  'That's your ten minutes,' said Isabel, putting on her shoes. 'Walk me to my car.'

  The law students fired questions at her as she strode through the office. She ignored them all. Her heels cracked across the marble foyer.

  'I've got another question for you,' said Falcón.

  'Let's hope it's cheaper than the last,' she said, 'or you won't be able to afford me.'

  'Do you know Juez Calderón?'

  'Of course I do, Javier,' she said, stopping dead in the street so Falcón knocked into her. 'Ah, now I get it. You're emotionally distraught about him and Inés. Let's forget this meeting ever happened and when you're calm we'll -'

  'I'm not that emotionally distraught.'

  'So what is it about Juez Calderón?'

  'Does he have a reputation?'

  'As long as your arm… longer than your leg… longer than this street.'

  'I mean… with women.'

  Falcón, who was staring eagerly into her face, saw all her fierceness disappear to be replaced by a vast hurt, which surfaced like a harpooned whale and disappeared. She turned away and pointed her keys at her car, whose lights flashed back.

  'Esteban has always been a hunter,' she said.

  She got in the car and pulled away, leaving Falcón on the pavement thinking that Isabel Cano had been happily married for more than ten years.

  Chapter 12

  Friday, 26th July 2002

  On the way to Ortega's house he took a call from Jorge, who told him that the paper used for the Inés print was of a different make and quality to the blank stock he'd given him. The news momentarily elated him until he realized that this proof of his sanity must also mean that someone had got into his home and planted the photo. Not only that, they also knew about him and his particular vulnerability. His blood felt sharp in his veins but he calmed his paranoia with the thought that everybody knew about him. Since the Francisco Falcón scandal his story was public property.

  Pablo Ortega was coming back from walking his dogs. Falcón buzzed down his window as he drew alongside and asked if he could spare a few minutes. Ortega nodded grimly. Falcón pulled the photograph out of his briefcase. Ortega held the gate open for him. The stink from the cesspit was as thick as a mud wall. They went around the house and into the kitchen. The dogs drank noisily.

  'I've had some good news about the cesspit,' said Ortega, unable to sound delighted by it. 'One of my brother's contractors thinks he can rebuild without having to knock down all the rooms and he could do it for five million.'

  'That's good,' said Falcón. 'I'm glad it's going to work out for you.'

  They went into the living room and sat down.

  'I might have some more good news for you,' said Falcón, wanting to keep things positive. 'I'd like to help with Sebastián's case.'

  'It's no use you helping from the outside if Sebastián doesn't want to be helped from the inside.'

  'I think I can help there, too,' said Falcón, taking the risk that Aguado would agree. 'I have a clinical psychologist who's looking at his case and might be prepared to talk to him.'

  'A clinical psychologist,' said Ortega, slowly. 'And what would he talk to Sebastián about?'

  'She would try to find out why Sebastián felt the need to incarcerate himself.'

  'He didn't incarcerate himself,' said Ortega, leaping to his feet, throwing out a big dramatic hand. 'The state incarcerated him with the help of that cabron Juez Calderón.'

  'But Sebastián didn't defend himself. He seems to have welcomed his punishment and failed to offer anything that might have reduced his sentence. Why?'

  Ortega dug his fists into his expansive waist and drew in a massive breath as if he was about to blow the house down.

  'Because,' he said, very quietly, 'he was guilty… It was just his mental state at the time that was in question. The court decided he was sane. I dispute that.'

  'She will find that out from him,' said Falcón.

  'What will she talk to him about?' said Ortega. 'The boy has a fragile mind as it is. I don't want her stirring up more trouble. He's already in solitary confinement. I don't want him feeling suicidal.'

  'Have there been any reports from the prison that he might be?'

  'Not yet.'

  'She's very good at her work, Pablo. I don't think this will do him any harm,' said Falcón. 'And while she helps him clarify things, I'll look at various elements of the case

  'Like what?'

  'The boy he kidnapped – Manolo. I should talk to his parents.'

  'You won't get anywhere there. The Ortega name cannot be spoken in that house. The father has suffered some sort of collapse. He can't work any more. They spread malicious gossip so that the whole barrio has turned against me. I mean, that is why I am here, Javier… and not there.'

  'I have to talk to them,' said Falcón. 'It was the seriousness of Manolo's testimony that resulted in such a heavy prison sentence for Sebastián.'

  'Why should he change it?' said Ortega. 'It's his testimony.'

  'That's what I have to find out: whether it was his testimony or something that he was encouraged to say by others.'

  'What's that supposed to mean?'

  'He's a very young boy. At that age you do what you're told.'

  'You know something, Javier, don't you?' said Ortega. 'What do you know?'

  'I know that I want to help.'

  'Well, I don't like it,' said Ortega. 'And I don't want it to rebound on Sebastián.'

  'It can't get any worse for him, Pablo.'

  'It'll stir things up…' said Ortega, repeating his fear. He started out angry but then softened. 'Can you just let me think about it for a bit, Javier? I don't want to rush into these things. It's delicate. The media has only just fallen silent. I don't want them on my back again. Is that all right?'

  'Don't worry, Pablo. Take your time.'

  Ortega blinked at the photograph whose corner Javier was flicking.

  'Anything else?' he asked.

  'I was confused,' said Falcón, throwing back the pages of his notebook, 'as to your relationship with Rafael Vega. You said: "I knew him. He introduced himself about a week after I moved in here." Does that mean you did know him before you moved here, or that you've only known him since you've lived in Santa Clara?'

  Ortega was staring at the photograph face down on the table in front of Falcón as if he was a poker player and it was a draw card whose suit and number he wouldn't mind knowing.

  'I did know him before,' he said. 'I suppose I should have said he reintroduced himself. I met him at some party or other. I can't remember whose…'

  'Once, twice, three times?'

  'It's not so easy for me to remember. I meet so many…'

  'You knew Consuelo Jiménez's late husband,' said Falcón.

  'Yes, y
es, Raúl. That would have been it. They were in the same business. I used to go to the restaurant in El Porvenir. That's what it was.'

  'I thought the connection was your brother and his air-conditioning systems?'

  'Yes, yes, yes, now I've got it. Of course.'

  Falcón gave him the photograph, watching his face as he did so.

  'Who are you talking to in that photograph?' asked Falcón.

  'God knows,' said Ortega. 'The one you can't see is my brother. I know that from his bald head. This guy… I don't know.'

  'It was taken at one of Raúl Jiménez's parties.'

  'That doesn't help. I went to dozens of functions. I met hundreds of… All I can say is that he wasn't from my profession. He must be in the construction industry.'

  'Raúl divided his friends up into celebrities and… useful people for his businesses,' said Falcón. 'I'm surprised you didn't appear in his celebrity photographs.'

  'Raúl Jiménez thought Lorca was a brand of sherry. He'd never been near a theatre in his life. He'd like to think of himself as a friend of Antonio Banderas and Ana Rosa Quintana, but he wasn't. It was all a publicity stunt. I was a… No, let's be accurate: I occasionally gave support to my brother by turning up at functions. I knew Raúl and I'd met Rafael, but I wasn't exactly a friend.'

  'Well, thank you for explaining that,' said Falcón. 'I'm sorry to have taken up your time.'

  'I'm not sure what you're investigating here, Javier.

  One moment we're talking about Rafael's suicide, the next you make it sound as if he's been murdered, and now you're looking at Sebastián's case. And that photograph… that must have been taken years ago, before I put on all this weight.'

  'There's no date on it. All I can tell you is that it was taken before 1998.'

  'And how do you know that?'

  'Because the man you're talking to died in that year.'

  'So, you already know who he is?'

  Falcón nodded.

  'I feel as if I'm being accused of something here,' said Ortega, 'when it's just that my memory has been shot to pieces since this business with Sebastián. I've never used a prompter in my life and then twice in the last year I've come to in front of the camera or on the stage, wondering what the hell I'm doing there. It's… ach… you don't want to know. It's silly stuff. Nothing a cop would be interested in.'

  "Try me.'

  'It's as if reality keeps breaking through the illusion I'm trying to create.'

  'That sounds plausible. You've been through a difficult time.'

  'It's never happened before,' said Ortega. 'Not even after Gloria left me. Anyway, forget about it.'

  'Not all the work I do is about putting criminals behind bars, Pablo. We're servants of the people, too. That means I also try to help.'

  'But can you help me with what's going on in here?' he said, tapping his forehead.

  'You have to tell me first.'

  'Do you know anything about dreams?' said Ortega.

  'I have this one where I'm standing in a field with a cool wind blowing at the sweat on my face. I'm in an incredible rage and my hands are hurting. The palms are stinging and the backs of my fingers feel bruised. There's the sound of traffic and I find that my hands are causing me not physical pain but great personal distress. What do you make of that, Javier?'

  'It sounds as if you've been hitting somebody.'

  Ortega looked through him, suddenly deep in thought. Falcón said he'd let himself out, but there was no reaction. As Falcón reached the gate he realized that he'd forgotten to ask about Sergei. He went back but stopped at the corner of the house because Ortega was standing on the lawn with his hands reaching up to the sky. He sank to his knees. The dogs came out and snuffled around his thighs. He stroked them and held them to him. He was sobbing. Falcón backed away.

  The Vegas' garage with its brand-new Jaguar was cleaner than Sergei's accommodation and Falcón knew that there wasn't going to be any muriatic acid anywhere near this car's paintwork. He went down the garden to the barbecue, thinking that Sergei must have had a place where he kept his gardening tools. There was nothing unplanned about this area of the garden. It had been built by a man who understood how to grill meat. Behind the barbecue area there was thick, almost tropical growth. He went round the back of Sergei's quarters and saw that there was a path into this jungle, which obscured a brick shed. He was furious that this hadn't appeared in Perez's report on his search of the garden.

  He found a key in the garage and waded back through the thickening heat. The shed was full of sacks of charcoal and the usual barbecue paraphernalia. Sergei kept his tools at one end, along with some small quantities of building materials. On a shelf above there was paint and other liquids, one of which was an opened plastic bottle of muriatic acid with a centimetre left in the bottom. Falcón went back to the car for an evidence bag and used a pen through the loop handle to lift the bottle into it. As he worked, the light dimmed in the shed.

  'You're on your own today, Inspector Jefe,' said Maddy Krugman, startling him.

  She stood in the doorway, backlit. He could see every curve and crux of her figure through the diaphanous material of her dress. He looked down at her zebra- skin sandals. She leaned against the door jamb, arms folded.

  'I prefer it that way, Sra Krugman,' he said.

  'You look like a loner to me,' she said. 'Thinking things out, piecing things together. Building the picture in your head.'

  'You're keeping a careful eye on me.'

  'I'm bored,' she said. 'I can't go out to take my photographs in this heat. There's nobody around down at the river anyway.'

  'Is your husband still working for Vega Construcciones?'

  'Sr Vázquez and the finance people called him last night and said that he should continue to manage his projects,' she said. 'They don't seem to be pulling the plug… just yet. Would you like some coffee, Inspector Jefe?'

  They walked out into the sunlight. She checked the contents of his evidence bag. He locked the shed.

  'We can cut through here to our place,' she said, leading him towards a break in the hedge by Sergei's quarters.

  Falcón went back to the house, put the evidence bag inside the garage and shut the door. He followed her through the hedge and up the garden to her house thinking about how he was going to introduce Reza Sangari into the mix.

  He sat on the sofa in the chill of the living room while she made the coffee. Her sandals had low heels on them which clicked softly on the marble floor. Even out of the room there was still this subliminal sexual presence. She poured the coffee and lowered herself on to the other end of the sofa.

  'You know what it feels like out here when I'm all on my own day after day?' she said. 'It feels like I'm in limbo. It's one of those weird incongruities of life that I've found my social life has improved one hundred per cent since Rafael died. He used to be just about our only guest. But now you come around and yesterday I spent some time with Esteban…'

  'Juez Calderón?'

  'Yes,' she said. 'He's a nice guy and very cultured, too.'

  'When did you see him?'

  'I ran into him in town in the morning and we met up later and had an evening together,' she said. 'He took me to some odd bars in the centre that I would never go into by myself. You know, those places with a thousand jamones hanging from the ceiling, sweating into those conical plastic cups over the heads of fat guys with their black hair combed back in brilliant rails, smoking cigars and adjusting their trousers every time a woman walks by'

  'What time was that?'

  'You can't stop being a detective, can you?' she said. 'It was about six until ten o'clock.'

  She crossed her legs. Her dress slipped back towards her lap. She kicked the sandal off her foot.

  'I saw that you had a show called "Minute Lives",' said Falcón. 'What was that about?'

  'Or "Minute Lives",' she said, rolling her eyes. 'I never like that stupid title. It was my agent's idea. They like things to be catchy and c
ommercial. I've got the book upstairs, if you'd like to see.'

  She stood and flipped the hem of her dress out with her fingertips.

  'It's OK, 'said Falcón, wanting to keep this on the ground floor. 'I just wanted to know the subject matter.'

  She walked over to the sliding doors and put her hands up on the glass and looked out into the garden. Again the light streamed through her clothes. Falcón squirmed. Everything seemed to be calculated.

  'They were shots of very ordinary people taken at work or in their homes. They were people in a big city with small lives and the shots were just clips of their life story – your imagination was supposed to do the rest.'

  'I read a review of the show,' said Falcón. 'It was by somebody called Dan Fineman. He didn't seem to like it.'

  He watched the back of her head, her neck and shoulders as his words crept into her mind. She was as still as a night animal with a host of predators. She turned suddenly and with an intake of breath came back for her coffee. She lit a cigarette and thumped her back into the sofa.

  'Dan Fineman was an asshole I knew from high school. He always wanted to fuck me but he made my flesh crawl. He never aspired to anything greater than writing for the St Louis Times and when he got there he took his revenge.'

  'He wrote another article about you,' said Falcón. 'You might not have seen it.'

  'That was the only show I ever did in St Louis. First and last.'

  'This wasn't to do with the arts. It was a local news story.'

  'I only went back to St Louis to see my parents for Thanksgiving and Christmas.'

  'When did you say your mother died?'

  'I didn't,' she said, 'but it was on December 3rd 2000. You know who you remind me of, Inspector Jefe?'

  'Americans only seem to know one Spaniard and I don't look anything like Antonio Banderas.'

  'Columbo,' she said, not thinking this at all but wanting to get back at him. 'A much better-looking Columbo. You ask a load of questions that don't seem to have any bearing on the case and then, bang, you nail the culprit.'

  'Fictional police work is always more entertaining than the real thing.'

  'Marty said from the beginning that you weren't like any cop he'd ever seen.'