AS SOON AS Fermín saw the good old doctor walk in through the bookshop door, he knew it was open season for shocks. Soldevila showed unmistakable signs of having been very professionally punched in the face. Daniel and Bea, who were behind the counter trying to balance the month’s accounts, opened their mouths wide and rushed over to help.
“What happened, Doctor?”
Dr. Soldevila let out a snort that sounded like a bursting balloon and hung his head dejectedly.
“Daniel, bring out the bottle of strong brandy your father hides behind the Exemplary Lives of the Saints collection,” Fermín ordered.
Bea took the doctor to a chair and helped him sit down. “Are you all right? Who did this to you?”
“Yes, and I’m not entirely sure,” he replied. “In that order.”
“And Alicia?” asked Bea.
“I wouldn’t worry about her, honestly . . .”
Fermín sighed. “She’s flown off?”
“Wrapped in a cloud of sulphur.”
Daniel handed the doctor a glass of brandy to which he offered no resistance. He downed it in one gulp and let the concoction do the trick. “Another, please.”
“What about Isaac?” asked Fermín.
“He stayed behind, meditating.”
Fermín crouched down next to the doctor and looked into his eyes. “Come on, Your Eminence, out with it – and, if possible, holding back on the editorializing.”
*
When he’d finished his account, the doctor asked for a third glass, as a nightcap. Bea, Daniel and Fermín joined him cautiously.
After a tactful silence, Daniel opened the discussion. “Where could she have gone?”
“To right a wrong, I imagine,” said Fermín.
“Please speak plainly, Your Graces,” said the doctor. “When I studied medicine, the Sempere family mysteries were not on the curriculum.”
“Believe me when I say I’m doing you a favour by suggesting you go home,” Fermín advised. “Place a veal steak like a beret on your head and leave us to untangle this mess.”
The doctor nodded. “Must I expect more gunmen? I’m just asking in case I need to be prepared.”
“Not for the time being, I think,” said Fermín. “But perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad idea to leave town and go off to a spa in Montgat for a couple of weeks. Take a merry widow with you and work on the elimination of a kidney stone, or any other corpuscle that may have got stuck in your urinary tract.”
“For once, I wouldn’t say no,” said the doctor.
“Daniel, why don’t you do us the favour of taking the doctor home and making sure he gets there in one piece?” suggested Fermín.
“Why me?” Daniel protested. “Are you trying to get me out of the way again?”
“If you’d rather, I’ll send your son Julián along. But I think the mission requires someone who has at least taken his first communion.”
Daniel agreed reluctantly. Fermín felt Bea’s eyes fixed on the back of his neck, but he preferred to ignore it for the time being. Before saying goodbye to Dr. Soldevila, he poured him one last glass of brandy and, seeing there was still a shot of liquor left in the bottle, downed the remains in one swig.
Free at last of Daniel and the doctor, Fermín collapsed on the chair and covered his face with his hands.
“What was all that the doctor said about the taxidermist and making a body disappear?” asked Bea.
“Some unpleasant matter that unfortunately will have to be resolved,” said Fermín. “One of the two most annoying things about Alicia is that she’s always right.”
“What’s the other?”
“That she doesn’t forgive. Did she say anything to you these last few days that might allow us to guess what was going through her mind? Think carefully.”
Bea hesitated, but then shook her head.
Fermín nodded resignedly and got to his feet. He took his coat from the stand and prepared to hit the road on a winter’s afternoon that did not look promising. “Then I’d better go off to meet the taxidermist. Let’s see if I come up with any ideas on the way.”
“Fermín?” Bea called, before he’d reached the door.
He stopped, but didn’t turn around.
“There’s something Alicia didn’t tell us, isn’t there?”
“I suspect there are a lot of things, Doña Bea. And I think she did that for our own good.”
“But there’s something that has to do with Daniel. Something that can hurt him a lot.”
At this point Fermín turned around and smiled sadly. “But that’s what you and I are here for, isn’t it? To stop something like that from happening.”
Bea looked straight at him. “Be very careful, Fermín.”
*
Bea watched Fermín leave in a blue twilight that threatened sleet. She stood there, looking out as people filed along Calle Santa Ana, hidden under scarves and coats. Something told her that winter, the real winter, had just collapsed on them without warning. And this time it would not go unnoticed.