| |
The door to Carlos’s office opened. Natalia entered without greeting, with a sullen look on her face. Without saying anything, she sat down opposite him and crossed her arms. Carlos decided to remain silent, fearing that he was the cause of this outburst of bad temper.
‘Aguirre’s ordered us to go to him. It seems Dr Egaña has obtained results and wants to share them with us.’
‘Natalia, please... Don’t call him Dr Egaña. He’s your father.’
‘Let me handle this in my own way. It isn’t easy for me knowing that he’s walking around here.’
‘The man hasn’t done anything to you; he just wanted to talk to you. Shouldn’t you give him a chance? Maybe he’s changed.’
‘People like him don’t change. It caused me a lot of suffering to cut him out of my life, and I’m not going to allow him to come back.’
‘As you wish, but you’re acting like a baby.’ Natalia’s ice-cold look caused his body temperature to go down by a couple of degrees. He decided it would be better to change the subject. ‘By the way, I’ve spent the whole morning searching for information about that Luminal, and it’s not going to serve as a lead for us.’
‘Why is that? Knowing that the suspect could be epileptic ought to reduce the field a lot.’
‘Yes, considerably so...’ replied Carlos, sarcastically. ‘We’ve only got some 15,000 epileptics in the Basque Country. Let’s see which judge will sign me a warrant to access their 15,000 medical records to be able to investigate them...’
‘Wow, so that doesn’t help much.’ Natalia got up from the chair and shrugged her shoulders. ‘It’s okay; we’ll find a better lead in time. Let’s go and see what “my father” wants.’
Carlos stood up and followed her to Aguirre’s office. After knocking on the door and being invited inside, they were met with Aguirre and Dr Egaña. Natalia picked the chair furthest away from her father and, without even greeting him, sat looking at her boss. Carlos sat down between the two of them, trying to pass by unnoticed, and riveted his eyes on Aguirre, hoping that he would begin speaking and break that uncomfortable silence.
‘Good morning. I’ve summoned you here because Dr Egaña has managed to finish the facial construction of the first victim, and we now have a photofit portrait of the woman.’
Aguirre passed a copy of the image to each of them. On it could be seen a woman of around thirty years old, with a round face, thin lips, and snub nose. In spite of the fact the image lacked expression, one could see that she had been an attractive woman.
‘We’ve passed this image on to the press in order to ask them to distribute it,’ Aguirre continued explaining. ‘In a few hours’ time, it’ll be on the Internet and in the news, so we hope that her family gets in contact with us soon. As soon as we know anything, we will inform you.’
‘Thank you very much, sir. Do you need anything else from us?’ asked Natalia, getting up.
‘No, nothing else.’
Natalia said goodbye and left the room with as much urgency as if the air in there was unbreathable. Before Carlos could even react, the doctor got up and left after her.
‘If you will excuse me, Aguirre, I’m going to go and stop them from killing each other,’ remarked Carlos.
‘Yes, go after them.’
Carlos went out into the corridor and found them entangled in an argument. Natalia’s father grabbed her by the arm to prevent her from leaving, whilst she struggled and fixed him with a look that was capable of freezing a volcano in mid eruption.’
‘I only want you to listen to me for a minute, Natalia,’ he insisted.
‘I’ve already told you that I don’t want to listen to anything that’s coming from you,’ she told him in a tone that was so cold and calm that it made Carlos feel shivers.
‘I just want you to come to your senses. Don’t you realise that you’re wasting your life in here? If you would just listen to me, you could have a bright future.’
‘I already have a bright present, and it’s down to you not being in it.’ Natalia went back to shaking her arm, and managed to free herself. ‘Leave me in peace for once and fucking all.’
Carlos’s eyes opened wide upon hearing Natalia speaking in that way. She must have been truly furious to have let out a swearword. Her father must also not have been accustomed to such vocabulary either, because he stood frozen with his mouth open as she angrily clacked away in her heels along the corridor tiles.
Once she disappeared behind a corner, her father seemed to come back to his senses and realise that Carlos was beside him. He ran a hand through his hair in order to fix his hairstyle, and smoothed out his jacket to neaten up his impeccable suit before offering his hand:
‘Inspector Vega, am I right? According to what I understand, you are my daughter’s fiancé.’ The man waited for Carlos to nod before he continued talking. ‘Is there anywhere we can talk in private?’
‘Yes, in my office. Follow me, please.’
Carlos started walking, followed by Natalia’s father. He was feeling very nervous, like a teenager finally meeting his girlfriend’s father. He knew that it was ridiculous; that Natalia’s father was just a normal person, about whom he had nothing to fear, but the man was so cold that he thought he could feel a waft of frigid air striking his back and making him forget his will to live.
They arrived at the office and Carlos sat down on a chair, glad to have a desk between the two of them that would protect him from contact with the man. Natalia’s father ran his grey eyes over the office as if evaluating it. His mouth twisted a little, which showed his displeasure, and he brought his hand to his pocket to take out a chequebook.
‘How much do you want for leaving my daughter’s life?’
‘I’m sorry? I don’t understand what you mean...’
‘You know as well as I do that Natalia is throwing her life away I this dump. She’s a girl with a lot of talent, and could achieve anything she set her mind to, but, for some reason, she prefers to squander it in this miserable job. I suspect that it could be to do with the relationship she maintains with you, so I want to know how much it would cost for you to leave her. Tell me your price.’
Natalia’s father opened his chequebook, took out of his pocket a pen that appeared to be gold, and waited in silence for him to reply. Carlos could not believe he was actually experiencing such a situation. He did not know whether he was feeling confused, insulted, furious, or whether he had been transported to an episode of some cheap soap opera. He tried not to show his emotions, leant backwards in the chair, and smiled before beginning to talk:
‘Fine, write this down. One, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero... You tell me when, because I’m not going to stop adding the zeros.’
Natalia’s father stopped writing, and looked up at him with fury in his eyes.
‘Are you laughing at me?’ asked the man, angry.
‘No, but there’s no money in the world that can pay for your daughter. I’d have thought that you, who cherished her so much, would know that,’ responded Carlos, sarcastically.
The man closed the chequebook and stood up. In spite of there being visible rage in his eyes, he managed to control himself and put away the pen and chequebook in his jacket with calm and elegant movements. Then he took a card out of his pocket and left it on the table.
‘Think about it. Someone like you is never going to come across an opportunity like this again in their lifetime.’
‘I’ve already had the opportunity of my lifetime in meeting Natalia. I can’t ask for anything else. If you will excuse me, I have a lot of work, so, if you’re done insulting me, I would appreciate it if you left my office.’
Natalia’s father closed his lips with force and, without saying a single word more, left with a dignified air. Carlos leant back again in his seat and let out a long sigh, trying to expel along with that air the unpleasant sensations that the man had elicited within him.
‘Bloody hell, what a weirdo,’ he murmured between his teeth. ‘Now I know where Natalia gets her bad temper from.’