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The whole flat was in silence. The only thing that could be heard was Carlos’s breathing, in step with Art’s gentle snores. Natalia turned over again in bed, covered herself up to her ears with the quilt, and tried to convince herself that she was very comfortable and that she would fall asleep any second now.
After five minutes, she decided to give up. She picked up her mobile from her bedside table and looked at the time. It was almost two in the morning, and her eyes were as wide open as an owl’s. With a sigh of resignation, she removed the quilt and sat up in bed. She knew perfectly well what was wrong. Once she got an idea in her head, it did not matter what time it was. The thought was beginning to go around and around in her head, as if she was trying to analyse it from all possible perspectives and, as soon as she had stopped thinking about it, it would start all over again. That night it was going to be impossible to sleep.
She got up and, before leaving the room, picked up one of the jumpers that Carlos had left cast on top of a chair. The pile of clothing that was starting to accumulate, hoping that they would get themselves in the wash all by themselves, was starting to be a concern. She decided not to say anything and to wait for Carlos himself to realise that he was running out of clothes in his wardrobe and that that tower of garments would not manage to stay upright for much longer. He was a big enough boy by now to know when he needed to do laundry.
Upon reaching the living room, she wondered what to do. She could lie down on the sofa, switch on the TV, on the 24 hour channel, and watch the same news programme on a loop again and again. She knew that that would relax her; it was something hypnotic. Upon the third time of seeing the same broadcast, she usually fell asleep without fail. However, that was not what she fancied doing. Although she knew that it would entail a sleepless night, she wanted to test out the idea that had come to her.
She looked carefully through her workbag until she came across the dossier containing all of the information from the case. She took out the file with the list of epileptic patients who had requested extra prescriptions of Luminal. She was still obsessed with the idea of finding out how the killer had managed to obtain those tablets, and she was certain that the answer was to be found on that list.
Once she had the papers in front of her, she wondered how to begin. The killer was supposed to be somebody who worked at headquarters, but she did not believe that a single one of the officers would have passed the examinations if they suffered from epilepsy. That would only leave as suspects the external staff: cleaning, maintenance...
She went back to searching inside her workbag before coming across the list she was looking for. When Carlos had convinced them that Roberto was not the one responsible and that the killer was somebody from headquarters who was still free, she had gone to an acquaintance in the administration department and had asked her for a list of all the people who worked there. Luckily, the young woman had thought that it was to do with something official, and had handed her the list without any trouble. Natalia just had to pray that she did not think to mention it to Aguirre.
She began comparing the list of cleaning and maintenance staff with the one of epileptic patients. It was a tedious job and, after half an hour, she began to feel her eyelids drooping. She could not believe it. As soon as she had decided not to sleep, she was feeling sleepy? She finished checking, without getting any result, and went to the kitchen to prepare herself a coffee. She knew that, even though she was feeling tired and on the verge of falling asleep, her eyes would open again and her mind would begin functioning once more at a thousand miles an hour as soon as she rested her head on the pillow.
With the cup in her hand, she went back to sit down by the table and stared at the papers as she wondered how to continue. The killer had to be related to one of the people on that list. There was no other way of obtaining that medication. An idea suddenly came to her head, like a spark. There was no need for the epileptic patient to work at headquarters. The sufferer could be a family member: his wife, a son...
She wondered how she could investigate that. She had the names of all her work colleagues, but could not think of how to access the information about their families. She began by crossing off all of the women. On that occasion, thanks to the security cameras at the hotels, they were certain that they were searching for a man. Once she finished doing that, she was paralysed once more. The list was still enormous, and she could just not think how she would be able to access the details of all those people’s private lives.
The answer came to her upon looking at Gus’s computer, set up in the corner of the living room. Facebook, the place where people put up the names of their family members, their photos, their concerns, grievances, and joys... She got up from the chair, sat down in front of the computer, and turned it on. It was going to be an immense task, but she was certain that she would find something.
*****
Carlos turned over in bed and covered his head even more upon noticing that someone was touching his shoulder. He was incredibly sleepy. It was impossible that it was already time to get up. Natalia did not give up, and she shook him a little harder. He emitted a grunt of protest, but brought half of his head out from under the quilt to look at her through squinted eyes.
‘What is it? Is it time to get up already?’ he protested in a grumbling voice.
‘No, it’s five-thirty.’
‘So why are you waking me up? What have I done to you?’
‘It’s important. I’ve discovered something about the case.’
‘And it can’t wait until morning?’
‘No. I’ve stayed up all night to find this. If I don’t sleep, you don’t either. After all, you’re the one who’s insisted we carry on on with this case.’
‘You’re going to manage to make me lose the will to marry you.’ Carlos sat up and shot her a look of hatred. ‘You could at least make me a coffee.’
‘No problem. I’ll be waiting for you in the living room.’
Natalia left the bedroom without saying another word. Still sitting up in bed, Carlos heard as she shuffled amongst the utensils in the kitchen. Judging by all the noise she was making, it seemed that she was preparing a full breakfast, so he could forget now about taking a quick look at what she wanted to show him and going back to bed.
Art stretched out beside him, sat up, and began licking one of his arms with apathy. It seemed that the dog was struggling between his moral obligation to say good morning, and the desire to continue sleeping.
‘We ought to kick her out of the house and live peacefully, just you and me, right?’ said Carlos, stroking the fur on the back of the dog’s neck. ‘I’ll have a think about it. Now we have to get up before she comes to give us a telling off.’
Carlos went into the living room, still rubbing his eyes. Without saying a word, he sat down in a chair, in front of which Natalia had placed a cup of coffee and a couple of rounds of toast. Carlos had to take a couple of sips of the coffee before he felt ready to talk.
‘What you’ve found had better be really good. I’m not going to forgive you for this as a breakfast.’
‘It’s worth the pain, as you’ll soon see.’ Natalia placed the two lists in front of him. ‘I’ve been going over and over our problem with the Luminal. We know that the killer had extra doses that he used to sedate his victims...’
‘And to fake Roberto’s suicide,’ commented Carlos.
‘Exactly, so he had to be on the list of epileptic patients who requested more boxes of medicine than corresponded to them. We also know that the killer works at headquarters, so I set about comparing both lists.’
‘And have you found anything?’
‘No, there’s nobody who appears on both.’
‘And you’ve woken me up to tell me you haven’t found anything? I’m going to kill you...’
‘Wait, don’t be impatient. Upon finding nothing, it occurred to me that the epileptic person did not have to be anyone who worked at the station, but could be a family member. The killer could have requested those extra medications and collected them from a pharmacy as if they were for that relative.’
‘Now tell me that you have found something.’
‘Well of course. I set about investigating the Facebook pages of the people at headquarters, and I have found this,’ Natalia took him by the hand, made him stand up, and brought him to the computer. ‘This is the page of Raúl Etxegaray.’
‘He works at headquarters? I don’t recognise him...’
‘And you dedicate yourself to investigating? Well you certainly do focus on the details...’ commented Natalia, sarcastically. ‘He does work at headquarters. And in the department of cyber crime, to be more exact.’
‘That is fantastic. That means that he could have the necessary knowledge to have hacked the security cameras or the IP records.’
‘Exactly. And look here.’ Natalia scrolled down with the mouse wheel to show him the photograph of a little girl who was blowing out the candles on a birthday cake. ‘I present to you little Carlota, Raúl’s daughter. A delightful and very pretty girl, but with a health problem that keeps her parents very worried.’
‘She’s epileptic,’ ventured Carlos.
‘Yes, she’s epileptic.’ Natalia stood up from the chair, ran towards the table, and picked up one of the lists before returning alongside Carlos. ‘And not only that. Her name appears on the list of patients that Aguirre provided us with. Here she is: Carlota Etxegaray. Two extra boxes in September of last year.’
‘God, you’re incredible.’ Carlos jumped to his feet, took her by the waist, and planted a kiss on her. ‘Now all we have to do is prove it.’
‘Do you think Aguirre will be all right about reopening the investigation with this?’
‘No, I don’t think so, but he will do if I get this guy to confess.’
‘And how are you going to do that?’
‘Give me a minute.’
Carlos left the living room and went to the bedroom, with Art trotting happily behind him. A few seconds later, he returned with his mobile glued to his ear. Natalia opened her mouth to speak, but he gestured for her to wait.
‘Gus, it’s Carlos... Yes, of course I know what time it is: it’s five in the morning... I’m sorry, but this is important. Do you work with Raúl Etxegaray? ...Is there any shift where you’re going to be just the two of you on your own? ...What do you mean you don’t even know your name at this hour? Go and take a look at your work shifts and let me know.’
‘You could have waited until the day started,’ suggested Natalia, whilst Carlos waited for Gus to come back.
‘I got excited and forgot what time it was, but don’t tell anyone... Yes? Have you looked at them yet? Perfect, when you’re both alone then, let me know. I have a couple of things to ask him in private. Yes, we think you could be working with the killer... No, don’t get scared, damn it. Nothing’s going to happen to you. And, most importantly, don’t mention it to your mother.’
*****
Gus looked back at his watch again. Carlos had said that he would call in at five in the afternoon, but it was already ten minutes past and he had still not shown up.
He half stood up from his chair to look over the top of the computer screen. Raúl was working about three metres away from him. Although he seemed very focussed, and nothing seemed to indicate that he was dangerous, Gus could not avoid feeling his breathing speed up once more. He felt his heart beating hard in his chest, his hands sweating... If Raúl came over to tell him anything, it was highly possible that he would end up suffering a heart attack. He did not understand how Carlos could firstly leave him alone with a possible serial killer, and then on top of that have the damn nerve to arrive late.
He tried to remember everything that Carlos and Natalia had told him so that he would not get nervous. He was in an Ertzaintza police station, surrounded by police officers. A killer would have to be pretty crazy to attack him there. Besides, his profile did not remotely fit with that of the victims: he was not a married woman over thirty who was trying to cheat on her husband. That did not reassure him. The killer was also supposed to have taken out Roberto too, who did not meet any of those prerequisites either.
In that moment, he heard as Raúl pushed his chair backwards. He went back to looking surreptitiously over the top of the computer screen, and felt all of his blood freeze upon seeing that the man was heading directly for him whilst putting his hand into the back pocket of his trousers. What was he going to take out of there? A knife? A pistol? A little syringe containing some drug so that he could kidnap him, take him far away, and torture him to death? Raúl stopped just in front of his chair and took his hand out of his back pocket. Gus cringed and closed his eyes.
‘Is something wrong?’ asked Raúl, confused.
‘No, no, nothing... I’m fine.’
‘I wanted to ask you whether you had any change.’ The man showed him the rumpled ten-euro note that he had taken out of his pocket. ‘The darn coffee machine only accepts coins.’
‘I don’t know if I have change for a ten, but I can lend you a euro,’ replied Gus, rummaging nervously through his pockets. He was prepared to give him all of his money in exchange for him going away and leaving him in peace.
In that moment, the door to the department opened. Carlos came in, smiling and carefree, and, without saying anything, closed the door behind him, using the bolt. Then he went over to them both with his hands in his pockets.
‘Good afternoon. I’m glad to find you together. I had some things to talk about with you.’
‘Oh really? What can we help you with?’ asked Raúl.
‘I think it’ll be better if we sit down. We’ll be more comfortable.’
Carlos turned a chair around and sat down with his arms resting on the back of it. Raúl sat down opposite him, whilst looking at his colleague with a confused expression. Gus limited himself to shrugging his shoulders and looking for a chair that was a good several metres away. If Raúl got all riled up and turned into the deranged psychopath they suspected he was, he preferred there to be space between them.
‘As I imagine you will know, I am trying to close the case about the Roberto Azkarraga murders,’ Carlos began to explain. ‘The problem is that there are a few points that aren’t tallying for me. One of them is to do with where Roberto could have got the medication that he used to drug his victims. It’s called Luminal. Would that happen to ring any bells, by chance?’
‘Yes, it certainly does.’ Raúl furrowed his brow and shook his head. ‘It’s the epilepsy medication my daughter takes. Do you have a question about the dose, or how it works?’
‘No, no... I don’t have any questions about that. My problem is that it’s a highly controlled medication which Roberto could not have had access to. However, you would.’
‘What do you mean by that? I have that medication at home for my little girl. Are you suggesting that I was Roberto’s accomplice? That I gave him the dosages so that he could drug those women? Are you crazy or something?’
‘Calm down, don’t get nervous,’ said Carlos in a tranquil voice and a smile that had nothing friendly about it. ‘At no time have I accused you of anything. You’re the one who’s talking about collusion...’
‘Good, because I have nothing to do with that. I have the medication that my daughter needs, and no more.’
‘Well, that is not entirely true.’ Carlos searched through his jacket until he found a folded sheet of paper. He spread it out over the table and pointed at a line that he had highlighted in green felt-tip pen. ‘Let’s see this name here: Carlota Etxegaray. That’s your daughter’s name, right?’
‘Yes, it is. Why?’
‘Because here it indicates that you requested two extra boxes of Luminal in September of last year.’
‘I can explain that with no trouble. In September we went on holiday with her. We took her to Euro Disney.’
‘Lovely place,’ Carlos cut him off, with sarcasm. ‘What does that have to do with the Luminal?’
‘We requested two more boxes so that her mother would carry one in her suitcase, and I would carry the other in mine. We didn’t want to run the risk of Carlota’s suitcase being lost and finding ourselves without her medication in a foreign country,’ explained Raúl. ‘In the end we didn’t need them. I have both boxes at home, not even opened.’
‘Well, I’ll have to verify that,’ answered Carlos, with a look that expressed that he did not believe even a single word of what the man was saying. ‘I’m going to ask you another little question... You wouldn’t happen to know whether anybody has modified the IP records for the station’s server, or the recordings from the security cameras, would you?’
‘I don’t have any idea what you are talking about.’
Carlos realised that Gus was making signals for him to go over to him. He shot another suspicious look at Raúl, to convey that he was not finished with him, and went over to Gus to see what he wanted.
‘What’s wrong now?’ he asked him in a whisper. ‘I’m halfway through an interrogation. You’re breaking my flow.’
‘You’re barking up the wrong tree with that one,’ replied Gus. ‘Raúl’s the most useless guy in the whole department. He knows just the basic amount necessary to keep his job. I’ve been talking with my hacker friends, and they say they have found signs that the records were modified, but that the one who did it is a true artist. They’ve been able to find out that someone was there, but that all the tracks have been erased. Raúl wouldn’t be capable of doing that, not even if his life depended on it.’
‘Well, perhaps he pretends to be useless in order to throw people off,’ ventured Carlos.
‘Okay, if you want to keep trying, you go on ahead, but don’t say afterwards that I didn’t warn you.’
‘God damn it... And why didn’t you tell me this before I started interrogating him?’
‘Because I thought you were only going to ask about the Luminal. How should I know? Neither of you tell me anything,’ protested Gus.
‘I’m going to wrap this up, and then I’m going to carry on with you,’ said Carlos, threateningly.
Gus puffed out, threw himself backwards in the seat, and crossed his arms in front of his chest whilst shaking his head, feeling incensed. Carlos ignored him and went to sit back down in front of Raúl.
‘Are we done yet with this nonsense?’ asked Raúl, feeling angry.
Carlos cursed between his teeth. Gus’s interruption had made it so that Raúl had had time to think. If he had realised that Carlos did not actually have any firm evidence against him, he could refuse to continue answering his questions. One should never stop an interrogation. That was the number one rule in the police. And less so if, in reality, you did not even have the right to be interrogating.
‘We’re done now, don’t worry. Only one more thing.’ Carlos consulted the notes in his notepad. ‘Where were you on the eighth of September of last year, at around eight o’clock in the evening?’
‘Well I don’t know where I would have been exactly at that hour, but on the eighth of September I was at Euro Disney with my wife and daughter, just as I told you before. I imagine we would have been having dinner, so as to be on time for the night-time Disney princess parade.’
‘Okay, all right.’ Carlos puffed out, feeling despair. This whole thing was not getting them anywhere. ‘And the twenty-first of the same month? Were you still all at Euro Disney?’
‘No, but I have a stonking alibi.’ Raúl stood up from the chair, tired of answering questions. ‘It was exactly on the twentieth that I was taken in to Cruces Hospital over an appendicitis attack. I spent the twenty-first recovering on the ward. I already took the leave notice to Aguirre. If you want, you can ask him for them so you can check it yourself.’
Without saying another word, Raúl left the department, slamming the door behind him. Carlos remained still, looking at the closed door without saying anything. Then, he covered his face with his hands and puffed out.
‘What’s wrong?’ asked Gus.
‘I’d bet you anything that that guy’s going directly to Aguirre’s office to complain. My hair’s going to fall out.’
*****
It was now time for the shift change. In the entryway to headquarters, those leaving crossed paths with those who were starting work. Everybody stopped to talk for a little while, in order to discuss how the work had gone, or to laugh at the glum faces of those who had eight hours in there ahead of them.
Carlos kept his gaze fixed on the lifts. Natalia should already have been there, but, as usual, she was late. Carlos cursed that obsession of hers to push right up to the last second of work and stay at her post until she was completely certain that she was leaving everything in order.
‘Could you stop huffing and puffing and shifting around?’ Gus asked him. ‘You’re making me nervous.’
‘I’m the nervous one. If Aguirre catches us here, he’s going to give us the telling off of a lifetime.’
‘Don’t get me involved in this, because I haven’t done anything. You’re the one who went in acting like Dirty Harry.’
‘We’re all involved in this. It was Natalia and you who convinced me that this guy could be the culprit.’
‘Me? You didn’t tell me a thing. All you said to me was that Raúl could be the killer, and to go and look to see when we were going to be alone just the two of us in the department. The rest of the picture is Natalia’s doing, so don’t get me caught up in it. We’ll have to see if they’re going to throw me out because of this nonsense... Where am I going to find an internship this good at this stage in the course? Surely all that’s left now is the stuff that nobody else wants: doing income declarations or super-boring accounting things that have nothing to do with what I want to do in the future...’
‘Shut up a moment, you’re driving me crazy,’ Carlos cut him off. ‘Look, here comes Natalia. Let’s go.’
Carlos went up to the lift and, without even saying hello, took Natalia by the arm and pulled her towards the door out. Gus followed along couple of steps behind them.
‘I don’t know what the point is in hurrying so much,’ she said. ‘If Aguirre doesn’t tell us off today, he’ll only do it tomorrow.’
‘Yes, but by tomorrow he’ll have already calmed down a bit,’ replied Carlos without slowing his pace. ‘We have to avoid catching him while his anger is still fresh.’
‘Inspector Vega, Miss Egaña, Mr Guevara, could I speak with the three of you in my office for a moment?’ they heard from behind them.
Carlos slammed on the brakes, whilst whispering swearwords between his teeth. He turned towards Aguirre with his most innocent smile. The sergeant was observing them with his arms folded, and a look that brought to mind the contained fury of a volcano on the verge of eruption.
‘Of course, Aguirre. Let’s go,’ replied Carlos.
They entered the office. Aguirre sat down, but did not invite them to do the same, so they remained standing, very firmly and in silence, as if they were in front of a firing squad. The sergeant took a breath and riveted his gaze on Carlos.
‘What is it you do not understand about my order to close the case of Roberto Azkarraga?’
‘Nothing, sir. It’s all very clear,’ replied Carlos with his head bowed.
‘Then why has one of the employees from the IT department come to complain about the fact that you have subjected him to an interrogation about said case?’
‘I was just trying to clarify a couple of insignificant points, but the case will be closed in no time, just as you ordered.’
‘The deadline I gave you has already passed, Carlos. I want the damn report with the seal of “Case Closed” on my desk, and I want it now.’
‘But we have new evidence that could indicate that Roberto was not the culprit, or that at least he didn’t act alone...’
‘I don’t care. The evidence we have proves his culpability beyond all reasonable doubt. I don’t want you to keep going over this and to have some journalist potentially finding out. You know perfectly well all the hell that broke loose when we had to tell the press that the serial killer who had the whole of Biscay terrorised was one of our homicide inspectors. Can you imagine what would happen if, all of a sudden, some media outlet leaked that the investigation was still going ahead, or that there could be more ertzainas involved in the murders?’
‘But I can’t stop investigating this. We’ll be discreet,’ promised Carlos.
‘I can already see how discreet you all are. It didn’t take Etxegaray even ten minutes before coming to tell me that you’d been interrogating him. Do you think he’s not going to mention it to his colleagues? That he’s not going to tell his family about it?’ Aguirre got up from the chair and rested both arms forcefully on the desk before leaning towards them. ‘If this gets out, I’ll be out on the damn street. Can any of you imagine who’ll be coming with me?’
The three of them nodded like obedient children, without saying a word. Aguirre went back to taking an immense breath of air before pointing out the door to them.
‘Get out of my sight. And I want that report closed tomorrow, first thing.’
*****
Carlos left the station, taking big strides, whilst Gus and Natalia followed him, trying to keep up with his pace. When he arrived at his car, he gave a couple of kicks to the front wheel and then leant against the passenger side door, took out a cigarette, and began to smoke with fast and deep puffs, whilst holding his vacant gaze on some point of infinity.
‘Are you all right?’ Natalia asked him, worried.
‘Brilliant...’ Carlos took another deep puff on his cigarette before he continued talking. ‘No, I’m not all right. How could I be all right? This whole thing is shit.’
‘And what are you going to do?’
‘Well spend the afternoon finishing that bloody report to hand in to him tomorrow morning,’ he replied, his voice coloured with rage.
‘So you’re giving up then?’ asked Gus.
‘Not on your damn life.’ A mischievous smile unfolded on his face. ‘If he wants me to close the case, I’ll close it. Then he’ll have to reopen it when we manage to find the culprit.’
‘And how are we going to do that?’ asked Natalia. ‘We don’t have anything.’
‘Well, we do have something...’ intervened Gus. ‘I don’t think we were so misguided when we turned our attention to the cyber crimes department. According to what my mates have told me, the guy who manipulated the records has to be someone who’s really good with computers, so I’d carry on looking around there.’
‘And who works in that department?’ Carlos took out his notepad to start jotting down names.
‘Apart from myself?’
‘Obviously. Or was it you all along? Should we have suspected?’ asked Carlos, sarcastically.
‘Me? You already know I can’t stand anything to do with blood, injuries, guts, and all that disgusting mess, so, if the crime scenes weren’t full of vomit, then you both know it couldn’t have been me.’
‘It was a joke, bloody hell... Tell me who works there, in addition to Raúl and yourself.’
‘Well there’s Markel, but he’s even more useless than Raúl with computers.’
‘Is it that there’s nobody competent in that department?’ asked Natalia, astonished.
‘Don’t get me wrong. They know how to do their job, and they do it well, but it’s obvious that they don’t have the slightest idea about programming. And much less know how to hack a server. The only one we’re left with is Juanjo, but he can’t be the killer.’
‘And why’s that?’ asked Carlos, interested.
‘First of all because he’s never given me the impression of being an IT whizz, either. Secondly because we’re looking for a tall and muscular guy. Juanjo can’t even be 5’5”, and he weighs over a hundred kilos. And thirdly because he spends the day looking at porn when he thinks nobody’s watching him. That doesn’t fit very much with Natalia’s hypothesis of him being a religious fanatic and a puritan.’
‘No, not much...’ Natalia shook her head. ‘Is there anybody else?’
‘No, although it could be...’ Gus fell silent for a few seconds, trying to put his thoughts in order. ‘Do you remember Daniel?’
‘No. Who’s that?’ asked Carlos.
‘So little sensitivity. He’s the computer expert who was killed a couple of months ago in a traffic accident. We went to his funeral.’
‘It can’t have been him. He was dead by the time the murderer killed Roberto.’
‘Yeah, that’s true. Forget what I said then.’
‘No, wait, wait...’ Natalia raised her right hand, asking them for a little time, whilst she began to walk up and down the car park in order to organise her thoughts. ‘We’ve been thinking the whole time that the killer is the same person who hacked the server, but there could be two different people. What if the killer asked Daniel to fiddle the records for him, incriminating Roberto, and, when he no longer needed him, he eliminated him?’
‘Do you know how good Daniel was at IT?’ asked Carlos.
‘I heard that everyone turned to him whenever they had questions. They say he was a kind of freak genius at programming,’ replied Gus.
‘To me he seems like a fairly reasonable suspect,’ commented Natalia. ‘And the fact that he was killed in a traffic accident right after the last victim is too much of a coincidence. What do you think?’
‘That it has to be investigated,’ said Carlos. ‘And also about how I’m going to start looking into what you need to work in private security if this ends up badly.’