Robert Wilson - A Small Death in Lisbon

At 08.30 Miguel Rodrigues was shown into interrogation room three which had the largest observation window. Some of the men gathering at that window I'd never seen in the building before. It was like a cocktail party in there.

At 08.32 I made the necessary introductions to the tape recorder. Miguel da Costa Rodrigues showed no sign that we'd ever met. He looked like a man who'd prepared a story in his head and it was going to take an earth-mover to get him to deviate from it. He was a PIDE man. He would know about interrogation. My only advantage was that he might not have been on the end of many interrogations himself.

He glanced at the reflective panel set in the wall. His lawyer sat next to him, like a trained hawk, with only the tips of his fingers on the edge of the table. I started by asking Senhor Rodrigues to clarify his identity and he calmly revealed that he was Manuel Abrantes and that he'd changed his identity in order to reduce the possibility that his previous employment might reflect against the bank. I didn't ask him to elaborate on that. I didn't want to blur the focus of my opening interview with him.

'Senhor Rodrigues,' I started, 'where were you at lunchtime, at around 13.00 on Friday June 12th?'

'I was in the Pensão Nuno.'

'What were you doing there?'

'I was watching three people engaged in a sexual act.'

'How?'

'I was in an adjacent room, watching them through a two-way mirror set in the wall.'

'Did you know any of these people?'

'No.'

'Had you seen any of them before?'

He conferred with his lawyer.

'I'd seen the girl before.'

'Where?'

'In the same Pensão.'

'When?'

'Exactly a week before.'

'Engaged in a sexual act?'

'Yes.'

'How many times have you seen this girl?'

'A few times.'

'Can you be more specific, Senhor Rodrigues? You should know that Senhor Jorge Raposo the manager of the Pensão is cooperating with the Polícia Judiciária?

'I can't be certain. It could have been as many as twelve times.'

'And always in the Pensão Nuno?'

'And always engaged in sexual acts with other men, although last Friday was the first time I'd seen her with two men at the same time.'

'After any of these occasions did you make any attempt to follow her?'

He leaned over to his lawyer again.

'Two weeks ago on Friday I followed her from the Pensão Nuno to the school she was attending, on Avenida Duque de Ávila.'

'That's not quite correct, Senhor Rodrigues.'

'I'm sorry, no. She went to a café near the school first.'

'Did you go in there?'

'Yes.'

'Do you remember its name?'

'No.'

'How did you know she was attending the Liceu D. Dinis?'

'I followed her out of the café and saw her go into the building.'

'So when you were observing her in the Pensão Nuno last Friday you already knew she was a schoolgirl.'

'Yes.'

'The sexual act you were watching last Friday, can you describe it please?'

'The girl was kneeling between two young men, one of the men had his penis in her mouth, the other was sodomizing her.'

'Sodomizing her?' I asked, beginning to see his strategy now.

'Yes.'

'How did you know that he was sodomizing her?'

'I could see from where I was sitting.'

'How was that possible?'

'They had moved the bed in front of the mirror and I could see very clearly what was happening.'

'Would you say that she was enjoying what she was doing?'

'There was nothing in her face to indicate to me that she was not:.'

'Did you follow her on that occasion?'

'No.'

'But you were in a car waiting for her outside the school later that Friday afternoon, at around four-thirty.'

'Yes.'

'Can you describe the car you were in?'

'It was a black Mercedes C200, petrol, registration 18 43 NT.'

'Is that your car?'

'The car is in my wife's name.'

'So you were waiting for the girl?'

'Yes.'

'What were your intentions?'

'To talk to her.'

'Talk to her? About what?'

'The possibility of having sex with her.'

'And what happened?'

'She came out of the school. She was talking to someone, an older man, perhaps one of her teachers. I don't know. They were talking or rather they were arguing, because at one point he hit her, slapped her face. She walked away from him up the street in the direction of Avenida 5° de Outubro. When I saw that, I pulled away from the kerb, stopped at the traffic light next to her, asked her if she was all right and whether I could give her a lift anywhere.'

'What did she say?'

'She got in the car.'

'She didn't say anything?'

'Not that I recall.'

'We have witnesses who say you talked for nearly a minute, until the lights changed.'

'That's correct. I remember now. I asked her the way somewhere. She started to explain and then said it was easier to show me.'

'What did you discuss in the car?'

'Music. We talked about music.'

'Is that it?'

'Yes.'

'Where did you go?'

'I wanted to go back to Cascais. I decided to cut through the Monsanto park to get to the motorway.'

'I thought you wanted to have sex with her.'

'Yes.'

'When was that discussed?'

'When we were in the Monsanto park.'

'Was she surprised?'

'How do you mean?'

'Originally you'd asked her the way somewhere. Where exactly?'

'I don't recall.'

'She seemed to think it was complicated.'

'Monsanto. I asked her the way to Monsanto. It is complicated to get to Monsanto from there,' he said, the flustering just starting.

'But having guided you to Monsanto I wouldn't think she'd want to be dropped there in the middle of nowhere.'

'As we began talking she told me that she was going back to Cascais and I said I'd give her a lift there. I was…'

'But you weren't. You were only going as far as Paço de Arcos that evening,' I said, using a recognized tactic for confusing a scripted story-concentrate on a small detail and tease out the half-lies.

'Look, Inspector,' he said, frustrated now, 'I asked her the way somewhere. She said she was going to Cascais by train. I said I was going there by car. She seemed happy to get a lift. She got in the car. I did not force her to come with me. She got in there voluntarily. If your witnesses are saying I dragged her in…'

'They're not. I just want to know exactly how it was, Senhor Rodrigues. In order to get her in the car you'd told her you were going back to Cascais.'

He wasn't happy but he needed to get away from it.

'She got in the car. I drove. We started talking,' he said, firmly.

'About music and going to Cascais… so how did sex come up?'

It wasn't hot in the interrogation room, but Senhor Rodrigues was finding it uncomfortable. His collar was tight around his neck and sweat was beginning to pimple on his forehead. He changed position in his chair several times and wrapped an arm around the back of his lawyer's.

'I told her I'd seen her in the Pensão.'

'That must have surprised her.'

'Why?'

'She thinks that she's got into a car at random. She thinks she's showing somebody the way to Monsanto. She thinks she's being given a lift to Cascais. You're talking about music… what sort of music were you talking about, by the way?'

'She said she liked the Smashing Pumpkins.'

That chilled me down to my liver.

'So you're talking about the Smashing Pumpkins, driving through Monsanto and then… you change it. Suddenly you're a punter, suddenly you're the one who's been watching her through a two-way mirror in the Pensão. Suddenly, Senhor Rodrigues, you are not a nice guy giving a girl a lift. You're another creep.'