Robert Wilson - A Small Death in Lisbon

'There's one other thing,' said Pedro. 'Klaus Felsen was released from prison last month.'

'Isn't that a year early?'

'Don't ask me why. You just have to know and you also have to remember that it was one of our father's dying wishes that we have nothing to do with him.'

Miguel was surprised to see his brother cross himself.

'Has Senhor Felsen called?'

'He's tried.'

'Well, he won't have much interest in Miguel da Costa Rodrigues.'

'I'm just telling you because… he has every reason to be angry. Not with us, maybe, but…'

'You should make him an offer.'

'Father made me promise… on his deathbed. I can't.'

Miguel shrugged. It felt good to have a heavy suit on his shoulders again, to not be sitting in the chill of air conditioning.

Pedro straightened the photograph on his desk and watched his brother's wide back fit through the doorway. He hadn't told him about his father's other dying wish, which was that his younger brother should inherit nothing from the Banco de Oceano e Rocha or any of its associated companies. It was the only thing he hadn't understood and his father hadn't explained but now, strangely, he'd been relieved of the problem-Manuel Abrantes no longer existed and Miguel da Costa Rodrigues would have to be on the board.

Miguel da Costa Rodrigues was a different man to Manuel Abrantes. The old Manuel wasn't just a shredded passport or an old skin left in a'são Paulo apartment. He was a dead man. Miguel da Costa Rodrigues proved to be more than just an identity change. He wasn't someone who'd tortured, raped, murdered and summarily executed anybody. He was a graduate from an American university, with an MBA and seven years' work-experience in Brazilian banking. He was charming and affable with a long line in bad after-dinner jokes. He liked children and children liked him. He was popular at work, respected for his unique relationship with the owner of the bank and his instinctive ability to manage people, to know their weaknesses and strengths.

For the second time in his life he became a success.

On January 19th 1981 he married the woman his brother had found for him-Lurdes Salvador Santos. Not even the name bothered him. That huge build-up of sainthood would have had him sweating in the dark ten years ago. Now he basked, if not in her beauty, then in her sweet nature and, of course, in her total dedication to him. Their only unhappiness was over two miscarriages in quick succession, and the doctor's advice not to try again.

That last miscarriage had come at a time when he believed that nothing could go wrong. In June he had delivered the planning permission for a twenty-storey high-rise on the Largo Dona Estefânia site. A week later construction had begun and he became known to the Lisbon business community as the Director Geral de Oceano e Rocha Propriedades Lda with a seat on the full board of the bank and a major shareholding.

His wife's news disappointed him and he unconsciously turned more of his attention to his work. He bought property around Saldanha for future development. He bought old factory sites on the outskirts of Lisbon for development into light industrial units and small businesses. He bought sites on the edge of Cascais, near Boca do Inferno, to build tourist apartments. He bought an apartment block in the Graça area of Lisbon, with a panoramic view of the city. He converted the top two floors into his Lisbon residence. He refurbished his wife's house in the old part of Cascais. He became fatter, and even more genial.

It was New Year's Day 1982 and Miguel and Lurdes Rodrigues had invited Pedro and Isabel Abrantes with their three children over to Cascais for lunch. The sun had shone all day but it was cold and when, in the late afternoon, the sun went down, the temperature hovered around freezing point.

Pedro's wife was seven and a half months pregnant with their fourth child. She was enormous which had surprised her, because with the first three she'd hardly altered shape. It meant that on the way back to Lisbon she sat in the back seat with the two girls, while the young Joaquim travelled up front with his father.

They were just driving out of'são Pedro do Estoril in their six-month-old Mercedes estate in the fast lane of the Marginal when three things happened at once. Little Joaquim stood on the seat, a car coming the other way swerved briefly over the double white line into the oncoming fast lane, and a BMW overtook Pedro on the inside. Pedro put his hand across to pull Joaquim back into his seat. He yanked the steering wheel across to his right but hadn't seen the BMW which hit him in the rear wing. The Mercedes span twice, turned over the roadside kerb, rolled on to its roof and back on to two wheels on a high bank which dropped down to some rocks by the sea. The Mercedes rolled, twisted, and slid down the bank. The front end crunched into the rocks shattering the windscreen. The three children spilled out. The car somersaulted over them and finished roof-down in the freezing Atlantic.

The Bombeiros Voluntários were there within ten minutes. People were already weeping at the crushed bodies of the three children on the rocks. The firemen quickly ascertained that Pedro had not survived but that Isabel was still breathing and crushed between the front and rear seats. It took an hour to cut her out and they rushed her straight into Lisbon with a police escort. The foetus, a baby girl weighing 2.7 kilos, was delivered by Caesarean section and placed in an incubator. Her mother's heart, weakened by the shock of the accident, did not survive the operation.

The funerals took place twenty-four hours later at the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos in Belém. The coffins were all closed, the spirit of the congregation broken by the size of the smallest three. The Abrantes family were placed in a family mausoleum in the Cemitério dos Prazeres in Lisbon, which already contained Joaquim Abrantes senior whose body had been brought back from Lausanne in 1979.

Miguel da Costa Rodrigues didn't get out of dark glasses for weeks and when he did his eyes were bruised and ruched. His brother's death blackened him in a way that had only happened once before. He derived small consolation at the delivery from the incubator of the: child they named Sofia which had been her intended name.

It was from early January 1982 that Miguel da Costa Rodrigues began to get visits from Manuel Abrantes. The Banco de Oceano e Rocha moved from the Baixa into larger temporary offices on the Avenida da Liberdade while the construction of the Largo Dona Estefânia building was completed. Miguel decided to maintain his brother's office in the Rua do Ouro. He began trawling the streets around the Praça da Alegria for girls.

On the 26th March 1982 he found himself climbing the stairs of an old eighteenth-century building on the Rua da Gloria followed by a twenty-three-year-old prostitute from Sines. The top floors belonged to the Pensão Nuno, which rented rooms by the hour. He dinged the bell and heard a newspaper fold in a nearby room. Into the light of the neon strip above the reception came Jorge Raposo, his old colleague from the Caxias prison days.

Miguel da Costa Rodrigues no longer had to walk the streets of the Rua da Glória. Jorge Raposo arranged for the girls to visit him in his office on the Rua do Ouro.

From the beginning of April, Friday lunchtimes and afternoons were spent in the Rua do Ouro office. Any papers that needed to be signed were brought to him by secretaries from the main office who kne:w where to leave them.

On May 4th 1982 a secretary from the bank's law firm needed a signature which couldn't wait until Monday. There were no bank secretaries available to take the papers so she went down to the Rua do Ouro office herself.