Leighton Gage - A vine in the blood

“They sure as hell do. They don’t have to put up with her eyesore of a back yard, or her hens, but all of them hear her noise. We’re in a valley here. The racket carries clear over to the other side. And then there are the thefts.”

“Thefts?”

“There’s been a spate of thefts. I’m not accusing Juraci personally, but you gotta admit it’s a hell of a coincidence that all the incidents occurred since she moved in. Nothing big, mind you. Not yet. But clothes have been stolen off clotheslines, radios and CD players ripped out of cars, TV sets stolen from houses.” Rodolfo took another cookie and waved it in Goncalves’s direction. “They talk to her, the security guys do, and she claims she knows nothing about it. Maybe she doesn’t. But she isn’t willing to recognize that it might be the people she invites to her home, all those old friends of hers from her favela days.” He popped the cookie in his mouth.

“Go easy on those cookies,” Angela said. “You’re supposed to be on a diet, remember?” Then, to Goncalves, “More coffee?” Goncalves shook his head. “It was delicious, but, no, thanks. How about the Artist?”

“What about him?”

“Does he put in an appearance every now and then?”

“All the time. That’s the only positive side to the whole rotten business. It’s something for the kids to brag about at school. You know him personally?”

“Not yet.”

“He’s a nice guy, not arrogant at all, always willing to give a kid an autograph. And how about that girlfriend of his, huh? Cintia Tadesco? Now, there’s a-”

“Bitch,” Angela said. “The woman is a bitch. That’s a known fact.”

“How can you say that?” Rodolfo said. “How can you say it’s a known fact?”

“Because I read about her all the time.”

“In that trash magazine you subscribe to?”

“It’s called Fofocas, and it’s not trash. I don’t know why the Artist puts up with her.”

“Hell,” her husband said, “all you got to do is to take one look and you know why he puts up with her. If I had half a chance-”

Angela punched her husband on his arm.

“Hey,” he said, “that hurt.”

“It was meant to,” she said.

“People,” Hector said, “I’m in a bit of a hurry here.”

“Sorry,” she said.

“Yeah, sorry,” Rodolfo said-and reached for another cookie.

“Rodolfo,” she said, “you want me to take that plate-”

“Last one,” he said, not letting her finish.

“Tell me about the last time you saw Juraci Santos,”

Hector said.

“Yesterday morning,” Rodolfo said. “I told you guys about that already.”

“I’d appreciate it if you’d go over it again. With me.”

“Oh. Okay. Sure. I was leaving for work. I drove up the ramp to the street and got out of my car to close the gate.”

“What time was this?”

“Somewhere between 8:50 and 8:55,” he said without hesitation.

“You seem pretty sure of the time.”

“I am. That’s when I always leave.”

“I told him there was a shopping list on the kitchen table,” Angela said, “but he forgot to pick it up. I grabbed it and ran out the front door.”

“And all the while,” Rodolfo said, “the Santos woman was standing next to her mailbox, arguing with a postman.”

“You’re sure it was an argument?”

“Hell, yes. I heard her tell him he could go fuck himself. That’s the way she talks, always fuck this and fuck that. The woman has a really foul mouth. The postman saw me looking at him, and he must have said something to her because she looked over her shoulder and spotted me.”

“Did she wave? Acknowledge your presence?”

“Wave? No way. Those days are long gone. All she did was lower her voice.”

“Tell me more about this postman.”

“What’s to tell?”

“Was he your regular guy?”

“That’s the thing,” Angela said. “He wasn’t.”

“A substitute?”

She shook her head. “Not that either.”

“How can you be sure?”

“They always deliver to us first. I checked the box before I came inside. There was nothing there. But, later in the day, there was.”

“This postman, had either one of you ever seen him before?”

Rodolfo and Angela looked at each other, and then back at Hector. Both of them shook their heads.

“If you saw him again,” Hector said, “would you recognize him?”

“I think I would,” Angela said. “I’ve got a good memory for faces. Rodolfo is useless.”

“Hey,” Rodolfo said.

“You are. You know you are. It’s downright embarrassing sometimes.”

“I can’t help it if I’m not a goddamned social butterfly.”

“You could at least make an effort.”

Hector picked up his spoon and tapped it on his cup.

Ding, ding, ding.

“ Senhor Sa,” he said, when he had their attention, “it’s my understanding you heard a disturbance early this morning.”

“Yeah, I did.”

“Tell me about that.”

“There was this bang next door. It woke me up.”

“You’re sure it came from next door?”

“I’m sure. Adolph sleeps in our room. He went ballistic, and that’s the direction he was barking in.”

“So you got out of bed to have a look.”

“I did. I looked out the window-”

“Bedroom window?”

“No. You can’t see much from our bedroom. I went down the hall to my office.”

“Can you see her kitchen door from the office window?”

“No.”

“What about her front gate? Can you see that?”

“Yes. And the road in front.”

“Did you turn on a light?”

“In the office?”

“Yes, in the office.”

“I did. I’m in the middle of a project. I have papers stacked up all over the floor. I didn’t want to step on them.”

“What did you see from the window?”

“A car driving away. He floored it. The tires squealed. He kicked up a lot of gravel.”

“And that didn’t make you suspicious?”

Rodolfo shook his head. “I figured him for one of her noisy friends, and I figured him for drunk.”

“And you decided not to complain to the security people?”

“No point. By that time, he was gone.”

“You keep saying he and him. Are you sure the driver was a man?”

“No. It could have been a woman. Truth is, I have no idea.”

“How many people were in the car?”

“I couldn’t say. It was too dark.”

“What did you do next?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Well, okay, not nothing. I turned off the light and went back to bed.”

Silva’s flight landed late in the afternoon. It took the best part of another hour for him to get to the Federal Police’s field office. Lunch, he’d told them when he called from the airport, hadn’t been in the cards, so Mara Carta, Hector’s Chief of Intelligence, took the initiative and had a sandwich and a soft drink waiting for him when he arrived. They updated him while he ate.

Arnaldo began by reporting on his visit to the Argentinean Club.

“You think it’s enough to satisfy Sampaio,” he asked when he was done, “or are we going to have to waste more time on his stupid theory?”

“It’ll be enough,” Silva said between bites, “provided Mara composes a report making it sound like an intensive investigation of the entire Argentinean community.”

“But unfortunately unproductive,” Mara said. “Leave it to me. I always wanted to write a novel.”

“Hold back a day or two,” Silva said, after swallowing a mouthful, “otherwise he’s unlikely to believe we’ve done everything you’re going to invent and put in there.” He turned to Hector. “What did you learn at the crime scene?”