Leighton Gage - Every Bitter Thing

“Only sometimes.”

“Such as when?”

“When he got a visit from his father, Senhor. His father is a very important man. A Colombian, I think. Or maybe a Uruguayan. Not an Argentinean.”

“You think his father was unaware of Juan’s homosexuality?”

“What?”

“You figure Juan’s old man didn’t know his son was a viado?”

“ Sim, Senhor. That’s what I think.”

“Why?”

“Senhor Juan always acted differently around his father, Senhor Jorge.”

“Acted differently? How?”

The doorman took off his cap, revealing a bald patch, and scratched the top of his head. “He just… did. Most of the time, you could see that Senhor Juan was a viado, see it before he opened his mouth. You didn’t have to see him hugging and kissing that friend of his. You just knew.”

“Friend? You saw him with a friend?”

“All the time, Senhor.”

Pereira glanced at Silva. A smile curled one corner of his mouth.

“An older man, was he? This friend?”

“Sim, Senhor.”

“How much older?”

The doorman considered the question. “Thirty years older. Maybe more,” he said after a short pause.

“Brazilian?”

“No, Senhor. They always spoke Castelhano together. And also with Juan’s father.”

“Juan’s father knows this man?”

“Sim, Senhor. They are friends.”

“You know the friend’s name?”

“His name is Garcia, Senhor. Tomas Garcia.”

“Tomas with a T, right?” Pereira asked, making a show of writing it down.

“Sim, Senhor. Is there any other way to spell it?”

Pereira snapped his eyes from notebook to doorman. “You trying to be a wiseass, Jose?”

“No, Senhor. I honestly don’t-”

“You have any idea how to get in touch with this Tomas Garcia?”

“But of course, Senhor.” Jose de Araujo pointed a whitegloved finger at the carpet under his feet. “Senhor Tomas, he lives downstairs on the second floor.”

“Motive, means, and opportunity,” Pereira said when the doorman was gone. “I am so going to nail this guy Garcia.”

“What’s that proverb?” Arnaldo asked. “Something about not counting your eggs until the hen lays them?”

“Nunes,” Pereira said, rubbing his hands in satisfaction, “even you, your pithy proverbs, and your half-assed suppositions are but minor irritations on this fine day. Share my joy.

Think of the comedown for that boss of yours. He’s down there shooting his mouth off, and I’m up here solving the case.”

“Pithy?” Arnaldo said. “Did you say pithy?”

“I did,” Pereira said. “And I even know what it means.”

“I’d approach this one with caution,” Silva said. “Believe me, Walter, you don’t want to be proven wrong.”

“I’m not wrong. Senhor T-for-Tomas is our man. You guys want to be in on the collar?”

“The wise thing to do,” Silva said, “would be to get rid of Sampaio first.”

“True,” Pereira said. “We don’t want him horning in on the interrogation. That alone would give him grounds for another goddamned news conference. Hey, how come it’s taking him so long to get up here?”

“Body’s still here,” Arnaldo said.

“So what?”

“Sampaio gets weak in the knees if he sees a corpse. Corpses give him nightmares.”

“That’s your twisted sense of humor again, is it, Nunes?”

“No, Walter,” Silva said. “It isn’t.”

“Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You’re serious? Corpses give him nightmares? And a wimp like that heads up the Federal Police?”

“And a wimp like that does,” Arnaldo said.

Arnaldo and Pereira watched as the body, now zipped into a black bag, was lifted onto a gurney and rolled out the door. Silva came out of the kitchen, putting his cell phone in his pocket.

“I told Sampaio,” he said. “He’s on his way.”

“And all this time he’s been talking to those reporters?” Pereira asked. “How does he do it?”

“It’s a talent,” Silva admitted.

“Filho da puta. How much are you going to tell him?”

“Mushroom treatment,” Silva said.

“Meaning?”

“We’re going to keep him in the dark and feed him shit.”

The words were no sooner out of Silva’s mouth when the door opened and The Mushroom bustled in. “Senhores,” he nodded curtly, taking in the group. Then he extended a hand to Pereira. “I don’t think we’ve met.”

Pereira took the hand. “Pereira. Civil police. I’ve heard of you, Senhor, seen you on television.”

“Have you indeed?” Sampaio preened. “Heard good things, I hope.”

Pereira looked at Arnaldo, then back at Sampaio. “Absolutely, Senhor. Nothing but good.”

Sampaio gave a perfunctory smile, as if he’d expected nothing less. Then the smile vanished.

“How long has the victim been dead?”

It seemed like a strange choice for a first question. Silva looked at Pereira.

“The medical examiner’s preliminary conclusion,” Pereira said, “puts the murder between 10:00 P.M. last night and 2:00 A.M. this morning.”

“And your people were called shortly before 7:00, correct?”

“That’s correct, Senhor.”

Sampaio scratched the nonexistent whiskers on his immaculately shaved chin and let them wait for his next comment. His body language said he was privy to important information. When he spoke, it seemed like an anticlimax.

“The father of the victim, as these gentlemen know, is a Very Important Person, Jorge Rivas, foreign minister of Venezuela.”

“Yes, Senhor, I’m aware of that.”

Sampaio stopped scratching and looked at each of them in turn.

“The president instructed our foreign minister to call Rivas personally, communicate the death of his son, and express the sympathy of the Brazilian government.”

“Thoughtful of the president,” Arnaldo said.

Sampaio paused for a moment, apparently concluded-erroneously-that Arnaldo was being sincere, and continued. “The phone call,” he said, “was placed about an hour ago.”

Pereira couldn’t contain his curiosity. “How’d you find that out?” he said. “You got a contact in the Foreign Office?”

Sampaio fixed him with a fish-eyed stare. The director had many sources of information, none of which he shared. Knowledge was power. The silence went on for so long that Pereira started to fidget. When Sampaio deigned to resume, his tone was cold enough to freeze water.

“Kindly show me the courtesy,” he said, “of not interrupting again.” Pereira’s eyes narrowed, but the director stared him down. “Our foreign minister was unable to complete the call. It seems that Senhor Rivas had already been informed of his son’s death. He is, even as we speak, approaching Brasilia. So my questions to you, gentlemen, are these: Who the hell told Rivas about the death of his son? Which one of you, or which person reporting to one of you, felt he had the right to do that? And if the informant proves to be someone unassociated with you people, how did that person find out about it?”

Arnaldo and Silva exchanged a look. “We will endeavor to discover the answer to those questions, Director,” Silva said.

“You’re goddamned right you will. And when you do, you’ll tell me first, is that understood?”

“Understood, Director.”

“What else have you got?”

“Nothing else at the moment,” Silva said.

Sampaio looked deeply into his chief inspector’s eyes. They stared at each other for a long moment, the exemplary communicator versus the master at concealment.

Sampaio blinked first. “All right,” he said, “keep me posted. I’ve got to get out to the airport. I want to be there when Jorge Rivas’s flight arrives.”