Robert Wilson - The Silent and the Damned aka The Vanished Hands

'That's not the point -' said Falcón.

'The point is that we get insights,' said Calderón, cutting in. 'A man's actions, the way he behaves with people… different people, it all tells us something about him.'

'In my experience, they tell you what he wants you to think,' said Vázquez. 'Let me show you something about Sr Vega and you give me your insight. Can we walk across this kitchen floor yet?'

Felipe and Jorge were brought in to check and clear a corridor across the kitchen floor. Falcón gave Vázquez a pair of latex gloves. They crossed the kitchen to a door on the other side which opened on to a room whose three walls were made up of floor-to-ceiling stainless steel fridges. Hanging on the clear wall was an impressive array of knives, choppers and saws. The white tiles of the floor were pristine and gave off the faint smell of a pine detergent. In the middle of the room was a wooden table with a top thirty centimetres thick. Its bleached surface was a crosshatching of cuts and notches with a declivity in the middle, its edge furred from constant use. Falcón felt a strange sense of dread looking at that table.

'And this is where he keeps the bodies, is it, Sr Vázquez?' asked Calderón.

'Look in the fridges and freezers,' said the lawyer. 'They're full of bodies.'

Calderón opened a fridge door. Inside was a half- carcass of beef with hooves removed. The visible meat was a deep, dark red, almost black in parts where it wasn't pearled with membrane or covered in thick, creamy yellow fat. The fridges on either side contained several lambs and a pink pig. The latter's head had been removed and hung on a hook, ears stiff, eyes closed with long white lashes making it look at restful sleep. The other doors opened on to freezers with cuts of frozen meat packaged and stored in baskets or just thrown into the dark frosty depths.

'What do you make of that?' asked Vázquez.

'He wasn't a vegetarian,' said Calderón.

'He enjoyed butchering his own meat,' said Falcón. 'Where did he get it from?'

'From specialized farms up in the Sierra de Aracena,' said Vázquez. 'He didn't think there was a single butcher in Seville who had the first idea about handling meat, neither hanging it nor cutting it up.'

'Does that mean he used to be a butcher?' asked Falcón. 'Do you know when and where that was?'

'All I know is that his father used to be a butcher before he was killed.'

'Before he was killed? What does that mean? He was murdered or -?'

'That was the expression he used to describe the death of his parents. "They were killed." He never offered an explanation and I didn't ask for one.'

'How old was Sr Vega?'

'Fifty-eight years old.'

'So, born in 1944… five years after the Civil War ended. They didn't die in wartime,' said Falcón. 'You don't know when they were killed?'

'Is this relevant, Inspector Jefe?' asked Vázquez.

'We're building a picture of the victim's life. It would have had a significant effect on Sr Vega's mental state if, say, they died in a car accident when he was still a boy. If they were murdered, that would be something else altogether. That leaves unanswered questions and, especially if there was no retribution, it could breed a determination, not necessarily to find out why, which could be beyond his capabilities, but to prove something to himself. To find out who he was in this world.'

'My God, Inspector Jefe, 'said Vázquez, 'perhaps it's your own experience that's made you so eloquent on the matter but I'm sorry I can't help you with that kind of information. I'm sure there are records…'

'How long have you known him?' asked Calderón.

'Since 1983.'

'Was that here… in Seville?'

'He wanted to buy a plot of land. It was his first project.'

'And what had he been doing before that?' asked Falcón. 'Butchery doesn't buy you very much land.'

'I didn't ask him. He was my first client. I was twenty-eight years old. I didn't want to do or ask anything that might lose me the work.'

'So his background didn't bother you – the possibility that he might rip you off?' asked Falcón. 'How did you meet?'

'He came in off the street one day. You probably don't know this about business, Inspector Jefe, but you have to take risks. If you want to be sure about everything you don't set up your own practice… you work for the State.'

'Did he have an accent?' asked Falcón, ignoring the slight.

'He spoke in Andaluz, but it didn't sound as if he was born to it. He'd been abroad. I know he spoke American English, for instance.'

'You didn't question him about any of that?' asked Falcón. 'I mean, over lunch or a beer, not in an interrogation room.'

'Look, Inspector Jefe, I just wanted the man's business. I didn't want to marry him.'

The Médico Forense put his head round the door to say he was going upstairs to look at Sra Vega's body. Calderón went with him.

'Was Sr Vega married when you first met him?' asked Falcón.

'No,' said Vázquez. 'There were no divorce proceedings, although I think he produced a death certificate of a previous spouse. You'll have to ask Lucia's parents.'

'When did they marry?'

'Eight… ten years ago, something like that.'

'Were you invited?'

'I was his testigo.'

'A trusted man in every respect,' said Falcón.

'What do you make of my client's hobby?' asked Vázquez, wanting to take back control of the interview.

'His parents "were killed". His father was a butcher,' said Falcón. 'Perhaps this is his way of keeping a memory alive.'

'I don't think he liked his father that much.'

'So he did give you some personal revelations?'

'Over the last… nearly twenty years I've gleaned some small pieces of information. His father being hard on his only son was one of them. A favourite punishment was to make his son work in the cold store in just a shirt. Rafael suffered from arthritis in his shoulders, which he put down to that early treatment.'

'Perhaps butchery gives him a sense of control. I mean, not just because he's good at it but because he's reducing something large and unmanageable down to comprehensible and usable pieces,' said Falcón. 'And that's the work of the constructor. He takes the vast and complex architect's plans and dismantles them into a series of jobs involving steel, concrete, bricks and mortar.'

'I think the few people who knew about his hobby found it more… sinister.'

'The idea of the urbane businessman hacking his way down the spine of a dead beast?' said Falcón. 'I suppose, there is a certain brutality to the work.'

'A lot of people who had dealings with Sr Vega thought they knew him,' said Vázquez. 'He understood what made people tick and he had learnt how to charm. He had an instinct for a person's strengths and weaknesses. He made men feel interesting and powerful, and women, mysterious and beautiful. It was shocking to see how well it worked. I realized some time ago that I didn't know him… at all. It meant that he trusted me, but only with his business, not with his private thoughts.'

'You were his testigo, that's a little more than a business relationship.'

'You know there was a business element to his relationship with Lucia… or rather Lucia's family.'

'They had land?' asked Falcón.

'He made them very wealthy people,' said Vázquez, nodding.

'And not very inquisitive about his mysterious past?'

'I only wanted to show you that being his testigo did not imply a more intimate relationship…'

'Than he had with his wife?'

'You'll be talking to Lucia's parents, I'm sure,' said Vázquez.

'How was he with his son, Mario?'

'He loved his son. The child was very important to him.'

'It seems odd that he should have waited until he was over fifty before starting a family.'