Robert Wilson - The Ignoranceof Blood

'What happened after that beating?'

'I walked the streets telling myself it was all over. There could be no going back.'

'But you already knew how difficult it would be for you to split from Ines,' said Falcon. 'So did it occur to you then… that little joke you had with Marisa about the "bourgeois solution" to complicated divorce?'

'Yes, it did. Not quite in that way. I was in a rage. I just wanted to get rid of Ines.'

'And what? Fall into the arms of Marisa?'

'No,' he said, shaking his head.

'Why did you give Ines the most savage beating of all for badmouthing a woman you didn't care about?'

'In calling Marisa the whore with the cigar, Ines had pointed out to me what I thought of her,' said Calderon. 'Marisa was an artist, but that never interested me. Throughout our relationship I treated her like a whore. Much of our sex was like that. And Marisa despised me. In fact, looking back on it, she hated me. And, I have to admit, my behaviour was loathsome.'

'So, what are you saying about Ines and Marisa now?'

'You know when you came to see me last I told you that Alicia had accused me of hating women. Me? Esteban Calderon. The greatest lover of women in the Edificio de los Juzgados? Yes, well, that's what I found out: I treated Marisa like a whore and Ines worse than a dog. And that's what I've been finding hard to face up to.'

Falcon nodded, stared at the floor.

'The first real glimmer of the truth that I could remember, one that really shook me to the core, was when I regained consciousness after my faint to find Ines dead in the kitchen. That was when I saw the damage from my earlier beatings and it was what made me panic, because I knew my evident abuse of her would make me the prime suspect in her murder,' said Calderon. 'Whenever I'd recalled that night I'd always concentrated on my lack of intent to murder her.'

'Because that would be your defence in court,' said Falcon.

'Exactly, but what came back to me during my sessions with Alicia was, having come into the apartment, seen the light on in the kitchen and been annoyed at the possibility of another confrontation and wished her gone from my life, I then saw her lying there in that vast pool of her own blood. That was when it came to me that I might as well have killed her. To see her there, in such hideously bright light, was like being confronted with the image of my own guilt. I fainted at the thought and sight of it.' In the early evening Falcon went to the Jefatura. The whole squad was in the office. The atmosphere was upbeat. They'd had two very successful days. Serrano put a cold beer in his hand.

'Guess what?' said Ramirez. 'Elvira wants to see you.'

'You'd think this guy doesn't have my phone number,' said Falcon.

'He's going to reinstate you.'

'I doubt it.'

'First of all, Spinola,' said Ramirez. 'Tell him, Emilio.'

'We went through his apartment and found seventy-eight grams of cocaine, forty grams of heroin and a hundred and fifty grams of cannabis resin,' said Perez.

'So he's a drug user,' said Falcon, shrugging.

'And… copies of all the rival bids in the Isla de la Cartuja development.'

'Which have also been found in the possession of Antonio Ramos, Horizonte's head of construction,' finished Ramirez.

'That was lucky,' said Falcon, nodding, taking a pull of the beer.

'The Juez Decano appointed the instructing judge, who was present throughout the search of the apartment, and he's totally accepted our findings.'

'What about Margarita?' Falcon asked Ferrera.

'She's in hospital in Malaga,' she said. 'She'd been given a very severe beating by one of Leonid Revnik's men when they found that Vasili Lukyanov had gone to Seville.'

'Was she his girlfriend?'

'Not exactly. She was special to him, that's all she would admit, but she was in very bad shape. They're going to call me when she's recovered enough to talk properly. Broken jaw, left arm and two cracked ribs.'

'El Pulmon?'

'He's identified Sokolov. We're in discussion over the knifing and the illegal firearm.'

'And what are they going to do to Mark Flowers?'

'They're not going to press charges for killing Yuri Donstov, but he's finished here in Seville,' said Ramirez. 'They're putting him on a plane back to the States, and he'll face a disciplinary hearing there.'

'And the big question for me,' said Falcon. 'What about Cortland Fallenbach? Was he involved in the original conspiracy?'

'They've taken away his passport,' said Ramirez, 'and he's got a team of lawyers fighting to get it back. I don't know. Without Lucrecio Arenas and Cesar Benito around, that might be a difficult thing to prove.'

The phone rang. Baena took it, held the phone to his chest.

'Guess what?'

'All right,' said Falcon. 'I'm going up there. Tell him I just wanted to see the most important people first. Great work everybody.'

Comisario Elvira didn't keep him waiting. His secretary offered him coffee. This almost never happened.

'I'm writing the press release,' said Elvira.

'What's that for?'

'The final charges have been made relating to the planting of the Seville bomb.'

'The final charges?'

'All right, the people who planted the device have been apprehended and they're going to face justice.'

'What about the chain of command from the suspects we've had in custody since June, through to Horizonte and I4IT?'

'We can't make any announcements relating to that.'

'Are you going to work on it?'

'We'll have to take a view on that,' said Elvira. 'Anyway, this evening there's going to be a televised press conference. The mayor and Comisario Lobo want you to be there to read out the statement that I'm preparing for you.'

'I'm suspended from duty pending a full inquiry,' said Falcon.

'You were reinstated last night when we determined Alejandro Spinola's involvement in leaking information about the Isla de la Cartuja development project.'

'What about my unapproved improvisation in the Hotel La Berenjena?'

'Look, Javier, I've really got to get down to these press releases and statements,' said Elvira. 'I'd like you to join me in my car in an hour's time to go to the state parliament.'

Falcon nodded, left the room. The secretary brought the coffee. He drank it standing in front of her. He went back down to the Homicide office.

'There's going to be a press conference in the state parliament in about an hour and a half's time,' said Falcon. 'I'd like you all to listen to that.'

He went into his office and was about to close the door when he saw the wall chart. He lifted it off its hook and took it back into the outer office.

'You can strip this down and file it,' he said. 'We're finished with it now.'

The phone rang. It was the scrambled line used by the CNI. He went into his office, closed the door, answered it.

'I got a full report from my agents in Fes,' said Pablo. 'And Alfonso has briefed me on the aftermath. You got the boy.'

'He's in good shape, considering. Doesn't remember a thing about it… for the moment,' said Falcon. 'How have the Moroccans taken it?'

'They got a call from the Saudis as well, so… they're philosophical. Oil has a very loud voice,' said Pablo. 'Still, all is not lost. The Germans have uncovered a network related to Barakat's export business there. The Moroccans are pursuing two very strong leads into the GICM from other connections they've made to Barakat. There was also an Algerian link. And MI5 are working on that cell the French told them about, which, it seems, was connected to Barakat's carpet business in London. So, although we didn't get the man…'

'What about you?' asked Falcon. 'Did you get anything out of it?'

'Yacoub had left all the details of the GICM logistics cell he was using on the Costa del Sol with the Saudis,' said Pablo. 'And two more he'd heard about in Madrid and Barcelona. We're all happy.'