Robert Wilson - The Hidden Assassins

Tears welled up as Falcon looked down once more on Ines's inert body. This was a scene from her life that he'd never imagined-her death. Over the years he'd done a lot of thinking and talking about Ines. He'd relived their life together ten times over, until he'd nearly driven Alicia Aguado insane. He'd only been able to get rid of her permanent occupation of his mind by finally seeing her for what she was, and realizing how badly she'd behaved and treated him. But this was not how it should have ended. No amount of selfishness deserved this.

The paramedics moved him away from the body and got him sitting on the low wall by the river, away from where the Medico Forense was working. Falcon breathed deeply. The duty judge came over.

'You can't handle this case,' he said.

'I'll call Comisario Elvira,' said Falcon, nodding. 'He'll appoint somebody from the outside. My entire squad is an interested party.'

Elvira was speechless until he finally managed to come up with his condolences. The catastrophe was so much worse than he'd imagined and, as he spoke, first to Falcon and then the duty judge, the hideousness of the morning press conference began to spread like a malignancy through his innards.

The duty judge finished the call and handed the mobile back to Falcon. They shook hands. Falcon took one last look at the body. Her face was perfect and undamaged. He shook his head in disbelief and had an image from years ago, when he'd come across Ines in the street. She'd been laughing; laughing so hard that she was doubled up with her hair flung forward, staggering backwards on her high heels.

He turned away and left the scene. He walked past the patrol car where Calderon was being held. The door was open. The radio squawked. Calderon's wrists were cuffed, his torn and bleeding hands lay in his lap. He stared straight ahead and his vision did not deviate even when Falcon leaned in.

'Esteban,' said Falcon.

Calderon turned to him, and said the sentence that Falcon had heard more times from the mouths of murderers than any other.

'I didn't do it.'

Seville-Thursday, 8th June 2006, 08.04 hrs

The classroom in the pre-school had been reglazed and new blinds put up. The air conditioners were already working full blast, which was the only way to keep the sulphurous stink of the corrupted bodies still in the destroyed apartment building at a bearable level. It was already past eight o'clock and still Comisario Elvira had not arrived. Everybody was tired, but there was a buzz of expectation in the room.

'Something's happened,' said Ramirez, 'and I've got the feeling it's something big. What do you think, Javier?'

Falcon couldn't speak.

'Where's Juez Calderon?' said Ramirez. 'That's what makes me think it's big. He's the man for the press conference.'

Falcon nodded, appalled to silence by what he'd seen down by the river. The door opened and Elvira came in and made his way to the blackboard at the far end of the room, followed by three men. Already present at the meeting were Pablo and Gregorio from the CNI, Inspector Jefe Ramon Barros and one of his senior officers from the antiterrorist squad of the CGI, and Falcon and Ramirez from the homicide squad. Elvira turned. His face was grim.

'There's no easy way to put this,' he said, 'so I'm just going to give you the facts. At around six o'clock this morning Juez Esteban Calderon was placed under arrest on suspicion of murdering his wife. Two patrolmen found him earlier this morning, attempting to dispose of his wife's body in the Guadalquivir. Given these circumstances, he will no longer be acting as the Juez de Instruccion in our investigation. It will also be impossible for our own homicide squad to conduct the murder enquiry, which will be carried out by these three officers from Madrid, led by Inspector Jefe Luis Zorrita. Thank you.'

The three homicide officers from Madrid nodded and filed out of the room, stopping briefly to introduce themselves and shake hands with Falcon and Ramirez. The door closed. Elvira resumed the meeting. Ramirez stared at Falcon in a state of shock.

'We have decided to appoint a Juez de Instruccion from outside Seville,' said Elvira, 'and Juez Sergio del Rey is on his way down from Madrid now. On his arrival an announcement will be made to the press at a conference to be held in the Andalucian Parliament building and until that time I would ask you to keep this information to yourselves.

'Following the suicide yesterday of Ricardo Gamero of the CGI, there have been some major developments and the CNI will now explain these to us.'

Something had been sucked out of Elvira's face overnight. The staggering import of his announcements had left him haggard. He sat back in the teacher's chair, inanimate, with his chin resting on his fist, as if his head needed that sort of support to keep it in place. Pablo made his way to the front.

'Just prior to the suicide of the CGI agent, Ricardo Gamero, we had received information from British intelligence that they had successfully identified the other two men photographed by Gamero's source, Miguel Botin. These two men are of Afghan nationality, living in Rome. They were known to MI5 because they were arrested in London two weeks after the failed 21st July bombings and held for questioning under the Terrorism Act. They were released without being charged. The British were not able to establish what these men were doing in London at the time, other than that they were visiting family. The known addresses of these two men in Rome were raided by the Italian police last night and found to be empty. Their current whereabouts is unknown. What concerns us about these suspects is that they are believed to have connections to the high command of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, and are believed by the British to have forged links with the GICM in Morocco. In the last year they are known to have visited the UK, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain and Morocco. All these countries are believed to have GICM sleeper cells. There is considerable intelligence work still to be done to ascertain Miguel Botin's role, Imam Abdelkrim Benaboura's relationship to these two men, and their involvement with what has happened here in Seville.

'After Ricardo Gamero's suicide we conducted a search of Miguel Botin's apartment and discovered a heavily annotated copy of the Koran which matches the edition found in the Peugeot Partner driven by Hammad and Saoudi. Large chunks of the notes are exact transcripts and we believe that this is a codebook. It is now thought that as each sleeper cell is activated they are issued with a new codebook, which they use until their mission is complete.

'The significance of finding this copy of the Koran in Miguel Botin's apartment is that it could mean that Ricardo Gamero's source was a double: working with the CGI and operating for a terrorist cell. This throws considerable confusion into the current investigation, because it would mean that the only intelligence Botin was communicating to Gamero was what his commanders wanted us to know. This would mean that Hammad and Saoudi, the two Afghans, and the Imam were all expendable.

'There is one final confusing detail about Botin's actions in this scenario. As you know, a great deal of manpower has been spent trying to find the fake council inspectors and the electricians. Inspector Jefe Falcon has found a witness who was in the mosque on the Sunday morning, after the fuse box blew on the Saturday night. This witness saw Botin give the electrician's card to the Imam, and he watched as the Imam called the number and made the appointment. Inspector Jefe Barros has informed us that this was not something sanctioned by him or anyone in his department. The CGI was still waiting for authorization to bug the mosque.

'We now have to examine the possibility that the council inspectors and the electricians were members of, or in the pay of, a terrorist cell. It could be-and we might only have a chance of verifying this when the forensics have reached the mosque-that the council inspectors laid a device to blow the fuse box and that the electricians were brought in to set a bomb that would wipe out the Imam, Hammad and Saoudi, and Botin himself.'