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Rubem Fonseca: Crimes of August

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Rubem Fonseca Crimes of August

Crimes of August: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация

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Rubem Fonseca’s Crimes of August offers the first serious literary treatment of the cataclysmic events of August 1954, arguably the most turbulent month in Brazilian history. A rich novel, both culturally and historically, Crimes of August tells two stories simultaneously. The first is private, involving the well-delineated character of Alberto Mattos, a police officer. The other is public, focusing on events that begin with the attempted assassination of Carlos Lacerda, a demagogic journalist and political enemy of President Getúlio Vargas, and culminate in Vargas’s suicide on August 24,1954. Throughout this suspenseful novel, deceptively couched as a thriller, Fonseca interweaves fact and fiction in a complex, provocative plot. At the same time, he re-creates the atmosphere of the 1950s, when Rio de Janeiro was Brazil’s capital and the nexus of political intrigue and corruption. Mattos is assigned to solve the brutal murder of a wealthy entrepreneur in the aftermath of what appears to be a homosexual liaison. An educated and introspective man, and one of the few in his precinct not on the take from the “bankers” of the illegal lottery, Mattos suffers from alienation and a bleeding ulcer. His investigation puts him on a dangerous collision course with the conspiracy to depose Vargas, the novel’s other narrative thread. The two overlap at several points, coming to their tragic end with the aged politician’s suicide and Mattos’s downfall.

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“The cook and the pantryman. They’re in the pantry.”

The inspector, accompanied by Nilda, went to the pantry. A fat woman in an apron and a man wearing striped pants and a black vest, sitting at a table, stood up, startled.

“Wait out there. I’m going to talk to Nilda. Then I’ll call the two of you,” said the inspector, closing the door between the pantry and the kitchen.

“Was it you who called the police?”

“Yes.” Her voice tremulous. That was another unpleasant thing about being a cop: when people didn’t hate him, they feared him.

“How was it you discovered your master’s body? Take your time.”

“I went to take them breakfast and knocked on the door and nobody answered. .”

“Them who?”

“Mr. Paulo and Dona Luciana.”

“Wasn’t his wife traveling?”

“I didn’t know. She had left in the afternoon and I didn’t know.”

“Who told you that?”

“The master’s cousin, Mr. Claudio.”

“And then?”

“Mr. Paulo wakes up early and I thought he’d already left and that Dona Luciana was in the bathroom. That’s when I opened the door and. . saw that. . I ran out. .”

“And then?”

“I called the police. . and then Mr. Claudio.”

“What time was it?”

Silence. Rosalvo came into the pantry.

“Was it eleven?”

“Eleven? No. . I don’t remember.”

“You’re lying, Nilda.”

The maid started to cry.

“There’s no reason for you to cry. Calm down. I’m not going to do anything to you. All you have to do is stop lying. If you’ll stop lying, I have no quarrel with you. You said your master wakes up early. Let’s say you took him breakfast at eight o’clock. You found your master dead. You didn’t know what to do, and you remembered his cousin and called him, and he told you to wait, not to do anything, that he was on his way. Then the cousin arrived with the lawyer, that short guy with the deep voice, and the short guy told you to wait a little longer before calling the police, and you did as you were told. Isn’t that how it was?”

“Yes.”

“You can stop crying. I’m not mad at you.”

“The Inspector is a gentleman, not some kakistocrat,” said Rosalvo.

“Between the time you discovered the body and you called the police, more than three hours went by.”

“And there’s the crux,” said Rosalvo.

“I want you to tell me what your master’s cousin and the lawyer did during that time.”

Finally, Mattos managed to untangle Nilda’s thoughts and discover what had happened. Galvão and Aguiar had taken some time to get there. Meanwhile, Nilda told the cook and the pantryman what she had found, but neither had the courage to go see their dead master. When the visitors arrived, they went immediately to the bedroom but remained there only briefly. Nilda did not go in with them. Aguiar came out of the room very nervous, and Galvão told him several times to stay calm and asked Nilda to prepare a strong cup of coffee. When she brought the coffee, Aguiar was sitting on the sofa with his head in his hands, as if he were crying. Galvão had made several phone calls, mentioning Dona Luciana’s name a few times.

“I’m not going to be arrested?” asked Nilda, seeing the inspector jotting down her name in his notebook.

“No, you’re not. Maybe I won’t even need you. Relax, send in the cook.”

Neither the cook nor the pantryman knew anything useful.

“Get me a glass of milk, please,” Alberto Mattos told the cook.

“Would you like some cookies?”

“No, thanks. Just the milk.”

Mattos had just finished talking to the pantryman when the crime-scene team arrived. The forensic specialist was Antonio Carlos, a technician whom Mattos respected for his knowledge. The inspector told Antonio Carlos that Galvão and a cousin of the victim had entered the room and asked him to check whether some clue could have been destroyed.

“I can’t believe Galvão would do such a thing,” the technician said.

“Not even to protect a client?”

“Now that I think about it, I don’t know. . A lawyer is a lawyer. .”

The crime-scene team took photographs, lifted fingerprints and trace evidence from the statuette, the doors, the telephone, the night table. Together with the inspector they opened drawers and closets, bundled up the material to be taken away — the sheets, the dead man’s clothes hanging on the back of a chair, a small address book in glossy leather, and the bar of soap with hairs.

“This stays with me, for the time being,” said Mattos, putting the address book in his pocket.

The men from the meat wagon carried off the dead man in a dirty, battered metal box. The technicians left with them.

“Can I leave?” asked Rosalvo. “Today’s the wife’s birthday.”

“Go.”

The pantryman in the rear of the room cleared his throat.

“May we go?”

“I think you’d better wait for the lady of the house to get back from Petropolis.”

When he left, Mattos spoke with the daytime doorman. At six o’clock he had gotten off work and was replaced by Raimundo Noronha. But Raimundo had already left.

“Tell him to show up at the precinct as soon as he can, to talk to me.”

Arriving at the precinct, Mattos entered the occurrence in the blotter and handed over duties to Inspector Maia, who would relieve him. At that moment, Commissioner Ramos, who rarely appeared at the precinct on Sundays, came into the room.

“Everything okay on the shift, Mr. Mattos? Anything special?” asked Ramos.

“It’s all in the blotter,” replied Mattos drily.

Ramos picked up the book. “A homicide. . Ah, an important man. . A big shot. . Does the press know yet?”

Galvão must have called him, Mattos thought.

“By a person or persons unknown. .” continued Ramos. He laid the book back on the desk. As he always did when undecided or nervous, he fidgeted with his law school ring — gold, with a ruby center, and on the sides highrelief figures of the scale of justice and the tablets of the Ten Commandments.

“You have any clues?”

“I’m going home. When I discover anything, I’ll let you know.”

Mattos got the revolver he always kept in a drawer when he was on duty, placed it in the holster at his waist, and left.

GREGÓRIO WAS SUMMONED to the phone several times but answered only three calls, after lunch.

The first call: “It’s about the Cexim license. I need to talk to you no later than today.”

“I can’t today,” Gregório replied.

“It’s extremely important, Lieutenant. It’s better for us to meet. Mine isn’t the only interest at stake. Yours is too.”

“Don’t push it, Magalhães. I’m not in a good mood today.”

“I’m not pushing anything, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that something serious has happened. The CEO of Cemtex—”

“Today’s Sunday, I can’t do anything. In a little while I’m going to the Jockey Club with the president. Call me tomorrow,” said Gregório drily, hanging up.

The second call: “When’s the job going to get done?”

“One day soon,” answered Gregório. “Let’s take it easy, I don’t want to run any useless risks.”

“If something happens with you — which I don’t believe, because I know you act with the prudence necessary to avoid any complications — I’ll deposit the money abroad in your name. You’ll be a rich man. Very rich. Trust me, the way I’m trusting you.”

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