Rubem Fonseca - Crimes of August

Ranildo held out his hand. “This one.”

“May I see it?”

Ranildo handed the ring to the inspector. A gold ring, similar to the one the inspector had in his pocket, a bit wider, without any letter engraved inside.

The inspector returned the ring to Ranildo.

“Thank you, Captain. We can go now.”

Ranildo escorted the inspector back to the van and stood watching as the police vehicle left the base.

Ten minutes later, the sound of growling motors of trucks and jeeps, the metallic whir of helicopters and Tomahawks was heard. The war operation to apprehend Climerio had begun.

Back at the precinct to relieve Pádua, Inspector Mattos asked his colleague if he would come to an agreement with Anastácio.

“It’s not enough for that son of a bitch to return the jewels. He’s got to testify against the guy.”

“That he won’t do.”

“We’ll put the squeeze on him.”

“I don’t want you to use violence on him. The guy’s sorry about what he did.”

“He’s scared. Are you going to let Ilídio off the hook?”

“No. But I’m in no hurry. Old Turk turned up dead in Tijuca Forest.”

“Oh yeah? When?”

“Yesterday.”

“I didn’t know. How about that, I did him a favor by letting the bastard go, and somebody capped him.”

Mattos stared at Pádua, who held his colleague’s gaze.

“I think you killed Old Turk.”

“I don’t want to argue with you, Mattos.”

“It was a stupid crime.”

“We’re not going to burn a candle over some cheap loser.”

“I’m very sorry, but I’m going to have to pursue this to the end.”

“Do whatever you like.”

When Pádua left, Mattos ordered the jailor to release the prisoners in lockup for questioning. There were two. Then he called the clerk Oliveira, to whom he gave instructions to summon the numbers boss Ilídio to appear at the precinct for clarification.

AT THE MOMENT the military troops were beginning their hunt for Climerio, the superintendent of the Federal Department of Public Safety, Colonel Paulo Torres, was declaring to the press that the former head of the president’s personal guard, Gregório Fortunato, was not being held prisoner but was merely at the disposal of air force authorities. The superintendent of police added that only the former second in command of the personal guard, Valente, was under arrest, and that the driver Nelson Raimundo was in voluntary custody, evincing no desire to accept any habeas corpus on his behalf.

Colonel Paulo Torres stated further that his office had taken over the police inquiry of the Rua Tonelero affair with the objective of making the process more efficient and that every resource would be made available to Sílvio Terra, director of the Technical Police, chosen to head the new investigations.

“This measure in no way diminishes the work done till now by Inspector Pastor, about whom I have the most positive references.”

Pastor had been removed because of pressure from the military and from UDN leaders stemming from Lacerda’s accusations of bias on the part of Pastor, a Vargas supporter, in conducting the investigation of the attack. Sílvio Terra enjoyed the confidence of Lacerda, the military, and UDN politicians, and nothing could shake that confidence. By all indications, however, none of them had read the book he had written in 1939, coauthored by Pedro Mac Cord, a hefty 464-page volume entitled Politics, Law, and Culture . In that book, which featured immediately after the title page a full-page official portrait of Vargas in profile, in tailcoat and wearing the presidential sash, was an interesting chapter on the New State, on page 103.

“The legislative branch, represented by the Federal Congress, that is, the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate, did not constitute a legal safeguard of the interests of the people,” said Terra. “For these reasons, President Getúlio Vargas, on December 10, 1937, excised in timely fashion the cyst forming in our national democratic system. With the New State was born a strong democracy. President Vargas bestowed upon the nation a new constitutional charter. In reinforcing central power, he extended his democratic prophylaxis to the system, impracticable among us, of universal suffrage. The constitutional charter of November 10, 1937, is a document of great historical value. It will be for posterity a symbol of national grandeur.”

THE UDN HAD ORGANIZED in order not to let a day go by without offering anti-Vargas speeches in the Chamber and Senate.

Deputy Herbert Levy began his speech by saying the country was witnessing at that moment the final act of a tragedy initiated in 1930. “Honest men, impeccable citizens like the incorruptible Carlos Lacerda, the symbol of what Brazil could offer as the best of moral resistance, were threatened by assassins protected by the holders of power. It mattered little that those directly or indirectly responsible who had pulled the strings of the killer puppets were individuals linked more or less intimately to the president of the Republic; it was already definitively known that the moral climate making possible an attack that had outraged public opinion had been created by the president of the Republic.”

THE SHACK where Climerio Euribes de Almeida was hiding was used by his friend Oscar only to store wood that he gathered in the forest. The best wood was used by Oscar to make posts, which he sold to neighbors to repair their barbed-wire fences. The poor-quality wood went into the wood-burning stove in his house. The Tinguá forest had lots of good timber.

That day, Climerio left his hideout and descended the hill to have lunch with his friends. After lunch Climerio and Oscar went to the banana grove, leading two mules with yokes, to haul back the stalks of bananas that Oscar had cut that morning. They had just finished loading the mules when Oscar heard a noise coming from the sky.

“What’s that noise, my friend?”

“I don’t hear anything.”

“Listen careful. . Over there, what’s that?”

Oscar had never seen a helicopter.

“What’s what?”

“Something strange, way over there. It’s gone.”

As they had only a machete and a sickle with them, Oscar suggested that Climerio take the mules to unload while he stayed behind to cut more bananas.

Climerio took the mules and unloaded the banana stalks in a bin in the rear of Oscar’s house. After this labor, Climerio was very tired and asked Honorina for a cup of coffee.

“It looks like it’s going to be cold today,” Honorina said.

Oscar would cut stalks of green bananas and leave them beside the banana trees. He worked quickly, as he wanted to cut the largest number of stalks possible before nightfall. When the day began to darken, he picked up the sickle and the machete and headed home.

He was walking along a dirt road when he was suddenly surrounded by armed soldiers, some of whom were leading dogs on leashes. Startled, Oscar dropped the sickle and the machete.

“What’s your name?” asked an officer who detached himself from a group of soldiers.

“Oscar, yessir, at your service.”

“Is there a man living in your house?”

“No, sir.”

“Simplício Rodrigues, who runs a store in the village, said your brother-in-law Climerio is staying at your house.”

“Oh, my friend Climerio. Yes, he was here, sir.”

“Your friend is a wanted killer,” said the officer. Two soldiers grabbed Oscar by the arms, one on each side, and the officer ordered the farmer to show where his house was.

Honorina watched the soldiers search her house without saying a word.

“Where’s the man?”

“He ran away,” said Honorina. She said that Climerio had fled half an hour earlier, when he sensed the arrival of the soldiers.