Antonio Tabucchi - The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro

— And what was the next step in your career?

I was transferred to Oporto. However, in the first place I was posted to Vila Nova de Gaia.

— And rumor has it that at Gaìa you established certain friendships .

What do you mean by that?

— We have heard tell of friendly relations with import-export firms.

I think these are insinuations on your part. If you wish to make precise accusations then make them outright and I’ll take you to court, because that’s what you journalists deserve, to be hauled into court.

— Come, sergeant, don’t get all hot under the collar. I’m only speaking of rumors that have come to our ears. All the same we know that you had contacts with Stones of Portugal. Or do you think these also are mere insinuations? I repeat the question: do you or do you not know Stones of Portugal? .

I know them just as I know all the businesses operating in and around Oporto, and I knew they needed protection.

— Why? Did it come to your knowledge that they had been threatened?

Yes and no, even though the owner never explicitly complained of it. All the same we knew they needed surveillance because they imported hi-tech materials, delicate materials worth millions.

— We are told that along with the hi-tech materials other merchandise arrived clandestinely in those containers. Did you know about this?

I don’t know what you’re getting at.

— Drugs. Pure heroin .

If that had been the case we’d have known. We have first-rate sources of information.

— In short you had no knowledge that drugs from Hong Kong arrived in the containers shipped to Stones of Portugal?

No. Ours is a healthy city and doesn’t need drugs. Our favorite thing is tripe.

— All the same, we read in the nationwide press that here in Oporto there’s a nightclub where they peddle dope, and it appears that you own it .

I firmly reject that insinuation. If you are referring to ‘Puccini’s Butterfly’ let me tell you that it is frequented by people of class and distinction, and does not belong to me but to my sister-in-law, as duly registered with the proper municipal authorities.

— However, it is said that you work there .

I occasionally go and lend a hand with the accounting. I’m good at figures, I’ve done a course in administration.

— But to return to the Stones of Portugal, it appears that that evening you were in the area on patrol with your squad can you tell us about it?

We arrived with our headlights dimmed, I don’t recall the exact time but it must have been about midnight, it was only a spot-check.

— What was the reason for this spot-check?

I already told you that Stones of Portugal import hi-tech material, just the stuff to attract petty thieves, and our job is to protect it.

— Go on .

We parked the cars outside the gates and went in. The office light was on. I went in first and caught Damasceno Monteiro red-handed.

— Could you clarify that statement?

He was standing by the desk holding hi-tech material that he had certainly stolen.

— Only such material and nothing else?

Only such material.

— Wasn’t he also carrying some bags full of powder?

I am a policeman, an official of the State, do you make so bold as to doubt my word?

— Perish the thought! What happened next?

We immediately arrested the subject, who thereafter revealed himself to be Monteiro. We ordered him to get into the car and took him to the station.

— At this point there emerges a contradiction between your two statements. According to our information, in your first statement you declared that you had let him out of the car in the course of the journey .

Who told you that?

— Let’s simply say that the offices of the Public Prosecutor are always full of leaks; sometimes a typist, sometimes a switchboard operator, even a simple cleaning woman — but that’s just by the way, the important thing is that in your first statement to the examining magistrate you declared that Damasceno Monteiro had not been taken to the station at all, but had been put out of the car during the journey.

This is a misunderstanding which I took the trouble to clarify in person. A misunderstanding on the part of a colleague of mine, Officer Ferro.

— Can you give us a better explanation of this misunderstanding?

Our patrol was comprised of two cars. Monteiro was put into mine. The other car, driven by a colleague accompanied by Officer Ferro, followed behind. At a certain point we pulled up by the curb and Officer Ferro thought he had seen Senhor Monteiro alight from the car. But he was mistaken. I should make it clear that Officer Ferro is a recent recruit, a young fellow, and you know what young men are, and it’s easy to doze off in a car. He was simply mistaken.

— Nevertheless, in your statement to the examining magistrate you did not immediately question Officer Ferro’s account .

I questioned it later, when I was able to study his account in detail.

— Did you not in fact question that account because the witness, Senhor Torres, has sworn that he followed you in his car and with his own eyes saw his friend Damasceno kicked and beaten and dragged into the police station?

Kicked and beaten?

— That’s what the witness says .

My dear sir, we do not kick and beat people! Kindly set it down in black and white in your newspaper: we have all proper respect for the citizens of this country.

— We place it on record that the conduct of the Guardia Nacional is irreproachable. But would you care to describe what happened that night?

No trouble. We went up to the first floor, where the offices and detention room are, and set about a preliminary interrogation of the culprit. He appeared to be at the end of his tether, and burst into tears.

— Did you touch him?

Explain what you mean.

— Did you lay hands on him physically?

We don’t lay hands on anyone, dear sir, because we respect the law and the Constitution, if you want to know. I simply tell you that Monteiro was beside himself and burst into tears. We even tried to comfort him.

— You tried to comfort him?

He was a poor devil, a pathetic creature, he cried out for his mother and said his father was an alcoholic. At that time there was only me and Officer Costa, because the other officer had gone to the lavatory, so I told Officer Costa to go downstairs to the kitchenette and brew up some coffee for him, because I really pitied that lad, I really did, so Officer Costa went down and a couple of minutes later he called upstairs and said: sergeant, come down, the machine doesn’t work, the coffee won’t go through. So I went downstairs too.

— Leaving Damasceno Monteiro alone?

Unfortunately, yes. That was our big mistake, for which we assume total responsibility: simply to make him some coffee we left that desperate lad alone for a few moments, and that is how the tragedy happened.

— What tragedy? Could you explain yourself better?

We heard a shot and dashed upstairs. Monteiro was lying lifeless on the floor. He had snatched up a revolver that the other officer had thoughtlessly left on the desk and shot himself through the temple.

— Point-blank?

When someone shoots themselves through the temple it’s bound to be point-blank, don’t you think?

— Of course, I only asked in order to get an expert opinion, it’s obvious that any suicide shoots himself point-blank. And then?

Well, we found ourselves with that corpse on the floor. A thing like that, as you may readily understand, might throw a scare even into policemen thoroughly inured to the horrors of this world. Apart from that, I was on my last legs, I’d been on duty since eight in the morning, I had to get home and take an injection of Zomig.