“Mind if I go and have a look around the house again?” Sofía asked. Talking of the death her mother had already upset her; Luna saw the loss on Sofía’s face.
“Oh yes, the house is safe - even if it looks like a mess.”
Luna watched Sofía head into the house through a small side door, and Giacomo and Enzo went in after her, holding Paquito’s hands. Luna turned back to Alysa. “At least finding Aná Munoz’s body is a joy for Inmaculada’s family. Inmaculada’s life is quite a story, so Jorge says. She survived the Valencian flood as a baby, but lost her mother in the same building where José and Consuela lived. Years later she got imprisoned.”
“I went to prison, twice, in Valencia; I had a miscarriage in a cell,” Alysa muttered.
“Oh God,” Luna said and took Alysa’s hand. “I had no idea. I’ve heard talk of Jaime in jail, but never you.”
“I got tortured and beaten. Guards would rape inmates. I just switched my mind off in there. All I could think of, was what my life would be like when they let me go.”
“Was that when you met Jaime?”
“No, we met earlier but what he did for me, waiting all that time…” Alysa’s voice trailed off, unable to say anymore. What a hell of an admission. “What do you want to do with the bodies here?” she asked, her voice thick, desperate to change the subject.
“Um, I’m not sure. I want to leave them where they got laid to rest, for Alejandro. But he is dead now. His ashes still sit at the La Moraleja house. It’s all so unresolved. I had just found this place and its bodies when I injured my head. A year of therapy and I was myself again; before I was pregnant. There went another eight months. Then Inés died. Then there is Cayetano and his career while I’m juggling four kids…”
“There’s no pressure, Luna.”
“I opened a can of worms when I found the bodies here and the four others up the hill. I want to make things right without hurting anyone.”
“What the odds of that?”
“Zero.”
“Then do what you want. Luna, you found Aná Munoz, and it brought happiness to her family. You told Montserrat about her parents, and now she has the final piece of her family puzzle.”
“Montserrat Lugo now knows her parents were murdered, and the killer will never be caught.”
Alysa snorted. “Plenty of families understand that fate. Who knows, maybe we will crack a cold case.”
The murderer was José Morales Ruiz, your father-in-law, Alysa. Luna couldn’t say that out loud. “I doubt it.”
“What of body four?”
“That is a very tricky case. It will cause family problems.”
“Death does that. What does Caya want to do? What does Paco want to do?”
“About Sofía Perez? We spoke about having our family buried in the Madrid Beltrán plot, all together. Paco wants to be buried there, with his biological and adoptive parents.”
“That’s quite a family plot.”
“And they would be in Madrid, away from all the drama and pain they suffered in Valencia and Cuenca.”
“I think it’s a terrific idea, Luna. What about your baby, Gorka?”
“I can’t think of anywhere else to put Gorka,” Luna said. The miscarriage had been four years ago now, but such an awful time. “Here is a calm place for the tiny baby to rest. I was only three months pregnant when he died.”
“I was two months pregnant when my first child died. It doesn’t stop hurting.”
“But it gets easier to accept – I hope.”
“More children ease the pain, as you would know now. I had Alonso after I married Jaime, then came Eduardo soon after. Then Mirabel and Rosa were born. I always felt as if I was having a daughter the first time, though I didn’t know. I was sedated after being found bleeding, in my jail cell - a result of being pushed downstairs - so I missed most of the horror of my baby’s death. I named her Espe, a Basque name that means hope.”
“Did you ever find your father’s grave here in Valencia?”
“No, I never even looked.”
“Where is he buried?”
Alysa laughed, breaking the mood. “I love that you don’t assume it’s the Valencia cemetery.”
“Why would I assume that? I’ve already found half a dozen bodies on my property. There could be more.”
“God forbid,” Alysa said. “I use God as an expression. I’m no believer.”
“Yet you married Jaime, part of a strong Catholic family.”
“And you married Caya, but you are not a believer. José took me under his wing and let me into the family, hoping to reform me.”
“José took you into the family? I’m shocked.”
“So was I. He was a member of the Guardia Civil; he was one of Franco’s Brigada Especial. José was what I was rebelling against then. But I needed José and his influences, to achieve my goals. Trust me, José didn’t enjoy the experience, not for decades.”
“Holy shit, that’s a story worth sharing.”
“Did you ever hear about the time Jaime went to jail?”
“No, he never said.”
“That is a grand story. I would like to hear him tell it; let’s see if he tells the truth or embellishes it,” Alysa chuckled.
“Was he in prison long?”
“No, lucky bastard. Just a few days, but it was enough to give his parents a heart attack.”
One day, Luna needed to tell Jaime and his brothers that José and Consuela weren’t their natural parents. “Was Jaime close to his parents when he was young?”
“You know Spanish men and their mothers,” Alysa smiled. “Jaime loved and adored Consuela, and she was such a gentle woman, as you know. José was a hard man, soft with Inés, not with his sons. José gave Jaime a great life, best of everything. Though, love? That’s hard to say. You know José was a monster in his younger days. We can’t gloss over that. Jaime didn’t feel the same connection to José as Pedro and Luis. But you can’t choose your family!”
Well… “But would you want to pick your family if you could? That could end in tears, too.”
“Good point!”
Scarlett jumped up from Luna’s lap and ran over to her brothers, who had reappeared from inside the house with their aunt. “I will move the final bodies here and rebuild this house. Too bad if Caya doesn’t want to live here. I’m rebuilding it anyway!”
“That’s the spirit,” Alysa said as Sofía wandered back with her nephews and niece, all squinting in the summer sun. “I’ll take some of your courage and look up my father’s grave here, and visit my friend Apolinar’s grave, too. I will go tomorrow.”
“I didn’t know you had many friends out here.”
“Yes. Apolinar’s name was Alonso, but he preferred Apolinar. He died in 1975, and I named my first son after him. That’s another part of the story of Jaime in prison.”
“Jaime is becoming an ever-bigger mystery.”
“A mystery already solved, more or less.”
19
Valencia, España ~ Mayo de 2014
“You know what is wrong with the government? Blind inflexibility. They would never dream of opening a dialogue with the opposition. There are those who could bring on great change. Look at the new political movement I have joined. People with little or no political experience, but people who understand what needs to change in Spain. The government needs to die a violent death. No more of this left versus right, it’s about the people now.”
Luna just nodded and glanced at her younger twins, asleep in the pram after a long walk in Valencia’s riverbed park. The warm and busy Sunday had worn the pair out, but Giacomo and Enzo ran around Plaça de Lope de Vega, laughing and squealing with one another. Luna and Sofía sat at a nearby table, the silver table top covered with empty glasses and plates from lunch. The pair sipped coffee while the children roamed in the small plaza behind the Santa Catalina church. Its bell tower provided a little shade in the square surrounded by colourful five storey buildings.
“The children are going too far,” Luna said and went to stand.
“Nonsense, Luna,” Sofía said and placed a hand on her arm. “Let the boys play. They are ten metres away from us, in a plaza that has only pedestrians. Relax, please.”
“I’ll never be a relaxed mother. Life doesn’t allow me that convenience.”
“Caya doesn’t help.”
“Well, with Caya down in Granada for his fights…. Caya needs to do what he loves. I can’t believe they drive all day or the night to fights, its madness I’ll never understand.”
“Bullfighters drive, that’s what they do, even though flying would be so much quicker. Darren is pedalling his way through a thousand kilometres in the French Alps as training. Darren wouldn’t mind a car!”
“Darren is doing well,” Luna said and sipped her bitter coffee again. “His power output is impressive for a cyclist his age.”
“Anyway, as I was saying,” Sofía said and watched the boys, leaning against the stone wall of the Santa Catalina church, chatting in the shade. “The government… Take this example, the boys can play as they are now, but if they were kicking a football, then we would be fined €1000. That’s how stupid some of the new laws passed are! Why do the populace just put up with it, where laws exist where footballs are illegal on the street?”
“Because the populace is held back by the powerful few,” Luna sighed and folded her arms. She cared about the state of the nation as much as the next woman, but Sofía had a tendency to rant. “As much as people want change, it would mean the death of what they already have.”
“Some people have nothing. People are squatting in abandoned apartment blocks; people live with little to eat. I won’t stop trying to prevent evictions - €30,000 fine or not, I will be there, helping people. I’m sure everyone wants change.”
“Yes, but when you have so little, you become clingy to what remains.”
“So nothing should change?”
Luna sat forward in her seat. “Okay, Sofía, let’s break into police headquarters now, hand out weapons and go on a rampage. Look how that turned out for our families during the war. They were all dead before their time.”
“Now you’ve been poisoned by my brother’s moderate political views.”
“Don’t worry, I argue with Caya plenty,” Luna said with a smile. “But as I discovered in my first marriage, certain issues shouldn’t come between a husband and wife. Marriage is teamwork, and it’s private.”
“Don’t you don’t believe in a Third Spanish Republic, Spain free of the government and the monarchy?”
“Yes, as long as it gets done well, and ordinary people don’t suffer more. Franco’s dictatorship lasted because of a pact of blood. Democracy survives on the pact of forgetting, and a new Republic would require new sacrifices. Besides, do you see King Juan Carlos dying or abdicating soon?”
“Stranger things have happened.”
“Here’s a strange story. Your uncle Jaime was at the manor last week, telling us all about how he and Luis once lied to prison authorities here in Valencia. They got two women released from prison.”
“What?” Sofía scoffed as she toyed with her huge, blue hoop, earring. It had become tangled on her short, black ponytail. “Why?”
“The pair heard about a pretty waitress arrested and used a combo of Paco’s fighting celebrity and your grandfather, José’s, Brigada Especial past to get her released. Luis surprised Jaime that day. Luis did all the talking.”
“Tío Luis did that?” Sofía squinted. “Luis is the quiet one.”
“The quiet ones can be the most interesting.”
“I’ve heard that tío Jaime has spent time in jail here in Valencia, but I don’t know the details.”
“With luck, Jaime may reveal the rest. And speaking of secrets, can you do me a favour?”
“Please say it’s babysitting.”
“Well, yes. I have an ulterior motive. I want to go and visit someone here in Valencia, and the children would be hard to manage in this stranger’s home.”
“Sure, anything. What do you need to do?”
“I will meet the daughter of one of the bodies we found at Escondrijo.”
“My God,” Sofía muttered. “One of Papi José’s alleged murders?”
“But we can’t prove any of that.”
“Jesus, can you do this alone?”
“Yes. Cayetano knows I’m meeting with this woman. I’ll tell him all about it when he gets back from Granada. Otherwise, it would distract him from the performance.”
“My brother and his huge ego,” Sofa said with a roll of her eyes. “Though, I’m glad he got Papá working again.”
“Caya is struggling with the death of his career. Paco can help him with that.”
“Sounds like Darren. The death of his career is coming up, and I can’t help him. He’s been odd lately. Distracted.”
“Well, retiring is exciting and scary. Darren will lose all he knows, just like Caya will, too.”
“I think Darren is keeping a secret,” Sofía said and glanced over her shoulder. “I think he’s gone off me.”
“Sofía, you’ve been married a year!”
“I raised the subject of children, and Darren was all strange about the idea.”
“But I thought you couldn’t have children.”
“I might, with enough care and interventions. I think the idea scares him. The idea scares me. But I’m 40, so my window of opportunity is closing fast.”
“Do you want children, Sofía?”
“I’ve always wanted children. Has Darren mentioned anything?”
“Darren used to say he didn’t want kids because he travelled all the time and saw Fabrizio and me struggle.”
“But with Darren’s retirement looming…”
“I know why Darren is being secretive with you, Sofía. It’s not that he doesn’t love you. He is keeping a secret from you. He told me because it’s cycling related. Darren is poised to sign a contract to be a cycling team manager. He wanted to surprise you once the deal was secure. He wanted to have it all in place before he told you. The new career will be good for Darren, and he will be able to care for you, which I realise he wants to do.”
“And yet Darren went to you and not me?”
Luna cringed; Sofía’s face was heart-breaking. Behind them, a pair of older women cackled with laughter that made Sofía’s bewilderment seem sadder. Luna glanced at the boys, who had moved much closer, and when she looked back to Sofía, the woman looked mad.
“Darren once said he thought he didn’t need kids because he had Giacomo and Enzo in his life. Luna, you gave him godsons, and the fact he missed out on children became a non-issue.” Sofía crossed her arms and looked at the metal table as she spoke.
“Perhaps now he’s married, things have changed.”
“And maybe Darren loves having you in his life, not me.”
Luna frowned and folded her arms again over her light blue blouse. “Who are you mad at, Darren or me?”
“Both! You are conspiring behind my back!”
“Darren got me a role at the Tour de France, Sofía. I’m in talks to be part of the staff who work for the event. That’s why he had to tell me first. If he gets a new team, he will offer me a job alongside him.”
“Darren offered you a job and not me?”
“You have no cycling experience.”
“I suppose you will dump your kids on me!” Sofía said and stood up. “The barren aunt who can’t get a job for herself.”
“The way you talk, you should be in politics. You’re reckless with the facts to suit yourself. I’m sorry Darren told me first, but that was to help get the surprise arranged.”
“I’m already a member of this new political party. I help the poor people of Valencia. I see the future for myself which isn’t juggling kids or following a self-centred husband, which is the total of your life! And you expect me to help you out?” Sofía zipped up her handbag and turned to walk away.
“That’s unfair,” Luna called and Sofía turned back, which caught the attention of several café patrons. “I never had a mother or sister. My grandmother died before I was born; my grandfather was murdered. My father died when I was 23 and my husband died a few years later, in his mid-thirties. My children are my whole life. And you are the only person I can trust with them. That’s why I thought I could ask for help.”
“Because everyone else is too busy.”
“Because you are my family.”
Sofía held her tongue for a moment. She sat back down and watched Paquito and Scarlett sleep. “I’m sorry.”
“I told Darren to stop being a dickhead and tell you about his plans, even if they fail.”
“Men.”
“Sí.”
“Can’t Caya just be a nanny for you from next year?”
“Maybe. None of us know what the future holds.”
“At least while you play housewife in Madrid, you have kids to watch. I’m a housewife here in Valencia and have no excuse. Although when I tell people I’m unemployed they just shrug. So many don’t have jobs; it’s become commonplace to be unemployed. That’s why I joined the political party, because we need change.”
“Then instead of arguing, let’s help by making lives better. The sun is setting on the lives we know, but we can help build the future.”
“We come from a long line of women who fought, protested and died for Spain. We owe it to them to help Spain,” Sofía remarked as Giacomo and Enzo came and sat down, panting after their little game.
“We owe it to ourselves, too,” Luna reasoned.
“Your grandmother, Scarlett, the one who gave your family the red hair,” Sofía said and pinched Giacomo’s cheek. “Did she never wish to return to Spain after the civil war?”
“She did but didn’t know if she would be safe after being listed as a member of the Republican army. She had given birth to my father and didn’t know if my grandfather was alive or dead. Scarlett wanted to stay away from everyone, but wanted to know they were safe. Fear kept Scarlett on the other side of the Earth. I can’t blame her; she had witnessed horror. Her husband was dead. Her friend, who got her pregnant didn’t love her, had disappeared. Scarlett had to find a new start.”
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