"I'll have to risk it," said Carlos after thinking about it for a few seconds. "If we do it carefully, he has no reason to be afraid. When will you be able to do it?"
"Right now, as soon as he logs in.”
Gus got up from the sofa, turned on one of the computers, and took out some floppy disks that he was carrying his bag. Carlos went up to him and sat down in a chair beside him:
"What are you doing?"
“Do you really want me to tell you?” asked Gus in an imploring voice. Carlos ignored him, and limited himself to nodding his head. "Fine, but, if you don't understand it the first time round, we're leaving it. I don't want to end up with a headache."
"Come on man, it’s not that I’m an idiot. Just explain it to me nice and slowly, and in plain language, and you'll see how I pick it up right away.”
Gus sighed, resigned, and began explaining to him as he went along taking the steps on the computer:
“Let’s see, where shall I begin... This is Bianca’s computer. The first thing I’ve done is to erase Charon from her visible list,” Carlos opened his mouth to ask a question, but Gus cut him off. “Wait, I’m going to explain it to you now. In ICQ you can be invisible, that is to say, you see the people who are online, but they don’t see you, unless you send them a message. The visible list is the list where you include the people whom you always want to see you, even if you are invisible. Let’s say that it’s the place where you put the people you get on the best with, and whom you always want to speak with whenever you’re on the Internet. Are you following me?”
“Yes, of course. I think they ought to invent something like that for real life. You’ve no idea how many wretches I have to talk to every day. Go on.”
“Bianca had added Charon onto that list. If we were to have logged in without taking him off, he would have seen us, and I think he would have got suspicious if he had seen a dead person coming online. Now, if he is online, we’ll see him, but he won’t see us.”
“Unless he is also invisible, right?” intervened Carlos.
“Exactly; I see you’re getting it now. Let’s wait until he pops up for a little while so we can send him a message.”
“You’re not going to send him a message from Bianca’s account, are you?” asked Natalia, also sitting down beside him.
“Of course not; that’s why I’ve just installed this little program. Normally, on one computer, you can only be connected with one ICQ account at a time, but this program allows you to have up to seven accounts open at the same time. Now we’re going to create an account with the false information of a girl the age of his victims and, whenever we see he’s online, we’ll send him a message from it. Are you both following me?”
“Yes. For now, yes,” answered Carlos. “What are you going to do then?”
“Well, I trust that he’ll reply to the message. If he does, I’ll trace it like I did the other day, and we’ll get his IP; you know, the number they assign to your telephone the moment you go onto the Internet. If we get that, finding out the phone number he’s calling from will be a piece of cake for you.”
“It seems very easy,” commented Natalia. “We ought to have done it much earlier.”
“Don’t get excited, either of you. A thousand things can go wrong. In fact, I’d be surprised if it were so easy, but we need to try it,” Gus put on a melodramatic expression. “Anything to not have to read any more chat threads. Come on, let’s create a false account.”
“What do we need to do?” asked Carlos.
“Let’s see... it has to be somebody Charon would reply to,” indicated Gus.
“Or rather, somebody who would correspond to the profile of the victims he usually contacts,” Natalia concentrated whilst she leafed through her notes.
“Well, yes... That’s what I meant. Let’s begin with the name. What do you think about Lorena? It’s a pretty name, isn’t it?”
“Still thinking about the posh little blonde girl from your class, eh?” Carlos could not hold back a cynical smile.
“Bloody hell, dude, what a memory... Okay, okay... You say another name.”
“No, that one’s fine. Put whatever you want.”
“Okay, now I have to put in a username. We’ll put Lore. There are lots of people who use shorter forms of their names, right? And besides, it means ‘flower’ in Basque. Let’s see, now we need to put the age. Bianca was fourteen, Vanessa was thirteen, and Patricia, fourteen. Seems he doesn’t like anyone older, right?” he looked at Natalia and she nodded. “Okay, I’ll put fourteen then. Where should she live?”
“Somewhere in Biscay where he hasn’t struck yet,” suggested Carlos, after lighting a cigarette. “I know they say that murderers always return to the scene of the crime but, right now, the cities he’s killed in are being intensively patrolled in order to reassure their populations, so I don’t think he’ll find it much fun going back to them for the time being.”
“All right, then I’ll put Sestao. Okay?”
“What else is left?” asked Natalia, looking at the form they were filling in.
“Nothing, the rest is just bits and bobs... Zodiac sign, hobbies... Give me one moment, and I’ll fill the whole thing in... Okay, there we go. Now we just have to wait for him to show up.”
“And if he doesn’t?” said Carlos, feeling anxious.
“I bear witness to the fact that he signs in every day from five o’clock onwards. I’ve read all his web chat threads, and I know his habits. So, if he doesn’t turn up, we’ll send him a message anyway, because even though we may not see him, I’m almost certain that he’ll be there.”
***
Gus opened the two ICQ accounts. After a few seconds, on Bianca’s account there appeared, shown in blue, the names of several people who were currently online. Gus felt a stab of disappointment. Charon was not among them. The fact of knowing that he could be there without being able to see him was making him nervous. He tried to calm himself down; he would wait a few more minutes. Beside him, Carlos squirmed worriedly, waiting for him to do something.
“Let’s give him a bit of time. After all, it’s only ten to five. Why don’t you both go and get yourself some coffee?”Gus said. Natalia got up to do so. “No, take Carlos with you, because he’s driving me crazy with all that movement. And make his a lime blossom tea.”
“Listen, you know you get very cocky when you have a keyboard in front of you,” said Carlos, offended.
“I’m sorry, but seriously you’re making me nervous.”
Natalia signalled for Carlos to follow her. He begrudgingly got up and walked behind her to the kitchen. Whilst she busied herself with preparing the coffee, he sat down at the table and began looking through one of the psychopathology books that Natalia had been using recently. She took advantage of his being distracted in order to analyse him. His dark hair was falling across his forehead, on which could be seen a wrinkle caused by concentration. His gaze was moving restlessly across the page. Natalia contemplated his eyes, his serious expression, his square jaw, which was crying out for a shave... She was surprised at not having thought before about how attractive he was. Or perhaps she had thought about it, and had denied it to herself. She felt uneasy about the situation they had left unfinished the night before. She wondered whether she ought to broach the subject, taking advantage of the fact that Gus was busy, or whether if, on talking about it, the atmosphere between the two of them would become uncomfortable. Carlos raised his eyes from the book and looked at her in surprise:
“Is something wrong?”
“No, nothing...” Natalia averted her gaze and pretended to be highly focused on searching the drawer for teaspoons.
“What do you mean, nothing? You were looking at me with an extremely strange expression. Do I have something on my face?”
“It’s nothing, seriously... It’s just that... I was wondering about the thing last night... you know, about what you might be thinking about me after what happened...”
“I don�
��t think anything bad. Why would I? I already told you how I really liked you sharing all of that with me...”
“I’m not referring to the walk... I’m talking about what happened here,” Natalia lowered her eyes, feeling the heat rise to her cheeks. “You know... the fact I kissed you...”
“Well, I understand that you would be feeling nervous and that you would need somebody nearby. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, we’re both adults,” Carlos’s voice seemed nervous to her, hesitant.
“So then, that doesn’t change the situation between us at all, right?” asked Natalia. “It’s just that we haven’t had an opportunity to talk about it, and I wouldn’t like there to be any misunderstanding between us.”
“Of course not. Don’t worry; you won’t have to marry me just because of a kiss that didn’t mean anything to either of us. Nothing serious happened either,” joked Carlos.
“Of course. I only wanted to clarify the situation. We’re just work colleagues, and that’s it.”
“Well, friends too, right?” Carlos smiled at her and waited for her to nod before he continued. “Besides, we’re in the middle of an investigation, and we cannot allow a mistaken situation to distract us. All settled?”
“Yes, I’m glad we’ve been able to solve this like two mature people. I was worried about whether it could be detrimental to our work,” Natalia looked up and set her eyes on his, trying to appear as calm and cool as possible.
“Then we’ll forget about it?” Carlos smiled at her, but Natalia did not feel that there was any humour in his eyes.
“Forgotten, nothing happened. Excuse me for a moment. I have to go to the bathroom.” After closing the door, she stood in front of the mirror.
“You’re an idiot and a liar,” she told herself as the first tears appeared in her eyes.
She sat down on the side of the bath and allowed her tears to flow, wondering what it was she was really feeling. She had tried to convince herself that she did not want anything from him but friendship, and she had given herself each and every one of the reasons that he had just given her. Great, she had gone back to behaving like an adult again; she ought to be feeling proud of being able to drown any appearance of true feeling... She had to put her hand in front of her mouth in order to contain a sob. She was sick and tired of behaving correctly. As soon as he had begun to speak, she had realised how much she wanted to kiss him again; how good she had felt when he was embracing her; how much it hurt her that he would say that nothing had happened between them... But that was how it should be. She would not bring up the conversation again. Carlos had made it very clear what she meant to him: a work colleague and a friend. Nothing more. And that was how it should be. She turned on the tap in order to wash her face, drowning the tears that were still fighting to escape. She would be able to cry again later. She would cry when she was alone, precisely for being alone, and for not having the sufficient bravery to fight to stop being so. She made an effort for her mind to resume control: unshakeable, professional, without feelings. She looked at herself in the mirror once more and promised herself that she would never let her guard down again.
Carlos seemed sad and meditative when she returned from the bathroom but, on hearing her approaching footsteps, he looked up from the floor and gave her a fresh smile that she felt seemed forced. Natalia went up to the table, opened the packet of cigarettes and took one out. Without saying a word, she lit it and headed for the window, turning her back on him.
“Is something wrong?” he asked her.
“No, nothing’s wrong. Why do you ask?” she tried to make her voice sound cold, without any inflection.
“You seemed strange.”
“Well nothing’s wrong,” Natalia turned and riveted him with a glacial look, whilst she came to sit back down at the table. “Now, let’s carry on working. How are we going to organize the investigation of the files?”
“Well, I don’t know anything about psychology, so I’d like it if you could come with me to ask for the reports. I think you’ll understand the psychiatrists better. Then you should go along checking them so as to rule out those that are no good to us. When you think that one of the files could correspond to Charon, tell me and I’ll investigate him.”
“With reading those files I’ll eliminate a fair few, but it’s possible that many of them could match up with our information,” she objected.
"It doesn't matter, don't worry about that. I'm not going to arrest them all. I'll just go and talk with them to investigate their alibis, their lifestyle, whether or not they go online... Does that seem good to you?"
"Yes, of course, as you like... You’re the investigator."
The two of them fell silent, not knowing what else say. Natalia felt the tension there was between them like a force that was pushing them even further away from each other, and which she could no longer pass through. It seemed as though from that moment on, their relationship was going to be solely professional, and that any conversation would end in the precise moment they finished talking about work.
"Come back in here, quickly,” Gus was calling them from the living room. "He's just come online.”
Natalia appreciated the excuse that allowed her to escape from a situation she felt was asphyxiating her. She sat down beside Gus and looked at the screen:
"Have you sent him a message yet?” she asked him.
"No, I'm going to wait a few minutes before sending it to him. If we send him the message as soon as he logs in, he could get suspicious. It would give him the full impression that we were waiting for him,” he explained.
They remained in silence for a few more minutes, looking at Charon’s name on the screen. Natalia was feeling uneasy; every last inch of her body seemed to be buzzing with a keen electrical current that threatened to increase in intensity and cause her to explode. To have his name there, and not be able to say anything to him... She tried to distract herself by changing her rings from finger to finger, fidgeting with her bracelets... At last, Gus took hold of the mouse again and sent the message.
−Hi, I'm Lorena, from Sestao. This is my first time coming on ICQ, and I don't have anybody on my list. Would you mind talking for a bit?"
Gus typed the necessary things into the computer in order to be able to follow Charon's trace as soon as he answered. The three of them remained motionless, even holding their breath. The time was passing by. After a few minutes, Carlos exploded:
"What happens now? You had us looking at his name on the screen for more than fifteen minutes so that the guy wouldn’t twig, and now he's not saying anything. Is it so difficult to answer?”
“Take it easy, the most likely thing is that he's chatting with someone. He'll answer as soon as he can."
"Damn it, it's just that I don't understand. Were putting a new victim on the tray for him, and he doesn't want her," Carlos complained.
"Maybe he doesn't trust it," explained Natalia, trying to sooth Carlos. "After all, we're not trying to talk with just any person on the Internet. He's a killer, and he will suspect that we could be searching him out.”
"Well, he'll have to contact new girls somehow."
"It could be that he prefers to go after them himself,” said Gus. "I wouldn't talk with anybody who approached me like that if I was a killer. We'll have to keep at it. It could be that he’ll suspect it even more that way but, if I were a girl without anybody on my contacts list, I would be insistent."
"Okay, try it, we don't have anything to lose," conceded Carlos. “If this doesn't work, we'll still be no worse off than we were this morning.”
−Listen, if you're really busy now, tell me, and we’ll talk another time. I'm looking for somebody who speaks Spanish, and I can't get anybody to answer me. Could you authorise me so that we can talk another day?”
They went back to waiting in silence. The computer still did not receive any response. The situation was beginning to get frustrating, almost ridiculous. Having him there, to be talking to him and not getting
anything back...
"What's that thing about authorising you," asked Natalia, trying to break the uncomfortable silence.
"The authorisation makes it so that we can see him again on another day from this account when he logs in. I don't think he wants to give it to us if he hasn't even wanted to say hello to us. Let's wait a few minutes. I'm still keeping another ace up my sleeve, but I don't want to use it if it's not completely necessary. I'm going to try and get him angry so that he answers us, even if it is just so he tells us where to go.”
"And how are you going to do that?" asked Carlos, interested.
"Normally the authorisation has to be requested, and the other person accepts or rejects it, thus Charon could reject it, and we would be back where we started,” explained Gus. "But I have a little program installed which makes it so that the authorisation request is accepted without him being able to do anything. If he's as paranoid as we think, he'll get angry and maybe say something."
"But he could get scared and realise that he's talking with a hacker, and not a fourteen-year-old girl who’s going on ICQ for the first time, right?” intervened Natalia, concerned. "I don't know if we should risk him getting away now that we're somewhat closer."
"He has no reason to think that I'm a hacker. There are absolutely loads of people on ICQ who use this program. And if he gets annoyed and replies by asking us where we got the authorisation from, that’s all we want: a message from him.”
"We'll take the risk. If he's not going to talk to us, then it's no good to us either seeing him there," Carlos stood up again, unable to keep still any longer.
"Okay, let’s do it then. Let's hope he has an old version of ICQ, because it's no use with the new ones," Gus moved the mouse and sent the request. "Okay, we've been lucky, he's now added to our list. Now I'll send him a message."
−I've added you to my contacts, I hope you don't mind. I'll leave you alone now, as you must be very busy. We’ll speak another day.
Charon's Net Page 18