Charon's Net

by Gemma Herrero Virto

  He resumed his pacing, listening to the echo of his footsteps on the wood. In spite of the fact that beneath the walkway there was a team of police officers hiding, and that he knew he did not need to be afraid of Charon, his previous quality of being like an inaccessible ghost made Carlos feel uneasy. On turning around to continue pacing, he saw two people who were walking along the beach. If they carried on like this, Charon would never dare to come. Less than quarter of an hour ago, he had had to send away a group of teenagers who were entertaining themselves by doing wheelies on their motorbikes. And now more people. He would have to get rid of them, although he did not know whether making things so easy for Charon could cause him to suspect.

  He set off towards the couple, who were walking along the shoreline preceded by an enormous dog that was barking at the waves. Along the way, he pondered how Charon was planning on carrying out a murder on this beach without anybody discovering him. There was a strong wind, and that would have put off a lot of people, but there was no way for him to have known this when planning the day for the date, and he must have imagined that a beach could be fairly busy on a Saturday night: young people drinking beer, people walking their dogs, couples going to watch the sea... Where was he planning on finding a place in which he wouldn't be bothered until he had finished his macabre task? With a shiver, he imagined Susana's body, mutilated and bloodied beneath the walkway. Yes, that was most likely place. He managed to dispel the feeling of malaise thanks to the certainty that Susana was now at the police headquarters, out of harm’s way.

  He approached the couple walking along the shore. They were both around sixty years old, and dressed in sporty clothing. They were walking hand in hand and smiling, stopping every now and again to show affection for the dog. Carlos thought ironically about how perfect they seemed for an advertisement for pension plans. He addressed them, raising his voice so that they would be able to hear him over the wind, which was growing ever stronger:

  “Excuse me, but I'm going to have to ask you to come with me. We're in the middle of a police investigation," he quickly showed them his ID badge.

  "Good Lord, are we being arrested?" asked the woman, frightened.

  “No, no, don't worry. I just want you to follow me off the beach. You're slowing down the investigation.”

  "That's all right, no problem," said the man as he put his arm around the woman's shoulders to reassure her. “Ferrer, come on!”

  The dog went along behind them, jumping and running from one side to the other. Carlos began to walk towards the steps leading off the beach, followed closely by the couple. He looked several times in all directions, worried by the possibility that Charon might have seen them and decided to leave, but he did not see anybody else on the beach.

  "Would you be able to tell us what the investigation is about?" asked the woman, who now seemed calmer.

  "I'm sorry, but I can't give you that information. It’s possible you might find out in the news in the days to come, if everything goes well."

  At last they reached the walkway, and Carlos said goodbye to them, thanking them for their co-operation. The couple moved away, looking back several times, trying to work it out. Carlos cursed his bad luck. He was certain that within half an hour the whole of Muskiz would be clued in that there was a police investigation on the beach.

  He returned to his position, watching the shore. He looked at his watch, concerned. It was almost five minutes past the time of the date. He began to think that he had failed again, that somehow Charon had known about it, and that he was not going to show up. Something had gone wrong, but he did not know what. It could not be that he was late; after all, he was the one who was the more interested of the two in attending the date. Although maybe he had been held up for some reason, and he was going to turn up anyway, convinced that Susana was so in love that she would wait for him no matter how late he was. He paced again, not knowing what to do. He could not adjourn the investigation, walk away, and have Charon appear five minutes later. For as long as there was any possibility of him coming, they would wait.

  He focused his attention again on the officer who was walking along the shore. She also appeared to be growing impatient; she was walking from one side of the shore to the other, looking all around. Carlos wondered, feeling a jab of anxiety in his chest, whether the killer might be under cover, watching her like he himself was doing, waiting for just the right moment to attack her like a savage beast. There was no way of knowing whether he was watching from somewhere, crouched down, thirsty for blood... And nor could he know whether he had seen him remove the people from the beach, and become suspicious, or whether, right in that moment, he was even watching him. Upon thinking that, a cold sharp shiver shot down his spine, causing him to turn around quickly to see whether he was behind him. There was nobody there, but in spite of feeling ridiculous about it, he could not help taking a walk to the café to also check out the dark corners of the small square that was behind him. Once he had convinced himself that he was alone, he returned to his observation post.

  Another person had come onto the beach. Carlos cursed through his teeth. At this rate it was never going to be over. He went down the stairs to ask them to leave. On making his way over, he saw that this time it was a young woman who was walking along the shore. The wind was blowing increasingly colder so, as Carlos was approaching, she stopped in order to close up the long black overcoat she was wearing and raise the collar. Carlos positioned himself two steps away from her, bored of repeating the same thing so many times in the same night:

  "Excuse me, Miss. I'm going to have to ask you to leave the beach.

  "And why is that? Is it yours, or something?" she smiled mockingly and began walking again, not listening to him.

  "Excuse me, but were in the middle of a police investigation, and you're hindering it,” Carlos brought his badge out again and quickly showed it to her.

  "Could I get a closer look at that? You understand that, what with how quickly you showed it to me, it could well have been your library card," her tone was ironic and cutting.

  Carlos puffed and held out the badge to her. She examined it for a few seconds, as if she could not believe what it was telling her. Carlos waited in silence; he was beginning to feel tired. First a group of young people who had taken the whole thing as a joke, then an old gossip lady, and now a girl with authority issues. If Charon was there watching, he would not be coming onto the beach at all. It would have been more discreet to put up a shiny security cordon and an enormous placard reading, ‘Welcome to the day of your arrest, Charon’. The girl finished examining the badge, and gave it back to him.

  “Fine, I see you really are in the Ertzaintza, but, what’s the investigation about?”

  “That is confidential. The only thing you have to do is leave the beach, or I’ll arrest you for obstructing a police investigation,” replied Carlos, starkly.

  “All right. I was only asking, there’s no reason to get like that,” although her tone was mocking and defiant again, she began walking towards the beach’s exit, followed by Carlos.

  Once they got to the top of the steps, she stopped again and took out a packet of cigarettes from the outside pocket of her rucksack. She extracted a cigarette, and tried to light it, but the strong wind was blowing her hair towards her face and making it difficult to use the lighter.

  “Can you help me? I can’t light it,” the girl smiled, trying to ingratiate herself with him.

  “Listen, I’m not here to have a social life. The only thing I want is for you to leave the area.”

  “I’ve already left the beach, like you asked me. If you help me out with this, I promise you won’t see me again,” the girl’s smile still continued to be sarcastic, which was making Carlos feel uncomfortable in her presence.

  He sighed, and took the lighter, determined to finish with this whole interaction as soon as possible, whilst she held back her hair. The flame illuminated the girl’s features. Her eyes, green and bright, gave
him the feeling of a past and uncomfortable memory that he could not entirely place, as if he had seen her in a dream. Carlos gave the lighter back to her and turned towards the beach, putting an end to the conversation. The girl walked away, without saying anything else. He positioned himself once more at his post, and lit another cigarette. He continued waiting, whilst he monitored the whole beach, including the female officer, who had now sat down for a little while on the shore. The sky had gone grey, covered by the clouds that the strong wind had been carrying along with it. All he needed now was for it to rain.

  The extinguished cigarette butts were accumulating at Carlos’ feet. His hopes were beginning to grow more and more distant. Charon had bested them again. Carlos could not imagine how he had done it, but he had made a mockery of them once more. The most likely thing was that he had seen him evacuating people from the beach, maybe when he kicked off the motorists, who had not exactly been discreet. He struck with a closed fist the handrail he was leaning against, feeling furious. At that moment he heard the noise of some tyres screeching along the road that led to the walkway. A car was approaching at full speed. Through the open windows came deafening music. They parked near to him. Two young couples got out of the car with beer bottles in their hands and headed towards the steps down to the beach. Judging by their movements, Carlos deduced that those bottles were a long way from being the first of the night. Great; now he was going to have to fight a group of drunks. And the worst thing of all was that he was sure that it would be no use now. Even so, he had to carry on, it was his job, and he would stay there until he was certain that there was no possibility remaining of Charon showing up. When the young people went to go down the steps, he planted himself in front of them and brought his badge out again:

  “You can’t go down onto the beach. There’s a police investigation in progress.”

  “An investigation? How exciting!” one of the girls approached him and looked at his badge from two centimetres away whilst laughing like a madwoman. The others were laughing along with her. “And what are you investigating?”

  Carlos felt as though he were about to explode. What had happened to the whole thing about respecting authority? Was it that everyone had to ask the same thing? Was it so difficult for them to accept what he was telling them and to stop gossiping?

  “Look, if you don’t ask questions, I won’t raise the matter of which one of you was driving under the influence of alcohol, so turn round and get back in that car.”

  The young people went away, still laughing. Carlos heard one of the girls murmuring ‘Wow what a rude guy’, but he decided to let it go and returned to the railing, hoping to be able to carry on at his post for at least five consecutive minutes. After a little while, he felt a droplet fall onto his hand. Terrific, now it was starting to rain. The droplets became progressively heavier, little by little, until it suddenly began to rain with real force. Carlos took a few steps backwards in order to take cover under the café’s awning. The wind returned, gusting, causing the rain to fall horizontally, and rendering his shelter useless. A few minutes later, his clothing was soaked through. Carlos looked towards the shore. The female officer was walking quickly up and down, hugging herself tightly to fend off the cold. Carlos felt that his hopes were truly dashed. It was obvious that Charon would not be coming now. Disappointed and frustrated, he grabbed his walky-talky.

  “Guys, it hasn’t worked. We’re going home.”

  He headed towards the beach’s car park, feeling very tired. There was a police car parked alongside his own. When he got closer, the passenger seat door opened, and Roberto came out and approached him. Carlos did not think he liked the smile of triumph illuminating his face:

  “Good evening.”

  “Good evening, Carlos,” replied Roberto. “It appears your latest outstanding idea has been to no avail, either.”

  “At least I’m having ideas,” retorted Carlos, cuttingly. He was in no mood for his tomfoolery. “Have you come here just to be a pain in my arse, or do you have something else to tell me?”

  “Not me, no. But Aguirre has said for you and your girlfriend to present yourselves immediately in his office,” Roberto’s smile was growing wider by the second.

  Carlos turned around until he was facing him, looking him in the eyes. His expression was unnerving him; there was something that Roberto knew, and that was not going to bode well for him. He felt the desire to punch his face in just to not have to see him smile again for a long time, but he contained himself.

  “Firstly, she is not ‘my girlfriend’, but a colleague. Secondly, if he wants to talk to her he can call her; I’m not the messenger boy,” he gave him a cynical smile. “I see that we can’t say the same thing for everybody. And thirdly, I’m in the middle of an investigation, so this meeting will have to take place another time.”

  Roberto smiled again before answering, leaving it a few seconds so that Carlos’s anger would skyrocket even more.

  “Well Aguirre must really want to see you because he has it all planned out. He’s already phoned her up telling to go to the station, so I imagine she’ll be waiting for you there. And about the investigation, don’t worry. That’s what I’m here for.”

  “What do you mean that’s what you’re here for? This is my case too, remember.”

  “Tell that to Aguirre. And now, if you will excuse me, I have work to do.”

  Roberto bade farewell with a nod and headed towards the group of officers who were returning from the beach. Carlos watched as he went away, wondering what the hell all of that could mean. Then he set off towards his car. The best way of dispelling the doubts from his mind would be to ask Aguirre directly.

  ***

  The police station was virtually empty at this time of night. Natalia was pacing restlessly, accompanied by the echo of her heels over the floor tiles. Every now and then, she cast a surreptitious glance through the wide picture window of Aguirre’s office. The phone on his desk did not stop ringing, and he had brief but intense conversations with the people on the other end of the line. Natalia had intended for her pacing to bring her closer to the office on a couple of occasions, in an attempt to get an idea of what was happening, but Aguirre’s angry gaze had warned her that the situation was now serious enough that she would wreck it even more with her curiosity. She sat back down again, consumed by impatience. The only thing that consoled her was knowing that nothing bad could have happened to Carlos, because Aguirre had told her to wait until he arrived as he wanted to talk to them both at the same time. What could have gone wrong?

  The sound of quick footsteps along the corridor made her look up. Carlos was advancing towards her. He seemed serious and worried. Natalia stood up and approached him.

  “Have you caught him?” she asked, nervously.

  “No, he didn’t even turn up to the beach,” he answered, not stopping as he made his way to Aguirre’s door. “Do you know what all this is about?”

  “No, Aguirre called me and told me to wait for you here because he wanted to talk to us. If you haven’t caught him, I’m afraid this is not going to be a meeting to congratulate us.”

  “I get the impression that it’s not going to be something so pleasant. Let’s go.”

  Carlos knocked on the door and they waited for a few seconds in silence, whilst Aguirre finished another one of his telephone calls.

  “Come in,” he said at last from inside.

  “Good evening,” greeted Carlos as he opened the door. “Roberto told me you wanted to see us.”

  “Yes, that’s right. Come in, please. Sit down,” he replied, indicating some chairs to them. “You will already be able to imagine why I’ve summoned you here.”

  “I suppose you’ve called me to inform you about what happened tonight, but you haven’t given me time to finish the investigation,” replied Carlos.

  “No, that’s not why,” Aguirre sighed, as if it was difficult for him to say the words he had to say. “I warned you both many times to follo
w the rules. Why the hell didn’t you listen to me?”

  “I don’t know what you’re referring to,” said Carlos.

  “To your relationship,” Aguirre nodded towards Natalia. “Look, Carlos, I don’t care about what you have outside of the office, but I’ve already warned you both that she must not interfere in the investigation.”

  “I was only trying to help, and that can’t be called interfering,” protested Natalia. “I acknowledge that I didn’t follow the orders down to the letter, but it’s working.”

  “Well so far I haven’t seen any progress. The only thing I have is an endless list of offences that would serve to put you both immediately out on the street without possible defence. You’ve carried on working together, drawing up half-baked hypotheses...”

  “I don’t believe there’s a single article of regulation that forbids discussing things with someone and listening to their advice,” Natalia excused herself.

  “When it’s to do with an official investigation, yes there is. And there are also articles prohibiting any unauthorized person from accompanying an officer to question witnesses. And there are a vast number that talk about how to use evidence obtained in an investigation and, following what those articles say, it’s going to be very difficult for you to explain where the three victims’ computers are, which are missing from this station.”

  “Well, I have them at my house,” replied Carlos. “It’s only because I didn’t want Roberto to meddle in the investigation and wreck the whole thing.”