The White Corpses

by Gemma Herrero Virto

  ‘Less of that; you are also dressing better ever since you started living with Natalia.’ Gus clicked his tongue to demonstrate his annoyance, and turned towards her. ‘Will you come with me or not?’

  ‘Of course. Will you help Carlos to check files?’

  ‘Okay, I’ll do it. I’ve already escaped reading the Bible. I’ll have to do something so that you pay me. But stop adding suspects for a bit, or we’ll end up arresting half of Biscay.’

  ‘I know it seems like we’re not making headway, but we are,’ Natalia shot them a smile of encouragement. ‘In the end, we’ll encounter a name that gets repeated on all of our lists and we’ll have him. He has no idea how close we are to catching him.’

  *****

  Gus gazed on in amazement at the way in which Natalia moved through the shop. Exactly every thirty seconds she would reach out an arm and, with surgical precision, extract a garment to show to him. To every one of her attempts, Gus replied with a pained smile, a shaking of the head, and a shrugging of the shoulders.

  ‘Too light... Too colourful... I don’t like the print... I don’t like the slogan... Too tight... Too serious...’

  ‘Gus, for God’s sake,’ she protested after fifteen minutes of fruitless attempts. ‘Something’s got to appeal to you.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Natalia. I think it’s the shop. There’s nothing in my style.’

  ‘Of course, because what we’re trying to do is change your style. Isn’t that what you asked my help for?’

  ‘Sure, but it’s just all so strange... Can’t we change the style gradually?’

  ‘Come on, Gus...’ Natalia pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. ‘What you have can’t even be defined as a style. The items you wear are all black and worn out, and three sizes too big for you. That’s called looking like a dirty mess.’

  ‘Without offending,’ Gus defended himself.

  ‘I’m not offending you. I’m defining you.’ Natalia pointed at a sales stand over at the other end of the shop. ‘Come on, go and have a look to see if you can find anything over there that you’ll agree to try on.’

  Gus went off, protesting between his teeth. He began stirring around the clothes without a shred of hope, until coming across a t-shirt that seemed acceptable to him. With it in his hands, he went over to Natalia:

  ‘Look. What do you think about this one?’

  ‘Gus, it’s black.’

  ‘Yes, but it has a red border, and it’s in my size. You won’t believe it, but I’m going way out of my comfort zone with this one.’

  ‘Fine, but in exchange you have to try on this t-shirt and these two shirts,’ she told him, handing over the garments she had selected.

  ‘The grey shirt is good, although it’s very fitted for my liking,’ Gus gazed at the clothing with furrowed brow. ‘But this blue shirt... And this white t-shirt with buttons... These are posh people clothes.’

  ‘And what are your girlfriend and her friends? Don’t you want to fit in with them?’

  ‘Okay, I’ll try it all on,’ consented Gus, heading off towards the changing rooms.

  ‘Wait. You’ll need some trousers.’

  ‘I already have trousers,’ said Gus, pointing to the ones he was wearing.

  ‘No, you’re not going to wear those worn out, faded, and ripped trousers,’ Natalia went over to a sales stand and picked out two pairs of jeans. ‘Light ones for the black t-shirt and grey shirt. Dark ones for the white t-shirt and blue shirt. Understood?’

  ‘Yes, master. This is the last time I ask for your help in anything like this.’

  ‘So who are you going to ask then? Carlos? His taste is almost worse than yours.’

  Gus reluctantly tried on all of the clothing. He had to acknowledge that Natalia knew what she was doing. He would never in his life have selected anything like this, but it did not look bad on him. He did not plan on wearing any of it around his friends or to university, but it would serve him for not being out of place with Lorena’s friends. He came out of the changing room with a smile, ready to win over Natalia.

  ‘Okay, you’re right. I’ll take the lot.’

  ‘Good, now all you need is a jacket,’ Natalia headed towards another display stand and began stirring through the jackets.

  ‘You can stop right there,’ Gus ordered. ‘I have no intention of wearing one of those jackets.’

  ‘No? So what are you going to wear?’ she asked, raising an eyebrow.

  ‘My leather jacket.’

  ‘Don’t take this the wrong way, but... how many years have you had that jacket?’

  ‘I don’t know... I think I’ve had it ever since I started secondary school.’

  ‘And it shows... That jacket is a load of rubbish.’

  ‘Hey, don’t insult it. It’s a jacket with personality.’

  ‘Yes, with so much personality that one day it’ll become independent and leave home. You need a new jacket.’

  ‘All right, but I want another leather jacket. None of that posh executive crap.’ Gus headed towards a revolving stand. ‘Look, these are smart.’

  ‘No, not those.’ Natalia walked over to him as she shook her head. ‘They smell of bad plastic from all the way over here.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘That they’re not leather. Lorena and her friends will notice it in an instant.’

  ‘Bloody hell, what are you rich people like...’

  ‘We’re educated from childhood to pick up on what’s shabby. Look, these ones are good.’

  ‘But they cost two hundred euros...’ Gus looked at the tags on the garments she had chosen and turned white. ‘Natalia, dude... Where have you brought me? It’s all super expensive. I can’t afford all of that.’

  ‘Calm down. It’s an early birthday present from me.’

  ‘But it’s seven months away yet...’

  ‘Anything to see you dressed decently every now and again. Come on, try the jacket on.’

  A few minutes later, they came out of the shop laden down with bags. After walking a few metres, Gus paused and looked all around.

  ‘What are you looking for?’ asked Natalia.

  ‘A loo. I have to get changed. I’ve arranged to meet with Lorena in an hour.’

  ‘Well you certainly came shopping just in the nick of time...’

  ‘I thought it would be easier,’ Gus nodded towards a sign that indicated where the toilets were, and began walking over there. ‘Let’s go quickly, as I still have to get to the metro, go to Algorta, and go up to fetch her from her place.’

  ‘How chivalrous! I don’t recognise you,’ teased Natalia.

  ‘Not a word of this to Carlos. I don’t want him taking the mick out of me until Judgement Day.’

  Natalia nodded, helped him take out the clothing he was going to put on, and stood outside the toilets, holding the rest of the bags. Five minutes later, Gus came out and did a twirl so that Natalia could give him the go-ahead. She went up to him, laughing, took off a tag that was hanging from his trousers, and then whistled.

  ‘Very handsome indeed. I almost don’t recognise you.’

  ‘Don’t say anything else to me; I’m dying of embarrassment. Come on, let’s go, otherwise I’ll never make it.’

  They went down to the car park level and, after putting all of the bags into the boot, Gus went and stood at the passenger side door.

  ‘Will you take me as far as the metro? Sorry for being so cheeky, but I’m going to be late.

  ‘No, I won’t take you.’ Natalia rummaged around in her bag before finding her keys and throwing them over the car. ‘Now you have a carriage to go and fetch your princess.’

  ‘You buy me clothes, you lend me your car... Are you my fairy godmother?’

  ‘Something like that. I’ve always been very Disney.’ Natalia winked at him, jokingly. ‘And don’t worry about getting it back to me before twelve. It won’t turn into a pumpkin. I don’t need it until Monday, so you can return it to me tomorrow.’
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  ‘I love you. If Carlos doesn’t marry you, I’m first in line.’

  ‘Yes, that’s why you’re leaving me to go off with someone else,’ replied Natalia, feigning hurt. ‘Go on, get out of here.’

  Gus walked around the car and planted a loud kiss on her cheek. Then he opened the door and sat down in the driver’s seat. His smile disappeared before closing the door.

  ‘Aren’t you going to tell me to be careful and that, if I crash it, you’ll kill me? That’s what Carlos would say to me.’

  ‘Don’t worry, it has fully comprehensive insurance.’

  ‘I thought you were going to tell me that you trusted in me and in my driving ability,’ he protested.

  ‘Yes, that too, of course... Go on, start it up. And have a good time.’

  Gus closed the door and put the key into the ignition. The engine awoke immediately with a powerful roar. He leant back in the leather seat, shifted it into first gear, and left the car park. Once he reached the main road, he started stepping on the accelerator. The car responded smoothly to all of his movements, whilst the landscape began progressively becoming a blur through the window. He smiled as he shook his head. He would have to be careful. A person could get used to good things all too quickly.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Art’s hectic footsteps down the hall brought him out of his concentration. Carlos looked up from his papers and fixed his gaze on the living room door. Natalia appeared a few seconds later, with the dog trying to pass between her knees.

  ‘Hi. You’ve not brought anything back? You were supposed to be going shopping.’

  ‘Yes, but we bought things for Gus. You should have seen him. He looked so handsome and smart...’

  ‘Did you take photos?’ asked Carlos, jokingly.

  ‘No. He even prohibited me from mentioning anything to you, so I don’t want you taking the mick out of him.’ Natalia pointed at him with her index finger as a sign of warning.

  ‘You know I can’t promise you that. It’s above me.’

  ‘Don’t be cruel. He seems very taken with this girl.’ Natalia managed to get Art to stop jumping on her, and began to take off her coat. ‘What were you doing?’

  ‘Checking the reports. I know there’s something that’s escaping me.’

  ‘And if it’s escaping you, how do you know there’s anything in the first place?’

  ‘It’s a hunch. I feel it in my gut, as you know.’ Carlos moved his papers around and then hurled them back down on the table, frustrated. ‘I’ve spent three hours like this, and I’m not getting anywhere.’

  Natalia left her coat on a chair and sat down beside him on the sofa. She took one of the reports by chance and started taking a look at it.’

  ‘Come on, I’ll help you. What is it we’re supposed to be looking for?’

  ‘Therein lies the problem: I don’t know.’

  ‘You’re not making it very easy for me, but I’ll try. If you’re going to stay calm about it, we’ll look back over the reports as many times as we need to.’

  They remained in silence for a few minutes, until Carlos put the report he was reading down on the table and pointed at a paragraph.

  ‘I think it’s this one. The questioning of the couple who found the last victim.’

  ‘I remember seeing you talking with them, but you said they hadn’t been able to tell you anything important,’ said Natalia.

  ‘It’s not what they told me, it’s what they were.’ Carlos remained silent for a few seconds, putting his thoughts in order. ‘They were hikers training for the Camino de Santiago.’

  ‘Do you think the killer is a pilgrim?’

  ‘No, woman... Look...’ Carlos opened the laptop and searched on Google Maps. ‘This is the quarry where we found the body. And this here is a hiking route. If we search for the place where we found Carmen’s car, what can we see nearby?’

  ‘I don’t know. What is that?’

  ‘Another hiking route,’ Carlos continued typing in searches and showing them to Natalia. ‘The place where we found Carmen’s body, there was another route nearby. The place where Andrea’s car turned up was alongside a bidegorri[1]...”

  ‘Okay, there are hiking routes near all the important crime scenes in the case. Where are you trying to go with this?’

  ‘Well the first thing is that this answers one question that was driving me crazy. Our man gets to the hotel on foot, drives the women away in their own cars, and then abandons said cars in remote and inaccessible places. I’ve spent weeks wondering how he would get home, and here is the answer. He’s a hiker. He knows all of those paths.’

  ‘I’m glad you’ve found your answer, but I don’t see how this is going to help us. We Basques love to hike. Half the population does it. And, besides, I don’t think you have to be registered or have any kind of card to go out walking in the mountain.’

  ‘You’re a spoilsport,’ Carlos furrowed his brow, feeling annoyed. ‘There are hiking clubs. Perhaps we could ask them for a list of members.’

  ‘You can do that if you want, but I see our killer as being a solitary walker.’

  ‘Well, that’s another point to search for.’ Carlos threw himself back in the sofa and massaged the nape of his neck, trying to get rid of the tension in it. ‘How many do we have now?’

  ‘Well we know he’s a white male, between thirty-five and forty-five, very tall, about 6’, and is strong and hefty. We know that he’s epileptic and has had to request extra prescriptions of Luminal. We also believe he’s married or widowed, and that it’s possible that he has served a prison sentence for domestic violence. We suspect that he has an obsessive personality and strong religious beliefs. He likes to arrange to meet up with women over the Internet, with the promise of having sex, but he does not have sex with them, which reinforces the idea about the extremist religious beliefs. And, finally, he could be a hiker and be a member of some club for going out on walks at the weekend.’

  ‘Dear Lord, I know more about that guy than I know about myself and, even so, we don’t have anything.’

  ‘We have lots of things,’ Natalia consoled him. ‘Right now it seems like a puzzle with too many pieces, but they’ll soon begin to fit together, and then we’ll have him.’

  *****

  It seemed that the bad weather had decided to give them a bit of a break that day. The sun was shining radiantly in a sky that was devoid of clouds, and a gentle swell rocked the sailing boats tied up at the port. Such incredible weather for an October day also had its drawbacks. The car park at the marina was virtually full, and all of the places they found looked too small to park Natalia’s enormous Mercedes.

  ‘Look, that place is good. Why don’t you put it there?’ asked Lorena, fed up of going around in circles.

  ‘I don’t know if it’s going to fit, and I don’t want to scratch the car.’ Lorena folded her arms and frowned. ‘Fine. I’ll try it,’ Gus said.

  Gus pretended to be very calm and have everything under control, but in reality he knew that he did not have a thing under control when it came to the whole parking business. He had not parked since getting his licence, and all the cars he had parked in his lessons were half the size of this monster. Even so, he fought with the controls without complaint or protest and, miraculously, he managed to fit the car in without a scratch.

  ‘Great,’ said Lorena as she grabbed her jacket. ‘We’re super close to the bar where I’ve arranged to meet my friends. Let’s go.’

  They got out of the car and, whilst they were doing up their jackets, Lorena went back to looking at him with admiration.

  ‘So this car isn’t yours?’

  ‘No, a friend’s lent it to me. I’ll be buying one myself soon, but I still haven’t decided on a model...’

  ‘Well I love this one. You should buy one like this.’

  Gus gave her a timid smile and began to walk in the direction of the bar. His real problem was that he had not found any car, neither in that model or any other, that he
could afford with the miserable savings he had in the bank. That could change with what the Ertzaintza was going to pay him for collaborating with them, but, no matter how long the investigation went on for, he would never in his life be able to afford a car like Natalia’s. With any luck, he could aspire to something akin to Carlos’s old banger, as long as they allowed him to pay in instalments.

  They went into the bar, and Lorena deserted him to go straight towards a group situated at the back of it. As they all greeted each other with two insincere air kisses on each cheek, Gus weighed up the establishment. The distressed wood of the floor and bar looked good. Everything was dimly lit with some amber coloured lights whose shades pretended to be old maps. Behind the bar he saw shelf upon shelf full of bottles and, on them, a skull and cross bones. There were pirate flags, rudders, old barrels... The décor was so well done that it even came as a surprise to him that the waiter had all of his limbs intact and was not wearing a wooden leg, a hook, or an eye-patch.

  ‘What are you going to drink, Lorena?’

  ‘A green tea with ice and mint,’ she replied, as she continued greeting all of her friends without seeming to be about to introduce him to them at any point in time.

  Gus went up to the bar, wondering why Lorena was not capable of ordering a beer or a Coca-Cola like everybody else. The waiter, an imposing blond man with a smile that was right out of a toothpaste advert, came over to him.

  ‘What would you like, sir?’

  ‘A green tea with ice and mint, and a beer.’

  ‘Home-produced or imported? Pale, dark, or lager? Any brand in particular?’

  Whilst the man awaited his reply, Gus thought about how being rich was super complicated. He had never been asked that many questions in his own neighbourhood when ordering a darn beer.

  ‘It doesn’t matter. Whatever you keep in there.’

  The waiter looked at him as if he had just uttered sacrilege for which he ought to be taken away to be burnt at the stake, but he did not ask him anything else. Gus placed a five-euro note on top of the bar and waited for him to serve the drinks.