Carlos came into the living room, with Art trying to walk between his legs. Upon seeing Gus sitting there and the computer in a corner, he stood looking at them with an air of confusion.
‘What’s going on? Why is he here? And why’s he brought his computer? Don’t tell me he’s been kicked out of the house and you’ve taken him in?’
‘No, don’t worry.’ Natalia went over to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. ‘If we don’t want anybody at the station to find out what we’re doing, we need a new centre of operations.’
‘But does it have to be in our living room?’
‘Look, it can’t be at my place. My mother hates you guys,’ said Gus, shrugging his shoulders. ‘And you won’t want me setting this up in a café.’
‘And just what is it you have to do?’ asked Carlos, who was just not convinced. ‘What do you need the computer for?’
‘Let’s see, how to explain it to you...’ Gus tried to organise his thoughts whilst ruffling up his hair. ‘The most conclusive evidence they have against Roberto is that the records indicate that his IP was the one used to connect to Quicklove to speak with the victims.’
‘That’s true,’ admitted Carlos. ‘How do you explain that?’
‘Well, there are two possibilities. The first one is that somebody snuck into Roberto’s office and used his computer to set up those communications.’
‘That’s impossible. The offices are locked with a key, and somebody would have seen them and suspected them.’
‘Not if it was somebody very close to Roberto, or with a good excuse for entering that office. Nobody would suspect if they saw Roberto’s partner or one of the cleaners...’ suggested Natalia.
‘And how do we check that?’ asked Carlos.
‘I don’t know. We can’t ask Aguirre to let you see the security camera recordings,’ said Gus. ‘How well do you get on with the people in charge of the cameras?’
‘Not well enough to ask them to let me see the recordings without anybody finding out,’ replied Carlos. ‘What’s the second possibility? Perhaps it might be easier.’
‘Don’t be so sure... The second possibility is that someone has gone into the records and altered them, changing the real IP for Roberto’s. Frankly, I believe that this is the most likely possibility.’
‘And can we check that?’ said Natalia.
‘It’s very complicated. Whoever did it has to be a good hacker, and will have erased all their tracks after changing the records. We’d have to examine them carefully to see whether he’s forgotten something.’
‘And how can one check that?’
‘By going into the records of the server at headquarters,’ answered Gus. ‘I imagine that Aguirre’s not going to give us permission for that.’
‘Bloody fantastic... So the evidence proving that Roberto wasn’t the guilty one, and that we still have a killer on the loose at the station, is being guarded by Aguirre,’ commented Carlos. ‘Honestly, I’d prefer to have to fight a giant, three-headed dog.’
‘Couldn’t there be some way of accessing that information from the outside?’ asked Natalia.
‘There’s always a way of getting in. No IT system is one hundred per cent secure,’ replied Gus.
‘Then what are you waiting for? Do it.’ Carlos sat down beside the computer, as if waiting for him to set to work and give him the answer he needed in three minutes.
‘Let’s see, how can I tell you this... I really, really do appreciate you blindly trusting in my abilities, but I have to confess to you that when it comes to hacking, I’m nothing special.’
‘How come? When we were investigating Charon, you got many leads.’
‘Do I need to remind you that I didn’t do it alone? I had to ask for help from several friends, and you had a right royal go at me for having involved external people in the investigation...’
‘Do you still keep in touch with those friends?’ asked Natalia.
‘Of course, they’re really nice guys...’ Gus remained silent for a few seconds, looking at Natalia’s evil smile. ‘Let’s see if I’m understanding you correctly... Are you suggesting that I ask my friends to sneak into the police’s IT system?’
‘Yes, that’s right... It’s very risky, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, incredibly so.’ Gus’s face lit up with a wide smile. ‘They’re going to love it. I’m going to ask them right now. As soon as they have anything, I’ll let you know.’
CHAPTER SIX
The whole flat was in silence. The only thing that could be heard was Carlos’s breathing, in step with Art’s gentle snores. Natalia turned over again in bed, covered herself up to her ears with the quilt, and tried to convince herself that she was very comfortable and that she would fall asleep any second now.
After five minutes, she decided to give up. She picked up her mobile from her bedside table and looked at the time. It was almost two in the morning, and her eyes were as wide open as an owl’s. With a sigh of resignation, she removed the quilt and sat up in bed. She knew perfectly well what was wrong. Once she got an idea in her head, it did not matter what time it was. The thought was beginning to go around and around in her head, as if she was trying to analyse it from all possible perspectives and, as soon as she had stopped thinking about it, it would start all over again. That night it was going to be impossible to sleep.
She got up and, before leaving the room, picked up one of the jumpers that Carlos had left cast on top of a chair. The pile of clothing that was starting to accumulate, hoping that they would get themselves in the wash all by themselves, was starting to be a concern. She decided not to say anything and to wait for Carlos himself to realise that he was running out of clothes in his wardrobe and that that tower of garments would not manage to stay upright for much longer. He was a big enough boy by now to know when he needed to do laundry.
Upon reaching the living room, she wondered what to do. She could lie down on the sofa, switch on the TV, on the 24 hour channel, and watch the same news programme on a loop again and again. She knew that that would relax her; it was something hypnotic. Upon the third time of seeing the same broadcast, she usually fell asleep without fail. However, that was not what she fancied doing. Although she knew that it would entail a sleepless night, she wanted to test out the idea that had come to her.
She looked carefully through her workbag until she came across the dossier containing all of the information from the case. She took out the file with the list of epileptic patients who had requested extra prescriptions of Luminal. She was still obsessed with the idea of finding out how the killer had managed to obtain those tablets, and she was certain that the answer was to be found on that list.
Once she had the papers in front of her, she wondered how to begin. The killer was supposed to be somebody who worked at headquarters, but she did not believe that a single one of the officers would have passed the examinations if they suffered from epilepsy. That would only leave as suspects the external staff: cleaning, maintenance...
She went back to searching inside her workbag before coming across the list she was looking for. When Carlos had convinced them that Roberto was not the one responsible and that the killer was somebody from headquarters who was still free, she had gone to an acquaintance in the administration department and had asked her for a list of all the people who worked there. Luckily, the young woman had thought that it was to do with something official, and had handed her the list without any trouble. Natalia just had to pray that she did not think to mention it to Aguirre.
She began comparing the list of cleaning and maintenance staff with the one of epileptic patients. It was a tedious job and, after half an hour, she began to feel her eyelids drooping. She could not believe it. As soon as she had decided not to sleep, she was feeling sleepy? She finished checking, without getting any result, and went to the kitchen to prepare herself a coffee. She knew that, even though she was feeling tired and on the verge of falling asleep, her eyes would open again and her mind woul
d begin functioning once more at a thousand miles an hour as soon as she rested her head on the pillow.
With the cup in her hand, she went back to sit down by the table and stared at the papers as she wondered how to continue. The killer had to be related to one of the people on that list. There was no other way of obtaining that medication. An idea suddenly came to her head, like a spark. There was no need for the epileptic patient to work at headquarters. The sufferer could be a family member: his wife, a son...
She wondered how she could investigate that. She had the names of all her work colleagues, but could not think of how to access the information about their families. She began by crossing off all of the women. On that occasion, thanks to the security cameras at the hotels, they were certain that they were searching for a man. Once she finished doing that, she was paralysed once more. The list was still enormous, and she could just not think how she would be able to access the details of all those people’s private lives.
The answer came to her upon looking at Gus’s computer, set up in the corner of the living room. Facebook, the place where people put up the names of their family members, their photos, their concerns, grievances, and joys... She got up from the chair, sat down in front of the computer, and turned it on. It was going to be an immense task, but she was certain that she would find something.
*****
Carlos turned over in bed and covered his head even more upon noticing that someone was touching his shoulder. He was incredibly sleepy. It was impossible that it was already time to get up. Natalia did not give up, and she shook him a little harder. He emitted a grunt of protest, but brought half of his head out from under the quilt to look at her through squinted eyes.
‘What is it? Is it time to get up already?’ he protested in a grumbling voice.
‘No, it’s five-thirty.’
‘So why are you waking me up? What have I done to you?’
‘It’s important. I’ve discovered something about the case.’
‘And it can’t wait until morning?’
‘No. I’ve stayed up all night to find this. If I don’t sleep, you don’t either. After all, you’re the one who’s insisted we carry on on with this case.’
‘You’re going to manage to make me lose the will to marry you.’ Carlos sat up and shot her a look of hatred. ‘You could at least make me a coffee.’
‘No problem. I’ll be waiting for you in the living room.’
Natalia left the bedroom without saying another word. Still sitting up in bed, Carlos heard as she shuffled amongst the utensils in the kitchen. Judging by all the noise she was making, it seemed that she was preparing a full breakfast, so he could forget now about taking a quick look at what she wanted to show him and going back to bed.
Art stretched out beside him, sat up, and began licking one of his arms with apathy. It seemed that the dog was struggling between his moral obligation to say good morning, and the desire to continue sleeping.
‘We ought to kick her out of the house and live peacefully, just you and me, right?’ said Carlos, stroking the fur on the back of the dog’s neck. ‘I’ll have a think about it. Now we have to get up before she comes to give us a telling off.’
Carlos went into the living room, still rubbing his eyes. Without saying a word, he sat down in a chair, in front of which Natalia had placed a cup of coffee and a couple of rounds of toast. Carlos had to take a couple of sips of the coffee before he felt ready to talk.
‘What you’ve found had better be really good. I’m not going to forgive you for this as a breakfast.’
‘It’s worth the pain, as you’ll soon see.’ Natalia placed the two lists in front of him. ‘I’ve been going over and over our problem with the Luminal. We know that the killer had extra doses that he used to sedate his victims...’
‘And to fake Roberto’s suicide,’ commented Carlos.
‘Exactly, so he had to be on the list of epileptic patients who requested more boxes of medicine than corresponded to them. We also know that the killer works at headquarters, so I set about comparing both lists.’
‘And have you found anything?’
‘No, there’s nobody who appears on both.’
‘And you’ve woken me up to tell me you haven’t found anything? I’m going to kill you...’
‘Wait, don’t be impatient. Upon finding nothing, it occurred to me that the epileptic person did not have to be anyone who worked at the station, but could be a family member. The killer could have requested those extra medications and collected them from a pharmacy as if they were for that relative.’
‘Now tell me that you have found something.’
‘Well of course. I set about investigating the Facebook pages of the people at headquarters, and I have found this,’ Natalia took him by the hand, made him stand up, and brought him to the computer. ‘This is the page of Raúl Etxegaray.’
‘He works at headquarters? I don’t recognise him...’
‘And you dedicate yourself to investigating? Well you certainly do focus on the details...’ commented Natalia, sarcastically. ‘He does work at headquarters. And in the department of cyber crime, to be more exact.’
‘That is fantastic. That means that he could have the necessary knowledge to have hacked the security cameras or the IP records.’
‘Exactly. And look here.’ Natalia scrolled down with the mouse wheel to show him the photograph of a little girl who was blowing out the candles on a birthday cake. ‘I present to you little Carlota, Raúl’s daughter. A delightful and very pretty girl, but with a health problem that keeps her parents very worried.’
‘She’s epileptic,’ ventured Carlos.
‘Yes, she’s epileptic.’ Natalia stood up from the chair, ran towards the table, and picked up one of the lists before returning alongside Carlos. ‘And not only that. Her name appears on the list of patients that Aguirre provided us with. Here she is: Carlota Etxegaray. Two extra boxes in September of last year.’
‘God, you’re incredible.’ Carlos jumped to his feet, took her by the waist, and planted a kiss on her. ‘Now all we have to do is prove it.’
‘Do you think Aguirre will be all right about reopening the investigation with this?’
‘No, I don’t think so, but he will do if I get this guy to confess.’
‘And how are you going to do that?’
‘Give me a minute.’
Carlos left the living room and went to the bedroom, with Art trotting happily behind him. A few seconds later, he returned with his mobile glued to his ear. Natalia opened her mouth to speak, but he gestured for her to wait.
‘Gus, it’s Carlos... Yes, of course I know what time it is: it’s five in the morning... I’m sorry, but this is important. Do you work with Raúl Etxegaray? ...Is there any shift where you’re going to be just the two of you on your own? ...What do you mean you don’t even know your name at this hour? Go and take a look at your work shifts and let me know.’
‘You could have waited until the day started,’ suggested Natalia, whilst Carlos waited for Gus to come back.
‘I got excited and forgot what time it was, but don’t tell anyone... Yes? Have you looked at them yet? Perfect, when you’re both alone then, let me know. I have a couple of things to ask him in private. Yes, we think you could be working with the killer... No, don’t get scared, damn it. Nothing’s going to happen to you. And, most importantly, don’t mention it to your mother.’
*****
Gus looked back at his watch again. Carlos had said that he would call in at five in the afternoon, but it was already ten minutes past and he had still not shown up.
He half stood up from his chair to look over the top of the computer screen. Raúl was working about three metres away from him. Although he seemed very focussed, and nothing seemed to indicate that he was dangerous, Gus could not avoid feeling his breathing speed up once more. He felt his heart beating hard in his chest, his hands sweating... If Raúl came over to tell him anything, it was highly po
ssible that he would end up suffering a heart attack. He did not understand how Carlos could firstly leave him alone with a possible serial killer, and then on top of that have the damn nerve to arrive late.
He tried to remember everything that Carlos and Natalia had told him so that he would not get nervous. He was in an Ertzaintza police station, surrounded by police officers. A killer would have to be pretty crazy to attack him there. Besides, his profile did not remotely fit with that of the victims: he was not a married woman over thirty who was trying to cheat on her husband. That did not reassure him. The killer was also supposed to have taken out Roberto too, who did not meet any of those prerequisites either.
In that moment, he heard as Raúl pushed his chair backwards. He went back to looking surreptitiously over the top of the computer screen, and felt all of his blood freeze upon seeing that the man was heading directly for him whilst putting his hand into the back pocket of his trousers. What was he going to take out of there? A knife? A pistol? A little syringe containing some drug so that he could kidnap him, take him far away, and torture him to death? Raúl stopped just in front of his chair and took his hand out of his back pocket. Gus cringed and closed his eyes.
‘Is something wrong?’ asked Raúl, confused.
‘No, no, nothing... I’m fine.’
‘I wanted to ask you whether you had any change.’ The man showed him the rumpled ten-euro note that he had taken out of his pocket. ‘The darn coffee machine only accepts coins.’
‘I don’t know if I have change for a ten, but I can lend you a euro,’ replied Gus, rummaging nervously through his pockets. He was prepared to give him all of his money in exchange for him going away and leaving him in peace.
In that moment, the door to the department opened. Carlos came in, smiling and carefree, and, without saying anything, closed the door behind him, using the bolt. Then he went over to them both with his hands in his pockets.
The White Corpses Page 21