The White Corpses

by Gemma Herrero Virto

  ‘Good afternoon. I’m glad to find you together. I had some things to talk about with you.’

  ‘Oh really? What can we help you with?’ asked Raúl.

  ‘I think it’ll be better if we sit down. We’ll be more comfortable.’

  Carlos turned a chair around and sat down with his arms resting on the back of it. Raúl sat down opposite him, whilst looking at his colleague with a confused expression. Gus limited himself to shrugging his shoulders and looking for a chair that was a good several metres away. If Raúl got all riled up and turned into the deranged psychopath they suspected he was, he preferred there to be space between them.

  ‘As I imagine you will know, I am trying to close the case about the Roberto Azkarraga murders,’ Carlos began to explain. ‘The problem is that there are a few points that aren’t tallying for me. One of them is to do with where Roberto could have got the medication that he used to drug his victims. It’s called Luminal. Would that happen to ring any bells, by chance?’

  ‘Yes, it certainly does.’ Raúl furrowed his brow and shook his head. ‘It’s the epilepsy medication my daughter takes. Do you have a question about the dose, or how it works?’

  ‘No, no... I don’t have any questions about that. My problem is that it’s a highly controlled medication which Roberto could not have had access to. However, you would.’

  ‘What do you mean by that? I have that medication at home for my little girl. Are you suggesting that I was Roberto’s accomplice? That I gave him the dosages so that he could drug those women? Are you crazy or something?’

  ‘Calm down, don’t get nervous,’ said Carlos in a tranquil voice and a smile that had nothing friendly about it. ‘At no time have I accused you of anything. You’re the one who’s talking about collusion...’

  ‘Good, because I have nothing to do with that. I have the medication that my daughter needs, and no more.’

  ‘Well, that is not entirely true.’ Carlos searched through his jacket until he found a folded sheet of paper. He spread it out over the table and pointed at a line that he had highlighted in green felt-tip pen. ‘Let’s see this name here: Carlota Etxegaray. That’s your daughter’s name, right?’

  ‘Yes, it is. Why?’

  ‘Because here it indicates that you requested two extra boxes of Luminal in September of last year.’

  ‘I can explain that with no trouble. In September we went on holiday with her. We took her to Euro Disney.’

  ‘Lovely place,’ Carlos cut him off, with sarcasm. ‘What does that have to do with the Luminal?’

  ‘We requested two more boxes so that her mother would carry one in her suitcase, and I would carry the other in mine. We didn’t want to run the risk of Carlota’s suitcase being lost and finding ourselves without her medication in a foreign country,’ explained Raúl. ‘In the end we didn’t need them. I have both boxes at home, not even opened.’

  ‘Well, I’ll have to verify that,’ answered Carlos, with a look that expressed that he did not believe even a single word of what the man was saying. ‘I’m going to ask you another little question... You wouldn’t happen to know whether anybody has modified the IP records for the station’s server, or the recordings from the security cameras, would you?’

  ‘I don’t have any idea what you are talking about.’

  Carlos realised that Gus was making signals for him to go over to him. He shot another suspicious look at Raúl, to convey that he was not finished with him, and went over to Gus to see what he wanted.

  ‘What’s wrong now?’ he asked him in a whisper. ‘I’m halfway through an interrogation. You’re breaking my flow.’

  ‘You’re barking up the wrong tree with that one,’ replied Gus. ‘Raúl’s the most useless guy in the whole department. He knows just the basic amount necessary to keep his job. I’ve been talking with my hacker friends, and they say they have found signs that the records were modified, but that the one who did it is a true artist. They’ve been able to find out that someone was there, but that all the tracks have been erased. Raúl wouldn’t be capable of doing that, not even if his life depended on it.’

  ‘Well, perhaps he pretends to be useless in order to throw people off,’ ventured Carlos.

  ‘Okay, if you want to keep trying, you go on ahead, but don’t say afterwards that I didn’t warn you.’

  ‘God damn it... And why didn’t you tell me this before I started interrogating him?’

  ‘Because I thought you were only going to ask about the Luminal. How should I know? Neither of you tell me anything,’ protested Gus.

  ‘I’m going to wrap this up, and then I’m going to carry on with you,’ said Carlos, threateningly.

  Gus puffed out, threw himself backwards in the seat, and crossed his arms in front of his chest whilst shaking his head, feeling incensed. Carlos ignored him and went to sit back down in front of Raúl.

  ‘Are we done yet with this nonsense?’ asked Raúl, feeling angry.

  Carlos cursed between his teeth. Gus’s interruption had made it so that Raúl had had time to think. If he had realised that Carlos did not actually have any firm evidence against him, he could refuse to continue answering his questions. One should never stop an interrogation. That was the number one rule in the police. And less so if, in reality, you did not even have the right to be interrogating.

  ‘We’re done now, don’t worry. Only one more thing.’ Carlos consulted the notes in his notepad. ‘Where were you on the eighth of September of last year, at around eight o’clock in the evening?’

  ‘Well I don’t know where I would have been exactly at that hour, but on the eighth of September I was at Euro Disney with my wife and daughter, just as I told you before. I imagine we would have been having dinner, so as to be on time for the night-time Disney princess parade.’

  ‘Okay, all right.’ Carlos puffed out, feeling despair. This whole thing was not getting them anywhere. ‘And the twenty-first of the same month? Were you still all at Euro Disney?’

  ‘No, but I have a stonking alibi.’ Raúl stood up from the chair, tired of answering questions. ‘It was exactly on the twentieth that I was taken in to Cruces Hospital over an appendicitis attack. I spent the twenty-first recovering on the ward. I already took the leave notice to Aguirre. If you want, you can ask him for them so you can check it yourself.’

  Without saying another word, Raúl left the department, slamming the door behind him. Carlos remained still, looking at the closed door without saying anything. Then, he covered his face with his hands and puffed out.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ asked Gus.

  ‘I’d bet you anything that that guy’s going directly to Aguirre’s office to complain. My hair’s going to fall out.’

  *****

  It was now time for the shift change. In the entryway to headquarters, those leaving crossed paths with those who were starting work. Everybody stopped to talk for a little while, in order to discuss how the work had gone, or to laugh at the glum faces of those who had eight hours in there ahead of them.

  Carlos kept his gaze fixed on the lifts. Natalia should already have been there, but, as usual, she was late. Carlos cursed that obsession of hers to push right up to the last second of work and stay at her post until she was completely certain that she was leaving everything in order.

  ‘Could you stop huffing and puffing and shifting around?’ Gus asked him. ‘You’re making me nervous.’

  ‘I’m the nervous one. If Aguirre catches us here, he’s going to give us the telling off of a lifetime.’

  ‘Don’t get me involved in this, because I haven’t done anything. You’re the one who went in acting like Dirty Harry.’

  ‘We’re all involved in this. It was Natalia and you who convinced me that this guy could be the culprit.’

  ‘Me? You didn’t tell me a thing. All you said to me was that Raúl could be the killer, and to go and look to see when we were going to be alone just the two of us in the department. The rest of the picture is Natalia�
��s doing, so don’t get me caught up in it. We’ll have to see if they’re going to throw me out because of this nonsense... Where am I going to find an internship this good at this stage in the course? Surely all that’s left now is the stuff that nobody else wants: doing income declarations or super-boring accounting things that have nothing to do with what I want to do in the future...’

  ‘Shut up a moment, you’re driving me crazy,’ Carlos cut him off. ‘Look, here comes Natalia. Let’s go.’

  Carlos went up to the lift and, without even saying hello, took Natalia by the arm and pulled her towards the door out. Gus followed along couple of steps behind them.

  ‘I don’t know what the point is in hurrying so much,’ she said. ‘If Aguirre doesn’t tell us off today, he’ll only do it tomorrow.’

  ‘Yes, but by tomorrow he’ll have already calmed down a bit,’ replied Carlos without slowing his pace. ‘We have to avoid catching him while his anger is still fresh.’

  ‘Inspector Vega, Miss Egaña, Mr Guevara, could I speak with the three of you in my office for a moment?’ they heard from behind them.

  Carlos slammed on the brakes, whilst whispering swearwords between his teeth. He turned towards Aguirre with his most innocent smile. The sergeant was observing them with his arms folded, and a look that brought to mind the contained fury of a volcano on the verge of eruption.

  ‘Of course, Aguirre. Let’s go,’ replied Carlos.

  They entered the office. Aguirre sat down, but did not invite them to do the same, so they remained standing, very firmly and in silence, as if they were in front of a firing squad. The sergeant took a breath and riveted his gaze on Carlos.

  ‘What is it you do not understand about my order to close the case of Roberto Azkarraga?’

  ‘Nothing, sir. It’s all very clear,’ replied Carlos with his head bowed.

  ‘Then why has one of the employees from the IT department come to complain about the fact that you have subjected him to an interrogation about said case?’

  ‘I was just trying to clarify a couple of insignificant points, but the case will be closed in no time, just as you ordered.’

  ‘The deadline I gave you has already passed, Carlos. I want the damn report with the seal of “Case Closed” on my desk, and I want it now.’

  ‘But we have new evidence that could indicate that Roberto was not the culprit, or that at least he didn’t act alone...’

  ‘I don’t care. The evidence we have proves his culpability beyond all reasonable doubt. I don’t want you to keep going over this and to have some journalist potentially finding out. You know perfectly well all the hell that broke loose when we had to tell the press that the serial killer who had the whole of Biscay terrorised was one of our homicide inspectors. Can you imagine what would happen if, all of a sudden, some media outlet leaked that the investigation was still going ahead, or that there could be more ertzainas involved in the murders?’

  ‘But I can’t stop investigating this. We’ll be discreet,’ promised Carlos.

  ‘I can already see how discreet you all are. It didn’t take Etxegaray even ten minutes before coming to tell me that you’d been interrogating him. Do you think he’s not going to mention it to his colleagues? That he’s not going to tell his family about it?’ Aguirre got up from the chair and rested both arms forcefully on the desk before leaning towards them. ‘If this gets out, I’ll be out on the damn street. Can any of you imagine who’ll be coming with me?’

  The three of them nodded like obedient children, without saying a word. Aguirre went back to taking an immense breath of air before pointing out the door to them.

  ‘Get out of my sight. And I want that report closed tomorrow, first thing.’

  *****

  Carlos left the station, taking big strides, whilst Gus and Natalia followed him, trying to keep up with his pace. When he arrived at his car, he gave a couple of kicks to the front wheel and then leant against the passenger side door, took out a cigarette, and began to smoke with fast and deep puffs, whilst holding his vacant gaze on some point of infinity.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Natalia asked him, worried.

  ‘Brilliant...’ Carlos took another deep puff on his cigarette before he continued talking. ‘No, I’m not all right. How could I be all right? This whole thing is shit.’

  ‘And what are you going to do?’

  ‘Well spend the afternoon finishing that bloody report to hand in to him tomorrow morning,’ he replied, his voice coloured with rage.

  ‘So you’re giving up then?’ asked Gus.

  ‘Not on your damn life.’ A mischievous smile unfolded on his face. ‘If he wants me to close the case, I’ll close it. Then he’ll have to reopen it when we manage to find the culprit.’

  ‘And how are we going to do that?’ asked Natalia. ‘We don’t have anything.’

  ‘Well, we do have something...’ intervened Gus. ‘I don’t think we were so misguided when we turned our attention to the cyber crimes department. According to what my mates have told me, the guy who manipulated the records has to be someone who’s really good with computers, so I’d carry on looking around there.’

  ‘And who works in that department?’ Carlos took out his notepad to start jotting down names.

  ‘Apart from myself?’

  ‘Obviously. Or was it you all along? Should we have suspected?’ asked Carlos, sarcastically.

  ‘Me? You already know I can’t stand anything to do with blood, injuries, guts, and all that disgusting mess, so, if the crime scenes weren’t full of vomit, then you both know it couldn’t have been me.’

  ‘It was a joke, bloody hell... Tell me who works there, in addition to Raúl and yourself.’

  ‘Well there’s Markel, but he’s even more useless than Raúl with computers.’

  ‘Is it that there’s nobody competent in that department?’ asked Natalia, astonished.

  ‘Don’t get me wrong. They know how to do their job, and they do it well, but it’s obvious that they don’t have the slightest idea about programming. And much less know how to hack a server. The only one we’re left with is Juanjo, but he can’t be the killer.’

  ‘And why’s that?’ asked Carlos, interested.

  ‘First of all because he’s never given me the impression of being an IT whizz, either. Secondly because we’re looking for a tall and muscular guy. Juanjo can’t even be 5’5”, and he weighs over a hundred kilos. And thirdly because he spends the day looking at porn when he thinks nobody’s watching him. That doesn’t fit very much with Natalia’s hypothesis of him being a religious fanatic and a puritan.’

  ‘No, not much...’ Natalia shook her head. ‘Is there anybody else?’

  ‘No, although it could be...’ Gus fell silent for a few seconds, trying to put his thoughts in order. ‘Do you remember Daniel?’

  ‘No. Who’s that?’ asked Carlos.

  ‘So little sensitivity. He’s the computer expert who was killed a couple of months ago in a traffic accident. We went to his funeral.’

  ‘It can’t have been him. He was dead by the time the murderer killed Roberto.’

  ‘Yeah, that’s true. Forget what I said then.’

  ‘No, wait, wait...’ Natalia raised her right hand, asking them for a little time, whilst she began to walk up and down the car park in order to organise her thoughts. ‘We’ve been thinking the whole time that the killer is the same person who hacked the server, but there could be two different people. What if the killer asked Daniel to fiddle the records for him, incriminating Roberto, and, when he no longer needed him, he eliminated him?’

  ‘Do you know how good Daniel was at IT?’ asked Carlos.

  ‘I heard that everyone turned to him whenever they had questions. They say he was a kind of freak genius at programming,’ replied Gus.

  ‘To me he seems like a fairly reasonable suspect,’ commented Natalia. ‘And the fact that he was killed in a traffic accident right after the last victim is too much of a coincidence. What
do you think?’

  ‘That it has to be investigated,’ said Carlos. ‘And also about how I’m going to start looking into what you need to work in private security if this ends up badly.’

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  On the strike of seven, Carlos rang the bell on the intercom. Somebody opened the door for him without even asking. As the lift was making its way up, he tried to relax, to no avail. This conversation with Daniel’s parents could well mean the end of his career. If anything about what he said to them upset them or struck them as strange and they decided to phone the station to protest, he could consider himself fired. He needed to tread very carefully with each one of his words.

  When he came out of the lift, he met a couple waiting for him with the door open.

  ‘Good afternoon. Mr and Mrs Gómez?’ When they both nodded, Carlos took out his badge from his pocket and showed it to them. ‘ I’m Inspector Vega. As I said to you over the phone, I’d like to ask you some questions about the death of your son.’

  ‘Yes, yes. Of course,’ answered the woman. ‘Come in, please.’

  Carlos followed them in to a modest living room. On top of a low table, they had placed a tray with pastries and three cups of coffee.

  ‘You’re both very kind,’ said Carlos as he took a seat. ‘The first thing I want to tell you is that I am so sorry for your loss.’

  ‘Thank you so much,’ they both replied in unison, as if they had said it enough times over the recent weeks to have it perfectly down pat.

  ‘I imagine you will both be wondering why I’m here if the death of your son was due to a car accident,’ Carlos began to explain. ‘I want to tell you that my presence here does not remotely contradict the police report that was created about the case. I simply have a few questions, and I would like to be able to discuss them with you.’

  ‘I knew it,’ interrupted the woman. ‘My Daniel was not killed by a car. It was not an accident. I said so to the police, and nobody wanted to listen to me.’

  ‘Calm yourself down, woman,’ her husband reprimanded her. ‘Let the inspector talk.’