He orders a cortado, an espresso with a little hot milk, and takes his grey notebook out of his pocket. He’s grateful that Vanina is late. It gives him the opportunity to jot down some notes and offers him impunity from her reproaches for his habitual lateness, at least this time.
Twenty minutes later he arrives in his office. He picks up the telephone and calls Vanina’s house. The line is busy. He takes off his jacket, hangs it up, opens his briefcase, takes out the envelope of the Biterman case, his grey notebook and Kelsen’s book, and places them on his desk, sits down, calls Vanina again. It’s still busy. He opens his notebook, picks up the telephone, presses the buttons with the eraser of his yellow-and-black Pelikan pencil.
Assistant Superintendent Sansone?… Pereyra here… Very well, thank you, and you?… Do you have something for me?… When was that?… Are you sure?… What’s the girl’s name?… Who told you?… Where is she?… If we call her in as a witness, will she come?… I understand… You don’t say… Where can I find that doctor?… He told you he gave… What do you mean he himself asked for it?… In Martinez?… But the girl was already pregnant when they captured her… Could anyone be such a son of a bitch?… No, of course, I know… Do we have an address?… Wait a minute… Go ahead… Yes… Yes… Good. One more thing… Do you know Superintendent Lascano?… Yes… Really?… But he got away… Where can I find him?… I understand… If you see him tell him to call me, I want to talk to him about the Biterman case… Thanks… I’ll let you know if I hear anything else…
Marcelo stares at the name and address he just wrote down in his grey notebook. It is the same address, where he took the envelope to Giribaldi? He doesn’t think he can tie him to the whole string of murders the military committed to cover their tracks, but he’s planning to use the information to pressure him and get some information about the whereabouts of several children “appropriated” during the dictatorship. There are three pieces of evidence that would tie everything up and finish the package with a flourish. One: find the weapon Biterman’s murderer had put in hock at the Banco Municipal. All the information he needs for that is in the envelope. Two: interview the witness the military kidnapped in Martinez. Three: find Lascano.
He leans back in his chair, places the pencil between his teeth. He is happy because his investigations are finally bearing fruit, but that sensation is quickly replaced by another: the revulsion he feels at being happy about solving cases that are so utterly abhorrent. Then he remembers Vanina, picks up the telephone, and calls her parents.
12
This morning Miranda has come to this working-class neighbourhood in Villa Del Parque dressed as a construction worker. He’s sitting down in the street and leaning against a wall, his legs crossed and his yellow hard hat pulled down to his eyes, spying on the house where his wife and son live. Fernando, his son, is the first to leave. He’s on his way to school. Mole is both distressed and pleased to see how much the boy has grown; such a short time ago he was just a child. For some reason he can’t quite figure out, he’s putting off his encounter with him. Fernando takes out a Walkman and turns it on. He puts the earphones in his ears and places the player in a small pouch attached to his belt. Miranda remembers that at his age he carried a gun in the same place. He waits. He hasn’t yet seen any signs of men hanging around. Not during the day or at night, when Fernando goes out and she stays home alone. In the room on the first floor, at about ten at night, the blue light of the TV goes on, and less than an hour later it goes off, and nothing else happens all night. Duchess goes out very little, and then only to buy groceries. Sometimes, in the afternoons, she gets a visit from Pelusa, the neighbour who lives on Pasaje El Lazo, and they sit in the kitchen drinking mate.
Susana leaves the house and walks toward Jonte. Miranda stands up and follows her. She’s walking in front of him in her flowered housedress. He knows all too well what’s beneath that innocent-looking article of clothing. The whole time inside he was longing for that body, and now he has it, right here, almost within reach. His plan is to show up tomorrow, then take things from there. There’s no other man in the picture, he’s made sure of that. She stops at the grocery store, then the greengrocer’s. When she enters the butcher’s shop, Miranda keeps walking till he gets to the bus stop. The sun’s reflection off the shop window of La Vaca Aurora doesn’t let him see what’s going on inside, but he can watch the door from where he is now.
When she enters, Pepe looks up and smiles at her. She lowers her eyes and waits for him to finish attending to her neighbour. After his wife died he started looking at her in a different way. He always gives her the feeling he’s about to say something but that he never quite musters the courage. They’ve known each other for years, he knows who her husband is, and maybe that frightens him off. He used to be bolder before his wife died; he flirted with all his women customers, flattered them and shot them suggestive glances. Now he seems more reserved; he must feel more vulnerable. Through the curved glass of the display case, Susana watches him work. He plunges an old knife that is by now almost all handle into the sirloin steak on the wood slab. With quick confident movements he hones the new knife with the sharpening steel. He places his hand flat down on the meat and starts slicing off cutlets with highly skilled precision, each movement identical, each slice the same thickness, all falling gracefully one at a time in a neat stack that mimics the original shape of the steak. You said a kilo? He asks her only as an excuse to talk to her, only so she’ll look up at him, only so their eyes will meet. She does so briefly, and nods. Will he ever summon the courage to say something to her, to ask her out? He doesn’t believe she’ll say yes, but he keeps asking her with his eyes. He keeps asking her when the scale reads a kilo and a quarter, and he charges her for only a kilo. And she feels flattered, he makes her feel beautiful, desired; she likes it. She walks out with her skirt swaying just a little more than usual, carrying with her the butcher’s gaze, glued upon her.
That night, impeccably groomed and dressed to the nines, Miranda arrives at the house and waits patiently until the door opens and Fernando leaves. Duchess says goodbye to him from the doorway, where she continues to stand as she watches him disappear around the corner. That’s when Mole crosses the street and rings the doorbell.
I thought you’d never come. Well, here I am. You sure took your time. I had things to arrange. You’ve been spying on me? A little. Are you going to invite me in or are you going to bring the chairs out here for us to sit on in the street? Come in. Fernandito is old. Yeah, so are we. Time waits for no man. What are your plans? I have some business to take care of…