On Sunday night Cordelia and Fernando left for the city by helicopter. Zico called again. I listened in to the conversation. I heard what I thought were the words thirty million, and then a bit later Luís countering with two million. We were still a long way apart, but we were drawing ever closer. At this rate, one day in the next few weeks, Isabel would be released. I thought about returning to London. Things seemed to be on track, and there was little more that I could do to help. And there was a limit to how long I could stay.
We were beginning to get used to the slow tempo of the negotiations. But on Tuesday, day eight, all that changed.
20
Nelson came up in the morning for breakfast. He seemed excited.
‘I have some news.’
Luís looked up from the tiny roll on his plate. He still wasn’t eating much. ‘About Isabel?’
‘Yes. The police have received a tip that they’re taking seriously. You know the Disque Denúncia?’
Luís nodded.
Nelson explained for my benefit. ‘It’s an anonymous phone line the public can use to tip the police off about criminal activity. Apparently, about a week ago, a blindfolded woman was seen being led from a car to a small shed in the middle of the night. The shed is in Irajá, in the north of the city. The police are going to check it out this morning.’
‘They will be careful, won’t they? They’re not going to storm the place or anything?’
‘Da Silva assured me they won’t. If they find Zico and his friends, they’ll just watch them, and arrest them after Isabel is released.’
‘Are you sure?’ Luís glanced at Nelson suspiciously.
‘I’ve known Da Silva for fifteen years. He’s given me his word.’
Luís looked worried, and I shared his unease. Nelson was an ex-cop so he would say we could trust the police, wouldn’t he? But, on the other hand, they would be more likely not to lie to him. We would see. In any case, there was no doubt in my mind that a dramatic rescue attempt was not the best way to release Isabel. The anxiety grew the more I thought about it.
Nelson could see Luís’s reaction as well.
‘The shed will be under surveillance now,’ he said. ‘Da Silva said he would telephone us here this morning.’
The detective was as good as his word. The police had found the shed empty. It had a basement, and there were plenty of signs that this had been used to hold a kidnap victim. There were marks where a tent had been erected in the middle of the floor. This was apparently a common way of holding kidnap victims so that they couldn’t see their captors. There were food wrappers, empty plastic bottles of mineral water, and some scraps of bread that was quite fresh. There were no signs of blood.
Someone had been held there, and had recently been moved.
Half an hour later the phone rang. But it wasn’t Da Silva. It was Zico.
This time the conversation became quite heated. I could follow very little of it, but Luís was as angry as I had seen him. After a couple of minutes he slammed down the phone and turned on Nelson, eyes blazing.
They exchanged some sharp words of Portuguese, and Luís stormed out of the sitting room into the garden. I glanced at Nelson. For the first time he looked flustered and angry. I followed Luís.
He stood, staring out at the garden, breathing heavily. A cloud was gathering above the hill at the head of the valley, threatening to roll rain down towards us.
‘What happened?’ I asked.
‘Merda,’ he muttered. Then ‘Merda! Merda! Merda!’ more loudly.
I waited.
‘Zico wanted to know why we had told the police. I said that we hadn’t, that they had just received a tip-off. He didn’t believe me.’ He sucked in his breath. ‘Zico said I was lucky Isabel wasn’t dead. He said he would give me just one more chance. I should pay ten million dollars tomorrow night or Isabel will die. He said now the police are on to him he can’t afford to wait. He’s going to call me back in two hours. He sounded serious.’ Luís jerked his head back towards the house. ‘I told that idiot that the police should have checked with me first before going to the hideout. I should never have trusted him!’
I let Luís stew for a minute. ‘What are you going to do?’
‘I don’t know. Pay the ransom, I suppose. I can’t risk Isabel’s life further.’
‘Can you get ten million dollars by tomorrow?’
‘I don’t know. It’ll be difficult.’
‘What does Nelson say?’
‘I don’t give a shit what Nelson says.’
We walked along the path towards the lake. A tree burned orange in front of us. The clouds at the head of the valley were darkening, although the garden itself was still in sunshine.
I took a deep breath. ‘It looks like the police made a mistake. Maybe Nelson made a mistake in trusting them. But his advice has been good so far. He’s objective, and he’s seen all this before. Maybe we should listen to him. Then we can decide what to do.’
We walked on in silence. I was scared about Isabel. But I thought our best chance lay in behaving calmly and following the rules. Zico was prepared to release Isabel alive; Luís was prepared to pay a ransom. As long as we kept our nerve, that’s what would happen.
‘OK, let’s talk to him,’ said Luís.
‘Good,’ I said, and we hurried back to the house just as the sky went dark and raindrops began to fall.
‘Keep negotiating,’ said Nelson. ‘He has lowered his price so fast because he knows you are worried about the police. He hopes to close the deal quickly. Well, that’s fine with us, but not at ten million. We were raising our offer by half a million at a time. We should reduce that, let him know we’re getting close to our ceiling. Offer two million two hundred thousand.’
‘No!’ said Luís. ‘I can pay more than that! Why don’t I offer three?’
‘Because he will think there is a lot further to go!’ said Nelson, who was beginning to lose his patience. ‘Don’t you see that if your offer goes up in larger amounts, the whole negotiation will take longer?’
I saw what Nelson meant. So, in the end, did Luís.
Zico called back when he said he would. Luís gave him his offer of two point two million dollars. The conversation was short. Luís went pale, but stood his ground.
‘What did he say?’ I asked, as soon as Luís had hung up.
‘He asked for five million,’ said Luís. ‘And he said Isabel would definitely be dead tomorrow night if I didn’t pay up. I think I believe him. He’ll call back in another two hours.’
I turned to Nelson, who looked thoughtful. ‘He’s coming down too quickly,’ he said. ‘I’ve never seen a demand drop so fast before. And he seems genuinely eager to get the payment through fast.’
‘He thinks the police are on to him,’ Luís muttered.
Nelson shook his head. ‘I don’t think that would bother him too much. Kidnappers expect the police to investigate them.’
We watched him. His face clouded over into a frown.
‘What is it?’ I asked.
He sighed. ‘I think we should ask for proof of life again.’
Luís exploded. ‘You heard him! He’s not going to stand for that now. There’s no time!’
I was silent. I felt sick. I knew what Nelson was thinking.
Luís saw my expression. ‘What?’
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t.
‘What is it?’ demanded Luís.
‘Nelson thinks she might be dead,’ I said quietly. ‘That’s why the kidnappers are so eager to be paid now.’
‘No!’ shouted Luís. ‘We have no reason to think so. I won’t accept that!’
Nelson held up his hands. ‘You may be right. I hope you’re right. But we should just be sure.’