“Gentlemen, before we move on to the business in hand, I want to fill you in on some developments. As you know, the Franklin Corporation is our biggest client, even though their headquarters are based in California. I’ve sent Luci over there to help with a tricky situation that’s just come up, and I expect he’ll be there for a few weeks. As ever, it’s a delicate matter and he will be working undercover. For now, I’ll assume his responsibilities, as well as my own.”

While the men digested the news with a fair amount of scepticism, Paz’s mind flashed, for a brief moment, to the shallow grave in the forest where he had buried his former friend. After a few moments, he switched his mind back to the matter at hand and began the briefing.

“As well as continuing the search for García’s hiding place, we have a new assignment that is connected to the same operation. The man running the police investigation into the robbery has become a direct threat to our employer, and we have been asked to eliminate that threat.”

Alonso Núñez was the only man in the room brave enough to confront Paz. “Boss, I assume you are talking about taking out Chief Inspector Vargas? That’s a line we’ve never crossed before and we could end up with the entire police department on our case.”

Paz’s instinct for survival kicked in. He knew he had to quash any sign of revolt before it had a chance to spread. “Alonso, fuck you. I thought you, of all people, would know better than to question my orders or my methods. Your job right now is not to doubt me but to work your police contact and find out everything you can about Vargas’s life. I want to know everything there is to know about that bastard cop – his home address, details of his family, his favourite bar, his daily schedule. I even want to know what time in the morning the fucker goes for a shit.”

Paz finished his rant, slowly rose from his chair, leaned his hands on the table and stared menacingly around the room at his operatives. “Has anyone got any problems with that?”

Everyone nodded their support and Núñez stepped back into line. “Boss, I’ll get on to it straight away.”

The potential rebellion was short-lived and well and truly crushed.

Chapter Thirty-Four

21 January 2012

Buenos Aires

The blown-up image displaying a street map of the Villa Lugano district filled the entire fascia of the giant crime board. García’s flat was clearly marked with a red dot and drawn around it were three circles of varying diameters. Torres had called a meeting to update his detective team. He and Vargas were standing on either side of the map. The chief inspector held a long plastic ruler in his left hand, which he used as an improvised pointer.