“We’ve had a major development in the last twenty-four hours, which I believe may be the break we’ve been waiting for. We think a cruciform key found among Pedro García’s personal effects will help us find his secret hiding place. The lock that works with this type of key is typically used to protect a garage or a lock-up warehouse or even a studio apartment. I think García may well have rented a small building to stash his share of the robbery, and the odds are it’s located within a three-mile radius of his flat.”

Vargas used the ruler to tap the circle closest to García’s flat. “This first circle covers a one-mile radius from the location of the flat and the other two show the street layouts up to three miles away. I want to start the search within the first circle and then we’ll work our way out until every potential lock has been tried within three miles of the flat.”

Vargas nodded to Torres to fill in some more detail. He picked up a large bunch of keys from the nearby table and held them in the air.

“As the chief just said, we think García’s hiding place is somewhere in the Villa Lugano district. To speed up the search, we’ve had duplicate keys made for all of you.”

Vargas pointed the ruler towards the map board again. “Somewhere on this street map is a matching lock waiting to be found and opened. The key is a bit like Cinderella’s shoe, except we’ve got ten of them.”

* * *

Alonso Núñez had never been granted the honour of a meet with Paz in the Recoleta Cemetery. But, with no sign of Herrera, he wondered if he was being groomed as a possible replacement. As usual, Paz was seated on the stone bench facing the statue of his boxing idol. He spotted his operative approaching through the grounds and gestured to Núñez to join him.

“Alonso, take a look at that magnificent statue. I find it truly inspiring and, at various difficult moments in my life, I’ve always turned to it for inspiration.”

“It’s awesome, boss. I can see why you are so drawn to it.”

“So what have we learned so far about Vargas?”

“Well, as you know, in the last few days Vargas has been playing things pretty close to his chest and our contact has to be very careful not to risk exposure. His personal file is password-protected, so it’s not easy to access the sort of information we want. I’m thinking of setting up our own surveillance team to try and get a handle on his movements, if you agree?”

“For fuck’s sake, the last time I checked we were paying ten thousand dollars a month to this contact, so tell them they need to start fucking earning it.”