Pedro was woken early and taken from his basement cell back to the interview room where Vargas was waiting for him. A white polystyrene cup of steaming black coffee was positioned on the table in front of his chair. Next to it sat a second cup containing white sugar, and Pedro helped himself to a heaped spoonful.

Vargas flicked on the tape machine as he began their second interview. “I trust you had another good night’s sleep?”

Pedro took a large swig of hot coffee before replying. “What do you think? It’s my first experience of sleeping on a steel bedstead with a cockroach-infested mattress. I’m an innocent man and, as you must know by now, I don’t have a criminal record, so this is my first experience of being incarcerated in a police institution. And where is my lawyer?”

Vargas turned off the recorder and glared at his suspect. “Pedro, you don’t seem to have grasped the gravity of your situation. Not only do we know you took part in the robbery, but so does another party, who is clearly desperate to retrieve the contents of their box.”

Pedro had done a great deal of thinking during a sleepless night and had decided on his strategy. “Chief inspector, as far as I can see, you have absolutely no evidence against me, other than the fact that I, like hundreds of other citizens, rented a box at the Banco Estero and that my cousin, who I wasn’t particularly close to, took part in the heist. Both facts are purely circumstantial.”

Vargas was surprised by the resilience displayed by the unemployed air-con engineer. “To be honest, Pedro. I think you were actually the brains behind this whole operation and that you recruited your cousin and Gonzales to help pull it off. Your extensive knowledge of air conditioning would have been vital in the design of the tunnel, and I’m convinced you rented the Café Torino and turned it into your base.”

“I’ve never even heard of the Café Torino and, as I just said, you don’t have any hard evidence against me. You need to release me.”

“Señor García, we have more than enough evidence to charge you and, believe me, that will happen on Monday.”

Vargas could see he was getting nowhere, so decided to end the exchange. “One last thing, Pedro. If I were you, bearing in mind the fate that befell your two accomplices, the very last thing I’d want right now is to be released.”

Leaving that thought to permeate inside García’s mind, the chief inspector stood up and left the room.

* * *