Mataix had come out to meet them. Using his revolver, Fumero struck Mataix so hard on the face that he broke his jaw and knocked him down. His men picked him up and dragged him, screaming, to one of the cars. Fumero wiped his bloody hands on his raincoat and went into the house to search for Susana and the girls. He found them hiding inside a wardrobe, trembling. When Susana refused to hand over her daughters, Fumero kicked her hard in the stomach. He took little Sonia in his arms and grabbed Ariadna by the hand as she wept in terror. He was about to leave the room when Susana threw herself on his back and dug her nails into his face. Without batting an eyelid, he handed the girls to one of his men, who was watching from the doorway, and turned around. He grabbed Susana by her neck and flung her on the floor. Then he knelt down on top of her, crushing her chest, and looked into her eyes. Unable to breathe, Susana gazed at that stranger who was staring at her with a smile. She saw him pull a cutthroat razor from his pocket and unfold it. “I’m going to open up your guts and string them around your neck like a necklace, you fucking whore,” he said calmly.

Fumero had pulled her clothes off and was starting to play around with the blade when the man who had remained in the car, the icy bureaucrat, put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him.

“There’s no time,” he warned.

The men walked away, leaving her there. Susana dragged herself, bleeding, down the stairs. She listened to the drone of the departing cars through the trees until she lost consciousness.

The Forgotten

1

When Vilajuana ended his story, his eyes looked glazed and his voice was dry. Alicia dropped her head, remaining silent. After a while, the journalist cleared his throat, and she smiled weakly at him.

“Susana never saw her husband or her children again. She spent two months visiting police stations, hospitals, and charity homes, asking after them. Nobody knew anything. One day, in despair, she decided to phone Federica Ubach. A servant answered the phone and passed the line on to a secretary. Susana explained what had happened and told the man that Señora Ubach was the only person who could help her. ‘She’s a friend of mine,’ she said.”

“Poor woman,” murmured Alicia.

“Two days later she was picked up in the street and taken to the women’s mental hospital. She remained there a few years. They say she escaped some time later. Who knows. Susana was lost forever.”

A long silence ensued.

“What happened to Víctor Mataix?” asked Alicia.

“Brians, the lawyer, who some time earlier had been hired by Isabella Gispert to try to help David Martín, found out through Martín that Mataix had also ended up in Montjuïc Castle. He was held in solitary confinement by an express order of the prison governor, Don Mauricio Valls, not allowed to go out to the yard with other inmates, receive visits, or have any form of communication with anyone. Martín, who had himself been sent to one of the isolation cells more than once, was the only person who had been able to speak to Mataix, exchanging words across the passage. That’s how Brians knew what had happened. I imagine that by then the lawyer must have felt very remorseful and partly to blame, so he decided to help all those poor devils trapped in the prison. Martín, Mataix . . .”