“Valls also committed a number of important slips that created false trails. He forced Pablo Cascos, an employee in one of his companies, Editorial Ariadna, to contact a member of the Sempere family with whom Cascos had had a relationship, namely Beatriz Aguilar. The Semperes are the owners of a secondhand bookshop that Valls thought Martín may have been using as a shelter. They may even have been Martín’s accomplices, since Martín had had some sort of relationship with Isabella Gispert, the late wife of the bookshop’s owner and mother of Daniel Sempere, the present manager and Beatriz’s husband. And yes, now you can interrupt me again, before you have a fit.”

“What about Mataix’s books? How do you explain the presence of the book I found hidden in Valls’s desk—which, as his daughter Mercedes said, was the last thing he consulted before disappearing?”

“As part of the same strategy. Mataix had been a friend and colleague of Martin’s, and a prisoner in Montjuïc. Bit by bit the pressure, the threats, and his imaginings of a conspiracy in the shadows got the better of Valls. He decided to go in person to Barcelona, together with his trusted man Vicente, to confront the man he believed to be his nemesis, David Martín. The police suppose—and I agree with them—that Valls thought he was going to a clandestine meeting with Martín, where he could get rid of him once and for all.”

“But Martín had been dead for years, like Mataix.”

“Exactly. The people waiting for him were, in fact, Sanchís and Morgado.”

“Wouldn’t it have been easier for Valls to let the police take charge of David Martín, if he thought Martín was alive?”

“Yes, but Martín might reveal information on the death of Isabella Gispert, among other things, destroying Valls’s reputation.”

“That makes sense, I suppose. And then?”

“Once they’d caught him, Sanchís and Morgado moved Valls to the old Castells factory in Pueblo Nuevo, which has been closed for years but belongs to the property consortium of Metrobarna. Sanchís has confessed that they tortured him for hours and then got rid of his body in one of the factory ovens. While I was talking to Gil de Partera, he received confirmation that the police had found remains of bones that they think could belong to Valls. They’ve requested Valls’s dental X-rays, to check whether the remains are in fact those of the minister. I imagine we’ll know either tonight or tomorrow morning.”

“So the case is closed?”

Leandro nodded. “The part that concerns us, at least. It still remains to be seen whether there were other accomplices, and how far-reaching the implications of Ignacio Sanchís’s plot were.”

“And will this be reported to the press?”

Leandro smiled. “Of course not. At this very moment there’s a meeting in the Ministry of the Interior to determine what will be announced and how. I don’t know any more details.”

A long silence ensued, barely interrupted by the sound of Leandro as he sipped his tea, his eyes fixed on Alicia’s.