Alicia looked at Daniel, who smiled weakly.

“Thank you so much, but—”

Julián gripped her hand.

“As you can see, my grandson insists. Go on, say you’ll stay. We’ll be among family.”

Alicia looked down and shook her head slowly. She felt Bea’s hand on her back and heard her whisper, “Stay.”

“I don’t know what to say . . .”

“Don’t say anything. Julián, why don’t you show Señorita Alicia your first book? Wait till you see this . . .”

Julián ran off to look for a notebook he had smudged with drawings, scribbles, and incomprehensible inscriptions. He showed it to her enthusiastically.

“His first novel,” said Daniel.

Julián looked at her expectantly.

“It looks great . . .”

The child clapped, happy with the critical reception. Grandfather Sempere, who must have been the same age her father would have been had he lived, glanced at Alicia with the sad look that seemed to have followed him through life. “Welcome to the Sempere family, Alicia.”

8

The blue tram climbed slowly, a small raft of golden light making its way like a ship through the night mist. Fernandito traveled on the back platform. He’d left his Vespa parked next to the Hotel La Rotonda. He saw it fade in the distance and then looked out to face the long avenue of mansions that flanked the route, deserted castles sheltered by small woods, fountains, and gardens of statues, where nobody was ever to be seen. Great fortunes are never at home.

At the top of the avenue loomed the silhouette of El Pinar through slivers of low clouds. Towers, gables, and lines of serrated dormer windows crowned a forbidding vision resting on a hill from which the whole of Barcelona could be seen. On a clear day you could probably make out the island of Mallorca from that hilltop, thought Fernandito. That night, however, a thick blanket of darkness shrouded the house.

Fernandito gulped. The mission Alicia had entrusted him with was beginning to make him apprehensive. According to an uncle of his who had lost an arm and an eye in the war, one can only be a hero when one is genuinely afraid. Someone who faces danger fearlessly is just an idiot. Fernandito wasn’t sure whether Alicia was expecting him to be a hero or a simpleton. Perhaps a subtle combination of both, he concluded. The salary was unbeatable, granted, but the image of Alicia weeping inconsolably in his arms would have been enough to make him tiptoe into hell, and even pay for it.

* * *

The tram dropped him off at the top of the avenue and vanished again in the mist, its lights fading on the downward journey like a hazy mirage. The small square was deserted at that late hour. A solitary streetlamp barely revealed the shape of two black cars parked outside the La Venta restaurant. Police, thought Fernandito. He heard the drone of an approaching vehicle and rushed to find a dark spot near the funicular station. Soon he caught sight of headlights cutting through the night. The car, which he identified as a Ford, stopped only a few meters from where he was hiding.