María Luisa Alcaine

Assistant Secretary

to the Head Office of Archives and Documentation

Civil Registry of Barcelona

He handed her what he’d found, and Alicia examined it. She kept the list and the card. The rest she returned to Fernandito, telling him to put it all back where he’d found it. Her eyes were riveted on Vargas’s body, its shape visible under the blanket.

Fernandito waited a couple of minutes before walking back to her side. “We can’t stay here,” he said at last.

Alicia looked at him as if she couldn’t understand him, or couldn’t hear him.

“Give me your hand,” he said.

She ignored him, trying to get up on her own. Seeing her wince in pain, Fernandito put his arms around her and helped her up.

Once she was on her feet, she took a few steps, trying to hide the fact that she was limping. “I’m OK on my own.” Her voice was icy, her eyes impenetrable, no longer betraying any emotion, not even when she turned to Vargas for the last time.

She’s closed and bolted all the doors, thought Fernandito.

“Let’s go,” she murmured, limping to the exit.

Fernandito held her arm and led her to the stairs.

* * *

They sat at a table in the far corner of the Gran Café. Fernandito asked for two large coffees with milk and a glass of brandy, poured the brandy into one of the cups, and handed it to Alicia. “Drink. It will warm you up.”

Alicia accepted the cup and sipped at the coffee slowly. The rain scratched the windowpanes and trickled down, masking the gray blanket that had fallen over Barcelona. Once Alicia had recovered her color, Fernandito told her the whole story.

“You shouldn’t have followed him to that place,” she said.

“I wasn’t going to let him get away.”

“Are you sure he’s dead?”

“I don’t know. I fired two or three shots with Captain Vargas’s gun. He couldn’t have been more than two meters away. It was very dark . . .”

Alicia put her hand on Fernandito’s and smiled weakly.

“I’m OK,” he lied.

“Do you still have the weapon?”

Fernandito shook his head. “It fell when I was running away. What are we going to do now?”

Alicia was quiet for a few moments, her gaze lost in the windowpane. She could feel the pain in her hip throbbing in time to her pulse.

“Shouldn’t you take one of those pills of yours?” asked Fernandito.

“Afterward.”

“After what?”

Alicia looked him in the eye. “I need you to do something else for me.”

Fernandito nodded. “Anything.”

She looked in her pockets and handed him a key. “It’s the key to my home. Take it.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I want you to go up to the apartment. Make sure there’s nobody there before you go in. If the door is open or the lock looks as if it’s been forced, start running and don’t stop until you get home.”