“I’d like you to make an effort and try to remember. The list, you say it only included numbers? Not the names of the children?”

“No. Just the numbers.”

“Do you remember how many? More or less.”

“There must have been about forty.”

“How did you get hold of those numbers? What made you think there were more cases of children stolen from parents murdered on Valls’s orders?”

“Morgado. When Valentín began working for the family, he told us he’d heard of entire families that had disappeared. Many of his old prison mates had died in the castle, and then their wives and children had vanished without a trace. Ignacio told Valentín to give him a list of names, and he hired Brians, the lawyer, to make discreet inquiries in the Civil Registry and try to find out what had happened to those people. The easiest to find were the death certificates. When he saw that they were mostly issued on the same day, he suspected, and looked up the birth certificates with the same date.”

“How ingenious of Brians. Not everyone would have thought of doing that.”

“When he made that discovery, we began to think that if Valls had done what it looked like he’d done in those cases, there could be many more. In other prisons. In families we didn’t know, all over the country. Hundreds. Perhaps thousands.”

“Did you tell anyone about your suspicions?”

“No.”

“And you didn’t investigate anyone beyond those cases?”

“Ignacio was planning to do that. But he was arrested.”

“What happened to the original list?”

“That man kept it. Hendaya.”

“Are there copies?”

Victoria shook her head.

“Didn’t you or your husband make at least one? For security?”

“The ones that existed were at home. Hendaya found them and destroyed them there and then. He was very clear that it was the best thing to do. All he wanted to know was where we’d hidden Valls.”

“Are you sure?”

“Completely. I’ve already told you a few times.”

“I know, I know. And yet, even so, somehow I can’t quite believe you. Have you lied to me, Ariadna? Tell me the truth.”

“I’ve told you the whole truth. What I don’t know is whether you have too.”

Leandro’s eyes, devoid of all expression, rested on her as if they’d just noticed her presence. He smiled weakly and leaned forward. “I don’t know what you’re referring to, Ariadna.”

She could feel her eyes fill with tears. The words slid out of her lips before she realized she was uttering them. “I think you do know. You were in the car, weren’t you? The day they came to arrest my father and take my sister and me away. You were Valls’s partner . . . the black hand.”

Leandro gazed sadly at her. “I think you’re mistaking me for someone else, Ariadna.”

“Why?” She was barely able to speak.

Leandro stood up and walked over to her. “You’ve been very brave, Ariadna. Thanks for your help. I don’t want you to worry about anything. It has been a privilege to know you.”