“My mistake was not to realize that the assignment was a deception. From the start. In fact, nobody wanted to save Valls. He’d made too many enemies. And too many blunders. He’d broken the rules of the game by abusing his privileges and endangering the safety of his accomplices. When the trail of his crimes turned back on him, they abandoned him. Valls thought there was a conspiracy to murder him, and he wasn’t altogether wrong. But he’d left so much blood on his path, he no longer knew where the bullet would come from. For years he thought the ghosts of his past had returned to get revenge on him—Salgado or his Prisoner of Heaven, David Martín, so many others . . . What he didn’t suspect was that those who really wanted to finish him off were the ones he thought were his friends and protectors. When you’re in power, nobody stabs you face-to-face, always in the back and with an embrace. Nobody at the top wanted to save him or find him. They just wanted to ensure that he would disappear, and that the trail of all the things he’d done would be permanently erased. There were too many hands implicated. Vargas and I were simply tools. That is why, in the end, we too had to disappear.”

“But my Alicia has more lives than a cat and was able to dodge the Grim Reaper once more . . .”

“By the skin of my teeth. I think I’ve already spent all the lives I had left, Fermín. It’s time I also left the stage.”

“May I tell you that I’ll miss you?”

“If you’re going to get sentimental on me, I’ll chuck you into the water.”

The ship sounded its horn, spreading its echo throughout the entire port. Alicia stood up.

“Can I help you with the suitcase? I promise to stay on dry land. Pleasure boating brings me bad memories.”

He went with her as far as the gangway, where the last passengers were already filing through. Alicia showed her ticket to the boatswain who, thanks to a generous tip, told a porter to carry the lady’s suitcase to her cabin.

“Will you come back to Barcelona one day? This city is bewitched, you know. It gets under your skin and never lets go . . .”

“You’ll have to look after her for me, Fermín. And Bea, and Daniel and Señor Sempere and Bernarda, and Fernandito and Sofía, and above all yourself and little Julián, who one day will make us all immortal.”

“I like that. The bit about being immortal, especially now that my bones are beginning to creak.”

Alicia put her arms tightly around Fermín and kissed him on the cheek. He knew she was crying, and didn’t want to look her in the face. Neither of them were going to lose their dignity just when they were about to get away with it.

“Don’t even think of standing here bidding me farewell from the dock,” warned Alicia.