“An accident?”

“Something like that.”

“I’m sorry.”

“These things happen. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”

The girl’s eyes filled with anxiety. “About my father?”

Alicia nodded again.

“Are you going to find him?”

“I’m going to try.”

Mercedes looked at her longingly. “The police won’t be able to find him. You’ll have to do it.”

“What makes you say that?”

Valls’s daughter lowered her eyes. “Because I think he doesn’t want to be found.”

“Why would that be?”

Mercedes continued looking crestfallen. “I don’t know.”

“Doña Mariana says that the morning your father left, you told her you thought he’d left forever, that he wasn’t going to return.”

“It’s true.”

“Did your father say something that evening that would make you think such a thing?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did you speak to him on the night of the ball?”

“I went up to his office to see him. He didn’t come down to the party at any point. He was with Vicente.”

“Vicente Carmona, the bodyguard?”

“Yes. He was sad. He was odd.”

“Did he tell you why?”

“No. My father only tells me what I want to hear.”

Alicia laughed. “All fathers do that.”

“Does yours too?”

Alicia replied with a smile, and Mercedes didn’t insist. “I remember he was looking at a book when I went into his office,” she said instead.

“Do you remember whether it was a book with a black cover?”

Mercedes looked surprised. “I think so. I asked him what it was, and he said it wasn’t a book for young ladies. I felt as if he didn’t want me to see it. Perhaps it was a banned book. ”

“Does your father have banned books?”

Mercedes nodded, again looking slightly embarrassed.

“They’re in a locked cupboard, in his ministry office. He doesn’t know that I know.”

“He won’t find out from me. Tell me, does your father often take you to his office in the ministry?”

Mercedes shook her head. “I’ve only been there twice.”

“And in town?”

“In Madrid?”

“Yes, in Madrid.”

“I’ve got everything I need here,” she said, rather unconvinced.

“Perhaps we could go into town together sometime. For a stroll. Or to the cinema. Do you like going to the cinema?”

Mercedes bit her lip. “I’ve never been. But I’d like to. Go with you, I mean.”

Alicia patted her hands and gave her a winning smile. “We’ll go and see a Cary Grant film.”

“I don’t know who that is.”

“He’s the perfect man.”

“Why?”

“Because he doesn’t exist.”

Mercedes laughed again with that sad laughter that seemed imprisoned inside her.

“What else did your father say that night? Do you remember?”

“Not much. He said he loved me. And that he’d always love me, come what may.”

“Anything else?”

“He was nervous. He wished me good night and then stayed there, talking to Vicente.”

“Were you able to hear what they were saying?”

“It’s not right to listen behind closed doors . . .”