The Hidden Assassins Read Free Page A

bars and out on the streets.’
    ‘Why choose those bins, if it’s so busy?’
    ‘Maybe they know those bins,’ said Pérez. ‘They knewthat they could park down a dark, quiet cul-de-sac and what the collection times were. They could plan. Dumping the body would only take a few seconds.’
    ‘Any apartments overlooking the bins?’
    ‘We’ll go around the apartments in the cul-de-sac again tomorrow,’ said Pérez. ‘The apartment with the best view is at the end, but there was nobody at home.’
    A long, pulsating flash of lightning was accompanied by a clap of thunder so loud that it seemed to crack open the sky above their heads. They all instinctively ducked and the Jefatura was plunged into darkness. They fumbled around for a torch, while the rain thrashed against the building and drove in waves across the car park. Ferrera propped a flashlight up against some files and they sat back. More lightning left them blinking, with the window frame burnt on to their retinae. The emergency generators started up in the basement. The lights flickered back on. Falcón’s mobile vibrated on the desktop: a text from the Médico Forense telling him that the autopsy had been completed and he would be free from 8.30 a.m. to discuss it. Falcón sent a text back agreeing to see him first thing. He flung the mobile back on the desk and stared into the wall.
    ‘You seem a little uneasy, Inspector Jefe,’ said Pérez, who had a habit of stating the obvious, while Falcón had a habit of ignoring him.
    ‘We have an unidentified corpse, which could prove to be unidentifiable,’ said Falcón, marshalling his thoughts, trying to give Pérez and Ferrera a focus for their investigative work. ‘How many people do you think were involved in this murder?’
    ‘A minimum of two,’ said Ferrera.
    ‘Killing, scalping, severing hands, burning off featureswith acid…yes, why did they cut off his hands when they could have easily burnt off his prints with acid?’
    ‘Something significant about his hands,’ said Pérez.
    Falcón and Ferrera exchanged a look.
    ‘Keep thinking, Emilio,’ said Falcón. ‘Anyway, it was planned and premeditated and it was important that his identity was not known. Why?’
    ‘Because the identity of the corpse will point to the killers,’ said Pérez. ‘Most victims are killed by people—’
    ‘Or?’ said Falcón. ‘If there was no obvious link?’
    ‘The identity of the victim and/or knowledge of his skills might jeopardize a future operation,’ said Ferrera.
    ‘Good. Now tell me how many people you really think it took to dispose of that body in one of those bins,’ said Falcón. ‘They’re chest high to a normal person and the whole thing has got to be done in seconds.’
    ‘Three to deal with the body and two for lookout,’ said Pérez.
    ‘If you tipped the bin over to the edge of the car boot it could be done with two men,’ said Ferrera. ‘Anybody coming down Calle Boteros at that time would be drunk and shouting. You might need a driver in the car. Three maximum.’
    ‘Three or five, what does that tell you?’
    ‘It’s a gang,’ said Pérez.
    ‘Doing what?’
    ‘Drugs?’ he said. ‘Cutting off his hands, burning off his face…’
    ‘Drug runners don’t normally sew people into shrouds,’ said Falcón. ‘They tend to shoot people and there was no bullet hole…not even a knife wound.’
    ‘It didn’t seem like an execution,’ said Ferrera, ‘more like a regrettable necessity.’
    Falcón told them they were to revisit all the apartments overlooking the bins first thing in the morning before everybody went to work. They were to establish if there was black plastic sheeting in any of the bins and if a car was seen or heard at around three in the morning on Sunday.
    Down in the forensic lab, Felipe and Jorge had the tables pushed back and the black plastic sheet laid out on the floor. The two large bins from Calle Boteros were already in the corner, taped shut. Jorge