Water-Blue Eyes Read Free Page B

hesitate to approach it. And fromthat first time, dead bodies were to Leo Caldas little more than lost property. When he was at a crime scene, whether a body was still warm or in a state of decay, he effortlessly detached himself from the fact that the remains had once breathed life. He concentrated on gathering the evidence that might help solve the causes of death, on collecting the disparate pieces of the puzzle that he must put together.
    And yet, as soon as he learned the identities of the deceased he felt an inner shudder; for once he knew their names or, however sketchily, certain aspects of their lives, it was as if the actual human beings arrived on the scene of the criminal investigation.

    ‘Did you say he lived alone?’ asked Caldas, who could tell by the state of the body that he hadn’t been dead for long.
    Officer Barcia nodded.
    ‘Who informed us of the death?’ he asked, surprised that the corpse had been found so quickly.
    ‘It was the security guard on the bridge,’ replied Clara Barcia, ‘though the body was actually found by the cleaner. She comes in twice a week. Apparently the poor woman turned up at the sentry box in a state of shock after seeing the body. She had to be sedated, so we’ll have to wait till tomorrow to speak to her. Officer Ferro wrote it all down. He must be at the station writing up the report.’
    Caldas nodded. He was sorry to be late, even more so since the reason was Patrol on the Air.
    ‘When do you reckon he was killed?’ asked the inspector.
    ‘Last night,’ replied Barrio. ‘From the body temperature I’d say between seven and twelve last night. But I’m afraid I can’t be more specific until we do the post-mortem.’
    ‘If you don’t need me here, I’ll go back to work,’ said Clara.
    She left the room and disappeared up the spiral staircase. Leo remained still in front of the dead man. He couldn’t stop looking at his open eyes. They were of a very light blue and seemed to be staring at him in horror.
    ‘Do we know how he died?’ asked Rafael Estévez, turning to the doctor.
    ‘Reigosa?’
    ‘No, Lady Di,’ said Rafael, cutting him short.
    ‘Don’t mind him, Guzmán, Rafael is always this polite,’ Leo Caldas put in. ‘In any case, do we know the cause of death?’
    ‘Not the exact cause, but I can assure you this had a lot to do with it,’ he replied, removing the sheet that so far covered the dead man’s abdomen, ‘even if I can’t be more precise for now.’
    ‘Holy fuck, what’s that he’s got there?’ exclaimed Estévez, cupping his testicles and moving away from the body.
    ‘That’s what I was trying to find out when you arrived,’ the doctor said. ‘I still don’t know for sure.’
    The body displayed a huge area of bruised skin. The damage started at his stomach and extended down to his legs. On one of them, the unsettling blackness reached down to the knee. The skin was so shrivelled up that Caldas had the impression that he had a tanned hide before him rather than human skin. He’d never seen anything like it. Judging from Doctor Barrio’s astonished expression, he hadn’t either.
    ‘I’m sorry, doctor, did you say the stiff was called Reigosa?’ asked Estévez, approaching once again to take a closer look.
    ‘Apparently so,’ the doctor conceded.
    ‘And where’s the guy’s dick, if you don’t mind me asking?’
    Barrio placed his tissue forceps on a small protuberance at the centre of the grotesque haematoma.
    ‘What do you think the blackest bit is?’
    Estévez pored over the area that the doctor indicated.
    ‘ That ? ’
    The doctor nodded, and Estévez looked at his superior in disbelief.
    ‘Did you see that, inspector – this guy would need a doctor’s forceps even to go and take a leak.’
    Leo Caldas came closer the better to inspect the body. Thekinds of bruises he had come across until then gave the impression of tumescence. But if that was a tumescent sex, he didn’t want to imagine the