The Black Minutes by Martín Solares Read Free Book Online Page B

second rumor?”
    “Go on, tell me.”
    “That you don’t get along with the bishop.”
    “That’s a lie. And the third?”
    “It’s that you have a bad relationship with the bishop but a great one with the port cartel.”
    I remained silent for a second, then burst out laughing. Ramón must have thought I was crazy. When I was done laughing, I had to dry my tears with a handkerchief.
    “Anything else?” I asked.
    He looked furious, and rightly so. “No,” he said. “Now it’s your turn. I need you to give me some actual information, or did you make me come here for nothing?”
    I leaned forward, and the copy of
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
was once again in my line of sight.

    “Three things,” I said to him, “and that’s it, because my visitors are about to arrive. One: Bernardo was writing a book. Two: it was about the history of this city in the seventies. Three: yes, he did receive death threats. And a fourth thing: stay out of this, Macetón. You’re a good officer, but you should just walk away. As the Buddhist monks would say,
When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss is gazing into you
.”
    He tried to get me to talk further, but there was no way I was going to give him the name of a suspect. I explained that at another time I would have given him the information without hesitation, but that morning I had had a problem.
    When I went to Bernardo’s burial, I unexpectedly ran into the Lord Bishop. He was surprised to see me there, too.
    “What are you doing here?” Once he was near, he smelled the alcohol on my breath. “You’re drinking again, aren’t you? As soon as the service is over, go straight back to the residence.”
    “Am I allowed to decline?”
    The bishop knelt before the cadaver, making a show of murmuring the
Ora Pro Nobis
, but as he rose from the floor he was really saying, “Enough. Your fourth vow is to express obedience to the pope, and as his representative around here, I forbid you to talk about this with anyone, under penalty of suspension from your duties. Do you understand?”
    “Yes, Your Excellency.”
    Fritz! I said to myself, for thirty years you’ve known this fellow, and you still forget his fondness for simple solutions! He doesn’t listen to reason in public and you, of course, instead of talking to him in private, challenge him in public: impatience is a poor counselor. At such times, the two years we spent together at the pontifical seminary in Rome, my having invited him to spendChristmas at my parents’ house outside Berlin—all this avails us nothing. There are things that friendship can’t weather. Fritz, you’re an animal; instead of resolving matters in a civilized way, you confronted your superior and got what you deserved. Now your hands are tied and meanwhile Macetón is all over the place, digging into Bernardo’s death.
    Well. Then I saw it was four thirty and I got to my feet.
    “Please forgive me, Ramón, but I have another appointment. Be very careful.”
    And I opened the door, not giving him time to respond. He looked dissatisfied. Watch out, I said to myself. This guy is going to be back.
    At that moment, and unfortunately for everyone, Cabrera ran into Chávez, who was just arriving. Chávez said nothing until we were alone.
    “What were you telling Cabrera, Father? Are you going to be counseling him now, too?”
    “Calm down. The bishop got on his high horse and forebade my getting mixed up in the matter. It will work itself out without my getting involved . . . for a second time.”
    Chávez burst out with that hateful laugh I’d heard before. “The chief will look to find a way to thank you.”
    “And if he hadn’t done it?”
    “It’s late,” he said. “I have to go buy some knives.”
    I didn’t want to imagine what for. Coming from Chávez, that could be a threat, but I didn’t flinch. When one works with this kind of people, one gets used to their rudeness. “Don’t worry about me,” I told him, “worry about