Drawing the perfect plan up and executing it in sin

Chapter 14. And what if the cleaning lady were a man?

- And what if the cleaning lady were a man? - Brais shouted from
his office.
Ins didn't pay attended the first
supposed he was thinking aloud.

shout,

or

the

second,

she

- And what if the cleaning lady were a man? - Brais shouted almost
in Ins ear.
- Then it would a cleaning sir - Ins murdered him scrubbing her
ear.
But Brais didn't stop at sarcasm, he was concentrated discovering
the gunpowder.
- Criminals always came back to the scene of the crime, didn't
they? Well, he came back, he's a man - a huge light bulb shined
over Brais' head.
- Did he come back? How do you know he came back? Did his face
show? How do you know it is the same person? D-o-e-s--h-i-s--f-ac-e--s-h-o-w? - Ins asked, surprised, amazed, threatening.
- Of course it shows, come with me! - Brais pulled her towards his
office.
He sat her down on his chair and stuck his finger on the screen
over the suspect's face.
- Maybe if you take your finger off him... - Ins still fussyhumoured.
Brais moved his finger aside just a few but still was stuck on the
screen.
- I thought, I don't know how it didn't come to mind before, they
always come back to the scene of the crime, then I checked all the
videos of the days following the painting's disappearance... - an
excited Brais related.
Ins looked
bewildered.

at

the

screen,

Ins

looked

at

him,

Ins

was

- Nobody, listen to me, nobody went in the meeting room for the
whole month of November but the two cleaning ladies and him - and
he put the finger on his face again.

Raquel Couto Antelo

Drawing the perfect plan up and executing it in sin

- Him? - Ins looked at him from the corner of her eye and dropped
with kind of sarcasm - He is Flix Sabido, he's a well known
private detective.
- Private detective! - far from sank on failure he went through
the roof - Of course! The perfect cover for an art thief!
- Of course, and as he did an impeccable job during the burglary
he came back to drop the ball a little just to lay a helping hand,
didn't he? - Ins let out with all the sarcasm that came from her
earache.
- It's the only reasonable explanation! - an excited Brais kept on
like a baby - he had never gone in before and he hadn't
afterwards... I watched it all.
- Look, if you want to believe they are the same person is up to
you, but I know Flix and he's far one eighty tall, Pilar is one
seventy at most and the other is even shorter... we are not going
to even talk about his figure, they say camera fattens, but
sometimes it slims him and sometimes it shows all his abundance...
- What was his name again? Flix Sabido? I'm going to call him and
let's see what he says - A frenzied Brais that must have remained
deaf with his own shout as well said.
Up to a point Flix didn't care for the call, he got by in the
police environment; it bothered him most the question about his
visit to the Universal Bank branch at Barcelona Street, but he was
a quick guy with a long life on his shoulders.
- I was looking for the manager and I opened the wrong door, it's
not a crime, isn't it? - he dropped calmly, all over the top but
calmly.
- It's not a crime, it's a lie - Brais pressed forward - you open
the room door and leave.
- Yes, it's true... the thing is that I also realized that wasn't
the office, it was the other one... - he lied proud of himself,
knowing that it showed and that it didn't matter because they
couldn't prove otherwise, even he didn't actually go; there always
is a call, an urgent business, a something that can interrupt the
routine.
- And what business did you have in that other office? - Brais
asked prolonging a useless interrogation.
Useless for the police because he hadn't stolen the painting, but
Raquel Couto Antelo

Drawing the perfect plan up and executing it in sin

really productive for Flix. The little effort the vague answers
required give him time to take a peek at every single piece of
information spread over Brais' desk. It attracted his attention in
particular the red circles around the cleaning lady in fifty
photos, yes, with that much lack of concern he faced the
interrogation. He took a bit more in realizing that they weren't
the same woman, he told them apart by the height, like Ins had
done; it was the only way, I couldn't fight it, high heels would
be more suspicious and, of course, not that useful in the runaway.
He read upside down Brais' notes, but after the first lines he
didn't find anything interesting, apart from the exact day the
burglary was committed. Once found his ars boiled in the chair,
suddenly the pieces tallied in his head, he had worked out that
they called him a couple of days, at most, after the burglary; but
actually they did almost a month later. He felt ridiculous seeing
himself watching an empty door for more than fifteen days; but
with the certainty of having it all recorded and the eager to get
to the office and check it.
- You'd better, you'd better - a powerless Omar threatened.
It had been almost three months since the "Catharsis" purchase and
the detective hadn't offered a single solid clue about the
robbery; he had until the end of the year to overcome the
overdraft the painting had let the company; but he liked it better
to spend that kind of arrangements on his own benefit than to make
it up for a mistake he didn't consider his.

Raquel Couto Antelo