Foreign Bodies Read online

  Lupe responded to the question with surprise. It was evident that she hadn’t been expecting it. She replied:

  ‘I? Well…that is. I had to go and pick up a prescription for my daughter, and…’

  ‘The pharmacy, is it far away?’

  ‘No, it’s just a little ways away, at the corner of Heroes and Neptuno.’

  ‘I understand that you left at ten o’clock and that you returned at twelve…’

  Lupe was confused. For the moment she was saved from the question by the appearance of her daughter.

  ‘Mama, the men are here to talk with you about Rosa, aren’t they?’

  ‘Muchachito esa! Didn’t I tell you to go out?’

  ‘Let her be,’ intervened Zozaya. ‘Come here, little one. You love your Aunt Rosa a lot, don’t you?’

  ‘Oh, yes. She buys me lots of caramels. And I play with her. And I wear her clothes, too.’

  At this point, the child, bent on showing the visitors how she played with her aunt, disappeared into the other room and returned laden with clothing and trinkets. She put a kerchief on her head, explaining that this was the way her aunt wore it, she threw on a dress and dragged it about the room with genuine grace, as if she were a princess at a royal ball. She made several trips to and from the other room, exhibiting one gewgaw after the other. Zozaya observed her good-naturedly while Prado and the wife looked on without comprehending why Zozaya was interested in the child’s treasures. The latter, in one of her trips from the other room, brought out the most cherished article—her aunt’s watch. Zozaya examined it with interest and asked:

  ‘Is this the watch that was found in your husband’s possession?’

  ‘Yes, it is,’ replied Lupe. ‘They say he had it with him. What I think is that he took it away with him that day to have it fixed because it’s broken. But at the police station they don’t believe me.’

  Armando looked fixedly at her and asked:

  ‘Had Rosa spoken to you about having broken the watch?’

  ‘No,’ the woman replied, dropping her glance. ‘But that must have been what happened.’

  Armando interpreted the woman’s theory as a feeble effort to clear her husband of the guilt of the crime. He took the watch in his hands and examined it at length.

  ‘How is it that you happen to have this, señora?’

  Miguel explained:

  ‘Although it actually ought to be included as part of the evidence in the case, the señora expressed a desire to keep it as a memento of her sister, and one of the members of the police force who is a close friend of the Garcías arranged to have it returned to them before the trial was over.’

  ‘How about that!’ exclaimed Armando. ‘The history of this watch gets stranger by the minute!’

  As Armando was speaking, the little girl came to his side and, shaking her head, regarded the timepiece very seriously. Suddenly she took it from Armando’s hand, turned it about in every direction, and exclaimed emphatically:

  ‘This isn’t Aunt Rosa’s watch!’

  ‘What are you saying, child?’ murmured her mother in astonishment.

  ‘It isn’t, it isn’t, it isn’t!’ repeated the little one with conviction.

  ‘How do you know it’s not?’ asked Zozaya gently.

  ‘Because it doesn’t have the little hole.’

  ‘What little hole?’ asked the three members of her audience simultaneously.

  ‘A little hole here,’ the child explained. ‘Aunt Rosa made one for me because when I wore it, it was too big.’ And she indicated, beyond the normal series of perforations on the watch band, the unmarked expanse of leather.

  ‘A child’s nonsense. Pay no attention to her,’ said Lupe.

  ‘It’s not the watch, it’s not the watch,’ the little girl insisted. Her mother, now exasperated, gave her a rude shove and obliged her to leave the room. Armando did not intercede. An eyebrow arched, and he appeared to be in deep reflection. At length he asked:

  ‘Señora, did your sister buy the watch for herself?’

  ‘No, señor. Our good friend Ismael, the one your friend spoke to you about, gave it to her for her birthday.’

  ‘I see.’ After some thought, he returned to his earlier question. ‘Please excuse my insistence, but what kept you so long at the market on the day of your sister’s death?’

  Lupe stirred uneasily in her chair. She regarded the lawyer helplessly. Miguel returned her glance with interest and urged:

  ‘Try to remember.’

  ‘I’ve already told you,’ she replied. ‘I went out to get some medicine…’ Suddenly her face brightened. ‘Now I remember! That was the day when two women got into a fight in the marketplace, and I stood around watching the excitement. I even remember now that our friend Ismael arrived on the scene with the other officers and sent the women off in the police wagon. Afterwards—yes—afterwards he bought some ice cream for my little girl…’

  ‘Excellent!’ exclaimed Armando. ‘That explains perfectly your delay. Now please, give me a bit more information about this Tomás, your sister’s boyfriend.’

  ‘Well, he didn’t seem like such a bad fellow. They’d been going together for quite some time, but several days ago they had a quarrel. I don’t know what piece of gossip fell on Rosa’s ears, but she was very burned up.’

  ‘Tomás customarily visited her here?’ asked Armando.

  ‘He used to come sometimes, but only when Juan wasn’t here, because my husband didn’t care much for the boy’s informality towards the family.’

  ‘Did Tomás know that Rosa wouldn’t be leaving the house on the day she died?’

  ‘Let me see…yes. Yes, he knew. I remember that the day before when I was going shopping, I ran into him over in Nopal and told him that Rosa had a bad cold and that I wouldn’t be letting her go out for several days.’

  ‘You had come across him by chance?’

  ‘No. Tomás used to come and talk with me nearly every day with the hope that I’d be able to help him win over Rosa. Since he worked as a delivery boy, he was almost always around the streets. That day he told me that he had won on a lottery ticket and that he wanted to get married to Rosa…Just think of that!’

  She began to cry. After a few moments, when she had calmed down somewhat, Armando asked her:

  ‘Did Tomás know where your husband Juan worked?’

  ‘Certainly. Tomás worked at the same place with him. That was how he met Rosa. It’s a match factory, and one day when we all went to a party there, the young people met.’

  ‘Very well. Thank you very much, señora. I think for the time being we’ll not have to bother you anymore.’

  The lawyer and his friend said goodbye and left. In the patio they found Rosita busily plucking feathers from a pigeon which she had tracked and caught. Armando gave her an affectionate pat and put a peso into her hand. The child promptly abandoned her captive and ran off in search of her mother.

  Back at Zozaya’s apartment, the two friends were discussing the matter.

  ‘It would be advisable,’ Armando was saying, ‘to check and see if on the day in question there actually was a disturbance in the market of the sort that Lupe mentioned.’

  ‘It’s already been checked and established,’ replied Miguel. ‘Juan called me to the police station immediately after they had arrested him and while I was there, I recall that Ismael Flores, the García’s friend who is on the force, commented that on that day, the third of May it was, he had seen Lupe a second time after having chatted with her in the marketplace, when he received the call from the García’s tenement.’

  ‘Who called the police?’

  ‘One of the neighbours. As a matter of fact it was the woman in 10—doña Chona…’

  The lawyer suddenly stopped speaking, as if a startling thought had struck him.

  �
�What is it?’ Zozaya asked.

  ‘I just remembered what the other neighbour, Tula, told me.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘She was at the market that day, too. And Lupe, she said, left the little girl with her while she went to the pharmacy…’

  ‘Aha! So Lupe doesn’t have an alibi after all!’

  Zozaya burst out laughing when he saw the troubled expression on his friend’s face. He said:

  ‘Now you’ve really got yourself in a fix. In order to save the husband, you’ve got to implicate the wife. And the poor little daughter…Just imagine.’

  Miguel regarded him sorrowfully. ‘Do you actually think…’

  ‘You’re the one who’s thinking it,’ replied Zozaya. ‘The wife suspects that her husband and her sister are deceiving her, jealousy blinds her, and she plans to dispose of her rival and, in the process, gain her revenge on the unfaithful husband. She goes to the market, leaves the child there with her neighbour, returns to the house, kills her sister with her husband’s gun, takes the watch and hides it in Juan’s clothing, and then hurries back to get her daughter. The family friend who invites them for ice cream is the ideal witness for establishing her alibi since, at the time the broken watch indicates, she is far away from the house in the company of a police officer.’

  ‘You’re right,’ murmured Miguel, sadly, ‘it all checks.’

  ‘Everything, including the anonymous letter that she sends to her husband which arranges for him to go to a spot not too far from the house and leaves him looking mighty guilty.’

  ‘I never dreamed that Lupe might have been the murderer…’

  ‘Well, not too fast, my friend. Notice that everything fits except the little detail that the watch that showed up in your client’s pockets was not actually the dead girl’s watch.’

  ‘You think, then, that the child is telling the truth?’

  ‘Obviously.’

  ‘But isn’t Lupe’s attitude a strong argument against her? You saw how upset and confused she was when you asked her why she had delayed in the market that day, and how she became disturbed when the child claimed that the watch wasn’t the right one.’

  ‘These arguments only have value when you can demonstrate a complete and convincing connection between them. Lupe’s attitude in itself is not enough on which to base the assumption that she is the murderer. It could be that she actually was unable to recall the events of that morning; it could also very well be that she was nervous and impulsive owing to the difficult period she’s going through. Attitude alone is not enough. You must prove that only the suspect, and no one else, could have committed the crime under each and all of the known circumstances.’

  ‘Well, then?’

  ‘Consider this: the murderer has to be a person who knew the habits of the family, who knew that Juan worked at the match factory, who knew that Lupe went to the market, taking the little girl with her, every day at more or less the same time—a person who chose the day of Santa Cruz so that the shots wouldn’t be noticed, and who knew, moreover, that that day Rosa would be home alone…’

  ‘Then it’s…’

  ‘Wait a moment. The murderer, to be sure, planned the crime in advance. He sent an unsigned note to Juan and made an appointment for a place where there would probably not be witnesses who might testify on Juan’s behalf. Notice that the contents of the letter reveal a man as its author, since a woman, even in self-defence, would scarcely accuse herself—though her mind might be plagued by jealousy and indignation—of being deceived. Besides, the message boy spoke of a “gentleman.” So we have the murderer, as I was saying, arriving at the house shortly after Lupe had left. He was, without doubt, someone known to Rosa, since otherwise she wouldn’t have opened the door to him. Then there was a struggle and during it the watch was shattered, probably by the gun when the girl raised her arm to protect herself. When the murderer saw the watch smashed beyond value, there was nothing he could do but hurry to a jewellery shop and buy another. He needed the watch, you realize, to establish the time of the murder. He bought another, carefully broke the crystal, and jammed the hands at the hour desired. Then he waited for the chance to slip it into Juan’s clothing. Notice that Lupe, aside from not having the time to go out and buy a watch during the crucial period, didn’t have the money to buy one.’

  ‘Of course. It all figures perfectly. Then it’s Tomás who’s the murderer. Really, he must have been seen entering the house.’

  ‘He might have been seen. He probably went between ten-thirty and eleven to see Rosa. Unquestionably, the crime had been committed by then, and…’

  ‘What did you say?’

  ‘…he found the girl dead. He has said nothing about it for fear of being accused himself.’

  ‘But what do you mean. Haven’t we determined the fact that Tomás is the murderer?’

  ‘We haven’t determined anything. You’re the one who’s suggesting it. Tell me something. Was Juan arrested at home or at the factory?’

  ‘At the factory. The police went first to the scene of the crime at the tenement. Since the gun was Juan’s, he was immediately a suspect, and they went to the factory for him. His absence from work during the morning naturally served to place suspicion on him and they arrested him.’

  Armando Zozaya said calmly, ‘Then the real murderer is Ismael Flores.’

  ‘The García’s friend?’

  ‘Precisely.’

  Miguel gazed in bewilderment at his friend. Armando explained with patience:

  ‘Lupe could have had a motive, but she didn’t have money to buy another watch and, what is most important, she couldn’t have placed the new one in Juan’s pocket, since Juan never came back home. Tomás fills almost all the requirements, and moreover he had the money necessary since he won on a lottery ticket, but he has no known motive and also had no opportunity of leaving the watch with Juan since he was not at the factory. Remember that as a delivery boy, his work was away from the factory. Flores, on the other hand, fits perfectly into the picture. He gave the watch to the girl which suggests he had more than a passing affection for her. Rosa had a boyfriend which would indicate that she had rejected Flores. And there we have the motive. But what irretrievably condemns him is the fact that he is the only person among the suspects who had the opportunity to transfer the watch into Juan’s possession.’

  ‘When?’

  ‘Obviously when he arrested him or when he took him to the police station. You know that it is customary to search all prisoners. This same Flores surreptitiously slipped the watch into one of the poor fellow’s pockets and afterward ordered one of the other officers to finish the search of the prisoner. In this way, no one could ever suspect him. On the contrary, he was very kind, very good-hearted, he only wanted to help. Remember, too, that he kept Lupe in the marketplace with the enticement of the ice cream for the child so that Lupe would arrive home after the time indicated by the hands on the broken watch. The squabble between the women at the market was only a coincidence which happened to favour him, although it obliged him to hurry a great deal in his search for the new watch. The “good friend of the family” was a sharp number, without a doubt.’

  ‘But how in the world am I going to prove his guilt?’

  ‘Look for a jewellery shop where a man purchased two identical watches within a relatively short time, and who, when he bought the second, brought along a broken one as an indication of what he wanted. The jeweller will doubtless remember. The child’s declaration regarding the watch will be a fragile bit of evidence, but perhaps confronting Flores with the jeweller will produce something substantial. This is a classic case of circumstantial evidence. It will all depend on your ability and luck in convincing the judge to withdraw the charge against Juan and reinstituting it against Flores.’

  Miguel left in a hurry for the Penitentiary. He scarcely mumbled a ‘gracias, hermano’
before disappearing. Zozaya bade him farewell with a friendly wave of the hand. Then he lit a Raleigh, and contentedly smoothing his moustache, took up once again his reading of the short stories of Arkadio Averchenko.

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