tying it up in a rubber band or with a pencil like before. . . . And their faces! They wear a lot more makeup now. All the time, as if they’re on their way to a party.”
“I see. . . . But they’re not going to any party?”
“No. What party would that be? They stay in the lab working all day long. I don’t know if they go out afterwards, but, in any case, they should be getting ready for that later, in the evening, not from the minute they wake up.”
“Yes, that would be the most reasonable way to proceed. The most logical,” said Dionisio. I’d never seen him so disconcerted. “But, what did you tell me about their attitude?”
“That’s the worst part,” I said, draining my glass. “As I told you, the three of them are best friends. But lately I’ve sensed a kind of tension in the air, sudden silences, silly quarrels over any stupid thing, whispered recriminations for things that must have happened a long time ago. It all puts me ill at ease, gives me a pit in my stomach, like vertigo, especially when they’re very close to me, individually or together. I don’t know how to describe it. You know me, so it should suffice to say that I can’t even concentrate on my work.”
“That’s saying a lot,” said Dionisio, and it seemed to me that he opened his eyes in disbelief.
“As I said . . .”
“Perhaps this has already occurred to you, I don’t know, but if your work is being affected, why don’t you move to a different laboratory?”
“I’ve considered that.”
“And?”
“The only answer that I could give you is completely incomprehensible.”
“Tell me.”
“I don’t want to.”
“What? Why don’t you want to tell me?”
“No, no. That’s the answer. I don’t want to. I don’t want to leave. I wouldn’t leave them for anything in the world, Dionisio.”
“Hmmm,” pondered Dionisio. “Strange. . . . Very strange.”
Transcription of the interrogation of Doctor Isadore X. Bellamy Pierre-Louis, conducted by Detectives Jaime Almánzar Soto and Reynolds Rivera Sagardí.
RRS: Good morning, Doctor.
IB: Good morning.
RRS: Come in.
JAS: Please, have a seat.
IB: Thank you.
JAS: Can I get you anything? Coffee? Iced tea?
IB: Iced tea, if you’d be so kind.
JAB: Coming right up.
[Detective Almánzar Soto leaves the interrogation room.]
RRS: I’d like to take advantage of this opportunity to thank you for your cooperation and for the courtesy you extended us over the telephone.
IB: Of course. No need to thank me.
RRS: We know this is a difficult moment for you. Unfortunately, in order to prosecute the individual in custody we must gather all the evidence as soon as possible, all the statements—to be brief, everything we can gather with regard to the case—and turn it over to the public prosecutor’s office so that they can move forward with the legal process. What I’m trying to tell you, Doctor, is that, at the end of the day, our job is the most thankless part of the entire legal machinery.
IB: I understand.
RRS: I hope so. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much luck with Miss Álvarez.
IB: Yes, I know. She’s . . . like that. Please forgive her.
RRS: If you cooperate with us, perhaps I will.
[Detective Almánzar Soto returns to the interrogation room.]
JAS: Here you are.
IB: Thank you.
JAS: Very well, Doctor, as we already told you over the telephone, you are here to give us your testimony with regard to the events that occurred yesterday, the 24th of March, 2009, on the corner of Arzobispo Márquez and Paseo de los Próceres, where Mr. . . .
IB: Yes, please, I know why I’m here.
JAS: Forgive me. Only a formality.
RRS: State your name for the record.
IB: Isadore Bellamy.
RRS: Your full name, if you’ll be so kind.
IB: Isadore Xylène Bellamy Pierre-Louis.
RRS: And your nationality?
IB: I don’t see what my nationality has to do with this, Detective.
RRS: [laughing] And here I’d held out hope that you’d be more cooperative. No need to be defensive, Doctor.
IB: My passport, Detective, is the same as yours. And if you purport to be a competent police officer who does his work thoroughly, you should already know that. But perhaps that’s not what you really want to know, but rather my parents’ birth-place, since mine, as you well know, is the same as yours. And if that’s truly what you want to know, my answer remains the same: I don’t see what that has to do with the investigation.
JAS: Very well. Of course, forgive us. Let’s change the subject, shall we? Tell us, in what capacity did you know the victim?
IB: He was my boss. We were friends.
RRS: Friends?
IB: Friends.
JAS: Can you describe the type of work you did together, you and your boss?
IB: We worked for the Research and Development Division of Eli Lilly. He is . . . He was the executive vice president. I’m the lab manager. Our work consisted of proposing new lines of research for the creation of commercial compounds.
RRS: And what does that mean in plain English?
IB: If I were to put it in language so simple that even the most moronic could understand, I’d say that we were in charge of inventing new medications.
JAS: Who made these proposals? You?
IB: Sometimes. Others came to us from outside advisors. The vice president himself made most of them. To move forward with them required the approval of the board of directors, on which he also sat.
RRS: Quite a privileged position.
IB: I suppose so.
JAS: And
