-" I, at Finally, it served to commissioner - said Laurenzi, drinking coffee which had been cooled -. "I was seeing things, and would not see them. The problems that gets people, and the way it has to solve, and how I would have solved. That, above all. See, it's better to put the shoes on the desktop, like the biographer, that their own ideas. I noticed that I was getting loose, and it was because I wanted to think, get in the place of others, take care. And so I did two or three clubs, until I retired. One of those clubs is going to tell you.
was back in the forties, and in La Plata. That tells you "- muttered sarcastically, looking at the plaza full of sun through the window of the cafe -" My fortune was political rising, because you know how I have had me rolling on all stations and police stations in the province.
date it is also fair to say I can. It was the night of San Pedro and San Pablo, on June 29. Is not it funny that even today ignite fires that day? "
- is why the summer solstice - explained modestly.
-" You mean the summer. Summer they brought from Europe the party and the name of the party. "
- Beware also of the name, commissioner. They were ancient Celtic festivals. With the sun fire helped to maintain the high road to heaven.
- "It will be. The point is that the cold was not telling you. I had a very large office and a little stove with kerosene to laugh. Look, there were moments when I wanted most was to be again a simple guard, as when I started drinking mate or coffee with them in the kitchen, where it was hot and probably not thinking about anything.
ten o'clock in the evening when the phone rang. It was a calm voice, the voice of the judge Reynal, saying he had just killed a burglar in your house, and if I could go see. So I put the Perramus and went to see.
With the judges, what I'm going to cheat, I never understood. Law judges always ends up face to one with a Malandra that night is luckier, or better aim, or a little more courage than six months, or two years before, when you last saw him with a sidewalk and a 45 in the middle. You know how come, how will not know, after seeing him crying and, if neglected, asking for his mother. What I do not know is how they come out. Then ask him to fire down the street, and you shut up and goes to pack because there beats a joke somewhere, and will not turn out that the joke is at his expense.
was thinking about these things as he walked through the drizzle campfires not finished off, dodging firecrackers youth also celebrated, as you say, how high the sun and walked easily the next harvest, and fields full of flowers. To distract myself, I began to remember what I knew of Dr. Reynal. He was the oldest judge of La Plata, a spotless gentleman and all that, widowed, single and inaccessible. I went for a portoncito
iron, crossed the wet garden, remember that there were some azaleas that were beginning to flower and water dripping pine trees in the shade. The gate was open, but there was light in a window and I still did not ring the bell. He knew the house, because the doctor used to call every so often to see how he was a summary or to give a sermon. Had eagle eye for errors of procedure, blood in his veins ran through the code and never tired invoke the majesty of justice, before. And I even I have to take care of the spelling, I am not speaking of procedural errors and will see. But I was not alone. I know some who wanted to take it on partying, but they dropped the half when they had to face.
And it was an old imposing with a large head of every year body because his face was sucking more and more, until the skin was stuck to the bones, as if unwilling to leave anything to death. So I remember that night, dressed in black with a silk scarf around his neck.
With this man I kept an old entripado, because once in the same police station where he arrived like a bullet I dropped the one-eyed LandÃvar, who had two deaths without testing, and was later to have another. I never forgot what he told me to run at large is better than a murderer, not a wheel of justice. And the danger? - I asked. The danger we run it all, "he said. But it was I who had to kill LandÃvar, when he finally made the wide leg in the sheds of Toulouse, and I remembered the doctor, the doctor and his mother. "
The sheriff grabbed his chin and shook head. As if to laugh at some occurrence secret, then gave a genuine laugh, a laugh and a bit painful asthma.
- "Well, that was sitting at his desk as if nothing had passed, engrossed in one of those tomes of philosophy, or God knows what, but in any case something important, because I just looked up to see me in the door and continued to read until he reached the end of a paragraph marked with a sharp nail as glass. I had time to take off my hat wet, where you would think, to see the package on the floor, he was a man, rub elbows with a Bronze Horseman, and in general, to feel like a third assistant that will warn . Just then the old man closed the book, crossed his fingers and stared at me with those eyes that always seemed to be making the sign of the ace of spades.
I asked, good So, what I wanted to do. Replied that I knew my duty, I knew or should have known the Code of Procedure, that from now shift his replacement was Dr. John Doe, and not take it amiss if, as I was, watching with professional interest the way I channeled the summary.
I assured him that no more missing. I told him if he was okay to do an inspection. He had nodded. And ask him some things and it had delayed until the doctor guy decided otherwise? Then he laughed and said OK, fine, I like that. I moved my foot
face the deceased, who was face down in front the desk, and I met an old acquaintance, Justo Luzati by bad name The Goldfinch, and also The Pimp, famed singer and other things that nobody liked in their environment. I knew enough to treat it in a while, until I lost sight of in a hospital, poor guy.
But it was good to see him dead and in the end with an expression of man's face which seemed to lack skinny bones and on others, and 32 wielded with the right hand man, and brave gesture that still pull the trigger blank range when he was going to shoot, or you were throwing, and threw just 38 and lead the doctor pulled out of a drawer sat him fret. And then to bed to tear a bit slowly and die.
But that old, it was something to see, or imagine, the coolness of the old. 38 left on the table, carefully because it was a test. Telephoned me, without getting even, because there was not to touch anything. He continued reading the book I was reading when he came Luzati.
- Do you know doctor? - I asked.
- I've never seen.
So, while I was looking, I found this mess in the library that was behind him.
- And that - I said - I did not think saying anything?.
- You have eyes - responded.
was a row of volumes bound in blue, I think it was the collection of The Law And one was half-gutted, we went out paper streamers and feathers, and the side was a silver frame upside down, a portrait with photo and punched the glass.
- Stand still, doctor, do not move, "he warned and turned it around the desk, I stood where it left off Luzati, where water was still his shoes and from there I watched the old man, and then behind the old, and again that cadaverous face and severe. But he corrected me: - A little more to the left - he said.
- How does it feel, doctor, when one is wandering for so little?
- Not feeling anything, "said - and you know it.
Then I bent down, took for 32 of the fingers of Luzati, I opened the drum and there was the bite capsule and the rest of the full load, and even the smell of fresh gunpowder. All ready and packaged for the cabinet Vucetich, where surely they would find that the lead of the library corresponded to 32, and the firing angle was fine, and everything was fine, and I would illustrate with cartoons and red stripes, green and yellow to prove just that the doctor had killed in self defense.
I put the 32 side by side on the desk, and that was when I heard him say he's weird and looked at me without moving.
- Doctor Strange? - I said walking back toward the library - you, who used have such a good memory, have forgotten this songbird. Because if I do not fault you stated four years ago in a case against Luzati Vallejo for attempted extortion.
He laughed.
- Why? - He said -. As if I were to remember all the sentences dictated.
- Then it does not remember that thirty sentenced for drug trafficking.
I thought it was a jump, he would stop, but stopped because it was an old drive, and just ran a hand across his forehead.
- The Thirty - muttered -. Maybe. Many years. But you mean it did not come to steal but to retaliate.
- still not what I mean. But how strange, doctor. How strange that this unhappy, never robbed anyone, because it was a rat, a poor devil who today put the best clothes to come to see you - someone who lived in the small accusation, the little blackmail, smuggling of small drugs, if someone was carrying a gun up to be courageous - that kind, suddenly, becomes assailant and you come to rob him ...
Then he changed his position for the first time, turned in his chair, and I saw the portrait in his hands, this portrait of a girl far away, innocent and sweet, if not for the eyes that were dark eyes and a some fans of the judge, that face smiling from away but was destroyed in a clear shot, because the loser in the shadow of love and hatred that continues to have an unerring accuracy.
I returned the portrait, I said save. This need not be included here and sat on either side, without asking permission, but not because he had lost respect, but because I needed to think and take care and be alone. Think, for example, in the face I had seen two years earlier in a police station in Mar del Plata, the devastated face, no longer innocent, repeated in the photo of a handbook which simply said Alicia Reynal, addict, etc. But when he spent a very long time, the only thing I could think to say was:
- Do not much to see?
- much - he said, and spoke no more, and stared at something that was not.
Then I thought again, and there had to be when I discovered that no longer served to commissioner. Because I was watching everything, and did not want to see it. Was watching the Pimp had met this woman, and until he had sold marijuana or whatever, and suddenly, imagine you had figured out who he was. I was watching how easily he came to extort the father, it was a sinless man, a pillar of society, and incidentally collected two seasons at Olmos. Was watching the old man waited with the stage ready, shooting him same shot - a more firecracker firecrackers that night - against the library and against that ghost of the portrait. I was watching the 32 downloaded on the desktop, so I groped Luzati last minute to pull the trigger when the old man pointed. And how easy it was then open the drum and reload it, without removing it from the hands of the dead, that was where he belonged.
was seeing everything, but if I spent a while longer was not going to see anything, because I did not see anything. While I finally stopped him and said:
- I do not know what will you do, doctor, but I've been thinking about how difficult it is to be a commissioner and how difficult it is to be a judge. You say this man tried to rob him and that you got up early. Everyone will believe and I myself, if tomorrow I read in the newspaper, can you believe it. At last, after all, is better than a murderer walk free and not a wheel of compassion.
was useless. I do not listen. Leaving for the second time I bent down next to the Pimp and a waterproof pocket, took out the small-caliber gun he knew he would find there and I put it away. I have it yet. It would have seemed strange, dead with two guns on him. "
Commissioner yawned and checked his watch. I waited for lunch.
- And the judge? - Asked.
-" He was acquitted. Fifteen days later he resigned, and the year he died one of those diseases that have the old ".
0 comments:
Post a Comment