The Collected Novels of José Saramago (388 page)

WHEN THE SUPERINTENDENT ARRIVED BACK AT PROVIDENTIAL LTD, IT WAS
after seven o’clock in the evening, and he found his subordinates waiting for him. They were clearly not happy. How was your day, any news to report, he asked them in a bright, almost jovial tone, pretending an interest which, as we know better than anyone, he did not feel, As for the day, awful, as for news to report, even worse, replied the inspector, We would have been better off staying in bed and sleeping, said the sergeant, What do you mean, In my entire life, I cannot remember ever having been involved in such a stupid, pointless investigation, began the inspector. The superintendent would gladly have chimed in with You don’t know the half of it, but he chose to remain silent. The inspector went on, It was ten o’clock by the time I reached the street where the guy who wrote the letter’s ex lives, Sorry, said the sergeant, but you can’t say ex, Why not, Because that could mean she was just his ex-girlfriend, Does it matter, asked the inspector, Yes, she wasn’t his girlfriend, she was his spouse, All right, what I should have said was that at ten o’clock I reached the street where the guy who wrote the letter’s ex-spouse lives, That’s better, But spouse sounds ridiculous and pretentious, when you introduce your wife to someone, I bet you don’t say and this is my spouse. The superintendent cut short the discussion, Keep that for another time, let’s get to what’s important, What’s important, went on the inspector, is that I was there until nearly midday, and she still hadn’t left her apartment, not that this really surprised me, the city’s all topsy-turvy, some companies have
closed and others are only working half-time, people don’t necessarily have to get up early, Lucky them, said the sergeant, So did she go out or didn’t she, asked the superintendent, who was beginning to get impatient, She went out at precisely a quarter past twelve, Is there some reason why you say precisely, No, sir, I naturally looked at my watch and there it was, a quarter past twelve, Go on, Well, keeping an eye on any taxis that passed, in case she should get into one of them and leave me stranded in the middle of the street looking like a complete fool, I followed her, but it didn’t take me long to realize that wherever it was she was going, she would be going there on foot, And where did she go, You’re going to laugh, sir, I doubt it, She walked for more than half an hour, so fast I could hardly keep up, just as if she was doing it for the exercise, and suddenly, unexpectedly, I found myself in the street where the old man with the black eye-patch and the girl with the dark glasses, you know, the prostitute, live, She’s not a prostitute, inspector, She may not be one now, but she was once, it’s all the same, It’s all the same in your mind, but not in mine, and since it’s me you’re talking to and I’m your superior, kindly use words in a way that I can understand, In that case, I’ll say ex-prostitute, Say the man with the black eye-patch’s spouse just as, a few minutes ago, you said the guy who wrote the letter’s ex-spouse, as you see, I’m using your terms, Hm, Anyway, you found yourself in their street and then what happened, She went into the building where they live and stayed there, And what did you do, the superintendent asked the sergeant, I was hiding, but when she went inside, I joined the inspector to work out a strategy, And then, We decided to work together while we could, said the inspector, and agreed on how we would proceed if we had to split up again, And then, Since it was lunchtime, we took advantage of the break, So you went and had lunch, No, sir, he’d bought two sandwiches and he gave me one, and that was our lunch. The superintendent finally smiled, You deserve a medal, he said
to the sergeant, who, emboldened, responded, People have won one for less, sir, You don’t know how right you are, Put my name down on the list, then. The three of them smiled, but only briefly, the superintendent’s face soon darkened again, What happened next, he asked, It was half past two when they all came out, they must have had lunch together there, said the inspector, we were immediately on the alert because we didn’t know if the old man had a car or not, but he didn’t use it, perhaps he’s saving petrol, anyway, we followed them and if it was an easy job for one, imagine what it was like for two, And where did all this end, In a cinema, they went to the cinema, Did you check to see if there was another door they could have left by without you realizing, There was one, but it was closed, just in case, though, I told him to keep an eye on it for half an hour, No one left, the sergeant confirmed. The superintendent felt weary of this comedy, What else, just summarize the rest, he said in a tense voice. The inspector looked at him in surprise, The rest, sir, well, there isn’t much else, they left together when the film ended, they took a taxi, and we took another, we gave the driver the classic order We’re the police, follow that car, it was just another straightforward trip, the wife of the guy who wrote the letter was the first to get out, Where, In the street where she lives, as we said, sir, we don’t have any news to report, then the taxi took the others to their house, And what did you do, Well, I stayed behind in the first street, said the sergeant, And I stayed in the second, said the inspector, And then, Then, nothing, none of them went out again, and I was there for nearly another hour, in the end, I caught a taxi, passed by the other street to pick up my colleague and we came back together, in fact, we’ve just got in, A pointless task then, said the superintendent, It certainly seems like it, said the inspector, the most interesting thing about this whole business is that it started out fairly well, the interrogation of the guy who wrote the letter, for example, was worthwhile, even amusing, the poor devil didn’t know
what to do with himself and ended up with his tail between his legs, but after that, I don’t know how, we got stuck, I mean, we got ourselves stuck, you must know a bit more, sir, since you got to interrogate the real suspects twice, Who are the real suspects, asked the superintendent, Well, first, the doctor’s wife and then the husband, it seems quite clear to me that if they share a bed, they must share the blame too, What blame, You know as well as I do, sir, Imagine that I don’t, explain it to me, The blame for the situation we’re in, What situation, The blank ballot papers, the city under a state of siege, the bomb in the metro station, Do you really believe what you’re saying, asked the superintendent, That’s why we came here, to investigate and capture the guilty party, You mean the doctor’s wife, Yes, sir, as far as I’m concerned the interior minister’s orders were pretty clear on that front, The interior minister didn’t say the doctor’s wife was to blame, Sir, I may only be a police inspector who may never make it as far as superintendent, but I’ve learned from my experience in this job that things half-spoken exist in order to say what can’t be fully expressed, When the next post for superintendent comes up, I’ll support your promotion, but until then, the truth requires me to inform you that, as regards the doctor’s wife, the word, not half-spoken, but fully expressed, is innocence. The inspector shot the sergeant a sideways glance, a plea for help, but the sergeant had the absorbed look of someone who has just been hypnotized, so he could expect no help from him. Cautiously, the inspector asked, Are you saying that we’re going to leave here empty-handed, Or we could, if you prefer, leave here with our hands in our pockets, And that’s how we should present ourselves to the minister, If there’s no guilty party, we can’t invent one, Are those your words or the minister’s, Oh, I doubt they’re the minister’s words, at least, I don’t remember having heard him say them, Well, sir, I’ve never heard them all the time I’ve been in the police, but I’ll say no more, I won’t open my mouth again. The superintendent got up, looked at his watch and said, Go and have supper in a restaurant somewhere, you hardly had any lunch at all, you must be hungry, but don’t forget to bring me the bill so that I can stamp it, And what about you, sir, asked the sergeant, No, I had a good lunch, and if I do feel peckish, there’s always tea and biscuits to keep hunger at bay. The inspector said, The respect I feel for you, sir, obliges me to say how concerned I am about you, Why, We’re just subordinates, the worst thing that can happen to us is a reprimand, but you’re responsible for the success of this mission and you seem determined to declare it a failure, Does declaring an accused person innocent mean that a mission has failed, It does if the mission was designed to put the blame on an innocent party, A short while ago, you stated categorically that the doctor’s wife was to blame, now you’re almost on the point of swearing on the holy gospel that she’s innocent, Sir, I might well swear it on the gospel, but not in the presence of the interior minister, Of course, I understand, you have your family, your career, your life, That’s right, sir, you might also add, my lack of courage, We’re both human beings, and I would never go that far, my only advice to you is that, from now on, you take our sergeant here under your wing, I’ve a feeling you’re going to need each other. The inspector and the sergeant said, See you later, sir, and the superintendent replied, Have a nice meal, and don’t rush. The door closed.

The superintendent went into the kitchen for a drink of water, then he went into his room. The bed was still unmade, a pair of dirty socks lay on the floor, one here, one over there, a dirty shirt was draped untidily over a chair, not to mention the state the bathroom was in, this is a matter which providential ltd, insurance and reinsurance will have to resolve sooner or later, i.e. whether or not it is compatible with the natural discretion surrounding the work of the secret service to place at the disposal of the agents who stay here a woman who would act as housekeeper, cook and chambermaid. The
superintendent gave the sheet and bedspread a quick tug, punched the pillow a couple of times, rolled up the shirt and the socks and stuffed them in a drawer, and the desolate appearance of the room improved a little, although, naturally, any female hand would have done it better. He looked at the clock, it was a good time, although he would soon find out whether the result would be equally good. He sat down, switched on the desk lamp and dialed the number. On the fourth ring, a voice answered, Hello, It’s puffin here, Albatross speaking, Just calling in to report on the day’s operations, albatross, Well, I hope you have some satisfactory results to give me, puffin, That depends on what you call satisfactory, albatross, Look, I have neither the time nor the patience for the finer shades of meaning, puffin, get to the point, May I ask you first, albatross, if the package reached its destination, What package, The nine o’clock package, at post six-north, Oh, yes, it arrived perfectly, it’s going to be very useful, you’ll find out just how useful in due course, puffin, but now tell me what you and your men have been up to today, There’s really not much to tell, albatross, a couple of surveillance operations and an interrogation, Let’s take things one at a time, puffin, what was the result of the surveillance operations, Practically nil, albatross, Why, Throughout the time they were being followed, the people we would term the number two suspects behaved absolutely normally, albatross, And what about the interrogation of the number one suspects, which, I seem to recall, was your responsibility, puffin, To be perfectly honest, What did you say, To be perfectly honest, albatross, What’s all this about honesty, puffin, It’s just a way of beginning a sentence, albatross, Then will you please stop being perfectly honest and tell me, simply, whether or not you are in a position to confirm, without beating about the bush and without any further circumlocutions, that the doctor’s wife, whose photo I have before me, is guilty, She admitted she was guilty of a murder, albatross, You know that for many reasons, amongst
them the lack of a corpus delicti, this is not what interests us, Yes, albatross, So get straight to the point and tell me whether or not you can confirm that the doctor’s wife is part of the movement behind the blank votes and that she may even be the head of the whole organization, No, albatross, I can’t confirm that, Why, puffin, Because no policeman in the world, albatross, and I consider myself to be the last of them, would find a scrap of evidence to support such an accusation, You appear to have forgotten, puffin, that we had agreed that you would provide the necessary proof, And what proof would that be in a case like this, albatross, if you don’t mind my asking, That neither was nor is my affair, I left that to your judgement, puffin, when I was still confident that you would be capable of bringing your mission to a successful conclusion, With respect, albatross, deciding that a suspect is innocent of the crime he or she is accused of seems to me the most successful of conclusions, Let’s drop this code-name comedy, you’re a police superintendent and I’m the interior minister, Yes, minister, Now, in order to see if we can finally come to some understanding, I’m going to put the question I asked you just now in a different way, Yes, minister, Setting aside your personal beliefs, are you prepared to confirm that the doctor’s wife is guilty, yes or no, No, minister, And you have weighed the consequences of what you have just said, Yes, minister, Very well, then, take a note of the decisions I have just taken, I’m listening, minister, You will tell the inspector and the sergeant that they have orders to return tomorrow morning, that at nine o’clock they must be at post six-north on the frontier where they will be met by the person who will bring them here, a man more or less your age and wearing a blue tie with white spots, tell them to bring the car you’ve been using and which will, of course, no longer be necessary, Yes, minister, And as for you, As for me, minister, You will remain in the capital until you receive further orders, which will doubtless not be long in coming, And the investigation, You yourself said that there is nothing to investigate, that the suspect is innocent, That is my sincere belief, minister, Then you certainly can’t complain, your case is solved, But what shall I do while I’m here, Nothing, do nothing, go for walks, enjoy yourself, go to the cinema, the theater, visit the museums, and, if you like, invite your new friends out to supper, charge it to the ministry, Minister, I don’t understand, The five days I gave you for the investigation are still not yet up, perhaps in the time that remains a different light will go on in your head, I doubt it, minister, Nevertheless, five days are five days, and I’m a man of my word, Yes, minister, Good night, sleep well, superintendent, Good night, minister.