A Small Death in lisbon by Robert Wilson
Authors: Robert Wilson
Tags: Fiction, General, Suspense, Mystery & Detective, Suspense fiction, Police Procedural, Lisbon (Portugal)
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him from the side.'
'So you can only tell me what I'm thinking about when you look at me head-on?'
That was just a bit of luck,
Senhor
Inspector.'
'Was it?' I said, and the boy smiled. 'What did you think of Dr Oliveira's accountancy? The mathematics between him and his wife.'
'I thought he was a bloodless son of a bitch.'
'Strong feelings,
agente
Pinto,' I said. 'What does your father do?'
'He was a fitter with LisNave. He installed pumps in ships.'
'Was?'
'They lost some contracts to the Koreans.'
'Your politics might be to the left of centre perhaps?'
He shrugged.
'Dr Aquilino Oliveira is a serious man,' I said. 'He's high calibre ordnance ... 125 mm cannon, no less.'
'Was he a colonel in the artillery, your father?'
'The cavalry. But listen. The lawyer has used his brain all his life. It's his job to use his intelligence.'
'That's true, so far he's one step ahead of us all the way.'
'You saw him. His instinct was to check the body. His brain always operates in front of his emotions ... until, perhaps, he remembers he's supposed to have feelings.'
'And then he leaves the room to go and collect them.'
'Interesting,
agente
Pinto. I'm beginning to see why Narciso put you on to me. You're an odd one.'
'Am I? Most people think I'm very normal. They mean boring.'
'It's true you haven't said a word about football, cars or girls.'
'I like the way you see the order of things,
Senhor
Inspector.'
'Maybe you're a man of ideals. I haven't seen one of those since...'
'Nineteen-seventy-four?'
'A little after that, in the mess that followed our glorious revolution there were lots of ideas, ideals, visions. They petered out.'
'And ten years later we joined Europe. And now we don't have to struggle on our own any more. We don't have to sweat at night thinking where the next escudo is coming from. Brussels tells us what to do. We're on the payroll. If we...'
'And that's a bad thing?'
'What's changed? The rich get richer. The ones in the know go higher. Of course, it's trickled down. But that's the point. It's a trickle. We think we're better off because we can drive around in an Opel Corsa which costs us our entire living wage to run while our parents house us, feed us and clothe us. Is that progress? No. It's called "credit". And who benefits from credit?'
'I haven't heard anger like that since ... since FC Porto came down here and put three past Benfica.'
'I'm not angry,' he said, cooling his hand out of the window. 'I'm not as angry as you are.'
'What makes you think I'm angry?'
'You're angry with him. You think he killed his daughter and he's given you the best possible alibi a man can have ... and you're angry about it.'
'Now you're reading my face in profile. Next it'll be the back of my head.'
'You know what annoys me?' said Carlos. 'He makes out he's some kind of liberal thinker but you think about this. He's nearly seventy years old. He must have worked the best part of his life under the Salazar regime and you know as well as I do that you didn't work in those days unless you were politically sound.'
'What's happening here,
agente
Pinto? I've spent the last twenty years of my life not thinking about the revolution other than the fact we get a holiday on 25th April. I've been with you less than half a day and we've talked about it three or four times. I don't think it's any way to start a murder investigation by going back twenty-five years and looking...'
'It was only talk. He was projecting himself as a liberal. I don't believe him ... and that's one of the reasons why.'
'Guys like that are too intelligent to believe in anything. They change...'
'I don't think they do. Not this late on. My father's forty-eight, he can't change and now he's scrap in the breaker's yard along with all his old pumps.'
'Don't get fixed ideas about people,
agente
Pinto. It'll cloud your vision. You don't want to ram somebody into a life sentence just because they're politically disagreeable, do you?'
'No,' said
'So you can only tell me what I'm thinking about when you look at me head-on?'
That was just a bit of luck,
Senhor
Inspector.'
'Was it?' I said, and the boy smiled. 'What did you think of Dr Oliveira's accountancy? The mathematics between him and his wife.'
'I thought he was a bloodless son of a bitch.'
'Strong feelings,
agente
Pinto,' I said. 'What does your father do?'
'He was a fitter with LisNave. He installed pumps in ships.'
'Was?'
'They lost some contracts to the Koreans.'
'Your politics might be to the left of centre perhaps?'
He shrugged.
'Dr Aquilino Oliveira is a serious man,' I said. 'He's high calibre ordnance ... 125 mm cannon, no less.'
'Was he a colonel in the artillery, your father?'
'The cavalry. But listen. The lawyer has used his brain all his life. It's his job to use his intelligence.'
'That's true, so far he's one step ahead of us all the way.'
'You saw him. His instinct was to check the body. His brain always operates in front of his emotions ... until, perhaps, he remembers he's supposed to have feelings.'
'And then he leaves the room to go and collect them.'
'Interesting,
agente
Pinto. I'm beginning to see why Narciso put you on to me. You're an odd one.'
'Am I? Most people think I'm very normal. They mean boring.'
'It's true you haven't said a word about football, cars or girls.'
'I like the way you see the order of things,
Senhor
Inspector.'
'Maybe you're a man of ideals. I haven't seen one of those since...'
'Nineteen-seventy-four?'
'A little after that, in the mess that followed our glorious revolution there were lots of ideas, ideals, visions. They petered out.'
'And ten years later we joined Europe. And now we don't have to struggle on our own any more. We don't have to sweat at night thinking where the next escudo is coming from. Brussels tells us what to do. We're on the payroll. If we...'
'And that's a bad thing?'
'What's changed? The rich get richer. The ones in the know go higher. Of course, it's trickled down. But that's the point. It's a trickle. We think we're better off because we can drive around in an Opel Corsa which costs us our entire living wage to run while our parents house us, feed us and clothe us. Is that progress? No. It's called "credit". And who benefits from credit?'
'I haven't heard anger like that since ... since FC Porto came down here and put three past Benfica.'
'I'm not angry,' he said, cooling his hand out of the window. 'I'm not as angry as you are.'
'What makes you think I'm angry?'
'You're angry with him. You think he killed his daughter and he's given you the best possible alibi a man can have ... and you're angry about it.'
'Now you're reading my face in profile. Next it'll be the back of my head.'
'You know what annoys me?' said Carlos. 'He makes out he's some kind of liberal thinker but you think about this. He's nearly seventy years old. He must have worked the best part of his life under the Salazar regime and you know as well as I do that you didn't work in those days unless you were politically sound.'
'What's happening here,
agente
Pinto? I've spent the last twenty years of my life not thinking about the revolution other than the fact we get a holiday on 25th April. I've been with you less than half a day and we've talked about it three or four times. I don't think it's any way to start a murder investigation by going back twenty-five years and looking...'
'It was only talk. He was projecting himself as a liberal. I don't believe him ... and that's one of the reasons why.'
'Guys like that are too intelligent to believe in anything. They change...'
'I don't think they do. Not this late on. My father's forty-eight, he can't change and now he's scrap in the breaker's yard along with all his old pumps.'
'Don't get fixed ideas about people,
agente
Pinto. It'll cloud your vision. You don't want to ram somebody into a life sentence just because they're politically disagreeable, do you?'
'No,' said
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