Requiem for a Killer by Paulo Levy

and Zuleika – who’s
from Minas Gerais – met soon after and had Marina not much after
that. She has a brother named Fernando Rivera who works in the
import-export business and lives in Miami.”
    “That’s it?”
    “There’s more. She graduated from law school
at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 1984 and that’s
where she met Nildo Borges.”
    “Excellent.”
    “From then on their paths crossed several
times. But there’s nothing that points to any relationship between
them other than professional.”
    “That’s hard to believe. If you saw the two
of them together you’d see there’s something deeper going on there.
Go on.”
    “Nildo Borges was also born in Rio, had a
normal middle class upbringing with nothing noteworthy to mention.
In college however, he went off on a new tack: he discovered
politics. By the sound of it, it was love at first sight. He and
Marina met in her freshman and his senior year. He was a student
leader, was arrested in 1979 and reappeared a few years later on
the political scene running for councilman in Rio. Marina acted as
a vote canvasser and was his communications coordinator. He lost.
He’s married, has two kids and lives in an enormous house in the
Historical Center.”
    “Why did he end up here in Palmyra?” asked
the inspector. “Although he certainly has more power here than he
ever would in Rio,” he added, answering his own question.
    “His father was born and died here. He
founded Peixe Dourado, a small fishing company that evidenced
tremendous growth after Nildo took over when his father died,
nearly twenty years ago. He has a brother, Wilson Borges, generally
considered an idiot, who runs the business while Nildo concentrates
on politics. Still, revenues have grown by double digits over the
last five years.”
    Dornelas was puzzled by this last piece of
information.
    “I presume Marina followed him here?”
    “Correct. With no family or future prospects
in Rio, Marina followed Nildo Borges here and today lives alone in
a little house, also in the Historical Center. She’s never been
married and there is no information of any kind regarding a
boyfriend or lover.”
    “Do you have anything on the City Council
building?”
    “It’s the same old shit. An invitation to
bid was published, eleven companies showed up with proposals and
only one met all the requirements.”
    “The one made by Raimundo Tavares. An
invitation made to order,” concluded Dornelas, who now remembered
the engineer’s name from newspapers and TV.
    “That’s right. The job ended up costing a
lot more than it was supposed to, two additional budget allocations
were needed for its completion and it took almost two years more
than planned to be concluded.”
    “Let me guess: Nildo Borges was the
president of the City Council at the time.”
    “You got it. Besides overseeing the
elaboration of the project, it was he who got it approved in the
City Council. They say Nildo followed the work very closely for a
long time. But the job took so long that eventually there ended up
being a new City Council president. Councilman Jurandir Botman,
from an opposing party, was who took over. He discovered the
irregularities by chance, when he bought a car to use in the
legislature. Because of this car, and since work on the building
was still going on, he decided to build an underground parking lot.
Much to his surprise, an engineer on the job then told him that
that wouldn’t be possible because of structural and documentation
irregularities affecting the building. So the president installed
an official legislative hearing and a full investigation was made.
The report raised some very serious issues, including seepages,
purchases of materials different from those originally approved,
flaws in the rain drainage system, leaks, paving problems that
impeded waterproofing of the indoor flooring, the lightning rod
system below standard, exposed piping, a fire prevention and safety
project