Requiem for a Killer Read Online Free

Dorado.
    “Inspector Joaquim Dornelas, I suppose!” she
said, thrusting out her hand. “My name is Marina Rivera. I’m
Councilman Nildo Borges’ Chief of Staff. Please, come in.”
    Dornelas shook the girl’s hand delicately,
as if holding a little bird. And when she leaned over he saw, ever
so briefly, her small, firm breasts, as perfect in size and shape
as a sculpture.
    “The Councilman just called from his cell
phone, he had a slight holdup but he’s on the way,” she said.
    Dornelas entered what looked like the
reception area of a public health clinic: a connected computer on
an otherwise empty desk, three hungry-looking people squeezed
together on a bench, the usual picture of the smiling Brazilian
president hanging on the wall and a scrubby plant in a corner.
    “Will he be long?”
    “Fifteen minutes at most. Would you like
something to drink… water, coffee?”
    “Water, please.”
    With nowhere to sit, he remained standing.
Marina spun around on her heels, tossed her black-haired braid
behind her and cast him a naughty look over her shoulder before
disappearing behind the only door into the cabinet. Dornelas felt a
flame lighting up inside, the kind that can burn out of control and
level an entire forest.
    She returned in a flash. He gulped down the
glass of water.
    “Why don’t you wait in my office until the
Councilman gets here,” she suggested.
    “I don’t want to get in your way.”
    “I insist. There’s nowhere for you to sit
out here.”
    She went in with Dornelas close behind
her.
    “Have they identified that body yet?” Marina
asked while they walked through a spacious office with low dividers
that separated four desks in a kind of cross and two desks up
against the back wall. There were only two people working
there.
    “Nothing yet. But the Councilman seems to
have information about him. That’s why I’m here.”
    They entered a small office that connected
to a larger one that might belong to Nildo Borges. She went behind
the desk and looked straight at him.
    “I’d like to help you,” she said sugar
sweetly. “Tell me if I can, whenever you like.”
    Fire, Dornelas, fire!
    “I’ll remember that,” he replied before
sitting down and taking out a calling card from his jacket pocket
and putting it on the desk. “Please, don’t let me bother you. I
really don’t want to interfere with your work.”
    “I’m just going to finish this e-mail.”
    Pretending not to notice the inspector’s
presence, Marina Rivera sat upright in front of the computer and
began typing on the keyboard. Dornelas looked inward and tried to
understand why he was so attracted to this woman. He studied her
big, green, delicate doe eyes. She opened them wide, making her
seem even more fragile and innocent. But something about her
disturbed him.
    “Done!” exclaimed Marina with a little
bounce, looking up at him.
    Dornelas let go of his thoughts and
straightened up in his chair before asking, “Do you know anything
about this morning’s crime?”
    “Nothing that can help you. As much as I
manage Nildo’s activities here in the Council there are some
subjects that only he knows about.”
    This intimacy intrigued him. Going straight
to the point, he asked, “Tell me, what is your relationship with
the Councilman?”
    She smiled.
    “I was expecting that question.”
    He waited in silence.
    “Nildo and I go way back. We met in college.
He was like a son to my father. He started getting involved in
politics on the Student Council and I followed him because I
admired his enthusiasm, his ideas. We’ve been friends for a long
time. That’s all.”
    “What ideas were those?”
    “Equality and economic security for all,”
she recited, sounding like a recording.
    “Don’t you think that speech is somewhat
outdated? Do you still believe in it?”
    “Inspector Dornelas,” she said in a
professorial tone.
    “Please, call me Joaquim.”
    “Okay. Joaquim, the world has changed a lot
since that time.