The Good Suicides Read Online Free

from another angle?” asked Salgado.
    The guard shook his head and added, “There are the ones monitoring the turnstiles, so that people don’t sneak through without paying, but in that time no one came in that way.”
    “Okay. We’ve seen it now,” declared Salgado. And if Fort had known him better he’d have recognized that that dry tone didn’t bode well. “We’ll take the tape so this man can close up and go home.”
    The guard didn’t object.
    “For Christ’s sake, Fort, tell me you haven’t made me come at this time just to show me a tape where you can’t see anything.” Fort hadbeen under his command for only a couple of weeks, so the inspector expressed his disgust in the most polite way possible over the short distance separating them from the platform, although speaking quietly didn’t manage to conceal his bad mood. He took a breath; he didn’t want to be too harsh, and at that hour of the morning it was easy to get carried away. To top it all, the agent had such a contrite expression that Salgado took pity on him. “It doesn’t matter, we’ll talk about it later. Since I’m here, let’s sort out those boys.”
    He hurried down the steps, cutting Fort off mid-sentence.
    The boys, just two of them, were sitting on one of the benches, the same one they’d occupied before. Not laughing now, thought Héctor, seeing them totally rigid. The party had ended all of a sudden. As he went toward them, he tried not to see the black plastic bags scattered over the track. He turned to the agent.
    “Make sure they’re finished, and remove the body immediately.”
    The faint station light made the boys look dirty. Two uniformed agents stood in front of them. They were chatting, seemingly removed from the kids, but without taking their eyes off them. When Salgado approached, they both greeted him and took a step back. The inspector remained standing and fixed his eyes on the adolescents. Dominican, almost certainly. One of them was around eighteen or nineteen; the other, who judging by appearances must be his younger brother, was younger than Guillermo. Thirteen, fourteen tops, Héctor decided.
    “Well, boys, it’s very late and we all want to finish as soon as possible. I’m Inspector Salgado. Tell me your names, what you saw and explain to me what brought you back,” he added, remembering what Fort had told him. “Afterward, we’ll all go home to bed, okay?”
    “We didn’t see anything,” the younger one retorted, looking at his brother with a certain resentment. “We were out partying and we were going home from Port Olímpic. We changed from the yellow line to the red, but we missed the metro. Only just.”
    “Name?” repeated the inspector.
    “Jorge Ribera. And that’s my brother Nelson.”
    “Nelson, you didn’t notice the woman either?”
    The older boy had very black eyes and his face had a hard, distrusting expression. Impassive.
    “No, sir.” He looked ahead, not fixing his eyes on anyone. The tone of his answer sounded hostile.
    “But you saw her?”
    The little one smiled.
    “Nelson only has eyes for his girl. Even though she’s mad at him …”
    Salgado recognized him as the one who’d been pestering the girl with the white anorak. Nelson gave his brother a withering look. Jorge must have been accustomed to it, because he didn’t so much as flinch.
    “Good. Was there anyone else in the station?” Héctor knew there wasn’t, although there was always the possibility that someone had entered the station at the last minute. However, both boys shrugged. It was clear that they’d been entertained by the argument between Nelson and the girl. “Fine. Then what did you do?”
    “They threw us out of the metro, so we ran to catch the night bus. And when we were already at the stop, Nelson made me come back.”
    His brother elbowed him to continue and Jorge lowered his head. His self-confidence seemed to have suddenly evaporated.
    “Tell him,” ordered Nelson, but Jorge