Sangre De Toro (Old Draft - Now Published!)

Chapter 17 - Setting the Record Straight

'Get out of my office,' he yelled.

*

Rita walked out, shaken and stunned. Relief filled her that she wasn't suspended, or worse, charged. Sanchez wasn't much for animal rights. But he was concerned about terrible publicity from his officers handing a docile, affectionate creature, who had unwittingly starred in a viral video seen by millions, to his torturer, a man soaked in animal and almost certainly human blood. The younger generations disliked the police enough as it was.

'How was it yesterday?' she asked Dominguez once they were out of earshot.

'Apart from Pepelito running over my foot and ripping my shirt when we let him in the field, it was fine. Silvio thinks he's great, told you he loves cows. Doesn't think the same about me, couldn't wait to get me gone. He liked Luis, thinks I threw a good thing away.' He sighed, looking sad.

'Probably prefers animals to people. I can relate.' Rita walked into the kitchen for some coffee.

She missed Pepelito. She had got used to having him around. When she did move back into her flat it would seem strangely empty without him. Instead, she had moved in with a man she hardly knew. Alfonso seemed decent, caring and crazy about her. But the murder and DV statistics suggested this was probably more dangerous than sharing a flat with a bull. She opened her phone and wrote, 'My boss knows. It went better than I thought it would.'

Rita sat down at her computer and opened her emails to find she had one from Caroline McKenzie's son. With a pang of guilt she realised she had forgotten to tell him she was now off the case.

'Inspectora Silvera, I hope you are well? I am just wondering how the case was going and if there has been any progress in finding my Mum's killer?' The truth was, there had been no progress. All the hotel guests had been ruled out, and they were close to ruling out Castella himself.

'Hi Iain, thanks for your email. I've been taken off this case, but I've forwarded it on to Inspector Abdul Mansouri who you have met, he is currently in charge of the investigation.' She hated fobbing people off like this. It was horrible. As she sipped her cup of coffee, her phone rang.

'Good morning, am I speaking to someone from the Valladolid National Police Corps?' a woman's voice said in English. She had a thick accent and was hard to understand, even though Rita spoke it fluently.

'Yes. Inspectora Rita Silvera speaking.'

'I'm Detective Sergeant Heather Cooper from West Yorkshire Police, I'm calling about a body that was found in the area yesterday; we're hoping you may be able to help.' Heather took a deep breath on the other end of the line.

'The victim's been identified as an 18 year old man called Aidan Donnelly. This was an extremely violent attack against someone young and vulnerable, although he was legally an adult. So you'll understand we're very keen to catch whoever it is.' Rita listened intently. The woman sounded calm, but couldn't disguise her shock.

'An item that was found with the victim suggests a link to your region of Spain and we were hoping you could provide some assistance.' Heather spoke in a businesslike tone, but Rita had to think about her words before understanding the meaning.

'What sort of item?'

'We found a metal dart placed beside the body. We don't think it was the murder weapon, but it may have been one of the weapons used to attack the victim. There was an engraving on it saying it was manufactured in Valladolid.' Rita felt a chill down her spine as she sipped her coffee.

'Can you send me a picture of this dart? I'll see what I can do.' Rita said. Within seconds, she had it in her inbox. She stared at the gruesome object and disgust and anger coursed through her.