'A date, eh,' Alfonso said as they walked back to the flat with their burritos, plus some drinks and several large carrots and cucumbers.
'Well, yeah,' Rita said. Her mood had picked up. He couldn't stop thinking about her. At first he had told himself it was because of the Pepelito situation. This woman had phoned him in desperation, out of compassion or recklessness or both. His actions had saved the animal's life. Now, Alfonso was invested in the bull's wellbeing, finding somewhere more suitable than Rita's flat where he could have a quiet life free from fear.
But increasingly, his thoughts now turned to Rita herself. There were so many reasons why at first he hadn't wanted to admit how much he liked her. But Pilar would have wanted him to meet someone else after all these years. She'd want him to be happy, wouldn't she? He moved closer to Rita as they walked together up the cobbled road. There was a shop still open selling bike accessories, like chains and padlocks.
'Something like this would sort out the fridge. I might have one in the van,' he laughed, pointing out a heavy duty metal padlock. Rita stared at him in horror. She took out her phone. She had smart cameras installed outside and inside, not surprisingly for a cop.
'He's chilling in the living room look,' she said, laughing. Sure enough, Pepelito was lying on the fresh bed of straw, bought with cash, that they had placed in the living room this evening, the old bedding now bagged up and sitting in his van. Alfonso felt a rush of affection for her. They were now standing by the door of the flat. Rita put her key into the lock and they carefully walked inside on the heavy easy-clean plastic sheeting now covering most of the rooms. Alfonso looked down.
'I have another roll of that stuff, it looks like the kitchen needs it,' he said as they walked past the living room.
'Good idea, I don't want him going in the kitchen or my bedroom if I'm not in, I've decided. Started locking my bedroom door again.' Rita shook her head and they went to the kitchen and sat down at the small white plastic table. The place was starting to smell like a farmyard. They would have to find somewhere else for Pepelito soon, especially since he was recovering and starting to wander around more frequently. He needed to go outdoors. But taking him round the back of Rita's was going to be incredibly risky.
Alfonso unwrapped his burrito. There wasn't much point in getting out a nice plate given the current state of the rest of the house. He had to be honest with her, he thought.
'This is weird for me. Since my wife died it's hard for me to think about meeting anyone else.'
Rita's eyes widened. 'I'm sorry.'
'I miss her every day. I know she'd want me to find someone else, that's what she said to me when she was dying. It's been seven years and I still haven't been able to face it.' He had been on a few dates through the apps since she died. But they had left him cold, it felt wrong, and he felt almost guilty. Because there was nobody else like her in the world.
'What did she die of?' Rita said. It was quite blunt but maybe that's what he needed, Alfonso thought. He rarely talked about it. He'd carried on with his work caring for animals the way she would have wanted him to, rather than caring for himself.
'She had cancer,' Alfonso said. 'She found out two years after we got married. By then, it was too late. She was 35.'
'I'm so sorry, that's too young, cancer is a bastard,' Rita said.
'Her name was Pilar; she was an animal rights activist and she did all sorts of crazy things. When we met, she had a pet rat she'd rescued from a lab. She'd broken in there in the dead of night, and they'd let them all out.' He laughed and Rita's mouth dropped open, like she wasn't sure whether to be shocked or impressed. Alfonso noticed her black hair falling into her face. He reminded himself she was a cop. Maybe he'd already said too much. In the adjacent room, he could hear Pepelito getting up and sniffing at something.
'She was at university in England, and she dropped out of her course after a year so she could go and save foxes from hunters. She hated police, she was always going on protests and getting arrested,' he said, remembering when he'd had to come and bail her out. Rita looked shocked but said nothing.
'She used to say I was too boring.' He remembered the time Pilar had wanted to jump into the plaza de toros.
'I don't think that's a good idea. The matador's got a sword, for a start. And the bull doesn't know you're trying to save it. It's scared, it's angry and it might gore you. Besides, you might be beaten up by the spectators, if not worse. You'll definitely be arrested.' She rolled her eyes. It was impossible to argue with her when she was like this.
'I love you, but you're just too sensible. I won't be on my own, a whole bunch of us are going. We need to save them. Who else is going to do it, if we don't?'
'I know. It's an atrocity. But you can't put yourself at such risk for a bull.'
'Animals are at risk for humans every day, look at those dogs who are trained to sniff out bombs -'
'Pilar, it's not the -'
'Well, why not?'
'I didn't know, but she'd been to the doctor that day and they said it was much more aggressive than they thought. She never gave much thought to the risks, but now even less so.' Pilar would have laughed so hard at the thought 'Dr Sensible' had got caught up in all this. Alfonso couldn't help smiling.
'Sometimes, I think I should have just let her do it, but instead, I booked us a last-minute holiday in Paris for two weeks, I felt we needed to be far away from here before anything crazy happened. She was furious at first,' Alfonso laughed.
'I'd have been too, if I'd have planned that, and then my husband was like, no you can't, we're going on holiday,' Rita said, taking a sip of beer from out the bottle.
'In the end, we had an amazing time. But she started getting very tired towards the end. And a week after we got back, she started going seriously downhill. Three months later she was in hospital, and she'd never come out.' Rita had tears in her eyes when he looked at her.
'She sounds...impressive,' she said, and he nodded, still missing Pilar more than words could describe. Rita reached for his hand across the table. He took it cautiously. Her hands were warm. Pilar would want him to be happy, right?
'What about you?' he said.
'I'm divorced. I'm afraid my ex-husband never did anything that worthwhile or interesting. He is an estate agent, which is as boring as it sounds.' She rolled her eyes.
'Work took over my life. He couldn't stand being in second place. I'd walk out of family dinners with his parents to chase down suspects. Christmas, New Year, Easter, all the local fiestas I'd be on call, the busiest times of year, that's when the crime happens. Once I had a call when we were on holiday in Turkey and had to fly back. He didn't understand and I didn't try hard enough to make him,' she said.
She took a deep breath. She looked tired and had some grey hairs, but Alfonso couldn't help noticing how beautiful she looked. 'He used to say I was paranoid and couldn't switch off. That I'd treat everyone like a suspect. That's not paranoid. It's called having a copper's instinct.'
She finished the last of the burrito and took a swig out her beer bottle. 'We had a big row once. He had this friend from school, and we would go to their house for dinner. I couldn't help noticing that his wife hardly spoke, and the friend would put her down a lot. I mentioned it to him in the car and he lost it with me. He told me I looked at everyone suspiciously and needed to relax and his friend was a great guy, blah, blah.'
Rita knocked back the beer. Alfonso squeezed her hand gently, feeling sick at this story, what he guessed she was going to say next. 'Six months later, would you believe, my officers arrested this so-called 'great guy' for domestic violence. He'd been knocking her about for years. I knew then, my marriage was over.'
She looked towards the kitchen door nervously, checking something on her phone. 'I thought I heard something but it's OK, he's still sleeping.'
'We separated, and I also discovered once I'd moved out, that he'd been having an affair for three years. So that was that. Finished. Done.' She rolled her eyes.
'Wow,' Alfonso said.
'Yeah.' She sighed heavily. 'Never mind. I'm done with him.'
'Can I ask you something?' Alfonso said, feeling nervous and not a little intimidated.
'Go on.'
'What does your copper's instinct say about me? Do you see me as a suspect?'
Rita thought for a second. She grinned and looked at him sideways. 'Yeah. Definitely an accomplice.'
He really was starting to fall for her. He looked into her eyes across the table. What was he doing? He'd only known her a few days, he reminded himself.
'After they found Caroline McKenzie. I got home, I'd been with her son. My mum sent me this horrible text calling me selfish and saying I should have a reconciliation with my sister. The only family I've got. All that shit. Anyway. Pepelito came into the room.' She took a deep breath. That had been a horrible night. After he sent the text about Caroline, Rita hadn't replied; police protocol obviously. She hadn't needed to. Right after that, Caroline's son posted on Facebook with the news.
Rita's lip trembled. 'I could see the pain he was in from how he was walking. But he came up to me and let me pet him. He could tell I was upset. He stayed with me when I was crying.'
'Quite affectionate at times, isn't he? They couldn't beat that out of him,' Alfonso said.
'No. I can't bear thinking of him like that.' Rita shook her head and took a bite of her burrito.
'Animals can be a great comfort,' Alfonso said, thinking of their old rescue dog Lugar, who was so good when Pilar went into hospital.
'I don't know about comforting!' Rita laughed.
'Can we try and take him outside in a while, just for five minutes? I think he's sad in my apartment, and bored.'
'We can try. He's better, but still weak and not in much of a state to run anywhere, but we'll need to keep him calm, and make sure he can't go far. Do you have anything heavy we can tie the rope to when we put him in the harness?' Alfonso said. He took one of the carrots out of the takeaway bag, plus the extra burrito they had bought for this purpose.
'The sofa might work,' Rita said. 'That thing is heavy, needs three or four people to lift it.'
'Let's do that,' Alfonso said. 'I better not have any more beer.'
'Say around 12.30am, so half an hour. That OK, or do you need to go?' He shook his head; how could it be that late? The lines on her face showed she'd had a tough life. Today, she'd got back from work and changed into old clothes and clearly not made much of an effort. But Alfonso still thought she was beautiful. The fact she cared so much made her even more so. And he hadn't felt this way in such a very long time.
'Rita?' he said as they looked at each other. 'I'd really like to kiss you.'