Sangre De Toro (Old Draft - Now Published!)

Chapter 18 - Connections

Clutching the file, Rita navigated the station's passages until she reached the office where Abdul Mansouri was leading the murder investigation. Recently graduated from a criminology postgrad scheme, this would be Abdul's inaugural stint as head of such a case. Rita had a soft spot for him; despite the bigoted speculation about being some diversity hire he often found himself working harder than the others to prove himself. But maybe not today. Knocking on the door, she heard his shocked laughter from inside.

'Come in? Rita! Jesus was just telling us all how you re-enacted the San Fermines in your living room?' Mansouri stared at her in disbelief.

'I tried to feed him some crisps and he almost gored me! She said, yeah, course you can stay with me, no problem, little did I know!' Dominguez was doubled over with hysterics. Rita felt a little annoyed and singled out, but what had she expected?

'There aren't many people willing to suffer for their principles these days, I'd have done the exact same, good for you Rita, standing up for our bovine friends,' one of the other newer recruits giggled, a 21 year old woman called Laurentia. She was Flavia's niece who had moved from Romania as a teenager.

'You should have brought him to work. We could have used him to solve crimes,' Mansouri said. Rita imagined Pepelito wandering around the station and her irritation subsided. It was funny. What a relief she wasn't facing other consequences except piss taking.

'That's what I said to your amigo when we were getting him into the truck. I said, we missed a trick, can't exactly resist arrest with a bull's horn shoved up their rear end, can they?' Dominguez slapped Rita on the back.

'How's your sister doing, you spoken to her recently? Tell her to send Castella our best wishes, will you!' Mansouri snorted. Everyone laughed, including Rita, grudgingly.

'They never speak, they haven't spoken for about ten years. Can't imagine why, I'd have thought they had lots to talk about, wouldn't you,' Dominguez said darkly.

'Anyway. Let's get back to work,' Mansouri managed to say, looking in no fit state to start at all.

'Abdul,' Rita said.

'Yes?'

'You might be interested in this. A case from eleven years ago, a murdered sex worker called Sonia Gutiérrez. It has similarities to the Caroline McKenzie killing.' Mansouri took the file.

'Thanks, Rita,' he said, turning to the autopsy report. He arranged his face into something a bit more serious.

'Yeah. The injuries found on the victim are very similar. But there's a ten year gap between murders. And the victims don't seem to have had anything in common apart from being female. One was a sex worker in her early 30s with young kids at home and the other one was a British businesswoman staying in a posh hotel.' He looked again at the file.

'What was Castella doing back then?' Mansouri asked.

'I think we can rule him out. He was on holiday in Las Vegas for 3 weeks with my sister for their honeymoon,' Rita scowled. Sonia hadn't been her case; that week, she'd had to deal with two armed robberies and a horrific hit and run. When she'd gone to visit her parents, all her mum wanted to do was gush over their holiday snaps. Her father said little and looked defeated. I should visit for his sake, she thought. She just couldn't face it.

Once back at her desk, she copied the information about Sonia to the British policewoman, plus a list of people questioned at the time. Aidan had lived and died in a different country. But the 18 year old's murder was disturbing her deeply - and so was the dart found with him. It probably wasn't bought in this area. But it was made here. No doubt taking for granted that it wouldn't be used on humans, someone would have taken pride in its 'craftsmanship'.