B004QGYWDA EBOK (34 page)

“All right, who?” Gamboa asked. “Who else has stolen exams?”

“Everybody,” the Jaguar said. “Some guys didn’t have to steal them, because they had enough money to buy them. But everybody was mixed up in it.”

“Names,” Gamboa said. “Give me some names. Which cadets in the first section?”

“Are they going to expel me?”

“Yes. And it might be even worse than expulsion.”

“I see,” the Jaguar said, with no change in his voice. “Everybody in the first section has bought exams.”

“Oh?” Gamboa said. “Including Cadet Arana?”

“What, Sir?”

“I said Arana. Cadet Ricardo Arana.”

“No,” the Jaguar said. “I don’t think he ever bought any. He was a teacher’s pet. But all the others did.”

“Why did you kill Arana?” Gamboa asked. “Answer me. Everybody knows you did it. Why?”

“What’s the matter with you?” the Jaguar asked. He had only blinked once.

“Answer my question.”

“Are you a real man?” the Jaguar asked. He had stood up, and his voice shook. “If you are, take off your insignias. I’m not afraid of you.”

Gamboa reached out, as quick as lightning, and grasped the collar of his shirt, and in the same movement he pushed him up against the wall with his other hand. Before the Jaguar began choking, Gamboa felt a blow on his shoulder: the Jaguar, trying to hit him in the face, had grazed his elbow and the punch had gone astray.

The lieutenant released him and took a step backward. “I could kill you,” he said. “I’d be within my rights. I’m your superior and you tried to hit me. But the court-martial’s going to take care of you.”

“Take off your insignias,” the Jaguar said. “Maybe you’re stronger than I am, but I’m not afraid of you.”

“Why did you kill Arana?” Gamboa repeated. “Stop acting crazy and answer me.”

“I haven’t killed anybody. Why do you say that? Do you think I’m a murderer? Why would I want to kill the Slave?”

“Somebody’s accused you,” Gamboa said. “You’re done for.”

“Who?” The Jaguar’s eyes were glowing like lamps.

“Don’t you see?” Gamboa asked. “You’re admitting it.”

“Who said that?” the Jaguar demanded. “He’s the one I
am
going to kill.”

“From behind,” Gamboa said. “Arana was ahead of you, twenty yards away. You shot him like a coward. Do you know the punishment for that?”

“I haven’t killed anybody. I swear I haven’t, Lieutenant.”

“We’ll see,” Gamboa said. “It’d be better for you to confess the whole thing.”

“I haven’t got anything to confess!” the Jaguar shouted. “It’s true about the exams and the stealing. But I’m not the only one. Everybody did it. Except for the assholes that paid others to steal for them. But I haven’t killed anybody.”

“You’ll find out,” Gamboa said. “He’ll say it to your face.”

The next day, I got home at nine in the morning. My mother was sitting in the doorway. She didn’t move when she saw me coming. I told her, “I stayed with my friend in Chucuito.” She didn’t say anything. She just gave me a strange look, with a little bit of fear in it, as if she thought I was going to do something to her. Her eyes wandered up and down my body and I felt very uncomfortable. I had a headache and my throat was dry, but I didn’t dare go to sleep in front of my mother. I didn’t know what to do, I glanced through my notebooks and textbooks, that wasn’t any good, then I started rummaging through a chest, and she was standing behind me all the time, watching me. I turned around and said, “What’s the matter, why do you keep looking at me?” She said, “You’re hopeless. I wish you were dead.” And she went out the front door. She sat for a long time on the steps, her elbows on her knees, her face in her hands. I could see her from the window of my room, I could see the rips and mends in her blouse, the wrinkles on her neck, her tangled hair. I went out to her, very slowly, and said, “If you’re angry about something, I hope you’ll forgive me.” She looked at me again. Her face was wrinkled too, and there were white hairs sticking out of her nostrils. “You’d do better to ask God to forgive you,” she said. “But it wouldn’t be worth the trouble. You’re damned to Hell already.” “Do you want me to promise you something?” I asked her. She said, “Why? You’re damned, I told you. I can see it in your face. The best thing you could do is go in and sleep off your drunk.”

I didn’t lie down, I wasn’t sleepy any more. After a while I left the house and went to the beach at Chucuito. When I got to the wall I could see two of the boys who’d been there the day before. They were stretched out on the rocks, smoking cigarettes, with their heads on their bundled clothes. There were lots of kids on the beach. Some of them were at the edge of the water, throwing flat stones so they’d skip across the surface. A little later, Teresa and her friends arrived. They went over to the boys and shook hands with them. They got undressed and sat in a circle, and that same boy was next to Teresa the whole while, as if I hadn’t done a thing to him. Finally they went into the water. Teresa shrieked, “It’s cold! I’m freezing to death!” and the boy scooped up water with his hands and started wetting her. She screeched even louder but she didn’t get mad. Then they went further out. Teresa swam better than he did, as smooth and easy as a fish, he did a lot of splashing but he kept going under. In a little while they came out again and sat down on the rocks. Teresa stretched out and the boy made a pillow for her out of his clothes, he sat beside her, turned half way around so he could see her whole body. All I could see was Tere’s arms raised up to the sun, but I could see his skinny back, and the way his ribs stuck out, and his crooked legs. They went back into the water at about noon. He made believe he was a fairy and when she splashed him he screamed. Then they swam some more, and Teresa pretended she was drowning. He dove under and she began waving her arms and shouting, “Help, help!” but you could tell it was only in fun. Suddenly he bobbed up like a cork, with his hair plastered down on his face, and let out a Tarzan yell. I could hear them laughing, they laughed so loud. When they came out of the water again, I was waiting for them next to their piles of clothing. I don’t know where Teresa’s friends and the other boy were, I didn’t pay any attention to them. It was as if everybody’d disappeared. They came near, and Teresa saw me first. The boy was behind her, acting crazy. Her expression didn’t change, she didn’t look any happier or sadder than she was before. And she didn’t offer to shake hands, she just said, “Hello. Were you on the beach too?” When she said that, the boy suddenly noticed me and recognized me. He stopped dead, backed up, picked up a stone and aimed at me. “Do you know him?” Teresa asked the boy, laughing, and she said, “He’s my neighbor.” “He thinks he’s quite a killer,” the boy said, “but I’m going to smash his face in so he won’t play that game any more.” I judged the distance wrong, or rather I forgot I was up on the rocks. I jumped, my feet sank into the sand, and I didn’t get half way, I fell down about a yard from him, and then the boy came up and threw the stone square in my face. It was as if the sun broke into my head, everything was white and I seemed to be floating. I don’t think it lasted very long. When I opened my eyes, Teresa was looking terrified and the boy was standing there with his mouth open. He was stupid, if he’d used his advantage he could’ve trampled on me all he wanted, but my face was bleeding and he just stood still, trying to see how bad I was hurt, and I lunged at him, jumping over Teresa. He wasn’t any good in a real fight, I could tell it the minute I got him down, he was weak as a rag and didn’t try to hit me. We didn’t roll over even once, I stayed on top of him and kept punching him in the face and he just covered his face with his hands. I picked up a handful of pebbles and started scrubbing his head and forehead with them, and when he lifted his hands I got them into his eyes and mouth. They didn’t separate us until the cop came. He grabbed me by the shirt and yanked, and I could feel something rip. He gave me a slap in the face and that’s when I hit him in the chest with a stone. “You son of a bitch, I’ll murder you,” he said. He lifted me up like a feather and gave me half a dozen good whacks. Then he said, “Look what you’ve done, you bully.” The boy was still lying on the sand, whining. Some women and some other people were trying to comfort him. The women were all furious at me, they said to the cop, “He’s wrecked the boy’s face, he’s a savage, take him to the reformatory.” I didn’t care a thing about what the women said, but just then I saw Teresa. Her face was flushed and she was looking at me with sheer hatred in her eyes. “You’re wicked,” she said, “you’re brutal.” And I told her, “It’s your fault, for being such a whore.” The cop banged me in the mouth and shouted, “Don’t insult this girl, you little thug!” She looked at me very astonished and I turned around and the cop said, “Stop, where do you think you’re going?” I began to kick him and punch him until he dragged me off the beach. At the police station, the lieutenant told the cop, “Give him a good whipping and let him go. We’ll have him back pretty soon for something big. He’s headed for the pen, you can tell it from his face.” The cop took me into a patio, took off his leather belt, and started to whip me with it. I ran away from him and the other cops almost died laughing when they saw how he lumbered around and couldn’t catch me. Then he dropped the belt and trapped me in a corner. The other cops came over and said, “Let him go. You can’t punch a little kid.” I left the station and didn’t go back home. I went to live with Skinny Higueras.

“I don’t understand a word of it,” the major said. “Not a word.”

He was fat and red-faced, with a little mustache that did not reach the ends of his lips. He had read the report carefully, from beginning to end, blinking the whole time. Before looking up at Capt. Garrido, who was standing in front of the desk with his back to the window, to the dark fields and gray sea of La Perla, he reread a few paragraphs in the ten typewritten pages.

“I don’t understand,” he repeated. “Explain it to me, Captain. Somebody’s gone crazy, and I don’t think it’s me. What’s happened to Lieutenant Gamboa?”

“I don’t know, Sir. I’m as surprised as you are. I’ve talked with him several times about this affair. I’ve tried to show him that a report like this is ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous?” the major said. “You shouldn’t have let him put those boys in the guardhouse, and you shouldn’t have let him make out a report like this. We’ve got to put an end to the matter right away. There isn’t a minute to lose.”

“Nobody knows about it, Sir. The cadets are incommunicado.”

“Call Gamboa in,” the major said. “Tell him to get here on the double.”

The captain hurried out. The major picked up the report again. As he reread it, he tried to bite the reddish hairs of his mustache, but he had very small teeth and he only succeeded in scratching and irritating his lip. One of his feet was tapping nervously. A few minutes later the captain returned, followed by the lieutenant.

“Good morning,” the major said, in a voice that rose and fell because of his annoyance. “I’m very surprised, Gamboa. You’re an outstanding officer, your superiors think a great deal of you. What ever led you to hand in this report? You’ve lost your mind, man. This is a bomb. A real bomb.”

“What it says is true, Sir.” The captain glared at him, his jaws working furiously. “But some things still aren’t clear. I’ve found out everything I can. The court-martial will have to…”

“What?” the major said, interrupting him. “Do you think there’ll be a court-martial? Don’t talk nonsense, man. The Leoncio Prado is an Academy, we’re not going to have any scandals. I really think there’s something wrong with your head, Gamboa. Do you actually believe I’d let this report get to the Ministry?”

“That’s what I’ve told the lieutenant, Sir,” the captain said. “But he insists.”

“We’ll see,” the major said. “We’ve got to keep hold of ourselves, we’ve got to act calmly. We’ll see. Who’s the boy that made the accusation?”

“Fernández, Sir. A cadet in the first section.”

“Why did you put the other one in the guardhouse without waiting for orders?”

“I had to begin the investigation, Sir. It was important not to question him until I had separated him from the rest of the cadets. Otherwise the whole Year would have heard about it. I’ve also been careful to keep the two of them apart.”

“The accusation is idiotic, preposterous,” the major said. “And you shouldn’t have given it the slightest importance. This is kid stuff, nothing else. How could you put any trust in such a fantastic story? I never thought you’d be so credulous, Gamboa.”

“Possibly you’re right, Sir. But let me make one comment. I was like you, I didn’t believe they stole exams, formed gangs of thieves, brought cards and liquor into the Academy. But I’ve proved these things personally, Sir.”

“That’s something else,” the major said. “Obviously the Fifth Year doesn’t have any respect for discipline. No doubt about it. But in this instance, you’re the ones responsible. Captain Garrido, you and Lieutenant Gamboa are in plenty of trouble. The boys have made fools of you. Just picture the colonel’s face when he hears what goes on in the barracks. There’s nothing I can do, I’ll have to hand on the report and straighten things out as best as possible.” He tried to bite his mustache again. “But the other matter is out. It’s completely absurd. The boy shot himself by accident. The incident is closed.”

“Excuse me, Sir,” Gamboa said, “but it hasn’t been proved that the boy shot himself.”

“No?” the major said, his eyes flaming. “Would you like me to show you the official report on the accident?”

“The colonel explained the reason for that report, Sir. It was to avoid complications.”

“Ah!” the major said with a triumphant gesture. “Exactly. And did you submit this horror story to avoid complications?”

“It’s different now, Sir,” Gamboa said calmly. “Everything’s changed. Before, the accident theory was the likeliest one, or rather, the only one. The doctors said the bullet hit him from behind, but I and the other officers thought it must have been a stray shot, an accident. If that was the case, it was all right to blame the mistake on the victim himself, so as not to damage the Academy’s reputation. In fact, Sir, I even thought Cadet Arana
was
to blame, at least partly, for having been out of position, or for being too slow. But everything’s changed now that someone tells us a crime was committed. The accusation isn’t really ridiculous, Sir. The cadets’ positions…”