A Small Death in Lisbon

'Why not? That's what she was.'

'Because it was all going so well, Senhor Rodrigues, you were being a nice guy and then in one small sentence, perhaps one small action you've shown yourself as something else. A creep.'

'Inspector, please,' said the lawyer, exasperated by my disrespect.

'Did she put up a fight, Senhor Rodrigues? Did she lash out? Give you a little kick perhaps… so that you had to be firm?'

'No, no, and no,' he said, seeing his story off the leash and galloping away from him.

'We're stuck here, Senhor Rodrigues. You have to help this interview along.'

'I pulled over into the pine trees in the Monsanto park. I asked her if she was willing to have sex with me. She was, you're right, Inspector, she was a little surprised. I told her I'd seen her in the Pensao but I didn't tell her that I'd seen her performing sex acts. I just offered her ten thousand escudos.'

'For what?'

'To have sex with me,' he said, annoyed.

'This isn't your first time with a prostitute is it, Senhor Rodrigues?'

'No, it isn't.'

'I understand it's common practice to state exacdy what you want for the price.'

'I offered her ten thousand escudos to have straight sex with me.'

'And how did this straight sex take place?'

He took a deep breath.

'She knelt on the seat and pulled down her underwear.'

'Did she completely remove her underwear?'

'No, I don't think so.'

'And what did you do, Senhor Rodrigues?'

'I undid my trousers and knelt on the seat. She knelt with her legs across the handbrake.'

'Was that on or off?'

'Off.'

'You were on flat ground?'

'Yes.'

'Carry on.'

'I knelt behind her and…'

'You'd given her the money by now?'

He faltered.

'Yes.'

'So she must have been very angry.'

'Angry? Why?'

'When you sodomized her, Senhor Rodrigues. That wasn't in the deal.'

'I did not sodomize her, Inspector,' he said quietly. 'That was one of the boys in the Pensao.'

'He says he didn't.'

'He's lying.'

'In this situation, Senhor Rodrigues, I have an advantage over you because I've read the pathologist's report a hundred times over and I've listened very carefully to what you've been saying. So…'

'I did not sodomize her,' he said quietly, placing his hand flat on the table as if there was a bible there.

'I've just warned you that it's not a question of your word against the boy's in the Pensao, Senhor Rodrigues. I'm giving you an opportunity to tell the truth.'

He checked me over thoroughly. He thought I was bluffing. His eyes sneered at me.

'I did not sodomize her, Inspector.'

'The medical examination conducted by Dr Fernanda Ramalho indicates that Catarina Oliveira had been sodomized. A condom was used and a water-based lubricant. Dr Ramalho's examination of the victim's sphincteral muscle shows that it was torn indicating that the victim was not accustomed to this kind of sexual activity. What do you think that means, Senhor Rodrigues?'

'I don't… I did not…'

'It means that it would be extremely painful, Senhor Rodrigues. Did she shout out?'

' I did not sodomize her.'

'I'm sorry, my mistake, Senhor Rodrigues, she didn't shout out because, and I quote, "There was nothing in her face to indicate that she was not"…enjoying what she was doing. Catarina Oliveira did not shout out in the Pensao Nuno that Friday lunchtime did she Senhor Rodrigues?'

Silence.

'Did she, Senhor Rodrigues?'

'My client has nothing further to add,' said the lawyer.

'We'd like to search Senhor Rodrigues' two houses and his wife's car. Will you agree to that?'

'With a search warrant,' said the lawyer. The rest of the interview was a series of denials. Senhor Rodrigues admitted that he had sex with the girl. He said that afterwards she'd left the car and that he'd driven at a leisurely pace to arrive in Paco de Arcos to present his cheque to the mayor at the festa. He denied hitting her on the back of the head, he denied stripping her, he denied putting her in the boot of his car and he denied dumping her naked body on the beach in Paco de Arcos later that night. I terminated the interview and took a team of men down to the house in Lapa.

Senhor Rodrigues and his lawyer met us in Lapa. The lawyer inspected the search warrant and then sat with his client in the living room. The lawyer was already avoiding looking at his client, in the way that humans do when they've been let down by someone they've trusted. I gave the house a quick inspection and announced to the team that I personally wanted to search the suspect's wardrobe and study. I left four men to work the rest of the house, the double garage and the garden. Carlos and I started on the Mercedes.

It had been valeted, seriously valeted. It was like a new car inside, with that new car smell. I told Carlos to get the name of the valet company and to go down there and talk, not to the manager, but to the actual cleaners of the car. I started with the front seats. Tucked under the front passenger seat was a pair of white knickers, neatly folded. The brand name was Sloggi. I bagged them. As Carlos came out of the house I told him to bring the person who'd found the knickers back here. I found nothing else of interest in the car.

I took Senhor Rodrigues up to his wardrobe and asked him to pick out the clothes he had been wearing on the afternoon of Friday 12 th June. He pointed to a blazer, a pair of grey slacks and the tie Olivia had made for him. The blazer and the slacks had been dry-cleaned. The tie hadn't. There was a small red brown stain on the back of it. I bagged that and had it sent down to the lab.

In the study, behind an old eighteenth-century chest, we found a cupboard recessed into the wall. There were fifteen video tapes in there, two wine boxes containing pornographic magazines and, at the back neatly folded, a white T-shirt and a light blue with yellow check mini-skirt which were lying on top of a pair of clumpy shoes studded with rhinestones. The clothes and shoes were bagged. The contents of the cupboard were taken down to the Policia, Judiciaria.

The man from the valet company who'd found the knickers said he'd been in two minds about what to do. He'd found them stuffed down the side of the seat. At first he thought they belonged to Senhor Rodrigues' daughter and he was just going to leave them on the seat. But then, because it was Senhor Rodrigues who'd brought the car in to be cleaned on the Monday morning, he thought this might be embarrassing, so he put them under the seat and decided to mind his own business.

Miguel da Costa Rodrigues was formally charged with the murder of Catarina Oliveira at 13.30. When he was asked to remove his clothing two large bruises were revealed on his chest. Photographs were taken and he was issued with standard prison clothing and taken to the cells.

Chapter XLI

Monday, 23rd November 1998, Palacio da Justica, Rua Marques da Fronteira, Lisbon I've never wanted fame. If I'd wanted to be famous I wouldn't have been a policeman. Fame has always struck me as a perverse form of prostitution. You perform, or just appear, and in return receive enormous attention, an uncomplicated love. Nobody knows the famous and the famous know nobody and yet the intensity of emotion, the wholesale adoration is bigger, more impressive than any individual's love. For me the greatest invasion of privacy was to have to accept the fame. An inability to accept it would have meant that fame had changed me and for the worse. It was the compulsory enjoyment that I couldn't stand.

I became famous. I was a hero. I was the little man from down the Linha, the one who'd shaved his beard off for charity (see how the smallest thing was changed for my benefit), took on the establishment and brought them to justice. The media loved me, but would they have loved me as much with a beard, no new bridgework and fifteen extra kilos? I learnt the value of a good suit and a permanent smile.