Last breath E-Book

Irene Gómez Camarasa

• Herausgeber: Letrame Grupo Editorial
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Spanisch

Seitenzahl: 209

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

One small village in the Spanish mountains that doesn't have enough people to survive. A mayoress, who wanted to save it, had elaborated a plan to alleviate its agony. Five families that came to the village were invited to visit. A visitor who disappears during the black night before leaving. The mayoress and a former police officer try to solve the mystery while the clock works against them. An unexpected help from the city that would facilitate the investigation. Absolutely, no one in town, however high their reputation, is entirely beyond suspicion. All of this during the onset of a pandemic that will force them to remain locked up and separated from each other. Will they be able to find all the clues before all the families take the bus that will take them back to the safe of their homes? Will our protagonists be able to solve the case before time runs out? Get involved on this thrilling adventure and discover the history and culture of this village. The relationship between the locals and the visitors. The intriguing plans of some guests. An intriguing plot that will engage the reader from the beginning and continue that tempo throughout.

Leseprobe

© Derechos de edición reservados.

Letrame Editorial.

www.Letrame.com

[email protected]

© Irene Gómez Camarasa

Diseño de edición: Letrame Editorial.

Maquetación: Juan Muñoz

Diseño de cubierta: Rubén García

Supervisión de corrección: Celia Jiménez

ISBN: 978-84-1068-803-2

Ninguna parte de esta publicación, incluido el diseño de cubierta, puede ser reproducida, almacenada o transmitida de manera alguna ni por ningún medio, ya sea electrónico, químico, mecánico, óptico, de grabación, en Internet o de fotocopia, sin permiso previo del editor o del autor.

«Cualquier forma de reproducción, distribución, comunicación pública o transformación de esta obra solo puede ser realizada con la autorización de sus titulares, salvo excepción prevista por la ley. Diríjase a CEDRO (Centro Español de Derechos Reprográficos) si necesita fotocopiar o escanear algún fragmento de esta obra (www.conlicencia.com; 91 702 19 70 / 93 272 04 47)».

.

To my father who always told me the importance of learning English and encouraged me to discover it.

“The city believes that outside of it there is nothing but landscape, potatoes and milk; they ignore that there is also a noble, ancient and incorruptible culture.”

Castelao

Prologue

The idea for this book appeared due to the number of towns in Spain that are dying due to the lack of youth, the countryside no longer has a way out and university students stay in the cities where they have more job opportunities. It’s a shame that new generations don’t spend more time in these locations instead of spending so much time with technology. As a teacher, I see every day the dependence that children have and I miss those street games, which we remember so much when we met as childhood friends, how we drove the building’s doorman crazy or how they shouted at us from the balconies to snack.

Nor did I want to leave out topics as current and gruesome as drugs, immigration or even unwanted pregnancies that, although the years have passed and the supposed evolution of sexual education, continue to occur day after day, without forgetting the pandemic that has come to change our way of life in recent years.

It is striking that with all the trips I have made throughout my life, all the action takes place in a town in my homeland, in any mountain range in Spain and not in a paradisiacal place in the Caribbean with beautiful beaches or jungles full of vegetation and wild animals.

Once upon a time…

Once upon a time… I say once upon a time because I have always been told that all fairytales begin like this, therefore… Once upon a time, there was an ordinary town, in an ordinary Spanish mountain range, on any normal day… uhmm… well not just any normal day. Today was a very special day for the village. You could breathe the hustle and bustle in any of its small and narrow streets where the few, experienced inhabitants were busy decorating every corner of their beloved town, trying to save it from its imminent extinction. Like many other places, their youngest habitants were leaving to the cities from which they would never return, making the simple stone houses lose their joy with each last breath of their elderly residents.

Doña María, the mayoress who was nearly half a century old, on one of her visits to the big city, had heard that other towns had had the idea of giving a house with a small plot of land to young families who wanted to start a new and quiet life. It seemed like an excellent idea to her, and her head quickly began to develop a plan, she even decided that she would give larger houses and more land if the family already a child had, since it had been many years since children’s laughter had been heard running down streets empty of traffic.

The entire population had welcomed the plan and quickly began to prepare for this day that had come so quickly. No one wanted to be left out of the preparations, since it also served as entertainment in their fateful day after day in the small town, where there was not much to do, except getting together in the central bar to play some hands of poker, which sometimes become tense when a player proposed to bet a bitch to make the game more interesting, and the obligatory Sunday meetings in the parish where the priest, Don Paco, gave mass every Sunday on his typical route through the mountains. There all the inhabitants met and discussed the news and gossip of the week.

But that Weekend was special, Don Paco will come with a bus full of youth on Saturday to spend a day and a night to enjoy the wonders they had to offer in the hope that someone would decide to move indefinitely. On the bus there were five couples and a boy just because he said that his girlfriend was sick, this one was called Juan. Regarding the married couples, three couples came, the Domínguez, Carmen and Fran, who had two children, the Gómez, Rosa and David, who had not yet been released as parents, as well as the Yang, Yun and Mei, who were Chinese immigrants trying their luck. The other two couples were made up of engaged couples, Carlos Moreno and Cristina Pérez, and who were the youngest on the excursion, Fernando Flores and Esperanza Martínez. All, except for the boy, were commenting on their plans for the future. Don Paco was very excited, talking with one and with others.

Ramón was coming down the Main Street shouting. If it wasn’t for his 87 years, he would start running with excitement:

“Madam Mayoress, Madam Mayoress, they are coming, they are here. They come up the slope of the hermitage, they will arrive in ten minutes.”

Doña María, trying to calm him down, replied:

“Okay, don’t worry, we have everything ready. Warn the others and tell them to gather in front of the church door as we had rehearsed to welcome them.”

Whereupon he turned around and headed towards the square. Ramón went to the adjoining streets telling the few residents who were not yet in their places and five minutes later everything was ready for the reception.

When the bus began to draw after the curve in the main street, those in charge of the banner began to wave it with passion and joy, while everyone shouted in chorus:

“WELCOME! WELCOME!”

At eleven in the morning the bus opened its doors to start the tour around the town, where they could see the houses that were ready to be inhabited, they just had to make the decision to move. Finishing with a hearty meal where you could taste the typical dishes of the area, washed down with local wine.

The tour began very lively with the stories of the locals about their children growing up in those streets where they could play safely without worrying about the traffic, happy and content. They remembered the typical games, the laughter of the little ones and how their grandchildren enjoyed it when they went to visit them in the summer and spend a few days together. Stories that seemed so far away.

Together they went from house to house, street to street, talking and laughing with each other. It seemed that everyone was enjoying the company and the clean and fresh air that could be felt that morning. Time passed quickly and soon they were sitting around a table full of delicious delicacies and viands, chatting and asking questions, trying to find out if any of those foreigners would end up as part of the family.

“What did you think of the big house?” asked Mrs. Juana, owner of the supermarket. She never thought of keeping the supermarket, but life had other plans for her, and she ended up loving it. She could talk to all the visitors and locals, so she knew all the business in town.

“How many children do you have?” Ramón asked the closest couple.

“Do you have a date for the wedding?” asked Rosa, who ran the beauty salon, hoping to be the one chosen for the girlfriend’s hairstyle. She was the youngest around. She came back from the city when her mom got sick, and she had to take care of her. Rosa thought that the beauty salon could be a good idea to pay the bills and the treatment. After her mom died, she kept taking care of the ladies that lived there.

Among all the hive of questions and answers, the serious and quiet attitude of the only person who had come there alone stood out, his answers were vague and elusive, no one seemed to connect with that guy who had turned twenty-five a few days before the visit, and that he looked at each and every one of those present as if he were trying to make an intensive study of those unknown characters. Only one person had recognized that strange individual and did not take his eyes off him… Or maybe it was two.

The day was coming to an end, and Doña María began her final speech to try to convince those who were still undecided:

“Dear friends, I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I say that it has been a great day, that we have all had an excellent time and that we would like to continue cultivating this friendship that has been born between us today. You will always have the doors open no matter what decision you make, and you will always be welcome. You have already seen that the houses are kept in good condition and are ready to be filled with your new stories. You still have time to go see them on your own so you don’t feel any pressure, you can go room by room and talk about them with your partner. Feel at home and free to move wherever you want. We are very grateful that you have come, and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Thank you and we look forward to seeing you here soon. Thank you.”

The guests began to disperse through the narrow streets and were lost among the houses that they chose during the visit, which would begin to be their next residence. While the neighbors commented on their opinions about them, and some dreamed of having someone in the house next door to forget their loneliness. It would be lucky for them to have new conversations and gossip topics that were already becoming repetitive. The day had been tiring, for the locals because of all the commotion of the event, for the outsiders due to the long trip, so the lights on the windows started to become extinct too quickly. The night passed without any incident, there was only the sound of the owls waking up to begin their hunt, except for a muffled thud that only a couple of rodents witnessed. The darkness was giving way to the warm and shiny star that said good morning to some deserted roads, where you could smell the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and toasted bread that would later be devoured with oil or butter and homemade jam. In each dwelling, its residents make different decisions, some wondering if they liked the house, others looking forward to returning to the city, and others when they could move there.

The time to leave was approaching and everyone began to gather around the bus to say goodbye to the new friends. They hugged each other, said goodbye, waved little flags to avoid feeling those tears that appeared in their eyes and threatened to run mercilessly down the weathered faces of some inhabitants remembering how they had to say goodbye to their children a long time ago.

“Wait! Wait! We are missing a passenger” Don Paco yelled.

“Has anyone seen the strange boy?” said the young fiancée.

Nobody remembered his name, if he ever said it.

“I think I saw him walking after dessert to the laundry room” Ramón said.

“No, I saw him heading towards the square” Doña Juana affirmed.

In the confusion of the moment, the sound of the mayoress´s phone could be heard.

“Hello, mmm, I understand. I’ll see what I can do, and I’ll try to fix it as quickly and discreetly as possible.”

She hung up the call and went to Don José, the only policeman in town, although he had already retired due to an injury to his left leg resulting from a brawl in his early fifties.

“We have another problem on our hands, they just called me from the city and the bus cannot leave, a pandemic has been declared and we must isolate everyone trying not to panic and avoid contact with each other.”

Don José got on the first step of the bus and began to explain the situation:

“Dear friends, I am sorry to tell you bad news, each of the neighbors must go home immediately and will not be able to leave until they are informed. For our guests, they will be accommodated in their chosen place, and we will provide them with everything they need so that they do not have to leave the building. As for the missing boy, Doña María, Don Paco and I will take care of the search. Don’t worry, we’ll keep you posted, and now please quietly go home.”

The animated conversations became a river of wordless souls walking through the shadows of the trees, trying to avoid the midday heat on their way to their homes, with the fear of the unknown in their minds.

Doña María, Don Paco and Don José began the search without much encouragement, after the unfortunate news. They searched the empty houses that were not many anymore, near the river in case he had decided to go there, in the parish that was still open, in the deserted bar in the center of the square, after a few hours they decided to continue the search in the morning with the sunrise, since the night had appeared. They walked in silence through the streets more deserted than ever.

When Don José was about to get into bed, he heard a quick, nervous knock on the door and went over to see what was happening.

“You should come, Don José, quickly.” Ramón was trying to explain himself with his breath cut off after the great effort he had just made. It’s the stranger! They have found him!

Without thinking about it for a minute, he put on a coat over his pajamas and hurriedly went to where Ramón had told him and told Ramón to go back to his house and not leave until prior notice.

His steps went to Mrs. Juana’s old house, which had been closed since she and her husband moved to her parents’ house when they died, because it was bigger and they wanted to form a large family, an illusion that was shattered by the accidental death of her husband shortly after the move. She was only 63 years old, but since her widowhood it seemed as if the years had rushed over her all at once, leaving her face wrinkled like an unpressed garment.

He could only find Doña María and Don Paco there, who were inspecting the house, astonished by the discovery. Nobody thought to look there, since it was not one of the houses that were offered that day and, of course, nobody had a key, except Mrs. Juana.

“Good thing you’re already here Don José” said the mayoress without giving credit to what had happened. “The poor boy is in the cellar, Don Paco is with him, but for me there is no remedy for him. I think he fell down the stairs and twisted his neck. I already told Mrs. Juana that she should check and change that light bulb. Poor thing sure he couldn’t see anything, and he slipped. Poor boy, so young!”

“Don’t rush, Doña María, I’m going down with Don Paco and we’ll see what we can do.”

Don Paco was over his body, giving him the last rites and closing the opened eyes of that unfortunate man who nobody knew who he was or what he was doing there.

The lightbulb above the cellar stairs flickered and revealed a sad scene more typical of black and white cinema. Doña María came back with a new one to replace the one that was giving problems. Don José replaced it and began to go down the steps that were now clearer.

He began to look more carefully, but due to the hour, the exhaustion and the lack of light, there was not much he could do. So, they thought they should continue in the morning, since the only thing to be seen was a broken bottle of red wine next to the body with a strange label. Don José took the remains of the bottle and the three went home to rest. The body would not move from the cold and uncomfortable floor of the cellar, anyway, it was without a doubt the coldest room they could find to keep the body until the confinement order was lifted and the ambulance was allowed to come, everyone prayed that it would be soon.

The wine bottle

Don José got up very early, he did not sleep much because of his leg that woke him up in pain in the middle of the night and he could not get back to sleep. But that morning was different, he had practically not slept a wink thinking about how the pandemic would be solved, the accident that he was increasingly convinced had not been an accident and this did not let him fall asleep. He replayed the scene over and over in his head, tossing and turning in bed trying to sleep at the same time. He finally gave up and got out of bed, even before the rooster crowed.

He did not have access to Mrs. Juana’s house, now only the mayoress had the keys, and she was the only one who would keep them in her possession until everything was cleared up. It was agreed that the remains of the bottle rested on the kitchen counter in a transparent bag to try to preserve the intact prints that he would later email to his former partner with whom he still had a good relationship. The system wasn’t the best, black dust from the charcoal in the fireplace and duct tape to recover any residue adhering to the glass, but it was the only thing he had. He would then send the photographs of the results obtained and it would only be necessary to wait and hope that it would be useful for something.

When looking at the label he discovered something very strange, according to what he read the bottle belonged to a local winery, but he had never seen that label. It looked very old with a family crest unknown to him. It was true that, during his police years, he had spent part of his life in the big city and had only returned to recover from his injuries. He decided to ask the elders of the town to see if anyone recognized that insignia.

He got up from the chair and went to the bathroom to take a refreshing shower and prepare a hearty breakfast, as the day seemed to be long. He was beating some eggs in the kitchen when there was another knock on the door. Doña María seemed exhausted as if she had been working all night and to himself, he thought that she hadn’t stopped thinking about everything that had happened either.

“Good morning, Doña María, would you like to have breakfast?” He was cooking an omelette.

Don José invited Doña María.

“They are freshly laid eggs from my best hens, and I am also making coffee and toast with butter and jam. This is how we recharge batteries before starting work.”

“Thank you, Don José.” Doña María replied. “I think it will come in handy, especially that cup of coffee, I hope it is well loaded.”

And she laughed. Don José also began to laugh:

“Of course, it is the strongest I could find in the supermarket. Do you want it with milk or sugar?”

“Milk, please, Don José.”

Don José got ready coffee and eggs for his guest and the two of them sat at the small dining room table by the window. The truth is that there was a great chemistry between them since he returned, but neither of them dared to take the first step, because she had just divorced her husband and he did not want to take advantage of the situation. He really felt attracted. She did, although she did not send him any sign that encouraged him to propose to her and so they spent day after day watching the youth they already had left go.

During breakfast, they had a cordial conversation, they talked about the weather.

“It seems that a heat wave is coming, and temperatures are going to reach almost forty degrees.” she said. “How life passes without one noticing.”

“Too bad about that boy, we are nothing, today we are here and tomorrow we don’t know” he replied.

It was obvious that each one was lost in his own inner world. He wanted to tell her how he felt about her, while she couldn’t stop thinking about how the pandemic and the boy’s death were going to affect the lives of all her neighbors, and how to best solve it without getting bad publicity, because that could affect the success of her plan to save the town, who would want to live in a place where a murder happened?

At the end of breakfast, she asked him:

“Have you discovered anything about the bottle? Have you been able to look at it?”

“The truth is yes, there is something very strange in all this, the label seems to be from a family that had the winery here, but I have never heard of it. Does the Rodríguez family ring a bell to you? They must have been in town during the late 1890’s and early 1900’s according to this.”

Don José had gotten up and grabbed the plastic bag with the remains.

“The Rodríguez family? Uhmmmm, I haven’t heard of them, maybe there will be some document about them in the town hall registry. Later I will ask Ramón to search the archives and Don Paco to do it in the parish, there should be baptismal certificates if they were local.”

“I need more time to look at the prints and a magnifying glass if I want to see the rest of the letters to get more information. If that’s okay with you, I’m going to see if I can get some equipment sent up so I can take a closer look at it, just like the rest of the scene, where, last night, not much was clarified. How could he fall like this? According to Don Paco he had a strong blow to the head. I’ll call an old friend and see what I can get.”

“That would be great!” she pointed out. “I will try to get protective equipment and tests to detect if any of our guests are infected, I think there is some surgical equipment in the pharmacy in case there is an emergency.”

At the end of breakfast, Don José collected the dishes and stacked them in the sink, he would wash them later, there was no time to waste, and they had to get going.

Doña María called Ramón and gave him the instructions to go to the parish and notify Don Paco, so they could get down to work with the search for any document on the unknown family. She would bring food and clothing to the five families they had as guests while the pandemic lasted.

On his part, Don José made an attempt to contact his friend, who did not respond, and began to investigate the bottle. First, he put the fine charcoal powder into the bottle carefully placed, with his gloves, on a piece of kitchen paper. Then, with a soft brush, he tried to clean the dust. Immediately, a bunch of fingerprints appeared on the glass. Unfortunately, he would have no way of knowing if they all belonged to the same person. He took pictures one by one, although it was difficult since there were too many, and he sent them to an email address, which he knew very well, since he used it daily when he was active.

He called his friend again; this time he was luckier.

“José? Is it really you?”

Manuel answered surprised, because they had not spoken since that disastrous day of the accident, because Don José had very bad times and did not want to talk to anyone since what happened to his leg.

“Yes Manuel, it’s me. I need your help.”

He explained to him everything that had happened the day before and how what had started as a great party and a day full of hope turned into a science fiction movie.