19 - A DAY AT THE PILL

 19 - A DAY AT THE PILL

- But how come you don't have any leads, Duarte?

- I'm talking, Seu Leôncio... the man disappeared in the world. No one else has heard of him...

- There's no way a living being disappears like that...

- How not? He just went off into the woods... God knows which direction he took...

- But it's been almost a month since the bastard ran away...

- That's why things are more difficult... if on that day it wasn't easy to find the goat, imagine a month later...

- Can't you put some men behind him?

- You're kidding me, aren't you? I don't even have people to patrol the camp...

- What if I paid a group to go after him?

- Sincerely? It wouldn't work... the bastards would take your money, spend it on cachaça and then tell you they didn't find anyone...

- But there has to be a way...

- Zé Cardoso said he's going after the living creature...

- And do you think he will succeed where you failed?

- He might even make it... after all, he and his group travel a lot through this sertão, they know a lot of people... suddenly, they might even find the guy...

- I wanted to kill that goat with my own hands....

- And what did you get out of it?

- I avenged the death of my only daughter...

- You were arrested, and she didn't come back to life. No, Seu Leôncio... it's best to let the law take care of that. Whatever will be will be...

- That's not fair....

- And since when is life fair, Mr. Leôncio?

- There had to be a way to find that goat...

- Way, there's always... for example... was his name really Zé Ferreira? Zé Ferreira of what? Did he have family? Where he came from? Wonder where he went? Sure, to your homeland, but where is that?

- You know we never ask where these people came from... we need a strong arm to take care of the cattle and the crops... and, apart from the families, the cowboys that appear are usually left in life and we Don't speculate too much about your past...

- And in the end, what happens? Tragedy, like the one that befell your family...

- And what do I do, Duarte?

- Be patient. One hour the bastard pays for his crime, be sure...

And Leôncio left the police station, not satisfied with the outcome of the conversation. His wish was for the delegate to gather a group and continue hunting Zé Ferreira. He knew that the representative of the law was right, it wouldn't solve anything to go after the guy without a clue, but pride spoke louder...

Duarte was thoughtful, sitting in front of the paperwork on his desk. It wasn't enough the strange cases he had to solve, he still had this passionate... well, at least it was a "normal" case, where he knew who had committed the crime and how the victim was murdered. Would you catch the author? Hardly, since, without knowing where the subject came from, it was difficult to deduce where he was likely to go... not to mention that, without knowing the person's past, it was impossible to imagine what his next steps would be...

- Thinking about life, delegate?

- Doctor Alberto... I was just thinking about you...

- No mysterious new dead, I hope...

- Thank God, no! Those two are enough for me...

- And why were you thinking about me?

- Well, I know you like to solve mysteries...

- It depends...

- And the people of the Capital are falling in my soul because of those two dead...

- But why?

- There were five more similar cases in the cities near here...

- Similar to which one?

- With the two... two cases of missing viscera and three cases of bloodless corpse...

- I haven't heard anything about it...

- It's just that the people from the Capital are carrying out the investigations in the utmost secrecy... they don't want to spread panic among the people...

- But wouldn't it be better for people to know what's going on? To be able to protect yourself?

- But that's the problem, doctor... protect yourself from what? Just imagine people starting to look at each other afraid to approach... have you ever thought how much disaster would happen? It would be worse than what's going on...

- Yeah, you're right... but what does that have to do with me "liking to solve mysteries"?...

- Well, I need to deliver a report to my boss back in the Capital, explaining everything that happened around here in those days...

- And...?

- And I needed your help, not to write nonsense in this report... I don't want anyone coming here asking about things I don't know how to answer...

- But it's simple, chief... that unfortunate man died of leukemia...

- Okay, they might even swallow that answer for the second case... but how would you explain the first one?

Doctor Alberto was silent... really, there was no way to explain the disappearance of the viscera of the first corpse... until now he was trying to understand how they extracted all the organs of the unfortunate man without causing him a single injury...

- I can't just say in my report that the subject was attacked by an "Oriole"... they would make fun of me until the end of time...

- I know... my reputation as a doctor would go down the drain and I would certainly be fired... honestly, delegate... why don't you say that the body had a cut in the abdomen? That would explain the action of a madman....

- What about your case report? From the autopsy?

- That's what I put there... or do you think I was going to say that the body didn't show any wounds?...

- But it didn't show...

- I know... but dig up the dead person today and look for the wound mark to see... he's already rotted, he doesn't have any stabbing marks or anything else...

The two men fell silent. Duarte thought and came to the conclusion that the doctor was right. Why keep looking for egg hair?