He liked it much better the second time around, though he wasn't sure why. And it was hard for her to see her again, because she remembered that some of her scenes were somewhat uncomfortable, and even unjustified. It was after several conversations with his daughter that he was able to sketch another look at a film that, yes, had a formidable soundtrack and that he even discovered Future Islands, a musical group full of lyricism and with eighties tones in its compositions. Was it the music that prompted you to view it again on her tablet? Maybe. In fact, it had been days since she had downloaded all of her songs to her mobile phone. She also recognized that she was attracted to the character of Vincent, played by that great French actor who is Vincent Lindon. She had remembered the scene in which she injects herself with steroids in her buttocks, a clear allegory for the decline of masculinity and the social demand to perpetuate it. Or maybe he wanted to see it again to confirm if those strange sensations he had the first time were showing up again, especially now that he had more elements for analysis after seeing interviews with the director, Julia Ducournau, and reading some articles about a work that had been awarded in Cannes. It would be cool to have been able to write a script like that, he said to himself as he began the viewing for the second time, willing to look more closely at some details that had escaped him, and that not a few critics had highlighted as small innovations, even genius, by the director , who had also written the story. He would have liked to see her next to her daughter, on the television screen in the dining room, like the first time; but the young woman was spending an academic summer, as well as a leisure one, in Berlin. Since neither her ex-wife nor her other daughter liked this type of cinema, he had gotten used to seeing them alone, which gave him a strange feeling. Everything would be different if she were in Berlin; Or at least that's what he was convinced of. He didn't know the city, but if his daughter was there, surely he would be worth it. In each video called Elena told her about the academic experience, but also about the walks in every corner of that huge city, the places visited, some very irreverent, the gastronomy at street level, with abundant flavors according to cultural or ethnic origin, and the people , all young with the existential adventure as the motor of day to day. He felt tired and closed the tablet; He stretched out on the sofa, closed his eyes and took a deep breath trying not to think about anything else, he just wanted to listen to his breathing and forget that one more summer he was going to be in Valencia with his ex-wife increasing the demands of the divorce and his other daughter, Raquel, always in a bad mood, accusing him of being the worst father in the world. They knocked on his door.
They were two middle-aged men who identified themselves as national police officers and who told him that he was in custody. He thought it was a joke, or a mistake; but after several exchanges of words, he gave in, changed his clothes and allowed himself to be taken away by the two plainclothes officers who put him in the back seat of a SEAT león with no signs of being a police vehicle. It must be an unmarked car, he thought. Next to him sat the one who seemed older, who had an enormous resemblance to Vincent Lindon, although perhaps it was an impression conditioned by the enormous restlessness that had settled in his body and that was shown in the tremor that he had in his hands and the legs. They did not tell him the reason for the arrest, they would tell him at the police station. They also did not allow him to call his ex-wife, who at that moment should be in the Pilates class, or his daughter, who must be fucking a tattooed guy in some corner of Valencia. The most curious thing is that not being able to contact his family did not matter to him, he even thought that having done so would have created a problem for them. Just the memory of her eldest daughter had a soothing effect, but Elena was very far from her and even if she could have, she would not have called her so as not to annoy her a stay that the young woman had been trying to do for years. It was very hot, the car didn't have air conditioning, or they didn't want to put it on, and the two men continued in an uncomfortable silence that he didn't dare break either. He found it curious that, as the car advanced through the rice fields, he calmed down, he even began to care about the arrest and what they might say to him at the police station.
At least the room was cool if small, and a bottle of water and a glass were placed for him on the table where he had sat. She didn't have to wait long. A tall, dark-haired woman with wild features and hair in a bun, dressed in a polo shirt and jeans, sat across from him. She must have been a few years younger, and without greeting him she opened a yellow folder with some pages inside it.
Do you know why we stopped you?
Josep made a negative gesture, very slowly.
-I am Inspector Alicia Esquivel and we had been looking for him for a year, we thought that he had died or that he had fled to another country... his family, his company, his friends have been bothering the police for a long time so that we could find him.
I haven't moved from my house.
-Where we found him was not his house, or at least not his family's, nor the address that appears in all his official records, from his national identity document to his income tax return - the inspector was now speaking, looking fixedly at Josep , who at that time found her very attractive -. It has been very difficult for us to find you, and it seems that you have not moved from Valencia. I hope you tell me what the hell has happened so that a man like you has been in hiding for a year.
Josep looked down and looked at his own hands, whose skin was dry and full of deep grooves, stretch marks and some small scars, as if he had been working in the fields. He brought them close to his face and discovered that he had a long, thick beard; he continued with them up to his head and saw that he had hair that covered his ears and almost reached his shoulders, as if he hadn't had a haircut in many months. It also gave off a strong smell, it wasn't a dirty smell, but it was forceful, indisguisable; and as he lowered his gaze, he noticed his pants, very worn. When he looked at the inspector again, he noticed that she was looking at him with pity.
-Are you okay?
Given the silence of the detainee, the police continued speaking.
-We know that you disappeared on January 10, 2021, or at least that day was when they reported that you were not found in the company or in any known place. Since then we have carried out efforts throughout Spain and in several countries where your company has done business. Do you know that your ex-wife and her daughters have suffered a lot? – The inspector expected some reaction on Josep's face - Did you know that we even investigated two anonymous letters that said that you had been kidnapped? Look - the woman took a breath - I'm telling you the truth, we left you for dead, we thought that some client of yours had killed and buried you, didn't you read the news either?
- Can you give me a cigarette, I haven't smoked in months?
-Don't bother me, I've been here for a while trying to get him to talk and he only asks me for a cigarette, well no, people don't smoke here.
The inspector's account included many costly procedures carried out by the national police, interviews, interrogations, visits to many homes, they even forced their way into a house on suspicion that the businessman was being held there, but it turned out that it was a house for white slavery. Alicia Esquivel, a specialist in disappearances, took on the case two months ago, and it was she who suspected that she might have hidden, for reasons she did not intuit, in a house near Valencia. But on one of her several visits to her family home, it occurred to her to ask her ex-wife what kind of literature her husband read, and she discovered that he was in love with Vicente Blasco's Valencian-themed novels. Ibanez. She knew, because he was also an author she knew, that the Valencian novelist used to get lost in the country cabins and barracks to hide from the authorities when they persecuted him for his forceful social and political activism. It was worth a try, and she ordered his team to visit all the country houses and farmhouses, focusing on the abandoned ones. It took time, but one of his companions, Arturo Cifuentes, found out from some farmers in El Perelló that sometimes they saw a man go in and out of a little house, with white walls, with a door and a small window, located a few meters from the Ullal de Baldoví de Sueca on a path that ended in El Palmar. He watched the place for several days and confirmed the suspicion. Although with his long hair and beard, and with his terrible aspect of a abandoned man, he had no doubt that it was him.
-I'll ask you again. Why did he abandon his family?
-I do not remember.
-Did you have a problem at home or of any kind?
Josep filled the glass with water and took a long glass.
"Are you sure you can't get me a cigarette?"
I asked him if he had a problem.
-I think I was watching a movie and decided to leave.
-What movie?
The inspector noticed that the man's spirits recovered and seemed more favorable to giving details of his disappearance.
I don't remember the title
-And was that movie the one that encouraged you to leave home?
-I don't know, but I saw her and I left.
-And where did he go first?
She took another drink of water and looked at the inspector's eyes, who felt uncomfortable for a moment. The prisoner's gaze was no longer the one she had seen at the beginning, insecure, full of doubts; now Josep's green eyes seemed to rejuvenate.
-Do you have a partner?
-Stop nonsense, I warn you that either tell me everything or you're going to have problems; With his escape, many crises have been generated in his family and in his company, and there are many who, when they find out that he is alive, will try to fleece him.
-You are very beautiful
-I told you to stop talking nonsense - the inspector was getting impatient - Look, I recommend that you not make me angry, for less than this I have hit two hosts to a man.
-I was walking all night.
-Where?
-First along Avenida de la Alameda, then I arrived at Playa de la Malvarrosa and that was where I made the decision.
-What decision?
-To isolate myself from the world. Do you like tomatoes?
He said that he knew an old farmer from Sueca, whom he had helped on several occasions, who had an old tool house located near the Montaña de Sants and called him as soon as dawn to let him have it for a while. He returned home and quietly opened a safe that only he had access to and extracted all the cash he had.
-That's why when we opened it it was empty, the inspector pointed out.
-I took the number 25 bus and by mid-morning I was already with the old man to whom I gave a thousand euros and promised him another thousand every month if he didn't say anything and let me be in that house.
-Now I understand, it was where we found him. – The police looked at his notes again-What has he been doing all this time hiding there? As far as we know, he did not contact anyone and he did not have electrical devices.
-They weren't necessary. The old man brought me groceries once a week and also books from the El Perelló library.
-And that's how a successful man like you, with a family and a wide social circle decides to isolate himself – the woman took a breath – and says it was because she saw a movie.
-That is what I remember.
-What you should do is clarify many things, but it will not be to me, but to your family, who have been desperate for a year and, at many times, grieved with the idea that he had died, even violently. It's hard for me to understand that a man like you would have done something like this, but my work ends here. – The inspector began to collect the papers and put them inside the folder -. Now a colleague of mine will allow him to go to the bathroom to clean himself up a bit and then they will accompany him to her house.
I don't want to go home.
-That's not my problem. Besides, the news of his reappearance is already all over the news and there are a lot of journalists outside the police station. We will take you in an unmarked car.
Alicia Esquivel left the room and Josep was left alone again. He began to feel very hot and to sweat, it was as if someone had put radiators around him, and that they were getting closer to his person. The temperature rose and he felt that he was suffocating, while his clothes began to melt. He wanted to scream but no words came out of his mouth. Little by little his skin began to take on a blackish tone, as if it were charring; He looked at the ceiling and observed that small, bluish flames grew and approached his head until they set fire to his hair. The inspector entered the room, observed the scene and began to cry. She was naked. Turning around to leave, Josep could see that he had a large tattoo on her back in the shape of a bird.
The knocking on the door was louder and more insistent, and the pressure on the doorbell was constant. When Josep opened his eyes, he felt drenched in sweat, despite having the air conditioning on. He had a terrible headache, and when he got up the tablet he fell to the ground. He walked with difficulty through the long corridor that led to the entrance to the penthouse that the businessman had on Calle Colón de València and when he opened the door he discovered that a tall, dark-haired woman, with agitated features and her hair tied up in a bun, dressed wearing a polo shirt and jeans, he handed her an envelope.
-I'm sorry I insisted. I called her daughter and she told me that you were at home, that I should call loudly several times because surely you would be taking a nap.
Josep was slow to react. He was still sleepy and the effect reached him in sight of him.
Don't worry, you did well. – While she was saying it, she looked at the return address of the package, and the name of her daughter appeared on it – It is a gift that my daughter sent me from Berlin.
-I am very happy, it is good that the children remember the parents. Please sign here and also put the number of your national identity document.
He began to tear the package.
Don't you want to see it with me?
He said it while the woman already adopted the gesture of starting the withdrawal dragging a cart arrived with packages.
-Okay, let's see what he sent you.
It was a DVD with a handwritten note attached to the box that he read aloud.
"Dad congratulations. I have remembered your birthday, which I know you never like to celebrate. I would like you to be here with me. This is an exclusive DVD, because it is a recording of a live concert by the band Future Islands in Berlin made by a short film director I know. You're going to love it. I imagine that you don't see much of my mother and my sister, but better for you, they are assholes. Go, buy a ticket and come. I love you very much"
-That is daughter's love, you are a lucky man.
-I'm a separated man and with an ex-wife and another daughter who hate me, I don't think that's lucky.
The parcel delivery lady remained thoughtful for a while.
-By the way, continued Josep, you won't believe it, a while ago I had a strange dream in which a woman identical to you was a police inspector and she asked me many questions.
-That trick is already very old - the laughter of the delivery girl could have been heard throughout the farm - I let you know that I still have a lot of work to do.
Her name was Alicia Esquivel.
Hearing the name, the woman stopped and turned around. Her gesture was hard and distrustful.
-How the hell do you know my name if it's the first time I've come here?
-I'm sorry, I think it was the dream, or maybe I read your name somewhere in the paper I just signed, don't be scared.
-Do not scare me? What else did she see in that dream about me?
-I had a big tattoo on my back in the shape of a bird, and I was crying when I saw that the flames were consuming me.
-¿Llamas?
-Yes, it was a very strange dream.
For a few long seconds the delivery girl said nothing. She continued to stare at Josep, but this time her eyes did not express fear. The man noticed that the woman was beginning to give credence to what she had said, and that she was not making any decision about what to do or say at that moment.
The summer sun continued to be cruel at that hour even when it had little time to continue illuminating the rice fields through which Josep and Alicia had been walking for hours. The delivery woman believed the businessman and agreed to accompany him on the route she had dreamed of. They went by car to L'Ullal de Baldoví and looked for the house where the man would have been confined. Since it was not possible to drive on that route, they began the walk without knowing where they could be, if it really existed, because everything had been seen in dreams. It was Alicia who intuited that she could be the one to her right, a little white house, with a door and a small window. Josep approached her and verified that the door was open. Inside was an old man in a beret and sandals who was cleaning some tools. When he turned around, the man straightened his body and looked at Josep and Alicia in astonishment.
-I thought I would never see you again when the police took you away. What is the inspector doing here?
