The Mistery of Belicena Villca
That probability , and what could have happened in Cerrillos , took away the desire to talk for the rest of the trip . Tiring trip , if you keep in mind the night hours , the bad roads , the fact that we had a sleepless day , and the recent physical strain caused by the attack of the Demons .
The bells of the church of Cerrillos called the eight o ' clock masswhen we passed in front of her . And a hundred meters before reaching the gate of the Farm we already knew that something terrible had really happened : the rotating lights on the roof of the police patrol cars tragically confirmed our suspicions and fears . Ignoring the police officers who were guarding the entrance , Uncle Kurt turned the jeep and took the road towards the house at high speed . Obviously nothing mattered to him now : nor his strategic coverage , nor the possible persecutions if he was discovered , nor that according to his new identity nothing linked him with the Siegnagel-Von Sübermann . Poor Uncle Kurt ! In thirty-five years he never dared to cross that gate to visit his only sister , and now he should do it for her funeral !
Because everyone had died , even my Mother , that is , her sister Beatriz ! And in the most horrendous way !
Parked next to the Farm , behind the lapachos where I received from the hands of my mother the fateful letter of Belicena Villca , there were four cars : two police patrols and two ambulances . Next to a lapacho , my favorite , below whose blessed shadow I studied my university degrees and meditated on the mystery of man and his miserable earthly life , was the lifeless body of Canuto , covered by bloody newspapers . How had that place changed in just two months ! The joy and happiness of the family had been turned into death and mourning ! Damn Letter from Belicena Villca ! If only hadn ' t read it ! I tortured myself uselessly . As I said at the beginning : “ in the life of certain persons there are like carefully set traps : touching its spring is enough to trigger irreversible mechanisms ”.
When they felt the engine of the jeep , several men came out of the house . One was the Cerrillos police Commissioner , who knew me as a child .
– Jesus ! Arturo Siegnagel ! Just in time ! – he said without thinking , then he repented , looked down , and putting a hand on my shoulder he spoke to me cautiously , that is to say , as delicately as a policeman can speak when faced with a mind-boggling multiple homicide . Uncle Kurt stayed by my side .
– Excuse me , Arturo . The truth is that you have not arrived on time . I only said it thinking about the investigation , because we did not know where to find you . I don ' t know how to say it , understand that I am a policeman , not a priest , but you should know that all your family has been murdered in a strange way .
I feinted to go inside the house , seeing that they hadn ' t loaded up yet any of the bodies onto the ambulances , but the Commissioner stopped me . " Wait a moment , Arturo , but it is my duty to interrogate you , did you know that something had happened here ? where do you come from now ?
– Oh yes ! --I said hastily-- I knew something was wrong because no one answered the Farm ' s phone this morning at one . That was why we immediately left for here .
– But where did you make the call from , where were you ? --he wanted to know without excuses .
– Well , at the farm of this friend here , Mr . Cerino Sanguedolce , who is a manufacturer of sweets in Santa María de Catamarca and with whom I was adjusting a business to sell him our leftover must . I had been there for a few days .
– It ' s okay Arturo , I ' ll verify it --he said , while putting away the notebook in which he wrote down all the data .
--Well , you can go in . You are a Doctor and you are supposed to possess " cold blood ", but this is different : the murderer , or murderers , are undoubtedly psychopaths , perhaps escaped from the hospital where you worked . They have committed the crimes with a savagery never seen around here . You better go in prepared .
Inside the disorder was total , after the passage of unknown policemen who carried out their even more unknown inspections . In the dining room , the edges of two tables had been put together , and on them were deposited the five corpses . Prudent sheets covered the exposure of the bodies . Uncle Kurt squeezed my arm with his iron hand and discovered the first corpse himself . – Beatriz ! – he screamed . – Mom , Oh Mom ! What have they done to you ? --I shouted desperately , when checking that the sweet face of my mother , now twisted by a grimace of indescribable horror , appeared slaughtered from ear to ear .
– You see ? --the Commissioner commented inopportunely-- . This is the most aberrant criminal act I have ever seen , incomprehensible , undoubtedly product of a sick mind .
The following bodies belonged to my sister Katalina and her two children , Enrique and Federico . They did not show any signs of violence .
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