Los minutos negros/ The Black Minutes

Author:Martin Solares
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Fiction, Police Procedural, Mystery & Detective, General
ISBN: 9786074292602
Publisher: Random House Mondadori
Published: 2009-03-30T01:11:54+00:00

11

Rangel turned on the car radio and heard the sound of mysterious drumbeats. It was the voice of Rubén Blades: “The roar of the roiling sea / the waves break at the horizon / the blue-green of the great Caribe glistens / in the majesty of the setting sun.” Since he stopped playing and dedicated himself to his current work, Rangel’s only pastime was listening to music, certain music that helped him disconnect from everything: Rubén Blades, Willie Colón, Ray Barretto, Benny Moré, disco music, soul, Aretha Franklin, the sappy songs by Marvin Gaye, blues, Eric Clapton, the rhythms of Creedence, the harmonies of the Beatles, but no corridos or Rigo Tovar, even if they were in style. He had lived without a record player ever since that ill-fated Sunday when he decided to kick it to pieces because it reminded him of a certain person. He didn’t get another one until he saw the sales at Mr. Guillén’s store, but he hardly ever used it. Now his time for daily leisure activities consisted of the songs that he listened to in his Chevy Nova, while going to or coming from the office. But something must really be going wrong, the policeman reasoned, when even his last refuge had become unbearable. The Panamanian’s lyrics had taken on another dimension:

The shark goes out looking

the shark never sleeps

the shark out on the prowl

the shark a bad omen.

Holy shit, thought Rangel, this case is really getting to me.

Anyone else would have gone home and focused on his own life, but Rangel was a good and decent police officer and felt obligated to arrest the person who was guilty. Against the advice of his uncle, he was becoming obsessed with these girls who’d been killed. Look, Vicente, you have to toughen up so your work doesn’t affect you so much. Get a thicker skin; listen to what I’m telling you and don’t dick around. You gotta understand you can’t get involved in your cases and keep your objectivity. When you make a job into a personal issue, your blind spot grows, you can’t see clearly, and that can get really dangerous. You have to work from outside, like it’s someone else who’s dealing with all this stuff.

The fog is getting thicker, Vicente thought; as far as he could see, the street was empty. It looks like a ghost town, he said to himself. Whenever there’s fog, it’s always the same; everyone runs to their houses to escape the heat. It’s what I should do myself. He was exhausted. The only thing he wanted to do was roll into bed and sleep eight hours. Get rid of his worries, forget the pain in his hands, the fight with El Travolta, the accumulated tension. But sometimes we make tiny decisions that change our lives, without even noticing it. Just when Rubén Blades sang,

And the horizon swallows up the sun

and the volatile sea begins to calm

you can hear the mermaids’ lullabies

captivating the sky with their song,

Rangel turned to the right, looking for a way out.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.