The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Author:Carlos Ruiz Zafon [Zafon, Carlos Ruiz]
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, General, General & Literary Fiction, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
ISBN: 9780753820254
Publisher: Orion Pub Co
Published: 2010-05-15T23:00:00+00:00

'Getting there. As I was saying, the fact is that Don Manuel was on duty the day they brought the body of Julian Carax to the autopsy department, in September 1936. Of course, Don Manuel couldn't remember the name, but a look through the archives and a hundred-peseta donation towards his retirement fund refreshed his memory remarkably. Do you follow me?'

I nodded, almost in a trance.

'Don Manuel remembers all the details of that day because, as he told me, it was one of the few times when he bent the rules. The police claimed that the body had been found in an alleyway of the Raval quarter, shortly before dawn. The body reached the morgue by midmorning. The only items on it were a book and a passport, which identified the man as Julian Fortuny Carax, born in Barcelona in 1900.

The passport had been stamped at the border post of La Junquera, showing that Carax had come into the country a month earlier. The cause of death was, apparently, a bullet wound. Don Manuel isn't a doctor, but over the years he has learned what to look for. In his opinion the gunshot, just above the heart, had been delivered at point-blank range. Thanks to the passport, they were able to locate Senor Fortuny, Carax's father, who came to the morgue that very evening to identify the body.'

'Up to here it all tallies with what Nuria Monfort said.'

Barcelo nodded. 'That's right. What Nuria Monfort didn't tell you is that he - my friend Don Manuel - sensing that the police did not seem very interested in the case, and having realized that the book found in the pocket of the corpse bore the name of the deceased, decided to act on his own initiative and called the publishing house that very afternoon, while they awaited the arrival of Fortuny.'

'Nuria Monfort told me that the employee at the morgue phoned the publishers three days later, when the body had already been buried in a common grave.'

'According to Don Manuel, he called the same day as the body was delivered to the morgue. He tells me he spoke to a young woman, who said she was grateful to him for having called. Don Manuel remembers that he was slightly shocked by the attitude of the young lady. In his own words: "It sounded as if she already knew.'"

'What about Senor Fortuny? Is it true that he refused to identify his son?'

'That's what intrigued me most of all. Don Manuel tells me that at the end of the afternoon, a little man arrived, trembling, escorted by two policemen. It was Senor Fortuny. According to Don Manuel, that is the one thing you never get used to, the moment when those closest to the loved one come to identify the body. He says it's a situation he wouldn't wish on anyone. Worst of all, he says, is when the deceased is a young person and it's the parents, or a young spouse, who have to identify the body.

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