Valentina's Lost Days Read online

  The girl stops short, no doubt wondering where that guy came from, who he is and what he wants from her.

  - "Who ... who arrr are you?" - she stutters.

  Lazarus knows he has scared her. He also knows that he has no right to question a minor ... Although of course, technically that is not an interrogation, just a sporadic conversation between two passers-by. As far as he remembers, that is not forbidden.

  - "I'm a friend of Valentina's mother." -The half-truths were always his specialty.

  - "Which Vvalen-tttina?"

  Lazarus looks at her over his sunglasses.

  - "You know what Valentina I mean."

  The girl swallows.

  - "I, I ... I d..do not know no.. nothing."

  Immediately she adopts a defensive posture. That, calls his attention.

  - "Were you Valentina's friend? Did you go to the same class?"

  The girl nods. Even with moving her head she seems to stutter.

  - "How was Valentina getting along with the rest of her classmates?"

  The girl starts to walk, but Lazarus follows her steps.

  - "Did she have many friends?"

  The young girl seems about to cry. That is not professional, but he is not a squad expert either, so he does not care.

  - "I do not believe you do not know anything," -he says, standing in front of her. He cuts her step. - "Tell me something, Come on. Do not worry; I'm not a cop."

  That seems to reassure the girl.

  - "And by the way, it's very hot today! Do not you think?"

  The young woman looks at the former Chief Inspector, bewildered.

  - "Do you want to take a slushy? I invite."

  -6-

  Cynthia gets off the train, looks for SUPERMAN and hurries to throw herself into his arms. She kisses him.

  Ishmael closes his eyes, repressing the repugnance of kissing those disgusting blue lips. But gets acquitted himself ... Even he allows the detail of introducing her the tip of his tongue in that syphilitic mouth.

  To his good fortune, the torture ends soon.

  - "Jose Antonio!" -She says, hugging him. - "At last I hold you in my arms!"

  Ishmael surrounds her shoulders and directs her to his Seat Ibiza. He does not want people noticing too much about them. As a kind gentleman, he takes her suitcase from her hand.

  - " How was the trip, GOTI-K?"

  She likes listening to her chat username. Cynthia starts to laugh.

  - "The trip has been great, SUPERMAN."

  Ishmael forces himself to smile. He does not know how long he can pretend, but he hopes to resist enough.

  - "Are you hungry?" -He asks.

  - "Yes! -She did few jigs. - "Would you invite me to eat at a restaurant, SUPERMAN?"

  -Better still, GOTI-K." -Ishmael opens the door of the vehicle and bows to her. - "We're going to a romantic lunch to the mountains!"

  Cynthia kisses him again.

  -7-

  Lazarus talks with Valentina's old classmate on the bench in a small garden. The ice cream shop is behind their backs, as soon as they cross the street, and they have ordered their lemon slushies to take out. If his instincts do not fail him, that young woman can be a gold mine.

  - "Do you like the slushy? -Judith nods as she sucks the liquid with the straw. Only ice remains inside her glass. - "Would you want another one?"

  The girl says no, but Lazarus knows she is lying. She's too educated to take two.

  Lazarus does not doubt it. A € 2.5 slushy is a price that is worth paying. Judith will only be sincere if she feels comfortable and another refreshing drink will powerfully contribute to it.

  - "I will right back."

  Cross the street and head back to the ice cream shop. Lazarus returns with another slush. This is a large size and has cost € 4.5.

  - "I hope you like strawberry syrup," -he says, offering it to her.

  Judith blushes.

  - "I... it is m-my fa-favorite!"

  The girl begins to drink. Lazarus sits on the bench and looks around. Everything seems calm. The boys of the institute have disappeared. It's 14.17 h. So, imagine that they'll be back in their homes, out of the unbearable thirty-five centigrade of noon time.

  - "If you do not return home soon, your parents will begin to worry, right?"

  The least interest to Lazarus is raising suspicion. A 49-year-old man inviting lemon slush to a minor under the age of 16 after leaving school may be strange.

  - "Mm-my pa-parents wo...work."

  That eases it. Judith drinks her slushy in silence and drinks half in a single sip.

  The girl is obese. Despite measuring about 20 centimeters less than Lazarus, she must weigh a few kilos more than him. Also, her face is with some juvenile acne. Lazarus remembers the group of girls that pointed and laughed behind her back. He is convinced that this was not an isolated event.

  - "How are the students of the institute?" -He asks.

  The girl looks at her backpack. She holds it between her legs, as if afraid that someone would take it from her.

  - "The... they're sh-shit," -she answers.

  - "Are they cruel? Do they laugh at you?"

  Judith nods. She seems frustrated.

  - "And how was Valentina? How was she in class?"

  Judith takes a breath. It seems that the memory of her former classmate cast a shadow over her face.

  - "Sh... she was a goo...good girl. In the pl... playground, we sat to... together. We t... tell e... each other o... our th... things."

  Lazarus has hit the nail on the head. Judith is what he was looking for.

  - "How was Valentina getting along with the rest of her classmates?"

  Judith takes a sip of the slushy. At the bottom of the glass, the ice begins to melt.

  - "Sh... she di... did not-talk with no... nobody. The cl... classmates i-ignored her a... and lau... laughed at her."

  Lazarus takes note: social bullying.

  - "It must be hard, right? -Lazarus advances cautiously.

  - "B-but V-valent-tina w... was very cl... clever. Sh ... she man... manages t... to make ne... new friends."

  Lazarus holds his breath. There you have it. There he has his next step.

  - "And how did she get new friendships?"

  - She lik... liked to chat," -she informs him, watching him for a second. - "As sh... she told me, she s... spent the day cha... chatting with p... people."

  Lazarus wants to find out more.

  - "And, she got to tell you what pages she used to chat? As I understand, there are a lot."

  Judith blushes. Her brown hair falls on her forehead like a curtain.

  - "Ha... have you heard t... to talk a... about ..." -she takes a breath and speaks the word without stuttering- ... -

  "InfieleX?"

  - "InflexX?" -Lazarus is getting closer. The investigation advances inexorably. - "What is that?"

  - "I... it's a ch... chat for un... unfaithful," -she says as if it were not obvious. - "There Valent-tina m... met a g... guy."

  - "And when was that?"

  Judith lowers her head again.

  - "A... a few mon... months before co... commit s... sui... suicide."

  -8-

  Lazarus is back in his duplex. Bucephalus continues sunbathing on the window sill. Upon seeing it, it emits a quiet purr.

  Before passing by the exit of the institute he was hungry, but he has just lost all his appetite. The grilled breast will have to wait.

  He goes to the second floor, jumping the steps two by two, and locks himself in his office. Take out the notepad from the first drawer of the desk and go to the last page, the one with the heading VALENTINA.

  Lazarus writes down the new information.

  Friend of JUDITH

  INFIELEX!!!!

  Everything starts to make sense. Valentina was an unpopular and unattractive girl. In high school, she did not talk to anyone. She only told her intimacies to Judith in the 30 minutes of recess. No doubt, it must have be
en hard to be surrounded by young people her age and see how every one of them deliberately ignored her, if not, they did not make fun of her.

  Lazarus understands the reasons that pressured Valentina, a young and sociable girl, to make new friendships through the Internet. The chats are the perfect place for people in her circumstances: they can adopt any identity, you can create a physical description of yourself as you would like to be ... Through a chat one can make anyone believe anything.

  And that enshroud its dangers. Lazarus knows it very well.

  In its day, the Internet became Valentina's escape route; the perfect way to escape from the loneliness in which she lived.

  - "But why to do it on a website called InfieleX? Why not use any chat?"

  Lazarus starts his PC. The computer is outdated and obsolete (like its old Corri), but it is enough. Once started, click on the default browser: Chrome. There, in the search box, type the name of the chat: INFIELEX.

  In less than a second, Google yields thousands of results. The first one is the website of the site: https://www.infielex.com.

  Lazarus clicks.

  When accessing the portal, in the left area appears an attractive brunette woman in lingerie. The garter belt with red vinyl thong draws his attention. On the right side of the monitor is a man with cropped black beard and powerful abdominals.

  And between them, written in blinking uppercase letters, it reads:

  INFIELEX

  Find a sporadic relationship right now.

  Enter now!

  - "What the hell was Valentina doing here?"

  Lazarus places the pointer on "ENTER" and confirms that he is over 18 years old.

  Unfortunately, a personal data form and a button with the text "SIGN UP WITH THE 50% DISCOUNT" appears.

  InfieleX seems to be a dating site for paid users. Without a "Username" and a password, you cannot do anything. Nothing, except to read the privacy policy. And that interests him.

  InfieleX is a chat that promises anonymity and maximum security in the network. It is a web application in which it is not necessary to install anything, and it does not keep copies of conversations held on the server.

  Lazarus reads carefully:

  InfieleX encrypts messages before they are hosted on the server, so even Google cannot read them. To ensure the anonymity of our infielex, the messages self-destruct once the user closes the session, without leaving any kind of trace. Messages cannot be recovered.

  Lazarus just came up with the reason why Valentina used that website to chat:

  - "InfieleX is the paradise of anonymity."

  Lazarus doubts that the adolescent had a parallel life in which she dedicated herself to having dates with mature men, but he is convinced that someone took her anonymity very seriously.

  - "Someone that did not want to leave a trace ..." -Lazarus leans back in his swivel chair. - "The boy she met, whoever he was, took many precautions."

  But Lazarus ... Lazarus goes further.

  What if Valentina's mysterious acquaintance bought her username with a stolen credit card? Nowadays, it is possible to carry out an online transaction by supplanting the identity of another person. Thus, even in the best of cases, even knowing the username of Valentina's acquaintance, even having an order to access the company's user file, he would only run into the data of a person who probably lost his card of credit a long time ago.

  - "This is going to be difficult..."

  -9-

  Ishmael spreads the tablecloth over the damp earth. They are in the "Sierra Vida" natural park, in an area far from the zigzagging mountain road and any pedestrian path. It's not a tourist time yet, and that's good.

  - "I'm a little dizzy, honey," Cynthia says.

  The little girl has been annoying all the way and is now sitting on the Seat Ibiza, with the doors open, trying to recover from, what for her has been, "a trip full of curves."

  It is hot, but the dense vegetation offers shelter from the sun. Tall pine trees stretch toward the sky like elongated fingers.

  Ishmael looks at his car and the bastard inside. He has parked in a discreet and very retired area. He knows that the chances of someone dropping by (and more on June 4 at noon) are negligible. Those who bother to climb "Sierra Vida" are mostly cyclists or tourists. And both have in common their null interest in the high mountains.

  Ishmael opens the trunk of the car and grabs a cooler.

  On the tablecloth, he extends what will be the last meal of Cynthia: cold beers, potato omelet, lean tomato, Russian salad, pasta salad and some small pasty. All bought in a shit-hole bar.

  - "GOTI-K -he calls her-. - "The food is ready!"

  The nasty girl gets off the Seat Ibiza. She looks ridiculous: a black tulle skirt with ruffles and a red and black corset with reinforced velvet rods. Without a doubt, the girl has chosen that set for the neckline. Her boobs are compressed and lift them like two pathetic white balls. And to complete the outfit wears a necklace with a plastic skull in the center.

  Seeing the food, Cynthia kisses him again. Ishmael feels the touch of her disgusting breasts through his black suspender shirt. But he controls himself. He must be patient.

  -10-

  Lazarus spread the contents of Valentina's second box on the surface of his desk. There's nothing flashy, just high school notebooks, teen magazines and a couple of Danielle Steel's books: "A perfect stranger" and "A decisive Encounter."

  Romantic novels help him creates a more accurate picture of the deceased girl:

  - "So, Valentina chatted while reading romantic stories. Maybe she expected to find his Romeo on the Internet."

  Lazarus picks up the math notebook. On the binder sticker, he reads "MATH. 1ST TRIMESTER. 3rd ESO". Lazarus begins to turn pages. Of course, he is not interested in trigonometric ratios or equations; he just looks at the margins of the sheets.

  - "Valentina spent a lot of time in class," -he says, moistening his index finger with the tip of his tongue. - "And math classes are boring, and more so for a teenager who fantasizes about finding her Prince Charming ..." -A page, another page ... Nothing. Just numbers copied statements and exercises. - "Evidently, Valentina scribbled something while getting bored in class ..."

  But nothing. To her bad luck, Valentina was very organized. There is neither a footnote, nor a drawing, nor even the common heart that most teenagers paint on their notebooks. Apart from impeccable calligraphy, class notes and exercises, there is nothing.

  Lazarus reaches the end of the notebook. He deposits it on the left end of the table and does not think to give up. He firmly believes in the sleepiness that mathematics causes to a teenager. The next Math book corresponds to the second quarter of 3rd of ESO. Lazarus opens it and, as soon as he looks at the first page, he starts to laugh.

  - "Great! So, it's going to be true that the mathematics never fails."

  The change experienced by Valentina in the transit from the first to the second quarter is overwhelming. The careful calligraphy has vanished, and many of the class exercises are half done or, directly, blank.

  Lazarus, firm to his strategy, turns the pages sliding his eyes along the margins. Now, the story is very different. He runs into drawings of flowers, birds, clouds, and hearts. But they do not offer revealing information. Lazarus keeps turning the pages until he reaches the end of the notebook.

  He deposits it on the notebook of the first trimester and, hopefully, takes the math notebook corresponding to the third trimester of last year.

  - "This was the quarter that did not end," -he thinks.

  He passes the pages, and the margins are now full of daydreams. Those drawings and annotations are an externalization of Valentina's thoughts.

  Lazarus carefully goes through the pages and finds something that catches his attention. It is a heart. But unlike the previous ones, this one has written two names: VALENTINA and SUPERMAN. The heart is pierced by an arrow. And it bleeds.

  -11-

  Marta is forced to swim in her pool. Sh
e has called the glazier, and they will come in the afternoon to put a new crystal in her daughter's room.

  This glass will be thicker and better than before: double-glazed and with solar and thermal control guardian sun. If someone returns to jump the fence of her house to stone Valentina's window, a simple rock will not suffice. He will need more. And it will make noise.

  Marta thinks continuously about Lazarus. When she went to his house and saw him for the first time, she was about to manage without his services. The prison has taken its toll. However, she knows he is the best. She trusts him. Lazarus is implacable.

  Marta leaves her Pamela hat[4] in the garden chair. It's after three in the afternoon, and she has not eaten yet. She is too nervous to put anything in her mouth. Maybe a quick bath will help.

  She dives into the crystal-clear water little by little.

  - "I'll take care of everything. You make your normal life, do not be afraid," -the former Chief Inspector told him the last time.

  - "Normal life," -Marta repeats, with water at waist height. - With my Valentina, I lost my normal life."

  Before, Marta worked as marketing director at Golden Biks, a prestigious fashion company. But since her daughter ... Marta was several months with sick leave for depression. Now she goes back to work, although he does it from home. Money does not worry her. Her ex-husband has left her a good fortune, in addition to the cottage in her name. Patricio Martínez, who was her husband for more than ten years, found no reason to remain married after Valentina's suicide. Her daughter was the only thing that held them together ...

  The water reaches Marta by the neck. She wants to immerse herself in it and stop living. She is about to cry. The pain presses on her abdomen, and it is difficult for her to breathe.

  - "My Valentina ... My poor little daughter ..."

  She never entered her bedroom, not even to clean. She tried once, but it was impossible. The image of her daughter pierces her heart. She still sees her when she closes her eyes: with her veins open, looking at her with those lifeless, accusing eyes, sitting in her own pool of blood ...

  Marta dives entirely under the water. Her hair is suspended in the standing water. She thinks that she does not care about anything anymore, that life has stopped making sense ...