Chapter One
The afternoon sun blazed menacingly outside in stuck contrast to the temperature controlled room inside the Hospital Adventista Silvestre which lay neatly tucked away under thick tropical rainforest greens on the slopes of the Guararapes in the quiet Santa Teresa neighborhood.
An exhausted Rodriquez narrowed his thick black eyebrows revealing a somber mood. He was staring at Natalia strapped to a wheeled bed. A light blue tracheostomy tube connecting to a ventilator machine was fastened to her face to assist her breathing. She was in a coma. He couldn’t help but notice she had aged considerably. Her once sweet and bright facial features were now harsh and hollow. The once glossy skin looked pale and haggard. Her shut eyelids looked tired and shriveled.
He was startled by a deep husky voice speaking from within the room. Turning in the direction it came, Rodriquez let a smile appear across his narrow mouth while reaching out his hand to clasp the intruder’s outstretched arms.
‘Ola Miguel, Saudações meu irmão! It’s good to see you!’
His mind having been in a void, he hadn’t noticed his friend walk into the room.
‘You didn’t have to drive all the way up here.’ Rodriquez said attempting to hide his excitement at seeing his old friend, but the Secretary of Public Security, senior superintendent Miguel Almeida ignored the comment. He instead walked to Natalia’s bed.
Three years earlier, Detective Rodriquez’ wife Natalia was diagnosed with endometrial cancer. Shortly thereafter, their only child Mariana, who had taken up residence at the Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica campus in the suburb of Maria da Graça in Rio was kidnapped by the Amigo dos Amigo. The kidnapping of a police officer’s daughter, a girl whose mother also happened to be a cancer sufferer drew public sympathy, quickly becoming national news on Rede Globo and other television networks throughout Brazil.
Soon, protests followed, organized mostly by the indigenous cariocas throughout Rio de Janeiro demanding for her immediate release and safe return to her parents. Posters with her face were plastered on street corners by sympathizers and soon, her plight had garnered hundreds of thousands of postings on social media. The Amigos gang did respond to their demands, although in a way no one had envisioned. Mariana showed up a fortnight later, her mutilated body discovered by a little boy in an alley in the Cantagalo neighborhood with a note stitched on her dismembered torso which read-One Love- A. Marcelo, Leader of amigos dos amigos.
‘What do the doctors say?’ Miguel inquired as he sat his heavy frame next to Rodriquez, his expensive looking blue blazer suit revealing two wide side vents. Inside, he wore a white shirt with an unbuttoned collar which gave him the appearance of a man with both stature and authority. Miguel was an experienced man. He had been an inspector of the Federal police for seventeen years and his extensive knowledge of the Rio de Janeiro underworld had led to his appointment as Secretary of public security, a position which placed the lives of the city’s fifteen million inhabitants in his care. A position only a select few had held before him.
‘They keep saying I shouldn’t lose hope.’ Rodriguez replied, ‘But I can see it in their eyes. They know she’s left with a few weeks at most. Besides, every passing day, she gets worse. Today morning, Doctor Silva, her specialist came in and said they might have to remove her life support but of course such a decision, he emphasized, was entirely up to me. But you and I know that I can’t do that.’ He said feeling anger rise within him. His big brown eyes remained fixed on his wife. He leapt from the adjacent bed where he’d been seated, crossed over to her bed and bending low, he listened for her breathing. He then proceeded to gently stroke her forehead before gently kissing it. Turning once again to face his visitor, Rodriquez said,
‘I also have been having these strange dreams lately, I see my little girl from time to time.’
‘I feel sorry for you amigo’, Miguel said in reply, ‘but I promise you, I will find her murderers and bring them to justice. I damn well will find them.’ His voice was low and reassuring. ‘As for you my friend, do take care of Natalia.’ Tears began to swell in Rodriquez’ eyes.
‘I feel so helpless Miguel.’ Rodriquez said as the tears now slid down his cheeks.
‘Look Rodrigo’ Miguel said firmly trying to fight back tears of his own, ‘You and Natalia are like family to me. I will do everything in my power to …’
‘But why didn’t you put me on that investigation team in the first place?’ Rodriguez asked. He wore a pained look in his eyes.
‘You know I couldn’t do that.’ Miguel answered in reply, ‘You had just lost your daughter and besides, you weren’t in the right frame of mind.’
‘For Christ’s sake Miguel, she was my daughter, she needed me and I failed her. They murdered her in cold blood while I did nothing. Can I ever forgive myself for doing nothing? No I can’t. I simply can’t. I just stood by hoping against hope that maybe she just might show up at my door step and say, dad, I’m fine, instead, I received pieces of her.’ He said clenching his fists.
‘Rodrigo, I know you still hurt, but we all hurt for your loss.’
‘Miguel, it’s been three years and no arrests have been made. Everyone has forgotten about her. But not me, no Miguel, I will not forget what that monster Marcelo did to my child. I won’t forget!’ He said. He felt a cold rage burn inside him as his gaze drifted away from Miguel out through the window onto the adjacent white chalk hospital block.
‘I was of the view perhaps you should take some time off.’ Miguel finally said, ‘You’re all Natalia has left. She needs you right here, next to her now more than ever, not running up and down the streets chasing after criminals. You’re a good man Rodriguez, I have no doubt, but right now you have a lot going on. Please do take some time off and focus on Natalia.’ Miguel said trying hard to fill the granite silence that had enveloped inside the room.
‘Thanks for your concern but I’m perfectly fine.’ Rodriquez hissed coldly just as he heard a muted sigh come from his old friend.
Rodriquez and Miguel had so much in common. Both men were cariocas- Locals. Miguel was from Vidigal, the largest slum in the south Zone between Leblon and Sao Conrado neighborhoods. Rodriquez, from the Rochina favela area. These rough neighborhoods had shaped and hardened them both. Sifting his bulky weight uncomfortably on the raised hospital bed, Miguel turned to more current affairs.
‘Do you remember the fellow who filed a complaint against Alves alleging the officer searched his home without a warrant and threatened his family?’
‘You mean the drug trafficker, his name is Ferreira something. What about him?’ Rodriquez asked.
A brief smile flashed across Miguel’s mouth revealing a neat set of white teeth.
‘Two hooded assailants cornered him in the street inside the Rochina last night. His bullet riddled corpse was pulled out of a gutter this morning.’
Turning yet again to face Miguel, Rodriquez asked,
‘You think maybe Alves had something to do with it?’
‘It doesn’t matter.’ Replied Miguel dismissively, ‘As secretary of public security, for me it’s one gangster less roaming our streets and that is what really counts. In this city, public safety comes first and then we can talk about individual freedoms.’
Rodriquez understood. He knew that the Justice system in Rio de Janeiro was slow and laborious but street justice on the contrary, was swift and effective.
Rodriquez went on to tell his friend about the dead young woman in the Rochina.
‘I believe she might have been trading gang secrets and someone wasn’t too happy about it.’ He said before his eyes narrowed angrily, ‘I also found this on the victim.’
He pulled a white piece of paper out from the front pocket of his brown corduroy trouser and tossed it to Miguel. For a moment Miguel was silent, engrossed in its contents.
‘No!’ Miguel exclaimed, his mouth wide open as he sank further into the bed. When he looked up, his blue eyes had also widened.
; ‘It’s Marcelo! He has struck again.’