Crimes Of August Part 40

Since 5:30 of the previous afternoon-when the body had come down from the third floor to lie in state, and the people filling the salon had received him by singing the national anthem-the mourners filed endlessly past the casket; they placed small slips of paper bearing requests in the dead man's hand, plucked the flowers to take away as remembrance, prayed. Many fainted and were carried outside. One man, his hand on the coffin, managed to make a short speech before he was escorted away: "The people will avenge Getlio!" Apolonio Salles, the secretary of agriculture, placed a rosary between Vargas's waxy fingers.

At 8:30 a.m., Lutero Vargas, Joo Goulart, and General Caiado de Castro closed the coffin.

Soon afterward, the bier was removed and placed on a cart, at the side entrance to the palace, on Rua Silveira Martins.

Mattos joined the mult.i.tude that, shouting Getlio's name and waving white handkerchiefs, pushed the cart along Flamengo beach. By the time it arrived at the Glria gardens, the cortege had increased to thousands of people.

Near the Calabouco, on Avenida Beira Mar, soldiers of the air force opened fire on the crowd. Hundreds fled in panic for the buildings along the avenue. Others resisted furiously, throwing whatever they could, shoes and clogs, at the soldiers who fired. Many were wounded.

The inspector tried to remain with the bulk of the crowd that held its ground around the coffin, without dispersing, obsessively pushing the car amid the sharp crack of machine-gun fire.

They finally arrived at Santos Dumont airport. A Cruzeiro do Sul plane was waiting on the runway. A man, lifted by two others, explained with clenched fists that the president's family had refused the offer of a FAB plane to transport the body, and the crowd erupted with shouts of hatred, curses, roars, and howls of fury and despair.

The coffin, accompanied by Darcy Vargas and the president's two children, Alzira and Lutero, was lifted onto the plane. A sudden, eerie silence fell over the crowd, broken abruptly by the sound of the plane's propellers put in motion.

Amidst the waving of handkerchiefs, the plane slipped down the runway in the direction of the sea, took flight, and pa.s.sed above the cruiser Barroso, so motionless in the water that it looked like a toy.

Mattos remained in the middle of the compact ma.s.s of people who continued on the tarmac and in the vicinity of the airport.

Getlio died, he kept thinking at every moment.

Gradually, people began coming out of the short-lived stupor that had dominated them when the plane disappeared into the sky. Now, men and women were starting to become furious, to shout and mill about chaotically, spreading into neighborhoods near the airport.

Somebody pointed to a building on Avenida Marechal Cmara, saying it was a government office. Mosaic stones from the sidewalk were ripped up and the windows of the structure's facade were destroyed in a matter of seconds, while another group invaded the building.

Two squads of soldiers, one from the army and one from the navy, with fixed bayonets, attacked the protesters from different positions, tossing stun grenades and teargas bombs.

Close to five hundred people gathered in front of the air force building on Avenida General Justo, shouting Getlio's name, but were quickly repulsed. Dozens of the protesters were injured.

Mattos walked toward Avenida Rio Branco.

A group attempting to invade the American emba.s.sy, on Avenida Presidente Wilson, was repelled by machine-gun fire from the soldiers protecting the emba.s.sy. The protesters then crossed the street, carrying their wounded, determined to ravage and burn the Standard Es...o...b..ilding. But they were again dispersed by a squad of army soldiers with fixed bayonets.

In the small square in front of the Standard Es...o...b..ilding, now empty, there remained only Mattos and a man lying on the ground. Mattos kneeled beside the wounded man, who tried to say something but died before he could speak. The inspector looked through the man's pockets for something that could identify him but found nothing. A corpse in the streets is the responsibility of the police, and he had not yet been expelled from the force. He needed to find a telephone and request removal of the body to the morgue. He walked along the avenue, past the Senate, which was surrounded by army troops, and stopped at the door of the So Borja Building. He thought about going up and phoning from Laura's rendezvous. But he preferred making the call from the reception area. When he left, he saw that further ahead, at the corner of Santa Luzia and Rio Branco, the same group that had attacked the American emba.s.sy and the Standard Es...o...b..ilding had rea.s.sembled.

A man had climbed a lamppost and was yelling: "We're not going to run away, we're not going to run away!"

The crowd, driven by the inflammatory language, advanced in a cohesive bloc down Santa Luzia toward the American emba.s.sy. Now, besides stones, many carried clubs and iron ripped from benches in the gardens. The man who had climbed the lamppost had a revolver in his hand.

This second a.s.sault was repelled violently by the soldiers. A machine gun opened fire on the attackers, wounding the majority of those in the forefront. The crowd pulled back, pursued by the soldiers, until they were in front of the Federal Supreme Court, on Rio Branco, where a lieutenant ordered his troops to return to the American emba.s.sy. The crowd quickly regrouped in Cinelndia and moved down Treze de Marco toward Carioca Square. Those in front shouted that they were going to set fire to the O Globo newspaper.

The paper, housed in a two-story structure over the Freitas Bastos bookstore, had just closed its gate when the first protesters arrived, running ahead of the crowd. Two of the newspaper's vans were set on fire. "Break it down! Break it down!" screamed the people ama.s.sed at the gate of the journal. At the building's windows a few frightened faces appeared fleetingly.

The metal gate resisted efforts from its would-be invaders. Posters of UDN candidates, ripped from trees and lampposts, were used to build a fire at the newspaper's door. Nearby newsstands were ravaged and the newspapers and magazines, with the exception of ltima Hora, were thrown onto the blaze. The flames were beginning to ignite the building when the strident sirens of fire trucks were heard.

Along with the firemen, three police cars arrived, but the police made no effort to stop the riot. A policeman recognized the inspector and told him buildings on Avenida Presidente Vargas were being sacked. The Tribuna da Imprensa was being stoned by an infuriated ma.s.s that filled Rua do Lavradio.

"The people are going to start a revolution," said the policeman.

THE ELEVATORS in Mattos's building weren't working. With difficulty, he climbed the eight floors, without counting the steps. He felt very tired. "I must be having that hemorrhage."

As soon as he got home, he opened the refrigerator. He drank the milk he found, straight from the bottle.

On the radio he heard the news that calm had returned to the city. As his first act upon taking office, President Cafe Filho had named Brigadier Eduardo Gomes as secretary of the air force. General Juarez Tavora had been appointed head of the president's military cabinet. The government had stationed twelve thousand troops, hundreds of tanks, and other military vehicles at strategic points throughout the city. The authorities affirmed that the agitation, quickly put down, had followed a leftist scheme: the communists wanted to foment a civil war and install a soviet-style dictatorship. Luiz Carlos Prestes, leader of the Brazilian Communist Party, was said to have stated that he was ready to a.s.sume command of the revolution and that a general strike of workers had been scheduled for September 2. Lieutenant Gregrio had told Colonel Adyl de Oliveira of his desire to say farewell to Vargas, but his request was not granted. "The ills visited upon the president by the Black Angel, by the abuser of power, had prompted the Vargas family to refuse to permit his presence at the scene," said the announcer. Gregrio was said to have gone into an "intense emotional crisis," and air force authorities, fearing he would make an attempt on his own life, had placed him under the permanent watch of two sentinels.

Mattos called the Dr. Eiras Clinic. He succeeded in speaking with Dr. Arnoldo.

"Alice is much better. I think she can be released in two days. She refuses to have any contact with her husband."

"Tell her that's all right. For her to come to my house. I'll be waiting for her."

Then he called Salete.

"Listen, Salete. That woman, Alice, is sick. When she gets out of the hospital, she's going to have to stay here for a time. I'm calling to say that I like you very much. That you're my true girlfriend. Later we'll handle the problem with Alice. She needs me, understand?"

"I'll help you take care of her. Can I come by your apartment now?"

"Come, I miss you."

If I lie down, this feeling will go away, he thought.

He left the apartment door open, so Salete could enter without his having to get up. He went to the bedroom and lay down. He slept.

He awoke to Salete's voice: "Mattos, are you there? What happened here? A fire?"

"I'm in the bedroom."

"My G.o.d, you're so pale," said the girl.

Mattos tried to get up from the bed but couldn't. His clothes and hair were soaked with sweat.

"Who set fire to the place?"

"I did. But call someone to take care of it, please."

"Are you feeling okay?"

"Sorry. I wasn't expecting my ulcer to play a trick on me right now. I called you here . . . I wanted to-But that can wait. I think I need to go to the hospital now."

"Are you going to have to be operated on?"

"I think so."

"Are you going to die?"

"No. Get that little package wrapped in silk paper on the night table. It's for you. Careful opening it."

Salete opened the paper.

"Good heavens! I can't believe it. Is it what I think I'm seeing?"

"Yes."

"A scab from your injury . . ."

"I kept it all these days for you to take to that mac.u.mba woman."

"She's not a mac.u.mba woman."

"Whatever. But first you're going to help me get to the hospital. Here's the address; my doctor said I should go there if I started feeling really bad. Afterwards I'll come back here to wait for Alice. She should arrive tomorrow or the next day. Explain everything to her. Treat her well."

Salete sat down beside Mattos on the bed. She pressed the inspector's head to her breast.

"Open your eyes, my love, just a little."

Mattos opened his eyes.

"You see this?" Salete showed him the paper Mattos had given her. "Look what I'm doing with the scab."

Salete wadded up the paper and threw it on the floor, as if throwing a stone.

"I'll put it in the trash later," she said.

In reality the paper no longer contained the scab, which Salete had placed in the compact in her purse.

Mattos closed his eyes again. He was still sweating profusely. But his stomach didn't ache. He didn't even feel heartburn.

"Get the disk on top of the record player, please, and put it on. It says Elixir of Love on the cover. I feel like listening to a bit of it before we leave for the hospital."

Salete went to the living room and did as Mattos had requested. She turned the volume up to a level that the inspector could hear in the bedroom.

At that instant the front door opened and a tall, powerfully built black man entered the room.

"Is Inspector Mattos in?"

"He's back there. Who are you?"

"He doesn't know me," said the black man, closing the door.

Salete ran to the bedroom, followed by the black.

"Alberto," shouted Salete, "there's a man here looking for you."

Mattos opened his eyes.

"Are you Inspector Mattos?" the black man asked softly.

"Yes," said Mattos, sitting up with difficulty. He felt, along with strong vertigo, a sensation of euphoria. He had finally found the Negro.

"Inspector Alberto Mattos?" the other man insisted.

"I have something that belongs to you," said the inspector.

Mattos, with great effort and closely watched by the black man, stuck his hand in his pocket and took out the gold ring.

"Take it. It's your ring."

Chico took the ring, checked the letter F engraved on its inside. He put the ring on his finger.

"I'd lost this ring. I know where you found it."

"In the bathroom of the guy you killed at the Deauville Building."

Mattos got up, leaning on Salete.

"You're under arrest for the murder of Paulo Machado Gomes Aguiar on the first of August."

Chico calmly fingered the ring.

"Are you sick?"

"He has a stomach ulcer," said Salete.

"I had an uncle die from a perforated ulcer," said Chico.

Supported by Salete, Mattos left the bedroom and went to the living room table where the telephone was. He picked up the phone. Hesitated. I'm not a cop anymore, he thought. I'm going to go back to being a lawyer, when I get out of the mess I'm in. I should tell this guy, Go away, Francisco Albergaria, and if you need a lawyer look me up.

Suddenly the volume of the record player increased powerfully.

Mattos turned and saw Chico beside the record player pointing a revolver at him.

"Say goodbye to your girl," shouted Chico, to be heard above the sound of the record.

Mattos looked at Salete. She was the last thing he saw. He fell to the floor, killed by Chico's shot.

"Alberto, Alberto!" Salete kneeled beside Mattos's body.

"I hate killing a beautiful woman," said Chico.

Salete looked at the a.s.sa.s.sin, surprised. "Do you think I'm beautiful? Really?"

Both spoke loudly in order to be heard over the music and singing coming from the record player.

"You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life. Don't worry, I won't do anything to your face."

"Thank you," said Salete, closing her eyes.

Chico placed the gun barrel over Salete's left breast and pulled the trigger.