Turned to Stone Read Online Free PDF Page B

scars.”
    “Yet you both happened to be in El Burgo de Osma at the same time, and then in the same restaurant, where he took a liking to you and gave you a drawing of the statue he’s searching for. Either I’m stupid or I’m missing something here.”
    “Or both. What does the sculpture have to do with you?”
    “It’s a long story—one I’m not about to tell you.”
    Jaime considered the possibility that this was a case of mistaken identity and that, despite how things looked, Amatriaín, not Sandra, was the villain in the story. He recalled that Amatriaín had not shown him any identification. What if all that stuff about the EHU was a lie and he wanted Jaime to help him find the sculpture for some other, unknown purpose? He decided to resolve the matter directly. “Are you a cop?”
    Sandra smiled at his naiveté.
    “Do you really believe that’s a possibility?” She looked at the clock and then aimed at Jaime again. “Sorry, caro . Time’s up.”
    Jaime tensed. The woman’s stony glare could mean only one thing. “You wouldn’t shoot me here,” he said.
    “Shoot you? What we have in store for you is far more subtle.”
    “We? Who’s we?”
    Her weapon still pointed at him, Sandra made her way to the walk-in freezer located at one end of the kitchen. When she opened the door, a cloud of frosty air floated out, then quickly dissolved. She signaled for Jaime to step inside. “You’re going to freeze me?” he asked in disbelief.
    “You know the castle on the hill, at the entrance to the town? In three hours your lifeless body will be outside it. You’ll be taken for a foolish, drunken homeless person who fell asleep out in the open and froze to death. The autopsy will reveal nothing abnormal and there’ll be no investigation. How’s that for subtle?”
    “No, no, wait. You’re making a mistake. Amatriaín gave me the drawing but I don’t know anything about it and I never wanted to. I left it in my room, wadded up in a ball, just the way you found it. I don’t want anything to do with that Medusa’s head! What else do I have to say to convince you?”
    “To tell you the truth, this plan was for Amatriaín, but he’s managed to get away. Don’t worry, though. He’ll join you soon enough.”
    Jaime began to breathe heavily. He lifted his arms and walked around the kitchen, trying to hide the fact that his legs were trembling again. “They’ll never believe I was a drunken tramp.”
    “I don’t give a damn what anyone believes. I’ll be long gone by the time they discover the truth, if they ever do.”
    “Why are you doing this? I’m telling you—I have nothing to do with Amatriaín. What is it about this Medusa that’s so important?”
    Just as she was about to reply, the translucent glass in the door lit up, and a dreamlike shadow was projected onto it.
    Someone was coming. Jaime took his chance.
    Quickly, he launched himself against Sandra, who could not keep her balance in those heels and immediately fell backward and hit the wall. The pistol flew out of her hand and Jaime managed to grab it. Suddenly the rules of the game had changed: now he was the one aiming the weapon at the startled woman in the red overcoat. “You should be more careful,” he said, smiling.
    “You don’t say,” she said, smiling back.
    Her lack of concern alarmed Jaime, but his apprehension came too late. By now the door had opened and the figure he had seen through the glass was standing beside him, holding a long object. The man was dressed in black and wore a demented smile beneath his mustache. “Buona sera,” he said. “Can I help you?”
    Jaime felt a sharp blow to the head and an intense pain, and then he was overcome with the sensation of falling into a deep, dark spiral.

4

    Madrid
    The ringing of the telephone broke the silence in the room like a train sounding its horn in a desert. On the third ring, a hand reached out from between the sheets and grabbed the wireless handset from its