Necropolis (26 page)

They drove for about five hours until they came to a farmhouse, where they at last removed the blindfold. It was one of those big old houses, surrounded by shady trees. They were received by a group of uniformed men who were playing
parqués
. He didn't know anybody, but one of them stood up and said, take him to three-ten, downstairs. Without giving him any explanation, they shoved him into a cell in the basement of the house and left. It was a room about fifteen feet by fifteen feet, with a bed and a chamber pot. From the ceiling hung a bare lightbulb surrounded by insects. The walls were not plastered but were of pure stone, it was obvious that the house was an extension of an older one. There he spent the rest of the day, or what he thought was the day, because there were no windows and the lightbulb was never switched off.

He did not know how long he slept, but suddenly the door opened and they said, get up, come with us, the chief wants to see you. They took him to what must have been the kitchen, because it had white tiles on the walls and concrete tables. There they tied him up, and after a while Dagoberto came in. Ramoncho, I'm sorry I had to bring you here in these conditions, but you do have my money, right? Ramón looked at him without any fear. That car wasn't yours, it was stolen, the police in Villavicencio kept me locked up for four days and I didn't tell them anything, I didn't give them any of your names, in order not to get you into trouble, didn't they tell you that? Yes, Ramoncho, and that was a good thing to do, but I also found out that in order not to pay me for the car you were planning to report me to the police, you were going to Villavicencio to do that, am I right? Ramón never told a lie, so he said, it's because you were very unfair, I protected you and you tried to ruin me, apparently I had to pay you for the car, but that car was never mine! Calm down, Ramoncho, let's not get all excited now. The problem is, the price has gone up now, and I think you're going to have to sign over the deeds to your shops, they're drawing the papers up now and they'll bring them in a couple of days, but there's no hurry. We'll talk when they arrive, O.K.?

Dagoberto went out and one of the three guys said to Ramón, oh brother, you're really in the shit now and all because you've been mean, meanness never pays, here you are, in this shithole, instead of banging your woman at the Llano Grande, nice and hard, you must be very stupid and a real snitch. Ramón spat in his face and the guy punched him, twice, three times, threw him to the ground, still tied up, and kept kicking him and shouting, you're a dead man, we're going to kill you, understand? take this scum away before I kill him.

After two weeks, Ramón looked really haggard. They had hit him with rifle butts and tortured him and showed him photographs of the way they cut up FARC members into pieces to avoid making a noise shooting them. That's the way we're going to leave you for being a snitch. We're going to cut you in little pieces so even your mother wouldn't recognize you, we're going to tear off your dick and send it to your girlfriend to eat.

After about a month, they arrived with some papers and Dagoberto appeared again and said, how have they been treating you, Ramoncho? well? Now the time has come to behave like a man because the deeds are ready to transfer your three shops, you see, here are the papers from the new owner, all you have to do is sign here, and here, and here, and the notary will do the rest.

Do you really think I'm going to give up the fruits of my labors, the only thing I can leave my children, to you people, no way, it isn't fair, maybe I could give up one shop, but not all three, you'd be leaving me with nothing. The thing is, Ramoncho, debts have to be paid, and if a person doesn't pay his debts he's punished, haven't you read the Bible? the man who does something pays, and the man who snitches gets fucked, that's in the Bible, yes or no? and they all said, yes, chief, of course, the snitch dies squashed, the scum dies disemboweled, and Ramón said, no, you're going to kill me anyway, so go ahead and kill me, but I'm not signing that thing, and so they hit him with their rifle butts in the balls and the penis, making him throw up several times because of the pain and because the air was sucked out of him. Take him away and let him think it over. Think about it, Ramoncho, sign this thing and you can go, of course you'll have to leave La Cascada because nobody in the town likes snitches, that's worse than being in the FARC, but I'll let you go, I give you my word. There's no hurry, man, in town they're saying you went to Villavicencio to sell what you had in order to move to Antioquia, and there's the testimony of Gil the guy at the gas pump who says you filled the tank of the Land Rover because you were going to Villavicencio. Nobody's looking for you in La Cascada. There's no hurry, Ramoncho, go back to your cell and think over what I just said.

A couple of days went by and Ramón said, what I have to do is see how I can get out of here. With a knife, he started to file around one of the stones in the wall, and he could see that the earth was falling and that it was more or less easy to open. When he hit it, it sounded hollow, which he thought was strange, because this was a cellar, so after his meal he continued using the knife on the stone until he felt it move. Am I dreaming? The stone moved until he was able to remove it from the wall, and much to his surprise, instead of more wall what he found was a kind of tunnel, a very narrow passage that a man could only just fit into, so he said to himself, this is for me, and he stuck himself into it, and moved like a snake through the passage until he found another stone that was loose. Light could be seen around the edges and he said, shit, I can't shift it. He listened, but could not hear a thing, so he gave two little blows with the knife, to see what happened. After a while he heard, knock knock. Someone was answering him. So he said in a whisper, who's there? There was a long silence. I'm Father Benito Cubillos, who's that? Ramón Melo García, from La Cascada. He heard the stone move and the passage was filled with light. A hand pulled him through to the other side. Come on, man, come, nobody will look in at this hour.

When he saw the man, he was almost scared. His hair and beard came down to his belly, he had no teeth, and he was deathly pale. His eye sockets revealed the skull beneath the skin and his eyes themselves were the color of bone. I'm Benito Cubillos, parish priest of Usiacurí. Where's that? Near Barranquilla. The paras took me four years ago and have been keeping me ever since, for helping the guerrillas, they say, but that's not true, I was helping the Indians, which is different, I tried to protect them but I was kidnapped, are you from the police, Ramón? have you come to get me out? No, Father, if only! They had their eye on me, too, they want to steal my auto repair shops and my money, I'm from La Cascada. And where is that? Here in Meta, Father, don't tell me you don't know we're in the Plains! How should I know that, they drugged me before they brought me here, they gave me burundanga.

Can I ask you something, Father, did you make this tunnel? Yes, of course, only when I saw it led to another cell I thought I'd leave it open to see if there was a way to escape, but it's very difficult, I hollowed out a bit of space on the other sides, too, but there's only gravel there, no way out. They heard a noise and Ramón rushed back to the tunnel, crawled to his cell and put the stone back in its place, smoothing the earth in such a way that nothing was visible. After a while one of the paramilitaries came in and threw him a bag. These things are yours, aren't they? There was a photograph of Soraya in a picture frame, a notebook, a memory stick, a digital camera, a white iPod, the earphones for the iPod, a pack of Pielroja with two twisted cigarettes, a credit card wallet, a box with his own business cards that said,
Ramón Melo García, Mechanic, La Mariposa, The repair shop you can trust.
It was all the things he had had in the desk drawer in his office. Had they already taken over the shop? The paramilitary stood there looking at him and said, don't be ungrateful, I brought you this without my partner knowing, to keep you amused, but if you like, I can take it away. No, leave it, leave it. Thanks, man, very kind of you . . .

The guy left and Ramón started thinking. These bastards are clever, what they want to do is wear me down, they think I'll see the photos and be even more determined to get out of here, but as soon as I sign those papers, bang bang, they'll kill me, you can't believe a word these people say. The noises had stopped, so he went back along the tunnel. He showed Father Cubillos the photographs of Soraya, Jacinto, his mother, a stroll along the banks of the Ariari, a trip to Bogotá. Then he told his story, in minute detail, and said, Father, you know people, who betrayed me? was it Soraya or Jacinto? it had to be one of the two, only they knew. Don't torment yourself thinking about that now, Ramón, you mustn't let yourself be consumed with hate, that's the worst thing you could do. Think deeply about life and you won't lose it, the Lord is not going to leave you in this hole, not if you're good, that's why it's better not to be filled with hate. The thing is, Father, I've never been a believer, I have to admit that. They killed my father by mistake in Villavicencio. Then they apologized and tried to give money to my mother, but I said, there can't be a God if such things happen. I used to go to church before that, Father, I'd always take communion with my mother. She also stopped believing for the same reason. My father was the most devout. He gave a tenth of what the shop made to the Church, and look what happened, they killed him, they thought he was someone else, someone who was giving money to a Mafioso, they shot him seven times in the back of the head. He was just coming out of the bank where he'd paid in the weekend's takings, because he was a good man and didn't spend his money on drink or women, nobody could have been more sensible than him, and look how God repaid him.

Oh, Ramón, there are things about God that we don't understand all at once, but why should we understand, sometimes a person spends his whole trying to understand himself, doesn't he? Yes, Father, he does. What happens, Ramón, is that God sees a person in the context of his whole life, whereas that person, when something happens to him, only sees the thing that happened, but God sees the whole person, from all sides, never forget that, and He knows why He does what He does, you'll see, sooner or later you'll understand.

Back in his cell, Ramón started thinking over every moment of the last few days before the kidnapping. On the Thursday night he had told Soraya that they had come by and asked him to pay for the car and that he had decided to talk to the police in Villavicencio. She had told him not to do it. On the Friday, he had worked until seven, when Jacinto had called him on his cell phone and told him they were going to the Rey de la Pachanga. He had refused and had suggested an early beer at La Ceiba. There, he had told him that he was planning to go to Villavicencio early the next morning. He remembered they had been at a table on the balcony, nobody could have overheard them there. Could Sorayita, in her desire to resolve things, have possibly said something to somebody, without intending any harm? or had Jacinto gotten drunk after that and, when they asked after me, said I was going to get up early to go to Villavicencio? That by itself doesn't mean anything. The paras knew he was going to report them. With this he fell asleep, although the light from the naked bulb was like a skewer in the brain.

The next day, they took him from his cell and interrogated him in the kitchen. He had heard moans earlier, and now he saw blood on the tiles. They must have been putting the screws on someone, he thought, and it made his hair stand on end. Let's see now, Ramoncho, are you going to cooperate with us today? It wasn't Dagoberto interrogating him, but one of his lieutenants. Tell Dagoberto I want to see him, I'd like to talk to him personally and sort things out. Ah, it looks like Ramoncho has seen reason, all right, call the chief.

An hour later, Dagoberto arrived. He was wearing a combat jacket and boots and carrying an Uzi. What's up, Ramoncho, are we signing or what? I'll sign if you tell me one thing, who told you I was going to Villavicencio to talk to the police? There was a silence. Dagoberto looked at his men and burst out laughing. Oh, this Ramoncho really is a scream! Setting conditions now, are we? Ramón remained impassive. I'll sign the deeds to all three shops, he said, if you tell me who betrayed me. Dagoberto walked in a circle around him, like a fly turning around the light, and said, I'm going to confess something, Ramoncho, you know what? I like you, you're a good guy, a bright guy, ready to do anything to find out who snitched on you, that's what I call a man, damn it. I'm exactly the same, which is how I found out you were going to snitch on me to the police, you see? I did the same, Ramoncho, that makes us equal. Ramón looked at him, as impassive as ever. It isn't the same because you were robbing me and I'm not robbing you, and because you're a murderer and I'm a hardworking man, so it isn't the same; tell me who informed on me and then kill me, but don't say we're equal. Dagoberto looked at him furiously. We aren't equal, I'm not a snitch like you, and I don't have to tell you anything. Around here, nobody so much as farts without my knowing it, do you hear? I know all about you. I know you used to bang your girlfriend in Room 312 of the Llano Grande because from there you can see the church in Cubarral and she likes the reflection of the dome, and you like that room, not because of the church but because the TV has a big screen that's better for watching porn movies, like the ones with that Italian actress who acts as if she has gunpowder in her crotch, you see how well I know the lives of everyone around here? What you don't know, Ramoncho, is that Soraya also went to the motel with another man, I'm not going to tell you who, because I'm not a snitch. Oh yes, life is just one big shithouse, nobody has any principles, there are nothing but bad people. I'll give you another week to think it over, I'm in no hurry. And he walked out.