Death by Bull?

Rachel sat, waiting by the phone. Victoria was on vacation visiting her husband’s family in Spain. Part of her was thankful that there hadn’t been any calls, as she had become dependent on her assistant, but the other part of her was bored. When she had decided to become a private eye, she had thought she would be buried in work, constantly having to solve murders and robberies, and look for missing people and objects. Some weeks, she was busy, but for the most part, it was fairly quiet. As a result, she found a lot of time to read. She was buried in a book when the phone rang, startling her.

“Rachel Addams, private eye. How may I help you today?”

“It’s me. Victoria.”

“Hi! How’s Spain?”

“That’s what I’m calling about,” she sounded worried, “Chica, I got a problem.”

“What? What’s wrong?”

“So, my brother-in-law works at a local bull ring and he got us all free seats. I didn’t want to go, but Manuel, my brother-in-law, insisted.”

“Did it upset the kids?”

“Yes, especially when Danny and I slapped our hands over their eyes when the matador got gored. They’re too young for that kind of stuff, chica.”

“Oh my gosh. Is he dead?”

“Mmhmm,” Victoria sounded like she was about to cry, “He was one of Manuel’s best friends too.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“That’s not all, chica. Manuel swears on his life it was murder.”

“What?!”

“I know. He says he knows that bull like the back of his hand. He swears the bull has never gored anyone. He’s barely scratched anyone.”

“But that could just be a fluke, an accident.”

“I know. I told him that, but he just kept swearing that someone murdered him. He says he even knows who did it. Another matador, Carlos Garcia. He swears on his life, Rachel.”

“Does he have any reason to think this? Any proof?”

“I don’t know. He just keeps saying, ‘It was Carlos, I know it was. He was jealous of Antonio. I know it was Carlos, Torrito wouldn’t gore.’”

“Huh.”

“That’s not the worst part. Somehow, he got it into his head that since I work for a detective, that I am a detective too. Danny doesn’t have the heart to tell him no, and neither do I.”

“And?”

“Chica, I can’t solve a murder! I’m just your secretary! I answer the phone, I don’t do any detecting! What am I going to do?”

“You can solve this.”

“What?! Are you crazy, chica! I’ve never seen a murder mystery movie, let alone tried solving one myself!”

“You can. What do you do when one of your kids loses something?”

“I ask them where they put it last?”

“Exactly.”

“I don’t follow.”

“You may not realize it, but you are trying to figure out where the item most likely is. It’s like that with a murder case. You try to get all the information that you can from the crime scene and the victim. How did they die? Where did they die? What were they doing there? Who knew them? Who out of the people that knew them would want to kill them? Why? Who out of those people could have killed them? Which one of them doesn’t have an alibi that checks out? You see? You gradually rule out people until you have it down to a key group of suspects. Then you find out what you can from them. Then the more clues you find, the more people you can rule out.”

“I think I’m starting to understand…”

“In your case, you already have a prime suspect. You and many other people witnessed the alleged crime. You even have insider access to the crime scene and maybe even the suspect and the quote unquote murder weapon. I’m sure Manuel wouldn’t hesitate to help you in that respect.”

“So now I look for clues?”

“I would suggest trying to talk to this Carlos Garcia. Find out how he felt about the deceased.”

“Ok.”

“Oh, but don’t let on that you suspect him. Otherwise, he’ll get defensive and you won’t get a good answer if any at all. Put up some sort of front. You’ll figure it out. Call me if you need anything else.”

“Thank you so much.”

Victoria hung up and sighed. How am I gonna pull this off? she thought. She walked back into the house, going over what she was going to say. “Manuel?” she asked, walking over to her brother in law.

“You’ll do it?” he asked hopefully.

“Yes. But I need you to get me an opportunity to talk to Sr. Garcia.”

“I knew you would! Anything you need, anything you need to help you solve Antonio’s murder!” he exclaimed, hugging her. She patted him on the back and shrugged at her husband.

“Manuel, could you give her a minute please? She needs time to think about what she’s going to say,” her husband suggested, taking her hint.

“Of course, of course!” he said, letting her go, “I’ll go help Ana with dinner.”

As soon as they were alone, Victoria’s husband took her by the arm and whispered, “What are you doing? Don’t give my brother false hope.”

“Danny, don’t worry. Rachel is helping me. I’ll figure this out.”

“I hope you’re right.”

Victoria, Danny, and Manuel arrived at the bull ring the next morning. Manuel would pretend to be giving them a tour of the arena and bull pens; after all, that had been the original plan. They would then pretend to happen upon Carlos, only Manuel already knew where he would be at that time. They planned to observe his initial reaction when they subtly brought up the subject of Antonio’s death.

As they toured the arena, they soon met up with Carlos.

“Sr. Garcia!” Manuel called, trying to sound as cheerful as possible.

“Ah, Manuel, is it?” Carlos replied “Good to see you.”

“You too, Sr. This is my brother Danny, and his lovely wife Victoria. They’re visiting us for a few weeks.”

“Very good to meet you. Where are you from?”

“Good to meet you too. We’re actually from America,” Victoria answered.

Carlos looked a bit confused. “But Danny, surely you grew up in Spain?”

“Oh, yes I did, but I moved to America when I was a young adult. Victoria moved from Mexico when she was a kid,” Danny replied.

“Oh, wonderful. How do you like Spain, Victoria?”

“It’s beautiful here. I’m glad I finally got to come after all Danny’s told me about it.”

“Hey, have you seen a bull fight yet?”

Victoria, Danny, and Manuel exchanged a quick glance. They hadn’t expected him to make it this easy for them.

“Well, as matter of fact, I took them to see yesterday’s,” Manuel said, uneasily.

Carlos’ face darkened. They had expected this, but they didn’t expect what he said next: “So you know about Antonio’s death. So you came here to trap me into saying I killed him, didn’t you?”

The trio was taken aback.

“Don’t bother trying to deny it. Everyone thinks I murdered him. It’s in all the tabloids. Everyone knows I was jealous of him. But I know the truth. I didn’t kill him. What happened in there, that was just how those things go. It’s a blood sport here. The matador or the bull. One will die.”

“B-but, Torrito wouldn’t gore! I know he wouldn’t!” Manuel burst out.

“That’s your problem right there,” Carlos said harshly, pointing his finger, “you’re too soft on them. You’re not supposed to give them names. They aren’t supposed to rehearse. You practice in a much safer way than you’re supposed to. Then when it gets down to the real thing, it’s sloppy and people get hurt. Antonio played too soft. He didn’t earn his fame.” With that, he turned and walked away from them.

Danny let out a low whistle.

“That could have gone better,” Victoria said.

“It couldn’t have gone much worse,” Danny added.