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you’re Arnaldo Nunes.”
    “And you’re well-informed.”
    “Actually,” she said, extending a hand, “I’m Maura Mandel.” She shook hands with Silva as well. “Don’t you just love Belem? If I’d known what these people were going to charge, I would have hired a plane in some big town further south, skipped this hellhole entirely, and had them fly me directly to Azevedo.”
    “We’ve got three more people coming up tomorrow from São Paulo,” Silva said, “and that’s what I’m going to tell them to do.”
    “Maybe,” she said, “we can do the same deal on the flight back. Hire a flight down there, and have them come to pick us up. I could drop you off in Brasilia on the way. It’s not much of a detour.”
    “No,” Silva said, “it’s not. Do you mind if I ask you a question?”
    “Fire away.”
    “It’s got to be more than a coincidence that a journalist from one of the country’s major newspapers just happens to be going to a little town in Pará on the same day we do. Do you, by any chance, know a young lady by the name of Lana Nogueira?”
    “I do.”
    “And you’re aware that she’s the niece of my boss, with whom you also seem to have a certain degree of familiarity.”
    “Yes.”
    “May I therefore assume that you not only know why Arnaldo and I are on our way to Azevedo, but that you’re going there to report on it?”
    “People have told me that you’re good at what you do, Chief Inspector. I’m beginning to see why they say that.”
    “Don’t try flattering me, Senhorita Mandel. It doesn’t work.”
    “I’m sorry you thought it was flattery. It wasn’t.”
    “Then I apologize. Do you also know Jade Calmon?”
    “She’s my best friend. She and I and Lana all went to school together. Sacred Heart, in São Paulo.”
    “What inspired Jade to call you?”
    Maura told him.
    “I regret,” he said when she was done, “that the three of you had to go to such lengths to get the justice system working on this. As an officer of the law, it embarrasses me.”
    “I don’t regret it at all. If we hadn’t done what we did, and I mean this most sincerely, we wouldn’t have had you working on the case. We would have been stuck with the fellow who runs your field office here in Belem, and he wouldn’t have done shit.”
    “Very eloquently put,” Arnaldo said.
    “It comes from hanging around in newsrooms. We all talk like that.”
    “Delegado Barbosa’s reputation precedes him, I see,” Silva said, “even among the ladies and gentlemen of the press.”
    “There are no ladies and gentlemen of the press. We’re all vulgarians. But yes, his reputation precedes him. Follows him, too, and hangs over his head. I checked up on him after he gave Jade the runaround. If it wasn’t for his political connections, I’m told, he would have been out on his ass a long time ago.”
    “No comment,” Silva said.
    “But there are those,” Arnaldo said, “who might say you’ve been told correctly.”
    She grinned. “I see you have some experience of journalists.”

Chapter Eleven
    D ESPITE HER SPIRITED DEFENSE of Amati to Borges, Jade harbored doubts. The Indian was capable of violence. She’d witnessed that the previous day, had almost been a victim of it herself. But if he was guilty, what spark could have set him off? And why would he have chosen Torres as a victim? And how likely was it that he’d consumed alcohol?
    Osvaldo might be able to help her answer those questions. She grabbed her purse and made for his hotel, where she found him seated in the bar, almost as if he’d been waiting for her to arrive.
    “You heard?” she said.
    He nodded. “I think maybe you could use some coffee.”
    “I could.”
    The bar was otherwise empty. Amanda was nowhere in sight. He got up from the table and returned with two cups.
    “He didn’t do it,” he said, resuming his seat.
    “What makes you so sure?”
    “I slung a hammock for him not fifteen minutes after you left. He fell