The last game (3 page)

“I thought you would like this.” A voice
said.

Alvaro stopped in his tracks and stared in
the direction the voice had come from and saw an old man on the
stone cross. He was short and had long white hair tied in a
ponytail. As close to normal as anything could be in this strange
garden, except for the fact that no one had been there a half a
second before. Alvaro didn´t know what to say. The old man was
looking at something that he was holding in his right hand, leaning
on a black walking stick with the other hand.

“
Yes,
it´s definitely appropriate.” The old man said. Then he
lifted his head and looked at Alvaro. “Well, look who´s here. You
don´t know how happy I am to see you. Listen, I need an opinion. Do
you think this flower is the right choice for a woman who´s just
lost her husband?“ He asked extending his hand in front of
him.

Al
varo looked at the ugly wild flower in his hand.

“
A rose would be better.” He suggested,
looking at a rose bush.

The old man thought about
it
.

“
I think I´ll take your advice, boy.” He
said throwing the wild flower down on the ground and cutting a
striking long stemmed yellow rose from the bush. “Yes, I think you
are right. It´s perfect and my sweet Gema deserves the very best. I
owe you a favor. And Tedd always pays his debts. Now I´ve got
return to the morgue." And he disappeared.

Alvaro blinked several times to make sure
that he wasn´t dreaming. After a few seconds he convinced himself
that he had imagined the whole thing and went back to the curious
stone path that led to the house.

He wasn´t surprised to find that there was
no doorbell there when he
got to the door. He had the impression of having entered
another world, one in which electricity wasn´t required. He lifted
his fist ready to knock but didn’t get that far. Before his
knuckles made contact with the wood the door simply opened by
itself, the hinges protesting with a long sharp squeak as they
turned lazily. It seemed to take an eternity to open.

The surgeon entered and wasn´t surprised
to hear the door close behind him, although this time it closed
quickly.

It was warm inside.
A fragrance floating through the air that
he couldn´t identify. It was pungent and intoxicating and in an
inexplicable way he knew that it was an aroma that he would only
smell once in his life.

He didn´t pay too much attention to the
ostentatious decoration of the entrance and opened the two enormous
doors, in the form of an arc, that he presumed led to the main
hall.

He felt slightly dizzy.
The huge hall was much greater than it
should have been judging by the appearance of the house from the
outside. It had to be close to seventy square meters. Its sheer
size unnerved him and he had to make an effort to steady his
nerves. He knew what was coming and shouldn´t have expected that
this house would be normal.

The floor was wooden and covered by
colored tapestry rugs that appeared to be very soft. Alvaro had the
sudden whim of taking his shoes off and walking on them. The
furniture was obviously antique baroque and the curtains that
reached the floor and kept the windows well hidden, were a familiar
red color.

“Good evening.” Alvaro said happily.

There were two people seated on a
high-backed sofa that matched the rugs on the floor. One was a
woman, more a girl really, her face delicate, her expression sad.
It took Alvaro some time to take his eyes off the fascinating long
black hair that covered her shoulders.

A strange looking individual sat next to
her. It was obvious that he hadn´t been to the hairdresser´s for a
long time and se
emed
dirty and in need of a good shower. He had long unruly hair that
almost reached his shoulders. The natural color of his hair was
more than likely brown but it was so dirty that it was hard to
tell. His features were all but lost behind a similarly dirty
beard. He was dressed in a cheap tracksuit with a tear in the form
of the number seven on one of his knees. The shoes he wore matched
the rest of his attire. The only thing that was apparently clean
was an unironed black and brown checked shirt that didn´t go with
anything else. Judging by the expression on his face, he seemed to
be lost in another world.

Neither of the two bothered to welcome
Alvaro.

“
If you´ve come for the same reason as me
then we´re in for a very long night.” Alvaro said trying to
sound
friendly. “It´s
going to be a lot longer if nobody says anything.”

The girl turned her head slowly in his
direction and spoke softly. “You´re right, I´m sorry. I´m Judith
and this is Hector. He doesn´t say much.”

“
I can see that.” Alvaro
said.

The longer he looked at the girl the
younger she appeared to be. He put her at around twenty. And if
that was the case, it was horrible. A person of that age shouldn´t
be here. “Excuse my curiosity, but you appear . . .”

“
The moment´s arrived” a grave voice behind
him said. “Couldn´t you have got here on time. We´ve been waiting
for you. Waiting to start.”

Alv
aro turned to see the man who was talking to him. He was at
least sixty years old. Fat and bald, except for a few sparse white
locks. He was wearing a very expensive suit and a tie that hung
loosely around his neck. He looked vaguely familiar.

The allusion to Alvaro being late seemed
strange. He´d come as soon as he´d received the letter, driven here
by an inexplicable need to arrive as soon as he could.

“
I came as quickly as I could. There´s no
point getting off on the wrong foot.” He said, offering this
disagreeable individual a false smile. “It’d be better if we all
get on well with each other, if that´s possible. My name´s Alvaro,
and there´s no point losing your temper so soon. What do you
reckon?”

The stranger frowned at him for a few
moments,
then said. “I´m
Dante. And now we´re enemies.”

It was a simple, blunt
reply
. His analysis of
the situation was right and he hadn´t hesitated to emphasize the
point. That didn’t benefit his strategy. Alvaro considered Dante as
potentially dangerous, probably the strongest of the three, based
on first impressions. A hard man, without any doubt, and besides
that, an idiot. Alvaro didn´t like him. And the thought that he´d
seen him somewhere before wouldn´t go away.

“
Just because we´re going to face one
another doesn’t mean that we have to hate each other. It´s only a
game after all. If we play it in the right spirit.”

“
Cut the crap.”Dante snarled,
as he walked over to a table
near the sofa and served himself a drink from one of the numerous
bottles there. “Well, then what’s our host waiting for? Let´s get
this party underway.”

“Where´s Zeta?” a child´s voice asked.

They all looked at each other. Even Hector
who hadn´t taken his eyes off the floor until now. He lifted his
wrinkled head up and shot a glance around the room.

The voice they´d heard was a little
girl´s. But they couldn´t see anyone. They heard a playful little
laugh and the shuffling of little feet as she came into view behind
Judith and Hector.

Alvaro
edged around the sofa, followed closely by Dante, and they
came across a sight that was difficult to believe.

“Did anyone know that she was here?” Alvaro
asked.

The rest shook their heads in
silence.

Playing on the rug
they´d found a little girl around five
years old. Six at the most. She had dark hair collected in two high
buns. Her eyes were two penetrating black spheres that shone out of
soft white skin. Her smile was irresistible and she seemed to be
looking around the room for something. “Where is Zeta?” She
repeated.

“
What´s this little girl doing here?” Dante
asked, irritated.

Hector kneeled down beside the girl
studying her carefully.

“
I don´t know where Zeta is, little one.”
Alvaro answered her. “Who is Zeta?

“
This is absurd.” Dante grumbled. “A little
girl shouldn´t be here tonight. I´ll take her to the
police.”

“
No, you won´t!” Hector said standing
up.

“
What´s up with you
?” Dante asked him.

Hector didn´t take his eyes off the girl,
who continued to look at everyone with an amused expression. She
moved with tiny little steps around the carpet getting close to
each one as they spoke. She kept away from Judith though who
remained on her armchair studying her.

“
I wouldn´t touch her if I were you.”
Hector advised. “It´s
her!”

“What are you trying to say?” Alvaro asked
him. “That she´s got an invitation too? That´s impossible.”

“You’re the one who shouldn´t touch her.”
Dante countered. “You´d probably give her some foul disease if you
did.”

Dante walked past the girl.

“
It´s her!” Hector repeated.

Dante stood still, studying her. He obviously
didn´t agree.

“Look at her shadow!” Hector advised him.

They all followed his suggestion. It took
a few seconds to see what Hector was talking about. Alvaro crouched
down and looked at her more closely. It was too incredible to
believe. He had to be dreaming. Judith leaned back in the armchair.
Dante rolled his eyes and opened his mouth.

“It´s impossible.” Alvaro said stunned.

“
It´s a trick.” Dante said.

“Really?” Judith asked. “And how do you do a
trick like that?”

Dante didn´t answer. He kept on looking at
the girl´s shadow, like all the rest were. It was projected in the
opposite direction to theirs. Towards the light!

Alvaro studied her face. It was
illuminated by the light of a lamp behind her. It didn´t make any
sense.

H
e was convinced now. “Yes, it´s definitely her.”

“
This is the last thing I would have
expected.” Dante said. “She´s too young.
How old is she? I doubt that she even knows how to
write. She couldn´t have invited us here!”

Alvaro could see that Dante was nervous.
He was trying to convince himself that there was no way that this
seemingly innocent child had been the one behind all of this. It
was hard to believe. But was there any other
explanation?

“I want to play.” The girl said suddenly.

She gav
e the floor a couple of slaps, got up with difficulty and
walked towards the table. The three men got out of her way. She
half stumbled to one of the chairs around the table, smiling as she
went. That pleased Alvaro because the last thing he wanted to see
was this girl angry.

“
I don´t think she can get up on her own.”
Dante said watching as the little girl did her best to find her way
up onto a chair that was too high for her. “Maybe,
we should help her.”

“
Good idea.” Alvaro agreed, putting his
hand out to help her up.

Dante didn´t move. Alvaro saw a fleeting look
of fear in his eyes. He realized he didn´t dare touch the little
hostess.

Hector watched the girl patiently as if no
one else existed in the world.

“
She´s telling you to sit down.” Judith
said from the armchair. “Haven´t you seen what´s on the
table?”

They all looked at it. There were five
seats around the table but the bottles that had been there before
had disappeared.
In
their place there was a plain green tablecloth without decoration
with something in its center that represented the true reason for
this meeting.

“
You´re right.” Dante agreed. He passed
beside the girl to a chair at the far end of the table. “I hope she
brings the drinks back.”

Hector sat down to the girl´s right without
saying a word.

“I´ll help her to get up.” Alvaro said.

He walked over to the girl and bent down
with his arms extended, trying to lift her up. That was something
that he didn´t get to do. He remained frozen in that position as he
heard a deep growl behind him. The sound was frightening and echoed
through the whole room with unbelievable force. The warning was
clear enough to Alvaro. He turned his neck slowly around, his arms
still extended in front of him.

Dante stood up and backed away from the
table.
Hector stayed
where he was staring at the little girl. Judith´s mouth was wide
open and she was holding a cushion to her chest as tightly as she
could.

An enormous black dog was looking straight
at Alvaro. Its sharp razor-like teeth bared. The animal had to
weigh at least seventy kilos, the great muscles of its legs tense.
There were no pupils in its eyes which were red like the color of
the invitations.

Alvaro´s heart was beating wildly.
This dog could rip an arm off
in one bite. He´d never been so scared in his life. The dog was
still growling, although the intensity of the growl hadn´t
changed.

“Don´t move.” Judith whispered.

He had no intention of doing that. But
after interminable seconds without the dog taking his fearsome red
eyes off him, he began to calm down. It was obvious the dog wanted
something from him, otherwise he would have changed his posture.
Alvaro stayed perfectly still as he tried to work out what it was
that this frightening animal wanted. Then he noted that the dog´s
shadow went towards the light just like the little girl´s. And that
gave him an idea of what to do next.