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HIDDEN ENEMIES

I would have given them something, nothing like that amount, but just something to avoid problems. This time, however, I had nothing to give.

‘I have never been inside this room. The door was shut and when you came I was outside, several metres away, where you found me. It's their room.’ I pointed to the Velascos again. ‘Ask them.’

The guards had no case against me and they knew it. They could have changed the facts, except that I had a reliable witness with me to say that the door was shut and I had never been inside. They reduced their offer.

‘OK. One thousand dollars, then.’

Still I refused, so they searched my pockets thoroughly. When they found nothing, they insisted on searching my room. I gave them the key on the condition that my delegate be present so that they couldn't plant anything. They didn't find anything there either and although they weren't happy about it, they had to let me go.

When the guards left my room, I was shaking. I sat down to think about what had just happened. Something big was going on. First Abregon being transferred, then this. The whole thing was so obviously a set-up. The police had intended to catch me in the room and say the drugs were mine, but they were stupid and had come too soon. Also, they hadn't counted on me bringing Julián along. I suspected that the Velascos were behind the whole episode and when they weren't charged either, I was sure of it. How could the police find over a hundred grams of cocaine in someone's room and not charge anyone?

That should have been the end of the incident. However, eight days later, someone informed the media about what had happened. There was a television report that several inmates had been caught with two hundred grams of cocaine inside San Pedro, but that no charges had been laid.

The cops came and got me straight after lista, just like they had with Abregon.

‘Where are you taking me?’ I demanded. I already knew what it was about.

‘The punishment section.’ My heart sank. There was to be an investigation. The culprits had to be found.

‘Chonchocoro?’