The floor around Clara’s body was sprinkled with shards of broken glass. Some were tinged with blood.

“What’s that?”

“It used to be a drinking glass. There are others in that cabinet over there. Intact ones, I mean.”

“She wouldn’t have bled like that if-”

“-her heart wasn’t pumping when she sustained the cuts. And a shot like that would have stopped her heart immediately. So, yes, she was cut before she was shot. See how this part of the pool is more red than brown? There was water in the glass. The blood that flowed into the water got diluted. It wasn’t able to fully coagulate.”

“Is that a dog?”

Hector pointed to a bundle of fur near one of the bodies.

“What’s left of one,” Lefkowitz said. “A toy poodle, a female. They broke her back.”

“Broke her back?”

“Stepped on her. Snapped her spine like a twig.”

“What kind of people do that to a dog?”

“What kind of people shoot young women in the head? In a moment, I’m going to sum it all up. Just one more thing: look at Clara’s face.”

Hector had to drop to one knee to see what Lefkowitz was talking about. He did it from a meter away, to avoid kneeling in the blood.

“Bruises,” he said.

“Pre-mortem, according to Doctor Whatshisname. And none on Clarice. Ready for a reading?”

“Please.”

“Okay. Here’s what I think happened: Clara got up in the early hours of the morning to drink some water. She took a glass out of the cabinet, went to the sink and filled it. The kidnappers came in and startled her. She dropped the glass, and it broke. She screamed, or tried to fight them off, or tried to run, and they hit her. She went down, landing on her back, cutting herself.”

“And her sister…”

“Heard the noise, jumped out of bed and came into the kitchen. Or maybe tried to hide, and the kidnappers found her. The fact that her face isn’t bruised suggests they were able to intimidate her without hitting her. Maybe just looking at what they’d done to Clara was enough. They made Clara get up. They made both of them kneel. And then they shot them in the back of their heads.”