BAD ONE AND THE CASE OF THE DOUBLE MURDER IN THE THAMES

CHAPTER 9 THE RECONDITE AMAZONIA

At day break, the first lights illuminated the new land. Shapes and outlines began to emerge between contrasts of light and shadow. Till then, only God had contemplated that wonderful spectacle. The infinite green ocean of trees and vegetation was spreading to the unreachable horizon. From the height it seemed like an immense ocean of broccoli. That was the first time the eyes of a stranger were contemplating that immensity. The jungle was like a virgin who undresses for the first time before a man; pure, exuberant and perfect, before the adventurer’s astonished eyes. The conqueror, conquered for his part by that infinite beauty, was almost feeling ashamed to discover its nakedness, its intact virginity, its veil of greenness that nobody had yet penetrated. He knew nobody will ever love her the way he loved her. He knew nobody would want her the way he yearned for her. He was madly in love with that jungle. When some time later, he had to go back to Spain, he did not feel at ease until he had returned after his trip to find her again, and to be together forever. Francisco de Orellana died in the jungle, in the year 1546. He was buried at the foot of a tree next to the river he called by a mythical and legendary name: The Amazon.

Maria Aparecida Barbosa, Chief Inspector of the District of Manaus Police station, was worried those days. Her chiefs had handed over an important communication to her. The message had arrived at the District Police station coming from the “Delegacia de Homicídios da Polícia Civil”. The information was sent from the Department of Justice on behalf of Scotland Yard[1]. They were requested, in perfect Portuguese, to help them clarify a very important case: the double murder of a man and a woman committed in London.

Barbosa, without doubt, was an exceptional woman. Confronted with a world ruled by men, she had to face a hard competition from male chauvinism in her own country. She did not limit herself only to be one of them, but she also managed to exceed them becoming Chief Inspector.

Her name's origin was truly significant and it had always been surrounded by intrigue. When her mother became pregnant with her, she experienced some kind of Marian revelation. At least that's what she told her husband when she got pregnant before they first had sex. Virgin Mary appeared to her in dreams and said, “Hello Lucy; how are you, beautiful? You are going to have a baby girl. This little girl will fill you with joy and will bring salvation to many people. When she woke up, she saw in front of her a name that was being painted by an invisible hand: Maria. The woman had decided to call her little girl by one single name: Maria; but the father, Fabio Barbosa, did not agree with that decision, and he said she should be called also Aparecida. According to what he said, the first time he saw his daughter, she spontaneously materialized herself in the cradle, when just a few moments earlier, the cradle was empty. It was never possible to know with certainty if the two stories both parents recounted to everybody were true or not; the thing is that they decided to give her both names. Some persons were saying that Maria Aparecida had a virtue, and many people told how they had seen her appearing suddenly out of nowhere. Because of her name, the girl grew up burdened by stigma and mockery. In her district for instance, at the police station, it was usual between male police officers to make jokes about her second name, since she often appeared behind someone without anyone noticing. Although Aparecida was her given name, they referred to her as "the Aparecida” when they talked about her, but to tell the truth, while under her command, everyone had taken her seriously. She was an experienced police, and she was used to investigation. During all her professional career she had intervened in numerous cases, and most of them were successfully resolved, so she earned everyone's respect. However, during all the years she worked as a detective she never had an opportunity like that before. The fact of working side by side with such a prestigious police was making her feel worried. Undoubtedly, she had a great responsibility. First of all she could not defraud those chiefs whose confidence she had gained.