The obvious would be to think that, as he rushed down the slope, Joaquín Herrero had dropped his lantern at some vague point on Navia's property. Perhaps, if the cursed object was not seen around the path where he slipped, it might have rolled a few meters further down, until crashing into some other pothole that prevented him from continuing his journey to the river.

But none of that happened.

With the help of half a dozen men—many more than necessary for this mission, in my opinion—we searched not only this estate but also those around it where Herrero might have passed moments before his fateful journey, all in vain.

We found no lantern. Neither whole nor in pieces. And there was no possibility that the rain had washed it away and buried it in some mud hole beyond our reach. Because, as Freire had mentioned, that night only a few drops fell. Enough to keep the crops watered, but not enough to significantly alter the terrain's surface.

So, given that it was already official that Ballejo's report stated that Herrero met his death sometime between two and five in the morning on the twenty-second, the only conclusion that remained was that a second person had accompanied him to the Ribera. And that this unidentified individual was the one who carried a lantern to guide them both.

"Was there any indication that Herrero was accompanied on his walk?" The lieutenant posed this question to me without hiding his skepticism, something understandable, for affirming that there might have been a companion also implied pointing out that someone witnessed the event and chose not to report it.

"As much as finding indications... No," Before my superior could argue against my theory, I hurried to add, "But we also can't assert with certainty that Herrero was alone. Since the accident happened where it did, there are many people who pass through there daily. And that's not to mention all the commotion when the body was found; any traces that might have been there could have been easily erased."

"What are you implying in that case? That someone pushed him?"

"It could be... But it also might not be."

I corrected myself instantly, seeing my superior's disapproving expression. Logic said it was impossible for a human to even venture into those places at night without a tool to illuminate the path, but the evidence pointed to Herrero not carrying such a thing.

If we referred to the document that the doctor later drafted, after examining the body more thoroughly in his office, we concluded that there was no struggle of any kind prior to death. And that, in fact, all the wounds corresponded to an accidental fall.

The mystery in all this was evident. The lieutenant knew it as well as I did, as he was the first to point out the absence of a lantern in the vicinity. But he knew well that he wouldn't press the issue beyond what was necessary, not when we already had a second opinion from the doctor and there was no clear motive for anyone to harm our victim.

"Herrero had no enemies, as far as we know," the lieutenant reviewed, "He worked as an errand boy at the town hall in his region, but he wasn't affiliated with any political party. He also helped out on his parents' farm when needed. He had just enough money,

coming from a humble family, so there couldn't have been inheritance motives involved."

"So, you'll say what anyone gained by killing him," I felt he wanted to say. And the truth is, I couldn't find any plausible reason to eliminate a guy like Herrero, who wasn't unpleasant to anyone.

"What do you think happened?"

"A miserable accident, that's what I believe. Although the lack of light still bothers me, we also can't completely rule out that you might have missed a corner to inspect," Without giving me time to protest, he continued, "If you insist, we can unofficially entertain your theory that there was another person with Herrero. Maybe both ventured into the vineyards with the intention of going somewhere. But that doesn't change the outcome of the investigations. Accidents like this happened often, maybe not with such a fatal outcome, but in any case, it wasn't unusual."

That's what the lieutenant meant. And as for leaving these speculations out of the report... Well, as plausible as the invisible witness theory sounded, it wasn't pleasant to have to question friends and family of the deceased when he hadn't even been buried yet, about a theory for which we had no evidence of its truth.

"According to Herrero's neighbors and acquaintances, he didn't mention anything about going to visit the Ribera," I pointed out, setting aside the other line of investigation for the moment, "Moreover, they told me that yesterday afternoon they saw him return home from work, as usual, and no one reported seeing him leave in the early morning."

"They might not have seen him do it, which is not unusual. Who pays attention to which person leaves their house when it's late at night? Even if the dogs make some noise, alerted by the movement, it's very likely that the neighbors won't pay it any mind, attributing the slight commotion to sniffing out some wild boar in the area."

"I haven't found anyone yet who claims to have met with Herrero at those hours. Most, if not all, of those I spoke to were surprised that he was found in the vineyards."

"Now, that's interesting. How far is it from his village to the Navia estate? Six or seven kilometers? He must have walked them, according to his family, no horse was missing from the stables in the morning."

The Herreros didn't own a car either—hardly anyone owned a vehicle in those mountains, to be frank—and, anyway, if he had used a horse to travel, someone would have noticed: Not only because of the sound such an animal could make trotting through the streets of the town, but because in this area it was customary to have stables on the ground floor of the houses. So, any movement that occurred in them would be heard by the tenants on the upper floor.

Unless someone had picked up Herrero halfway, which was even more difficult to prove than the fact that someone had witnessed his demise, there was nothing left but to assume that he had reached the Ribera on foot.

"But what could he have lost there at those hours?"

"I don't know, but it must have been urgent if he couldn't wait until dawn," Taboada concluded, "It takes courage, or desperation, to venture into those mountains in the dead of night, knowing that there are wolves in the area."

"A-are there?"

The lieutenant nodded, and as if it were the most normal thing in the world, he pointed out, "Why do you think people hurry to gather their livestock before nightfall? Those distant howls heard during the night are not from any sleepless dog kept by the neighbors."

"I-I figured that, it's just that I didn't know that wolves attack people."

And just the thought of it scared me, to be honest.

"They don't usually do it unless they feel threatened. Haven't you heard about what happened to Quintana five years ago?"

"No..."

"Never mind, forget I mentioned it then. I haven't told you anything and yet you're already trembling! Sit down, breathe, and be grateful we're not in the times of night raids, I can see how useful you'd be in such circumstances!"

Perhaps if he hadn't mentioned the wolves, my reaction wouldn't have been so exaggerated: as a child, I had heard some terrible stories involving these animals, and the fact that you could hear the wolves very close, from my relatives' house in those summers, didn't help my growing paranoia at all.

For the time being, I did as I was asked and sat down. It had been a couple of days since the body was found and, except for the first day when we searched the estates and briefly talked to the farmers who first reported it, we didn't make much progress in the investigation.

Yes, we had gone to talk to Herrero's family, to give them the news and ask them a couple of routine questions. But not much else. Nobody seemed to have anything useful to say, and if you added to this the report that Dr. Ballejo drafted, which stated that the wounds corresponded to an accidental fall, there didn't seem to be much more to uncover.

Now we were in our little headquarters, each at our desk, among various documents, and conversing in a more informal manner than routine about everything that had happened in the last few hours.

"Putting the wolves aside and returning to the subject of Herrero," the lieutenant continued, reminding me once again that what had happened to the deceased had nothing to do with any predator, "it's better if we don't interfere anymore. At least until after the funeral."

Perhaps that resolution wasn't very practical, from the point of view that evidence could be lost if one waited too long to act. But it also made sense in a way. A death like this didn't happen often, and if one started asking too many questions all of a sudden, it was almost certain that the inhabitants of those villages would start to become defensive and refuse to answer even the most irrelevant question, even if it had nothing to do with the incident.

"The funeral is tomorrow, right?"

"The plan was to have it today, but it turned out that the other night Herrero wasn't the only one who passed away." Seeing that I was going to ask, he ventured to comment, "Didn't you hear the death knell, early, on the twenty-second?"

"Yes, I did, but I thought it was for him..."

A reasonable mistake, because with the task of finding the lantern, I wasn't paying much attention to the time. Much less did I realize that when we were called in the village, there still hadn't been a chance to locate the priest. I knew it now, probably because the said priest would be at the home of the other deceased person, in another nearby village and not in his usual rectory.

The bells rang, but I didn't associate them with the right person.

"The widow of Vilar passed away that morning too. An unfortunate coincidence: that woman was over eighty years old and had been sick for weeks, we all knew she would pass away sooner or later. If Herrero's funeral has been delayed, it's only because the priest's workload is piling up these days."

I nodded absentmindedly, wondering if there really wouldn't be any connection between both deaths and the feeling of unease I noticed when we went in search of Herrero's body.

However, I quickly dismissed those thoughts, attributing them to absurd superstitions and to a suggestion caused by the fear of seeing a dead man in such circumstances. No. One of those deaths had been an accident, the other the natural culmination of the cycle of life. There was nothing more to ponder.