By the time Rita and Dominguez finally got to Silvio the sun was retreating from the sky. Pepelito began sidling happily up towards the fence. Maribel stood chewing the cud from a distance. It felt strangely beautiful. There was nothing from Heather, but Rita was about ready to forget about work for today.

'Just there, Dios mio, he wasn't in a great way,' Silvio grunted, pointing to a thick, partly crushed patch of thistles and stinging nettles. The thick tracks of the gangsters' truck as it had reversed and re-reversed were still visible. Several goose feathers were trodden into the ground. Next time might not be so lucky, Rita thought with a jolt to the stomach, wishing she lived closer.

'Wasn't in a great way? You said he was dead!' Dominguez said, recoiling as Silvio's killer geese waddled towards him.

'Yes, that's right, he was.' Silvio sniffed and lit a cigarette. Rita grinned as Pepelito came right up to the fence and licked her. His coat looked much healthier and sleeker, and he was clearly so pleased to see her. Alfonso was coming soon, and after spending some time with their four-legged friend, they'd go home together.

'Hola dulcito, yes, yes, you're so good, toro, am I pleased to see you,' she grinned.

'How is he doing?' she said, rubbing his nose.

'He's great, being outside with Maribel has done him the world of good. He's got much more energy,' Silvio said, adding, 'Wouldn't you say so, my boy?'

Dominguez backed right away from the fence, towards the farmhouse door. Heather still hadn't emailed back, and Rita was both impatient for a reply and glad not to be bothered while she spent time with the animals.

'You must be Maribel,' she said as the elderly cow walked towards them.

'Yep, my uncle's killer cow herself,' Dominguez said nervously. Maribel's horns were sharp stumps protruding from her light brown coat. She was bigger than Pepelito and strode up to the fence looking tough, her huge udders swinging, then stretched her neck over the fence.

'Hello,' Rita said cautiously.

'Don't be ridiculous, boy. My old girl just sent some good for nothing where he belonged,' Silvio snapped.

'She killed someone, Silvio.'

Yes, looking at her posture and size, it was easy to imagine Maribel had killed. Rita picked some grass from behind the fence and offered it to her cautiously as the two men sat down on the bench together talking.

Rita took some water out of her bag and drank. Alfonso texted her to say he was on his way. You take your job home with you, her ex-husband always said. She'd felt oddly ashamed of asking Alfonso about Sonia Gutiérrez on their date. He wasn't a suspect. But he was entangled regardless because of his beliefs, the people he knew, the choices he made. While Alfonso treated Pepelito's wounds, someone was abducting and murdering Caroline McKenzie.

He – it was almost certainly a he - would have watched the corrida.

To aficionados, not fighting, being cowardly, a toro manso, was the worst 'crime' a bull could commit. Seeing Pepelito escape would have enraged this perpetrator.

He liked pain, he liked torture.

Denied his pleasure, he'd got it another way.

Rita watched as Pepelito and Maribel excitedly toyed with an old tyre from Silvio's truck, rolling it towards each other and chasing each other around the field. Watching them playful and happy almost reminded her of a younger Gloria. Even Silvio's geese added to the beauty, floating in the lake, or resting at the shaded end keeping cool in the heat. Animals were what gave her life. They were what kept her going.

Watching the deadly gaggle strut past like a football gang, Rita felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. Her mother was calling her. This time, she couldn't really avoid her. It was her dad she wanted to speak to; it was difficult to face, but she'd have to visit in person at some point to catch him in private.

'Yes?' she said.

'Finally. I've been trying to call you for two days. You never answer your phone!'

'I've only just finished work. I'm working on a serial killer investigation. I've not got time for much else.' After speaking to Bonita, Lucia and Jorge, dealing with Mansouri's inexperience, she was exhausted. Tomorrow, she was going to the plaza de toros. Maybe one of them knew the killer. Maybe one of them was the killer. The thought of being anywhere nearby left her feeling contaminated.

'It's Maria's birthday at the weekend. Just give her one call. One call, please. Make your old mum happy.' She ignored what Rita said completely.

'We've been through this, Mum. I can't have anyone in my life who's OK with him as a husband.' Pepelito walked back towards her, obviously wanting to play. A cow from a neighbouring farm mooed loudly - loudly enough for her mother to hear.

'So was it you? Are you a farmer now? Why on earth did you do it?' her mum snapped.

'Do what?' A butterfly flitted past.

'The bull, Rita. What possessed you to keep that bull indoors?' Rita could hear Alfonso's van coming up the hill and just wanted to get off the line. Then she was torn up with a sudden guilt for feeling this way about the woman who raised her.

'Mum, he collapsed in my doorway looking like one of those dolls the bad guys stick pins into in horror movies. There was so much blood. So I rang a vet. How could I bring him back to this torture?' Her voice was tense. She couldn't tell her mum about Alfonso. Anyone she dated would never be as good as her ex-husband with his estate agent's salary, and her mum would shoot off endless questions and uncalled-for advice.

'He's not fierce. As soon as he was shown love, when people were gentle and kind, he was just like a big dog.' Rita's mother sniffed dismissively.

'Your perfect son in law's sent thugs from the ring after him twice, first time I had to move out because of pobrecito getting so scared he kicked down my doors to get away from them. The second time they broke into the farm and tried to steal him!' Rita spat.

'I see,' her mother said at last, sighing loudly, after not speaking for two minutes. Her voice seemed to soften a bit as she said, 'And how is he doing now?'

'Who?' Rita said.

'What's the bull's name?'

'Pepelito,' Rita said, confused.

'Well, is he OK? Pepelito? Maybe you can send me a picture?'

'What? Mum, what is all this?'

'I've just got off the phone to your sister. He didn't have the decency to tell her himself, she read it on some celebrity gossip website, she's spent the whole day in tears. Javier's been having an affair!' Her mother sounded on the edge of tears herself.

'Just one?' Rita said under her breath.

'I beg your pardon?'

'Nothing. What do you want me to do about it?' Rita snapped. Her sister knew who Castella was when she married him. And now she expected sympathy?

'Just call her.'

'I'll think about it,' Rita said.

'You've always liked animals, it's one of the good things about you,' her mother said grudgingly. There was a long pause.

'Well, I'd better go,' she finally said. 'Look after yourself. Love you lots.'

'You too, Mum,' Rita said, not knowing how to respond to this sudden display of affection at all.

As Rita stood by the fence with the animals, she heard Silvio messing around in his tool shed, scoffing ‘Oh, don’t be stupid, son!’ into his phone. Dominguez laughed, giving her an amused glance.

‘You’d never think anyone died here last night, would you?’ he mouthed.

‘Tell your boss to come here and fetch him himself, if that’s what he wants!' Silvio snapped as he came out of the shed.

'That isn't nice, is it,' he sighed, sitting down next to Dominguez  on his wooden bench.

'Nobody important, just some sinvergüenza, one of Castella's boys. I've got to give him back, they say, or they'll kill me. I'd like to see them try!' Dominguez opened his mouth but the farmer silenced him, jabbing his finger in his face as Alfonso's car pulled up outside the farmhouse. That wasn’t an empty threat, Rita thought, feeling herself shudder.

'Of course I won’t, before you ask! Why would I do a thing like that?'

****

'He's so much better than he was, aren't you, toro, when I saw him first he was bleeding so much and in so much pain, I was worried I'd have to put him to sleep.’ After checking Pepelito over, Alfonso walked back out of the gate, taking a cautious glance behind him at Maribel.

'Dios mio, he's been in the wars! And this ludicrous clown in a sequin jacket has the damned cheek to demand him back with menaces?' Silvio's voice was indignant. Pepelito knew he wasn't angry with him. He just spoke like this sometimes.

'Tell me about it. But good news is, you've already reduced the dosage to 50%, you can bring it to 25% for 7 days, then stop. Any signs of discomfort or illness, call me straight away.' Alfonso patted him from over the fence and fed him some grass.

What a happy day he'd had.

'And his tail? Damned fools, twisting it this way and that.'

'A bit swollen and bruised, but there doesn't seem to be anything broken, just keep an eye on him over the next week,' Alfonso said, touching Pepelito on the nose. Every day it was easier to raise his head, to crane it over the fence, to rub on things, give himself a scratch. He liked watching the cows in the field below his, especially one with brown and white splodges.

The cows liked watching him, too.

'Well, I'm glad he's on the mend.' Silvio seemed the happiest Pepelito had heard him around humans.

'This is one very well loved bull. I think that’s half of it, don’t you?’ Alfonso said.

After the humans had gone Pepelito followed Maribel back to the barn; Rita had advised Silvio to lock it at night. He had lots of space – it was just him and Maribel. He rolled in some straw and chased an old football around for a bit, but she was old and didn't like that sort of fun for long.

He'd been wrong about her. Humans seemed to speak her name with a kind of awed respect. She’d seen enough in her life to understand exactly who those men were.

'Got enough of everything, do you? If you need anything, you know where I am,' Silvio said as he locked the barn door, speaking to him and Maribel as if he was the owner of a guest house. Maribel put her front foot over his as they rested.

*

'...thinking of telling the boss I’m done. Nearly had my eye out. I'm not about to get pecked to death to feed his ego.'

'Think of the money, though, Hector.'

'Yeah. We'll need guns, if we come back. Not doing that in a hurry, just for a bull.' Pepelito sat up and listened with his excellent hearing, safe behind the barn walls. The voices were coming from down the hill, several hundred metres away. He nudged Maribel hard as she slept. She stirred, sat up and pushed him away with her nose, giving an irritated grunt.

The men's tone of voice alarmed him. 'Yes. We'll need guns. We'll need to shoot that mad bastard, and that other cow he's got. She's vicious.’

‘Yeah. But then there's the geese. I can’t cope, I can’t...'

'Maybe poison?'

Maribel got to her feet. She made a very loud, very long moo and prowled around the barn. After a few seconds Pepelito did the same, and their neighbours picked the call up. The cows' bellows echoed around the hillside as the men approached. One of the geese had woken up somewhere outside, its flat feet waddling on the path.

'Oh, Jesus. We better go.'

AN: Poor Castella, lol...oh dear how sad never mind. 🙄