Chapter 20 – Unwanted help

Chapter 20 – Unwanted help

Francisco and João Tavares are back to their paperwork, when the first one observes a rather thick binder and asks his chief:

- Chief, can you imagine how many leads we have actually followed since this all began?

João Tavares replies:

- About a million, no? I think I’ve stopped counting long ago, Francisco.
- Well let me tell you, chief, that there were over two thousand in Portugal, plus some five thousand that were sent in from England.
- And all for nothing – João Tavares says.
- That’s true – Francisco agrees – Help that only further complicated this entire mess…
- In truth – João Tavares interrupts -, maybe it did not complicate anything at all, Francisco.
- What do you mean? – Francisco asks.
- Let’s see… for each one of them that was explored to no avail, the closer we have come to the truth, right? Look at it, from that torrent of information that we received for months, the faucet is now only dripping a few drops every once in a while.
- You’re right, Chief.
- The chief is always right – João Tavares replies with a smile.

João Tavares knew what he was talking about. He knew that the truth would not emerge from a single policeman, Portuguese or English. He knew that the definite solution of this case would come as the result of the hard work and the exhaustive exploration of every single theory that would be annexed to the process in the meantime.

If a single lead, pointing to precise persons or locations, failed to be explored until its natural elimination, it would always be a loose end that others would use to argue the neglect and the incompetence of the Portuguese police. Thousands of leads were explored by the investigators from the Algarve and from Lisbon.

In order to eliminate any doubts, over five hundred apartments and hundreds of vehicles were thoroughly searched in the area, and hundreds of persons were questioned. Kilometers and kilometers of coastline and inland terrain were searched. If Madeleine was in the area, dead or alive, she would have been found. But she wasn’t. Nor could she be.