The Ignorance of Blood

The Ignorance of Blood
Robert Thomas Wilson

The final psychological thriller featuring Javier Falcon, the tortured detective from ‘The Hidden Assassins’ and ‘The Blind Man of Seville.’A sweltering Seville is recovering from the shock of a terrorist attack and Inspector Jefe Javier Falcon is struggling to fulfil his promise to its citizens: that he would find the real perpetrators of the outrage. The death of a gangster in a spectacular car crash offers vital evidence implicating the Russian mafia in his investigation…but pitches Falcon into the heart of a turf war over prostitution and drugs.Now the target of vicious hoods, Falcon finds those closest to him are also coming under intolerable pressure: his best friend, who’s spying for the Spanish government, reveals that he is being blackmailed by Islamist extremists, and Falcon’s own lover suffers a mother’s worst nightmare.In the face of such fanaticism and brutality, their options seem limited and Falcon realizes that only the most ruthless retaliation will work.But there is a terrible price to pay…

ROBERT WILSON

The Ignorance of Blood

For Jane

Love is the master key that opens

the gates of happiness, of hatred,

of jealousy, and, most easily of

all, the gate of fear.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Table of Contents

Epigraph (#u94f2145c-9f8f-57f2-a97e-268a639d642a)

Chapter 1 (#u8d771210-8142-5d3f-ad35-207eff10661e)

Chapter 2 (#ue12a89fd-4119-5e24-9ab1-6b91b445fad5)

Chapter 3 (#u8f42e3ac-8a28-5c16-99e7-5b3006a24fce)

Chapter 4 (#u86c5d454-cbe5-5641-b9b5-e4ebabbb1c97)

Chapter 5 (#ub37915bd-44bf-5cff-a00e-35e0f2a9ea73)

Chapter 6 (#u7e334d2e-d7d6-52fe-a567-9f33db1295e0)

Chapter 7 (#u856ae32e-8471-529b-a2ff-c013b3bf6336)

Chapter 8 (#ud2ce8e4e-5d63-543f-9f2e-21c732d00d51)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 26 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 27 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 28 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 29 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 30 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 31 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 32 (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgments (#litres_trial_promo)

By the Same Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Seville – Thursday, 14th September 2006, 19.30 hrs

The ice-cold vodka slipped down Vasili Lukyanov's throat as the traffic thundered past the lay-by on the new motorway from Algeciras to Jerez de la Frontera. The heat had started the sweat beading in his dark hair as he stood by the open boot of the Range Rover Sport. He was waiting for it to get dark, didn't want to do this last stretch into Seville in daylight. He drank, smoked, ate, and thought about his last night with Rita, the whole escapade making him silently, but grossly, oral. My God, she knew how to do it to him. He felt bad leaving her behind. He'd trained her to perfection.