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records, to compare them with the number of dead buried in the grave. The answer raised even more questions: on June 9th, eleven sailors had been lowered into the pit, and exactly eleven bodies remained buried on the 27th.
    Nearby, the expert also identified remnants of candles and a pile of ashes containing pieces of a white sheet. It was a detail that incriminated Rufino, because a similar residue had been found during the first investigation and in almost the same place.
    Unfortunately, when the head gravedigger witnessed the attack of the vultures, he was overtaken by the impulse to fill in the grave before warning the police. This hampered the analysis of footprints, a problem exacerbated by the large number of people who visited the scene after the incident was discovered.
    Still, Baeta ascertained that at least one individual had been there in bare feet, and that it was probably the same person who had opened the grave. This footprint, of course, was one more clue against the old man, who had not lost certain habits from his time in captivity and never wore shoes.
    From investigations carried out in the vicinity, an old woman, a practitioner of
macumba
, reported that shortly after the Big Hour (midnight) she lowered gifts to the Lord Skull, at the gateway to Little Kalunga (the graveyard), consisting of manioc flour, firewater, snuff, and seven black candles.
    The Lord Skull had commanded her to sing and trace twenty-one
quimbanda
points (witchcraft lines), seven times each. And should she see anything, she should close her eyes. And should she hear anything, she should not respond.
    To visit a cemetery at that time, the Big Hour, is not for the faint of heart. But the old woman had faith in the
catiços
(the entities), especially in Lord Skull.
    So, when she finished tracing her lines with the
pemba
chalk at the gate, the last point having been traced at about 2 a.m. , she heard footsteps getting closer and closer. She kept on singing, though almost at a whisper, lowered her face, and clenched her eyes shut. When she could almost feel the man’s breath, she heard a mocking voice:
    â€œGood evening, ma’am!”
    Her statement, of course, was never officially taken down. Baeta asked one more question: “Can you remember with certainty whether these were the footsteps of someone wearing shoes?”
    The witness did not have to think very hard before answering yes. However, her statement—which could have cast doubt on the intruder’s identity—did not prevent the captain of the First District, after receiving a note from the lieutenant who was accompanying Baeta, from taking the only reasonable measure in his opinion: ordering the arrest of the individual to whom the evidence pointed.
    Rufino was arrested by three officers that same day before 11 a.m. , while walking down Santa Teresa Hill, at the corner of Riachuelo.
    At the precinct, the captain ordered some of his men to return to Santa Teresa in order to break into the suspect’s home and conduct a search.
    â€œI didn’t dig up those bodies.”
    Rufino’s denial did not convince the captain.
    â€œWere you or were you not at the English Cemetery last night after the gates closed?”
    Rufino did not answer, claiming that his profession demanded complete secrecy. The sergeant insulted him, threatened him, and even kicked at him violently, but the officers restrained the sergeant. When push came to shove, they would defend the old man. Such was their fear of his power.
    â€œHe didn’t do it, boss. The old man doesn’t lie.”
    The captain doubted Rufino, and the claim that he never lied, for the simple reason that he considered it impossible for human beings to withstand the weight of the absolute truth. But he developed a very logical line of reasoning, beginning with the following premise: if he did not lie, if he was incapable of lying, his silence was tantamount to a confession. Therefore, the old