Open Case File · DAILY-PURGE-TIME
The Printed Hour
In an industrial park south of Madrid stands a plant that takes in instruments sent by hospitals and manufacturers, kills the germs on them, and sends them back. The goods go into a large chamber that is filled with gas and then emptied of it, after which they are moved to the room next door to wait for the share soaked into them to work its way out. How long that wait must be is set, item by item, by a chart on the wall. That night, in the corridor outside Room 3, Joaquín Salgado, who kept the process records, said he felt dizzy and sank down; he was taken to a hospital and did not last the day. The heavy door beside where he had been standing was opened once that night, and opening that door is permitted by a single sheet of paper. The hour at which it could be opened was printed on that sheet from the start. Five people passed through that corridor that night, and the hours the five of them give do not yet line up into a single row. The time Room 3 actually spent drawing the gas out that night was shorter than what the chart says.
Scene
the outbound corridor in front of the aeration room of a working contract sterilization plant for medical devices · early November, a week when the sun sets early and frost settles before dawn
5 suspects
Elena Vargasnight sterilization operatorCalls people by the name of their post rather than by their own name. Says only operations, the outbound crew, the records keeper, and keeps saying it that way to the end.
Ignacio Rendónsite operations managerWhen asked something, first confirms back where the question is going, then answers. Will not carry on speaking until that confirming is done, so his answers always come a beat late.
Nuria Tellonight outbound and packing assistantRepeats what others said exactly as she heard it, without turning it into her own words. Having repeated it, she adds nothing about what it meant.
Adrián Montoyanight work party memberDraws a line at anything outside his own remit and will not answer it. Often uses the line that you would have to ask operations about that.
Leandro Quirogaequipment maintenance (dispatched from a contractor)Takes tools out and puts them back between answers. Like a man who cannot get words out unless his hands are busy, and the longer the questioning runs the more often he does it.
Exhibits
the Room 3 door and the recorder beside the frame
A heavy metal door with a single handle. A recorder whose paper strip winds slowly is fixed beside the frame, and each time the door opens or closes one mark is struck on the strip.
that night's bundle of permits hung on the outbound crew's clipboard
The permits for each room hang bound with a single clip. At the head of each sheet are the room number and the name of the goods, and below that the hour it may be opened is printed.
the panel in the equipment corridor and that night's fan record sheet
Indicator lamps stand in a row by room number, and below them a record sheet winds slowly. One line is drawn for each room.
the dead man's day-shift desk and the folder lying open
One folder lies open, with glasses and cold coffee beside it. The chair is pushed back from the desk.
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Field Guide
One question = one turn. Examine the clues, shake statements with confrontations, question everyone, then accuse — there is no undo.
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