被預言的謀殺（5）

斯特雷薩納派了一隊調查員過去。按照內政部長的建議，調查員乘坐第一夫人的直升機抵達聖路易斯（一個靠近墨西哥邊境的城鎮）的一個足球場，那兒證人正等著他們。據證人供述摘要（他後來提交給了報紙《El Quetzalteco》），他稱是一個叫「畢達哥拉斯」的街頭黑幫被雇傭殺害了羅森博格，價格是18萬美元。證人擔心自己會送命，說他與黑幫的殘忍頭目關係很近。「我不想再殺人，」他說。然後他拋出了一個爆炸性消息——或者以他的話說，「這將爆炸，因為政治人士捲入其中。」
The witness said that the gang received the first installment of its fee from Roxana Baldetti, a member of Congress who is running as Otto Pérez Molina』s Vice-Presidential candidate. The witness said that he had saved text messages that he had exchanged with a member of Pérez Molina』s party, who had offered him a car and money to remain silent. Castresana, speaking of the witness, recalled, 「With this testimony, we could have arrested the leader of the political opposition and put him in jail.」
　　證人說，該黑幫從羅克薩納·巴爾德蒂（Roxana Baldetti）那兒收到了第一筆預付款，而巴爾德蒂是國會成員，正以莫利納的副總統候選人身份參選。該證人說，他保存了與莫利納黨派一名成員往來的簡訊，其人曾給他一輛汽車和錢，要他保守秘密。卡斯特雷薩納談及這位證人，回憶道，「有了這些證詞，我們就可以逮捕這位政治反對派領袖，並將他下獄。」

Castresana had asked President Colom』s Interior Minister to make sure that nobody from the media was at the stadium, fearing that the identities of CICIG agents might be exposed. (At one point, a clerk handling evidence in the Rosenberg case was gunned down in Guatemala City.) But a pack of reporters suddenly appeared, and the news soon broke around the country that Otto Pérez Molina and Roxana Baldetti were the alleged masterminds of Rosenberg』s murder. 「PROOF DELIVERED,」 the banner headline in one newspaper read.
　　卡斯特雷薩納要求科羅姆總統的內政部長確保沒有媒體人士在這個體育場，他擔心CICIG密探的身份暴露。（一次，一名在羅森博格案中處理證據的職員就在瓜地馬拉城被槍殺。）但是一群記者突然出現，這條新聞迅即傳遍全國，說是莫利納與巴爾德蒂被指控為羅森博格謀殺案的主謀。「證據交付」，一家報紙的頭條標題這麼寫道。

But, when Castresana and members of CICIG tried to confirm elements of the witness』s story, they were stymied. They checked the security cameras in the hotel parking lot where the witness claimed that the payoff from Baldetti had taken place—nothing of the sort was on tape. Other evidence that the witness provided was fabricated. Even his name was an alias. The whole meeting was an elaborately staged act of misdirection. The witness later confessed, 「I received a call from a member of the government saying, 『I have a job for you,』 and he offered me money . . . to give false evidence.」 The witness alleged that Colom』s spokesman and the First Lady were part of the scheme.
　　不過，當卡斯特雷薩納與CICIG成員試圖證實證人敘述的要素時，他們卻陷入困境。他們檢查了賓館停車場的監控攝像頭，證人稱此處是接收巴爾德蒂付款的地方，但錄像中根本就沒有這樣的場景。證人提供的另一證據也是偽造的。甚至他的名字都是假的。整個會面就是一場精心安排的誤導破案的表演。證人後來供認，「我接到一名政府成員的電話，『我有一項工作給你，』他給了我錢……要我做假證。」該證人稱科羅姆的發言人和第一夫人參與了這一陰謀。

The government denied the allegations. But Castresana was furious. He believed that the government was also behind the unmarked cars following his agents and the attempt to seize the potential witness at the hotel. Perhaps members of the Colom Administration were trying to cover up their crimes. Or, perhaps, after so many years of judicial disarray, they thought that, if they were being framed, the only way out was to frame someone else.
　　政府否認了這些指控。但卡斯特雷薩納憤怒不已。他相信政府也是那台尾隨探員的無標誌車的幕後主使，還是在賓館抓捕潛在證人的幕後主使。也許科羅姆政府成員試圖掩蓋罪行。又或者，在多年司法混亂之後，他們認為，如果自己遭陷害，唯一的出路就是再嫁禍他人。

Castresana sent a formal complaint to the Colom Administration, and forwarded copies to the U.N. It was only then, Castresana told me, that the government stopped meddling.
　　卡斯特雷薩納向科羅姆政府發去一封正式抗議信，並抄送給了聯合國。直到那時，卡斯特雷薩納對我說，政府才停止干涉。

「Botar un palo grande,」 the voice said. 「Knock over a big stick.」
　　「扔大棒，」那個聲音說。「用大棒打。」

A Chilean agent of CICIG was sitting in a small, stuffy room, nearly three months after Rosenberg』s death, eavesdropping on Willian Santos, the owner of the black Mazda. The Rosenberg case marked the first time in the history of Guatemala that wiretapping was being conducted by a legal entity, rather than by secret military intelligence or some other unauthorized body.
　　羅森博格被害將近三個月之後，CICIG的一名智利籍密探正坐在一間小而密閉的房間里，竊聽黑色馬自達的車主威廉·桑托斯。羅森博格案在瓜地馬拉歷史上開了先河，執法部門首度可使用竊聽工具，而不是秘密的軍方情報部門或其他一些未授權組織使用。

For weeks, CICIG had been monitoring Santos』s conversations and tracking his movements. Castresana and his team had mapped out, with flowcharts and photographs, at least part of the criminal network to which Santos belonged. So far, investigators had identified ten members of the gang. Nearly all of them were current or former police officers; one was a veteran of the military. Their conversations confirmed that the men had become professional killers. The question was who had hired them to assassinate Rosenberg.
　　幾星期以來，CICIG一直在竊聽桑托斯的談話，並追蹤了他的活動。藉助活動流程圖與照片，卡斯特雷薩納與其團隊已經至少掌握了桑托斯所屬犯罪網路的部分情況。迄今為止，調查員已確認了這伙黑幫中十名成員的身份。他們幾乎全都是現任或前任警察；其中一人是軍隊老兵。根據他們的談話可以確認這些人都已是職業殺手。問題在於是誰雇了他們來暗殺羅森博格。

CICIG agents had intercepted more than ten thousand of the gang』s fugitive conversations. But, even in an age of listening devices and satellite surveillance and Wayback Machines, much of history remains beyond confirmation, out of earshot, buried with the corpses. One of the leaders of the gang was recorded saying that he wanted to hear 「zero comments」 about the Rosenberg 「job,」 because there were extremely powerful people who didn』t want anyone 「running off their mouths.」
　　CICIG探員截獲了這夥人一萬次以上的短暫對話。但是，即使是在擁有監聽設備、衛星監控和網站時光倒流機的時代，許多歷史仍然難以確定，打探不到，死無對證。對話記錄里，一名黑幫頭目說，關於羅森博格「任務」，他要求「絕口不提」，因為有權勢熏天的人不想任何人「走漏風聲」。

As the Chilean agent listened to Santos, she wondered what he had meant by 「knock over a big stick.」 The gang had developed its own coded language: 「greens」 meant money; 「to lift」 was to kidnap a person; and 「shooting up a car」 was an assassination. The more the Chilean agent listened to the conversation, the more she realized that to knock over a big stick was to kill someone important.
　　這名智利密探聽到桑托斯的話時，她想弄明白他說的「用大棒打」是什麼意思。這個黑幫有自己的黑話：「青菜」表示錢；「提」表示綁架人；而「射車」表示暗殺。智利密探對這次對話聽得越多，她越加意識到「用大棒打」就是要殺某個重要人物。

Though Castresana was careful not to blow CICIG』s undercover operation, he interceded repeatedly to foil the gang』s plans. When he learned that the gang was about to rob a bank, he made sure that extra police were stationed out in front, and he tipped off a Korean businessman after discovering that the gang had plans to 「lift」 him. By September, the gang had begun to suspect it had a mole. As a hit man said on the wire, someone was 「letting out the soup.」 The leaders assumed that the culprit was the military veteran, since he didn』t come from their group of policemen.
　　雖然卡斯特雷薩納小心翼翼不讓CICIG的秘密行動暴露，他還是不斷插手以挫敗該黑幫的計劃。當他獲悉這夥人要搶銀行時，就確保其他警力預先派駐加以防範，在發現這夥人計劃「提」一名韓國商人時，他事先向該商人示警。到了9月，這夥人開始懷疑出了內奸。如一名殺手在電話中所說，有人「泄露了計劃。」頭目以為內奸是那個老兵，因為他不是警察出身。

On September 8th, CICIG picked up another conversation between two gang leaders. 「We have a problem,」 one of them said of the military veteran. 「He』s going around talking about Rosenberg.」 There was a long silence. 「I』m not going to freak out but I want to cut that son of a bitch down already.」 The man explained that he was just waiting for 「the green light.」
　　9月8日，CICIG截獲了黑幫兩個頭目之間的另一談話。「我們有麻煩了，」其中一人提及了老兵。「他到處談論羅森博格。」之後是長久的沉默。「這嚇不了我，不過我想把那個狗娘養的斬草除根。」那人解釋說他只是在等待「綠燈放行」。

Castresana felt that he could no longer wait. At dawn on September 11th, four months after Rosenberg was assassinated, three hundred CICIG agents, prosecutors, police, and soldiers swept into more than a dozen locations across Guatemala, apprehending the ten suspected hit men. By inspecting call logs from the suspects』 seized cell phones, CICIG identified an intermediary who had been in contact with the gang on the day of Rosenberg』s assassination. The intermediary, a man named Jesús Manuel Cardona Medina, was brought in for questioning. As Castresana knew, every secret is embedded with the possibility of betrayal, and after sustained interrogation Cardona Medina turned on his co-conspirators, coöperating with CICIG in exchange for a reduced sentence and placement in Guatemala』s witness-protection program. Two other gang members also flipped.
　　卡斯特雷薩納感覺他不能再等待下去了。9月11日拂曉，羅森博格遭暗殺4個月之後，300名CICIG密探、檢察官、警察和士兵掃蕩了遍及瓜地馬拉的十二個地點，逮捕了十名殺人嫌犯。通過檢查所查獲嫌犯手機的通話記錄，CICIG確認了一名中間人的身份，他曾在羅森博格被暗殺那天與這夥人聯絡過。這名中間人是一個叫傑西·曼紐埃·卡多納·梅迪納（Jesús Manuel Cardona Medina）的男子，他被逮捕訊問。卡斯特雷薩納知道，每個秘密都嵌入了背叛的可能，經受審問之後，卡多納·梅迪納供出了他的同謀，他願意與CICIG合作以減免刑期，並置於瓜地馬拉的證人保護程序之下。其他兩名黑幫成員也交待了。

According to the hit men, the gang had been hired by Francisco and Estuardo Valdés Paiz, two brothers who owned one of Guatemala』s largest pharmaceutical companies. Surprisingly, the brothers were related to Rosenberg—they were cousins of his first wife. The Valdés Paiz brothers had contacted the gang and agreed to pay forty thousand dollars for the hit. The target was described to the hit men simply as an 「extortionist,」 and Cardona Medina was given a cell phone for communicating with a mysterious inside man, who provided minute details about what the extortionist looked like. The inside man also indicated the ideal place to shoot Rosenberg, which is why there were tire marks at the scene of the crime: the previous night, the hit men had marked the spot.
　　據殺手供認，雇傭這個黑幫的是弗朗西斯科（Francisco）和伊斯特多·瓦爾德斯·派茲（Estuardo Valdés Paiz）兩兄弟，他們擁有瓜地馬拉最大的製藥公司之一。令人驚訝的是，兩兄弟與羅森博格不無關係——他們是他髮妻的表親。瓦爾德斯·派茲兄弟與該黑幫聯繫，同意為殺人支付4萬美元。給殺手描述的襲擊目標只是一名「敲詐勒索者」，而卡多納·梅迪納的手機是別人給的，用來與一名神秘的中間人通信，該中間人提供了敲詐勒索者長相的詳盡細節，還指明了射殺羅森博格的理想地點，這就是犯罪現場留有輪胎印的原因：前一個晚上，殺手先踩好了點。

A hidden design was finally emerging. But why would the Valdés Paiz brothers—who, by all accounts, loved Rosenberg—want him dead? What did their actions have to do with Rosenberg』s video and his allegations? And who was the inside man? Susanne Jonas, a scholar who spent years studying the country, once wrote, 「Guatemala mocks me: 『Just as you think you understand, we』ll show you that you understand nothing at all.』 」
　　一個隱藏的計劃終於浮出水面。但是，為何瓦爾德斯·派茲兄弟會要羅森博格死？眾人皆說，他們喜歡他。他們的行為與羅森博格的錄像及其指控有何關聯？還有，誰是那名中間人？蘇珊妮·喬納斯（Susanne Jonas）是一位研究該國數年的學者，她寫道，「瓜地馬拉嘲弄著我：『就在你以為什麼都一清二楚時，我們會告訴你，你其實一無所知。』」

In addition to investigating the hit men, Castresana and his team reconstructed Rosenberg』s final months as best they could, trying to pinpoint who might want him dead. As CICIG agents were exploring the question of motive, the investigation took, as Castresana put it, a series of 「stupefying turns.」
　　除了調查殺手之外，卡斯特雷薩納與其團隊還竭盡所能重構了羅森博格人生的最後幾個月，嘗試找出要他死的那個人。當CICIG密探在研究動機問題時，按卡斯特雷薩納的話說，調查員取得了一系列「讓人瞠目結舌的轉折」。
Investigators had obtained from Mendizábal the telephone number from which Rosenberg had reported receiving threats. Phone records confirmed that Rosenberg had answered a series of calls from this number. The calls, which originated from a cell phone, began on May 5th and ended on May 10th, the day Rosenberg was killed. During that period, the calls were made almost every day and were usually relatively short—just enough time, it seemed, to convey a threat.
　　從蒙迪扎巴爾那兒，調查員獲得了羅森博格報告接到威脅的電話號碼。通話記錄確認羅森博格接到了該號碼的一系列電話。這些電話來自一部手機，起於5月5日，止於5月10日羅森博格被害那天。在此期間，電話幾乎每天都打，通常很短，看去將將夠傳達一個威脅。

　　通話記錄還顯示，該手機僅與一部別的電話聯繫過，就是卡多納·梅迪納所報告的接受自瓦爾德斯·派茲兄弟的那部電話。因此，向羅森博格發出威脅的人看來就是那個給殺手髮指令的神秘中間人。該中間人與卡多納·梅迪納最後通信時間是5月10日早上8點——通知劊子手，羅森博格上路了。

　　卡斯特雷薩納與其同事試著追蹤這部手機的機主。手機是用現金購買的，這樣可以保證匿名。但這部電話的營業稅單上有一個褪色的簽名——是羅森博格司機的。卡斯特雷薩納相信他們已經找到了這名中間人。

　　調查員將司機帶來審訊。他不否認購買了這部手機，但他發誓是羅森博格要他購買的，同時還買了另一部手機。司機說，羅森博格要他用現金付賬，並在文書上不要透露自己的身份；他是不小心將名字留在了營業稅單上的。

卡斯特雷薩納懷疑司機在說謊。但羅森博格法律事務所的秘書確認那天司機買了手機，並提交了一張報賬的收條。如果司機是同謀，那他這麼做似乎不可思議。

　　司機說，羅森博格保留了一部手機，並命他將另一部交給弗朗西斯科·瓦爾德斯·派茲，記錄顯示該手機正是卡多納·梅迪納收到的那部。突然之間，不同調查路徑都匯聚成同一個結論：殺害羅森博格的殺手所使用的手機，正是羅森博格自己購買的。CICIG調查員隨後有更為驚人的發現。通信專家確定，據稱發出威脅的電話都出自同一個地方：羅森博格自家公寓內。卡斯特雷薩納認為，是羅森博格向自己發出了威脅。
　　卡斯特雷薩納及其團隊發現，就在死前，羅森博格開出了四萬美元的支票——正是給殺手的數額——並命他的秘書交給瓦爾德斯·派茲兄弟，由此，關於幕後主使的所有懸而未解的疑問便全都迎刃而解了。羅森博格從一位客戶的巴拿馬賬戶取了這筆錢，為的是掩蓋他參與了策劃。似乎難以置信，卡斯特雷薩納及其團隊現在確認羅森博格——不是總統，不是第一夫人，也不是古斯塔沃·阿萊霍斯或其他人——才是他自己謀殺案的幕後主使。