Efraín Mendible

Efraín Mendible is 29 and a liaison officer for the tournament's organizing committee. Born in Caracas, the son of an accountant at the port of La Guaira, he graduated in law at the top of his class. He traded the courts for football, because he said lawyers only see the worst in people and the tournament was a chance to see the best. He talks about football with passion and about politics with care, almost always lowering his voice.

He lives in a one-bedroom apartment in a three-story building, with a window onto a shopping street, a desk with law books and stacked sports papers, a radio always tuned to the match broadcasts and a creaking standing fan. On the wall, he pinned the tournament schedule drawn by hand. He eats lunch standing, drinks coffee in little cups and admits he never learned to cook anything but eggs.

He is tall and thin, with light brown skin, short black hair parted to the side and tortoiseshell glasses. He wears a beige summer suit, a white shirt, a narrow dark tie and a leather briefcase under his arm. The thin mustache is always neatly trimmed. Polite and helpful, he solves any problem of the delegation before it is voiced, and that's why the club adopted him.

He has accompanied Club Cibeles since Tuesday the 20th, when the team landed. He handles transport, training, tickets and translating what the waiters say. The center forward Barcala called him abogaditoabogadito Spanish for "little lawyer": an affectionate or teasing nickname for a lawyer or someone who talks like one., and he took the nickname as a compliment. Asked about the kidnappers, he says the radio talks about people who want to be heard and chose the worst way, but that they released the man without a scratch, and that is also a sentence. He admits he belongs to football, and that the rest the detective will invent on his own.

It could be the cordiality of a diligent young man, who loves the tournament and can't hide his anxiety. It could be the veneer of someone who knows how to measure every word. The detective will have to decide which.