Cover and article: Miguel Garroteo

If there is a criminal case that shocked Spanish public opinion that was that of Alcàsser's girls. Miriam García, Desirée Hernández and Toñi Gómez - 14 years old the first two, and 15 the last one - disappeared on Friday, November 13, 1992 on the road to the Cololor disco. The three teenagers decided to make horstop and from that moment they lost their track. The television spaces dedicated special programs, and their case became a matter of state. On January 27, 1993, beekeepers found an arm in the Roman Barranco, a little accessible area near the Tous swamp. The Civil Guard moved to that place and discovered buried three bodies in advanced state of decomposition. A few hours after the missing girls were. A medical flyer found in the place was the track to catch Miguel Ricart. But the other alleged culprit of torture and murders, Antonio Anglés, managed to flee. From that moment he became the most wanted man in the country, in a shadow that some placed in Portugal and others in the icy waters of Ireland. Multiple conspiracy theories began to be discussed in the sets of television chains.

Santiago Díaz ha trabajado de guionista en series de televisión como Compañeros, Código fuego, Un paso adelante y Aquí no hay quien viva. Debutó en la narrativa con Talión (Planeta, 2018), un thriller en el que una periodista comprometida con su oficio busca venganza. Después llegó la publicación de El buen padre (2021), la primera novela protagonizada por la inspectora Indira Ramos, una policía con un trastorno obsesivo compulsivo con la limpieza y los microbios, y un hiperbólico sentido de la justicia y del deber. Ese mismo año ganó el Premio Jaén de Narrativa Juvenil por Taurus: Salvar la tierra. En 2022, Díaz suma un nuevo título a la serie de Ramos, Las otras niñas, una novela que comienza con un descubrimiento impactante: en una gasolinera, durante la investigación de un atraco, aparecen las huellas del criminal más buscado de nuestro país. ¿Se imaginan quién puede ser?

We talked below with Santiago Díaz about his latest book, a black novel upside down: the police have the murderer and those who must look for is his victims.

"How did the case of Alcàsser girls live?"Did your story continue through television programs?

"I had a question that I have repeated all these years: if I am alive, where is Antonio Anglés?"

-Of course.That is what has led me to write this story.In 1992 I was 21 years old.I remember how all private and regional televisions began to cover the case.Each advance, each new detail generated a new special program.It was a case that struck me a lot and I followed it for quite some time.First the disappearance of the girls, then the search for Antonio Anglés, later the trial - at which the witnesses went to the judge and at night to the television set.It struck me a lot.I was horrified, but I, above all, had a question that I have repeated all these years: in case of being alive, where is Antonio Anglés?

"Have you not felt vertigo by daring with a story about which people have read so much, have you seen so many hours of television and that today continues with the latest documentaries?"

"I like to make it clear that my book, the other girls, is not about the Alcàsser case."It focuses on Anglés.One part is based on official reports and the other is absolute fiction because from the ship - in which he fled to Ireland - he has never been known more than him.Yes, it is true that being such a media issue, it housed certain doubts.I didn't know how people were going to take it.But I think writers must run certain risks.I believe that I have treated the part of the Alcàsser case with great respect.

—That part of the disappearance that has just mentioned, which was subject to multiple debates and conspiracy theories, you treat you in a simple way, without artifice: two criminals kidnap three teenagers who are an easy objective.In criminal matters, the simplest is usually the most logical?

-Of course.You have to try not to be very far to see what has really happened.As you say, the most logical explanation is the simplest.Do not devote too much time to details.I didn't want to go into the case.This happened 30 years ago, and although there are many people who have heard of it, I had to place the murderer telling his background, so that the readers who did not know him knew about the type of person who was Antonio Anglés.

- Since the bodies of Toñi, Míriam and Desirée appeared, multiple conspiracy theories occurred.In the popular imaginary the most calmed was that of a mysterious group of very powerful people who would have violated and murdered to shoot a snuff movie - regulation of real murders.What do you think of all this "denialism" of official explanations?

"I sincerely think there was nothing like that." The one who gives chills is Antonio Anglés. When he committed his murders he was escaped from the prison where he was serving a sentence for the kidnapping, torture and attempted murder of another woman. Alcàsser's was not an opportunity crime; He already had some history. From a young age he led the bands of youth criminals because he was the most violent. I think they were two, Anglés and Ricart; They were drugged, they had taken the "reinoles" - some sleeping pills they used as narcotic. The sentence talks about the possibility of a third person, but - in my opinion - there was not a powerful, but a criminal, someone from his atmosphere. I think there were many things that were done wrong in the investigation, but you have to understand the context. When Anglés escaped there were no current advances: mobiles, cameras ... There was a lot of pressure in the media and the neighbors wanting to find a culprit. That motivated that there were things during the investigation that did not do well. But I don't believe in the other theories of conspiracy, and I am convinced that nothing was hidden.

- Sometimes reality surpasses the most crazy of fictions, as has happened with the case of Madeleine McCann, the British girl missing in the Algarve more than 15 years ago.There are more and more tests that point to an imprisoned series rapist in Germany who lived there a season.A predator looking for the victims of him in different parts of the world, such as Antonio Anglés of his novel.

—The time to build the character left reality behind and get involved in fiction.And he raised me if a person like him, who has committed those horrible crimes, can live for 30 years without messing in trouble, without killing anyone.Anglés is a manual psychopath, and my answer is that no, that he has continued to kill if he were alive.As you say, there are very similar criminal profiles that cannot stop killing, no matter how much they try to change.As much as he has changed, in the case of continuing to live Antonio Anglés, he must have continued killing.That is something that is clear about the protagonist of my novel, Inspector Indira Ramos, who is convinced that a murderer like him must have continued to kill.

—»La historia no es más que una sucesión de monstruos o de víctimas. O de testigos«. ¿Eligió esta frase para arrancar su novela por ser fan de Chuck Palahniuk o porque siempre hay que poner una? ¿Quería darnos una pista de lo que nos íbamos a encontrar en su obra?

"For my Palahniuk she is a writer who had always attracted me a lot, even if it's a rare author."This phrase caught my attention, because it summarizes everything that is a black novel.When I was giving the last touches to the novel I remembered her and I looked for her, because I fit perfectly with what I wanted to tell in my story.

"Was Marketing plan when deciding that the protagonist of her novel series was a woman, or was it a natural choice?"

"It was something natural."When choosing the character, I didn't have it too clear.He loved someone in difficulties, to have an obsessive-compulsive disorder.It seemed good that she was better a woman, who unfortunately had to prove her value constantly, isolated from her companions.She is a character who brings empathy and humor to the plots, despite being someone difficult, unbearable.With a man it didn't seem so simple to achieve it.It had nothing to do with marketing.Maybe in the next novel the protagonist is a man.Sex is not something that influences me to choose my protagonists.

—That the protagonist of the novel has an obsessive-compulsive disorder, is it an experienced screenwriter strategy or a way of giving visibility to mental problems, a taboo until recently in our society?

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-There's a little bit of everything.The characters must be put into trouble.A protagonist like Indira, happily married, with two wonderful children, would contribute little to the plot.Her character would lose a lot in the whole of the story.I wanted Indira's problems to make others be seen as a weirdo, misunderstood and isolated.Looking for a psychological problem made it impossible for her as a policeman.I was looking for until it occurred to me that she could have a touch - an obsessive compulsive person - and it is something that I liked to create her biography - something I like to do previously with all my characters.This disorder, although for her it is very serious and is not a joke, I thought that for readers I could contribute some comic, without falling into parody.This was great to reduce the tension, taking into account the type of plots with which I work.

—There are another strong and interesting plot in his book, with some ingredients that gave for another novel: an architect ruined by his wife's illness, a sadomasochistic police, the "great pharm" currently fashionable currently with the Dopesick series ... rightWere they sufficient mimbres for a novel with their own identity?

-Can be.When I exposed this plot to the publisher, it was valued as a very powerful story, but I didn't want to keep anything;I am very honest with readers and wanted to give everything in this novel.I am not one of those who keep something to get it out at another time.I needed a story with great force to accompany the main narrative of Indira Ramos and Antonio Anglés.

"Now you can say that she is Carmen Mola's brother."Does he feel relieved?

"I'm very happy for them."He knew it from the beginning, and he suffered from the situation, although the three have taken it very well.I remember that my brother were family and friends who asked him when he was going to get a new novel and he couldn't say anything.They thought he was not working since his last book, and in reality he was doing it more than ever.They, despite the circus that has been mounted, felt very relieved and are happy for the recognition they have had.And I think they sincerely deserve it.

"I imagine that the night of the planet prize was rewarding for you, for the award your brother received.In Twitter, in addition to the congratulations there were criticism when it was learned that Carmen Mola were three lords.How did she live that moment?

—The criticisms in social networks do not have to pay too much attention.For one thing or another there is always complaints.There are people now that accuses me of using the true names of the victims and murderers.If I had not done it, someone would do it for telling Alcàsser's story without using them and I would call me fraud and opportunistic.It is impossible to content everyone.The criticisms against them for being three men seem very unfair to me.They were accused of creating a female character to succeed, but it is not true;They when they published their first novel, the gypsy bride, had no idea whether it was going to be.Putting three names on the deck of a novel was something they thought was not going to work and chose to create a pseudonym.They started looking for names and decided that the furthest of them was to be a woman.There was no strange thought because at that time they did not know how many books were going to sell.

—A new character has appeared in our literature, Covid.Some have begun to give it prominence without success, others have not even dared, you have done it in a very successful way.Should we start normalizing the virus also in the novels?

"There is to analyze the pros and cons when dealing with this kind of thing."In my previous novel, my character, Indira Ramos, wore a mask and gloves and seemed very original.When Covid arrived I realized that my protagonist had lost the essence of it.What happened to us has served to understand her a little better, to her and to that type of people who are very afraid of bacteria and viruses.At the end of the good father, in the final rewriting, I already included that there was a virus.In the other girls I go to the end of 2022, when I hope you finish this nightmare and normalize our lives.It was a personal choice.To me, in real life, I am fed up always talking about the same themes: masks, vaccines, quarantines ...

—You have signed more than 600 television scripts, how do you value the Boom of national productions on television platforms to the letter?Will we see the inspector Ramos in any of them?

"There is a boom, as you say, and demand is growing."We no longer wait for the weekly chapter as before, and that makes the supply have to increase because demand is voracious.This circumstance opens the door for the novels to arrive before the audiovisual.Hopefully we see Indira Ramos in a series.And the same also happens with Talion.But that does not depend on me.I have very hopeful.

—Usted ganó el Premio Jaén de Narrativa Juvenil con su novela Taurus: Salvar la tierra. ¿Cómo fue el cambio de registro? ¿Se siente más a gusto escribiendo para jóvenes comprometidos con el planeta o para lectores ávidos de sangre y crímenes por resolver?

—A writer what he has are eager to tell his stories.Sometimes you narrate a very hard story and then you feel like the next one is friendlier.The good thing about these youth novels, as a friend said, is that they all have a happy ending.I am a great animation cinema fan and I had always thought about doing something in that registry.But I had never had time.Last summer - I already had this idea: humanity has to emigrate because a meteorite arrives - when I delivered the good father I found that for the first time in many years I had three months free, and took advantage of them for this youth story, with the uncertainty ofIf I knew how to write for this record.My agent presented it to several competitions, and in the end I won the prize and took a lot of joy because I did not have too many expectations.I trust that now some producer reads it and watch the huge movie that I see in this story.

"What can overcome a novel with Antonio Anglés from the protagonist?"Have you already found a new nemesis for Inspector Indira Ramos that is up to the previous one?

-Yes.I got it.That's a hard question.Because the history of Anglés is so powerful that when you finish writing it you question what can overcome it, what can be up to it.I do not want to give books and stories without ton or are taking advantage of the success of the previous ones.I want to surprise and go on little traveled roads.I have a risky idea that I have already started writing.I have the biographies of the protagonists and the ladder.Every day that passes I am more excited, because I see that it can be an even stronger plot than Antonio Anglés.

"A last question: Is Antonio Anglés alive?"

"Although she goes against my story, I, like Santiago Díaz, bet that she drowned in the waters of Ireland."Now, I think the possibility that he is alive is unquestionable.Not only because of the fact that no one saw him jump from the ship and he disappeared in the sea without more but also because he is still one of the most sought after criminals by Interpol.The search order continues to renew, and anglés robot portraits are continued - sucking his physical appearance today - because they do not give up the possibility of him being alive.More difficult things have been seen, such as Galapagar's mafia.A criminal escaped from Italy who settled in the Madrid town in 2003, where he led an anonymous life with several hospitality businesses, and was discovered 20 years later by a photograph captured by the Google Maps cameras.

"I've lied to him, this is the last: Siantonio Anglés is alive, is you afraid of reading her novel?"

"I think fear can have."I don't think it's funny that his case be removed.Although if they took it we would have another great problem, because although the crime is expected to prescribe in 2029 it is very likely that when that decision appealed before a court - in Spain or in Europe - they declared void that date and released it.Crimes like Antonio Anglés should never prescribe.

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