It was, Alvarez claimed, an impossible task. To identify Faber, who had stolen half a million pounds in England, from amongst the tens of thousands of tourists in the Llueso area with only a visual description to help was the equivalent of the needle in the haystack. Superior Chief Salas was outraged by such defeatism; even more outraged when Alvarez's investigation caused him inadvisably to trumpet the Cuerpo's superiority to the English police. And if an impossible task were not burden enough for Alvarez, who liked a quiet life and the odd brandy, Raquel Rexach reported her jewellery had been stolen. Dolores had been at school with Raquel and remembered her with great dislike. Indeed, her description of Raquel had been such that Alvarez reckoned he was going to meet a female dragon when he investigated the loss of the jewellery. But even he could not have foreseen the consequences of this meeting.