Missing Pistol

The Missing Pistol becomes a crucial investigative link when ballistic analysis connects two bullets recovered at autopsy to a firearm used in an earlier murder in Madrid. The weapon’s history points beyond the immediate shooting: it had itself vanished from a court’s evidence store, leaving both its custody and its later use unresolved.

Identification by Ballistics

A report on the two projectiles recovered during an autopsy found that their impressed markings matched the pistol used to kill a nightclub doorman in Madrid six years earlier. The comparison established a specific connection between the current shooting and an older homicide; it identified the weapon through the bullets, not through a recovered firearm.

Earlier Crime and Disappearance

The pistol had been found at the scene of the doorman’s murder and was subsequently held as evidence in a Madrid court. After a small fire there, some evidence was destroyed or damaged by firefighters. Once the rubble had been cleared, several items were reported missing, including the pistol. The available account does not establish who took it, when it left custody, or how it later came to be used again.

Investigative Consequences

Inspector Iriarte sent the ballistics report and warned that Internal Affairs might question the investigators again. Amaia relayed the weapon’s history to Clemos, who insisted that other lines of inquiry should continue; she nevertheless suspected the investigation would remain focused on the pistol. Clemos later declared the matter closed as a case involving eastern mafias and drug trafficking, despite Amaia telling him she had no proof and seeking to keep other possibilities open.

Evidentiary Limits and Significance

The pistol’s significance rests on a strong forensic match but an incomplete chain of custody. The bullets connect the autopsy to a weapon associated with two separate killings, while the court’s missing-evidence episode leaves the route between those crimes unexplained. The gun therefore serves both as a material link and as a conspicuous absence: investigators can trace its ballistic signature, but the firearm itself and the circumstances of its disappearance remain unaccounted for.