Clemos

Clemos is the homicide inspector appointed to lead the investigation into Jonan Etxaide’s murder. His handling of the case brings him into conflict with Amaia Salazar, who regards his reasoning as unreliable and challenges both his assumptions about the victim and his direction of the inquiry.

Appointment and Initial Case Handling

Clemos is an inspector with Group Two of the Pamplona Homicide Unit. When Amaia arrives at the apartment where Jonan has been killed, she recognizes Clemos and suspects the case is about to be taken away from her team; she understands the institutional logic, since she might have made the same decision. The transfer places Clemos in charge while leaving Amaia closely involved, setting up a strained working relationship from the outset.

Clemos presents the preliminary findings to Amaia. Jonan was shot twice: first in the chest, then in the head after he had fallen. Investigators recovered one cartridge case behind a heavy piece of furniture, found a bullet embedded in the wooden floor, and had another removed by the doctor. The missing cartridge case may have been taken by the killer, and Clemos says officers are searching near Jonan’s apartment for the weapon, which might have been discarded in a container or drain. The method and ammunition, he judges, point to a professional killer, although the weapon may never be found.

Conflict with Amaia and the Direction of the Inquiry

Clemos’s first meeting with Amaia exposes a weakness in his approach: although he has described Jonan Etxaide’s killing as the work of a professional, he also entertains the possibility that Jonan was involved in drugs or weapons and raises his homosexuality as a possible clue. He offers no evidence for these suspicions, and Amaia rejects the implication that Jonan’s sexuality makes a crime of passion more likely. She points out the contradiction between Clemos’s professional-killer assessment and his speculative alternative, and notes that gay men do not have higher rates of violence than heterosexual men. Her rebuke is both investigative and institutional: she considers Clemos unqualified to lead the case, but accepts that the commissioner general has put him in charge and warns that another baseless insinuation will lead her to have him removed. Clemos responds by ending their direct exchanges, saying that he will send reports in writing instead. The confrontation establishes that his authority over the investigation does not give him Amaia’s confidence, and that she will challenge him when prejudice threatens to displace evidence.

Investigation and Handling of Evidence

Amaia’s mistrust deepens when she sees the investigation narrowing around the pistol’s provenance. After speaking with Clemos at the Beloso station, she suspects that he will continue pursuing that line despite promising to consider others. His confidence in the direction of the inquiry contrasts with her concern that evidence pointing toward other connections will be overlooked.

At Jonan’s apartment, Amaia had found a small piece of delicate fabric among the curtains before the trauma-cleaning team began work. She took it away, preserved it, and later handed it to Clemos, claiming that it had flown out of the window as the cleaners started. She stresses that it does not appear to match the apartment’s other fabrics and that, without her intervention, the cleaners might have destroyed a possible clue. Clemos accepts the envelope but dismisses its likely importance, thanking her with little conviction. Their exchange sharpens the divide between his control of the case and her efforts to keep potentially useful evidence in play.

Clemos is also included in the formal handling of photographs connected to the inquiry: Amaia says that the information has been sent to Internal Affairs and to him, while maintaining that the material can also serve as evidence in the homicide investigation. The procedural tension reflects their larger conflict. Amaia does not treat institutional rules as a reason to abandon investigative avenues, while Clemos remains the appointed lead whose choices she distrusts.

Gender and the Uneasy Chain of Command

When Amaia receives Clemos in San Martín’s office, the strain between them is visible before the case is discussed: he sits opposite her, visibly uncomfortable, while she reads his manner as that of a sexist officer resentful of having her as his superior. She believes he uses the occasion to assert a double standard about what he can do and what she cannot. As she fixes him with a hard look, he turns away and consults his notes. The gesture gives their conflict a physical form: Clemos holds formal command of the homicide inquiry, but Amaia’s judgment of his conduct leaves that authority under challenge.