Group Two of the Pamplona Homicide Unit

Group Two of the Pamplona Homicide Unit enters the story as the team assigned to take over the investigation into Jonan Etxaide’s murder. Its arrival shifts authority away from Amaia Salazar and her colleagues at the moment when the death of one of their own has made the case both urgent and personally charged. The unit’s role is defined less by a narrated solution than by this transfer of control: the new investigators take responsibility for the case, while Amaia tries to preserve what her team has seen before it is excluded.

Identity and Introduction

The novel identifies Group Two of the Pamplona Homicide Unit as the homicide team that assumes the investigation after Jonan is found shot dead in his apartment. Inspector Clemos is present at the scene, and Amaia recognizes him as an inspector from the group. The text does not provide a roster or describe the unit’s internal organization beyond its designation as a homicide group; Clemos is the identifiable member in the scenes surrounding the handover.

The unit arrives amid the first response to a carefully targeted killing. Jonan’s phone and work materials are missing, and the apartment has been searched without the disorder typical of a theft. Amaia’s assessment is that the intruder sought information rather than valuables. These circumstances establish the stakes of the inquiry Group Two is assigned to lead, but the narrative does not establish that the new team itself discovered who searched the apartment or why.

Taking Control of the Investigation

Before the formal transfer is announced, Amaia sees Clemos with the judge and anticipates that her team will be removed. At the apartment she tells her colleagues to photograph everything, even with mobile phones, because she expects Group Two to take over soon. Her instruction reflects a practical concern: once authority changes hands, her original team may no longer be able to return to the scene or document it on its own terms. She wants a record made while they still have access.

The transfer is then made explicit: the commissioner tells Amaia that the investigation is being taken away from her team and assigned to Group Two. Amaia points out that she is the head of Homicide, but the commissioner refuses to let her lead this case, saying that he cannot permit it and that she understands why. The passage establishes the decision and its consequence without specifying a complete administrative rationale. The handover is therefore both an operational reassignment and a rupture in Amaia’s authority at a moment when she is grieving a close colleague.

Clemos and the Existing Team

Clemos’s presence gives the otherwise collective unit a recognizable face. At the scene, Amaia notices that he has positioned himself beside the judge. Later, when the investigation is discussed in the forensic doctor’s office, he sits opposite her and appears uncomfortable. Amaia regards him as a sexist officer who resents having her as his superior and takes the opportunity to emphasize that he can act where she cannot. That characterization is presented through Amaia’s perspective; the account does not supply Clemos’s own explanation of his conduct.

The contrast between the two teams is especially sharp because Group Two’s arrival does not erase Amaia’s knowledge of Jonan or her colleagues’ immediate connection to the crime scene. She asks her team to preserve photographs before the new investigators assume control, and her staff acknowledge her request. The reassignment makes the line between personal grief and professional responsibility difficult to keep clear: Amaia must recognize the authority of the incoming unit while resisting the loss of evidence and investigative work her team has already undertaken.

Scope and Narrative Significance

Group Two’s principal established action is to take charge of Jonan’s murder investigation. The case is described to colleagues as involving two shots: one to the chest and a second to the head after Jonan had fallen. A recovered casing, a bullet lodged in the floor, and another removed by the doctor are cited as preliminary findings; the method and ammunition suggest a professional killer. These details convey the investigation’s seriousness, but the account does not attribute each finding specifically to Group Two or record the unit’s eventual conclusions.

The unit’s arrival makes jurisdiction itself part of the story. The formal investigation continues, but Amaia’s access and command are curtailed just as the missing phone, computers, cameras, external drives, and USB collection point toward information as a central concern. The narrative leaves Group Two’s investigative outcome unstated in these scenes. Its significance lies instead in the sudden redistribution of responsibility: the unit becomes the official lead, while Amaia and her colleagues face the prospect that their knowledge of Jonan and the scene will no longer be enough to keep them involved.