The true life of Pablo Escobar. Astrid María Legarda Martínez

more. Lehder kept attentive, but didn’t say anything; the drugs and the alcohol had taken their toll on his mental abilities.

      Night came and Lehder retired to his room at the hacienda with his beautiful companion. Pablo Escobar was laughing and sharing his beer with one of the prostitutes. Lighting a new blunt, he smoked a bit and then passed it to Chopo. The night was fresh, the parrots rowdy, and the music raged on. The artificial light reflected on the pool, and there was a smell of mystery in the air. Destiny was having its way. Rollo left his prostitute and looked for Lehder and his woman. He couldn’t find them. He asked Orejitas where they were. He told him that they went to Lehder’s room. Rollo was not as attracted to the stunning blonde as he was to the divine treasure that she carried with her: the packet of cocaine.

      Drowsy because of the liquor and the euphoria of the hallucinogen, Rollo asked Orejitas to knock at the door and ask the blonde for a line of cocaine. Orejitas, himself influenced by liquor, didn’t see a problem with doing Rollo the favor. Orejitas had always looked up to him. After knocking insistently, harder each time, for almost ten minutes, the door was finally opened by Lehder himself. Without his shirt, without the gun on his waist, and with the rifle on the floor, Lehder strongly reprimanded Orejitas. Orejitas didn’t pay any attention to him, and popped his head into the bedroom.

      “Blondie, give a line to Rollo,” Orejitas mumbled. The prostitute, sitting on the bed in her underwear answered, “Of course, honey. Gladly.”

      She ripped a page from a book resting on the night table, quickly tore it into four pieces, and poured some cocaine into one for Rollo.

      Lehder was furious, but didn’t say anything. Orejitas walked over to the bed and took the cocaine from the woman. He stared fixedly at the stunning blonde’s naked breasts, while Lehder kept staring at Orejitas. The blonde looked at Lehder and laughing, invited him back to bed. Orejitas left the room smiling and Carlos Lehder quickly shut the door.

      The prostitute was his woman. The malaria, the marijuana, the cocaine, and the violence had affected his brain. He had thought Rollo was after his woman, when really all he was after was the cocaine.

      At 2:00 in the morning, Rollo finished his second line of cocaine and looked for Orejitas again. The whole process repeated itself but this time Lehder didn’t open the door completely, he just threw the remaining cocaine out the half-open door, and then shut it. Orejitas got down and picked up the drugs, turning his back to the door, and laughed. He walked off to find Rollo. Except for Escobar’s security, everybody was asleep. Morning came and everything seemed normal; the waitresses went from room to room bringing lemonade to the guests. At 8:30 in the morning, two dry gunshots were heard. With a hangover they sounded more like cannon fire. We all ran with our rifles in hand and El Patrón’s welfare on our minds. A quick look into Pablo’s room on the second floor revealed that everything was in order. The watchman, radio in hand, confirmed that Pablo was fine. We proceeded to the first room that was open and we found Rollo dead, lying in a great pool of blood. Staring at the corpse was Lehder with his hands on his rifle, still aiming at the dead man.

      “What happened?” Chopo and I asked him. He didn’t answer.

      Then, suddenly, Lehder tried to justify his actions. “Popeye, tell the general that the colonel killed a soldier that was disrespecting him.”

      I left the room without saying a word. The rest of the men stayed with Lehder at the scene of the crime. Pablo came down the stairs, putting on his shirt. He was dressed in blue jeans and tennis shoes.

      “What happened, Popeye?” he asked.

      “Lehder killed Rollo,” I answered.

      Pablo considered the situation to be quite complicated. On one hand, killing the gangster would be counterproductive for the Extraditables; to hide him would also be a problem. Escobar calmed Lehder down. He told him that he was right, pretending to sympathize with the madman. El Patrón ordered us to take Rollo out to the funeral home at Puerto Triunfo so they could fix him up and give him to his family.

      Rollo paid for his imprudence with a rifle shot. The first shot ripped off his right shoulder and the second broke his head in two pieces. The prostitutes were taken out of the hacienda by Paskin. The blonde, without saying goodbye and without looking back, left first. She knew she had something to do with the tragedy.

      Pablo ordered Chopo to take Carlos Lehder to El Patrón’s hiding place in eastern Antioquia and to give him some bodyguards for protection. Since Lehder had his own group of killers in the San Pío de Itagüí District, he refused Pablo’s men, but accepted the hideout and two cars.

      Chopo accompanied him up to a little farm near Guarne. He left Lehder the two cars and considered his mission accomplished. Orejitas and I, along with the hearse, made our way towards Itagüí to the Rincón District to take the lifeless body of our friend to his family. After three and a half hours, we arrived a block away from Rollo’s mother’s house. I asked Orejitas to come with me. The hearse waited for our signal. We walked towards the house I used to visit with Rollo. The door was open. The deceased’s mother was having a cheerful chat with her neighbors, accompanied by two of Rollo’s sisters. The old lady saw me and without saying hello, said at once, as if she knew what had happened, “No, not Rollo.”

      She looked at me, waiting for me to confirm her suspicions. I nodded. She burst into tears and fainted. One of her daughters helped her up. The neighbors looked at her, astonished, no clue what had happened. I stood in the door and signaled the hearse to drive up.

      When the hearse pulled up, the impact of what had just happened grew even stronger for Rollo’s family. When I had invited him up to the hacienda, his mother had said goodbye with prayers, and when she saw me come with Orejitas, her mother’s heart sensed the news. After a short gathering to give our condolences, we explained what had happened to our partner. We paid the hearse driver and looked for a cab. On our way, I asked Orejitas, “Did you notice he didn’t have his scapular?”