Inhuman Remains

Thirty-nine

The expression on Emil Caballero’s face when he opened the front door of his massive white house. . called La Casa Blanca, what else?. . and saw me smiling on the step, is one that I’ll carry with me for a long time. It began with naked fear, but as the seconds passed and I said nothing, it changed, passing through uncertainty until it reached belligerence.

‘Yes?’ he barked. ‘It’s Saturday. I don’t receive people on Saturdays.’

‘You’ll receive me, though, Councillor,’ I told him, still grinning. I’d been watching the place from my hire car, parked almost opposite, and I’d seen his wife and children leave.

‘I’ll call the police,’ he threatened.

‘I’d appreciate it if you did. Once I’m done with you, I’m going to see them, to make a complaint against you. Call them and save me the trip.’

‘You complain against me?’ he exclaimed, as if the idea was ridiculous. ‘Of what?’

‘Do you want a list? Listen, it’s hot out here. Invite me in or I’ll start screaming.’

‘Oh, yes?’ he challenged.

I took a step back. ‘You bastard!’ I yelled, at the top of my voice. ‘You come to my club, you fuck three of my girls, and then you leave without paying. You owe me money, you owe them money!’ I spoke English, but the message got through. He hushed me, and ushered me into a round marble hall.

‘Okay.’ He sighed. ‘What is it that you want?’

‘I just want to see you, before I bring you down. You asked for what. Attempted kidnapping, corruption and murder are three counts that come to mind.’

‘You’re a lunatic.’

‘That’s been said, but since we both know that you took me out of my hotel at gunpoint and tried to bundle me into the boot of your car, it seems to me that my sanity isn’t in question in this instance.’

‘It was an act,’ he protested.

‘It convinced me,’ I told him. ‘The gun was real enough.’

‘She told me it was loaded with blanks. The woman Lidia; she gave it to me and that’s what she told me. The whole thing was her idea. She said you were working for Roy Urquhart, trying to ruin the project. She wanted to frighten you enough to make you stop. All we were going to do was drive you to one of our less attractive districts, throw you out and make you walk back. Then that madman Urquhart, that thief, showed up, and it was you two kidnapped me. Mother of God, he shot my car! That bloody gun was loaded. Now you have the nerve to show up here and I let you in. No, you’re right, you’re not crazy, I am. Where is Urquhart now? Outside, waiting to come in and finish me?’ He was in full flow; I let him rave on. ‘You know how long it took me to get out of the fucking car, until I figured out that that luminous green strip was to open it? Two hours! Two whole fucking hours! You burned all my bikes, you and he. You stole my Suzuki, and it was four days before they found it, with the false plates. So go on, call him in and you kill me. You took everything else, you, he and that Bromberg woman. I invest a lot of money and a lot of goodwill in getting the permissions for the hotel and casino, and now it’s all gone. Bromberg is gone, Urquhart is gone, Macela is dead, and all the money is gone. Worst of all, my good name is gone. I’m a laughing stock in the city, with a piece of land that’s worth nothing, that I can’t even use to grow sunflowers. So, yes, we call the police. You denounce me, and I denounce you.’

There was something about his tirade that was beginning to convince me. ‘The man you call Urquhart,’ I said. ‘You described him as a thief.’

‘That’s what Bromberg told me, and Macela, when he could see straight. They said he’d been stealing money from the company, and they kicked him out.’

‘Then they lied to you, or she did. And what did you mean about Macela seeing straight?’

‘The man was a morphine addict, hopeless. All the time he was here, he lay in my mother’s old house in Alvarez Quintero, shooting up.’

‘Yes, because you kept him there, doped up, until you killed him.’

‘Killed him? I never killed him.’

‘Caballero, I saw you go into the house. I watched you. You came in with a bag and you came out empty-handed, and that same afternoon he died of an overdose.’

‘I took him food!’ he shouted. ‘I fed the poor bastard. I didn’t kill him, I kept him alive. Yes, he did die of an overdose, and that’s the truth, but he did it himself. I checked very carefully with the police, believe me.’

‘So where did he get his dope?’

‘I have no idea, no idea at all. It must have been Bromberg.’

‘I think you may be right,’ I conceded. ‘How much do you know about her?’

‘I thought I knew everything. Now it seems I knew nothing. She came to see me, almost two years ago. She said she was a Swiss businesswoman, and that she had a project, a huge project, for which my property would be perfect. She offered me shares in the new company in return for my land, and for my services in securing all the necessary permissions to build and licences to operate. I agreed, we signed papers. Then Urquhart and Macela came to Sevilla to sell the project to investors. I never saw Bromberg again until a few weeks ago. She turned up and told me that Urquhart had gone bad on us, and that she would take over his role in the company until we were ready to start. We were supposed to begin in September, after the height of the summer was over. We had enough money to fund construction, she said. And that was all, until you turned up.’

‘I came to find Frank,’ I said quietly.

‘Who the fuck is Frank?’

‘The man you knew as Urquhart was my cousin; his name was Frank McGowan.’ I thought of Moira’s warning, but decided to chance it. ‘He was a cop, undercover, working to expose the fraud. So was Macela. They were sold out; that’s why Frank disappeared.’

Caballero frowned at me. We had stopped threatening each other; instead, we were having a conversation. ‘So where is he now, this Frank?’

‘He’s dead, he and his mother, my aunt. They caught up with him.’

‘Bromberg?’

‘Not directly. Two men, North Americans, blond, smooth looking.’

‘I’ve seen them,’ he declared. ‘Once when I met Bromberg in Hotel Alfonso Thirteen, she had two guys minding her. Sounds like them.’

‘When was the last time you saw her?’

‘Last time I saw her she was rolling on the ground, screaming and holding her ass. After I escaped from the Chrysler, where you left me, I called her. But there was no reply. I haven’t heard from her since. Beginning of last week, I called the company lawyer in Luxembourg. I told them that I needed Bromberg as we’d have to pay contractors some up-front money soon. They told me they had no means of contacting her, or the man Rowland, the chairman. They said also that the money had been moved beyond their control.’

‘Have you ever met Rowland?’

‘No, only her and Macela, and the man you say was really called Frank.’ He looked at me. ‘Christ, we’ve all been set up, eh?’ He sighed. ‘Look, I’m sorry for what I tried to do to you. I’m sorry about your cousin and your aunt.’

There wasn’t much I could do other than accept his apology. ‘Where does this leave you?’ I asked.

‘Financially, not too bad. Politically, my party colleagues don’t want to know me. Fuck ’em, I’ll be all right. My barn was insured, and all my toys: I’ll get new ones.’

‘What’s your business? Your main business?’

‘I sell bridal outfits, for men and women. And religious robes, for priests and altar boys.’

‘If I were you,’ I told him, ‘I’d go to confession.’