Blood Red

Twenty-four

Mac was waiting in the garden when I returned; the evening had cooled and he had put on a sweater. ‘What would you like?’ I asked him, as I led the way inside, and sent him up to the first-floor terrace, overlooking the square.

‘A beer will do.’

I fetched a couple of bottles of Coronita from the fridge (they call it Corona in Mexico, where it’s made, and just about everywhere else on the planet; it’s my ‘house’ beer), stuck a wedge of lime in the neck of each and carried them upstairs. Grandpa Blackstone had settled himself into one of the chairs and was gazing down at the rapidly clearing cafés.

‘You’re doing a great job, Primavera,’ he said, as I handed him his nightcap.

‘Uh?’ I grunted, as I lit a mozzy candle.

‘With Tom.’

‘He’s due most of the credit.’

‘Some of it, but you’re setting the example, you’re doing the raising. He’s turning into a fine boy.’ He smiled. ‘I had a look at his teeth once he’d brushed them. He’s got the same kink in his lower incisors that his father had, and his aunt still does. You could have it straightened by an orthodontist, indeed if you were American it would be automatic, but it’s a very small imperfection. I never bothered with Oz or Ellie. It won’t stop him having a killer smile when all his adult set are through.’

‘That’ll be good,’ I murmured, ‘as long as he smiles with his eyes at the same time.’

A frown seemed to settle on Mac’s face in the candlelight. ‘Are you saying that my son didn’t?’

‘He did when I first met him. I’ll die thinking of the first time he smiled at me. Latterly, though, it wasn’t always the case.’

‘What changed him, d’ you think?’

I sighed. ‘Me probably.’

‘Nah. You set him on the road to doing things he’d never dreamed of.’

‘And came between him and Jan.’

‘Sometimes monogamy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.’

I had no response to that, and he wasn’t about to elaborate, and so we sat in silence for a while, until he reached across and tapped me on the shoulder. ‘Hey,’ he began, and the grin was back, ‘what about this Gerard then?’

‘What about him?’

‘Tom seems to like him.’

‘Tom’s one of his altar servers.’

‘You’re okay with that?’

‘Absolutely. If you’re looking for a role model for the son of a single mum, who better?’

‘And for the single mother herself?’

I chuckled. ‘Mac, think of him as the bloke next door, because that’s what he is. You’ve been single, you know how these things really are.’

‘Hah! Bad example, lass. In my case, Mary and I were creeping in and out of each other’s houses late at night, until we went legit.’

‘Well, there’s no creeping done here!’

He nodded. ‘Just as well.’ He pointed with his beer bottle, down the square. Alex and Gloria had just left their table and he was steering Marte’s buggy round the corner. ‘That was a long conversation,’ he remarked.

At times, Mac can be as subtle as a flying mallet, but I know that his curiosity isn’t that of the prurient, but that of someone who really cares about me, almost as much as my own father does.

‘See you,’ I said, smiling. ‘His name is Alex, his wife’s called Gloria and I’m the baby’s godmother, unlikely as that may seem. He’s a cop, and he was giving me the lowdown on a case that is currently the talk of the steamie in this part of the world.’

‘What happened? Has somebody been nicking the lead off the church roof?’

‘No, someone’s drawn a line under a prominent citizen. Alex is one of the investigators.’

‘Jesus, homicide?’

I nodded.

‘In a place like this?’

‘We’re not immune. I didn’t mention it earlier, because Tom was around.’

I gave him a full rundown on the events leading up to Planas’s death, and on what had happened afterwards.

‘They thought Matthew did it?’ he gasped.

‘Let’s just say that they entertained the possibility.’

‘Ridiculous. The big fella’s harmless. Plus, on the golf course he couldna’ hit a cow on the arse with a shovel, so I doubt if he’s capable of clubbing anyone over the head, unless the bloke stood very still and told him what to do. What about his stepson, this Ben lad? Surely he had a down on the dead man?’

‘Ben’s problems with him were over by that time, and he never knew about the money. Besides, he told me that Alex had been to see him and asked him where he was. Seems that he wasn’t alone; he isn’t saying who he was with, not to me, anyway, but he’s not in the frame. As for Matthew, he can prove where he was at the time as well.’

‘So the theory is that this righteous pillar of the community bought himself some nookie and then got hit over the head?’

‘That’s the current police thinking, yes.’

He looked at me. ‘Do I get the impression you don’t share their conviction?’

I frowned back at him. ‘It seemed obvious at first, but. . When I think about it, and I try to imagine the situation, like an old guy calling a discreet number on his mobile as if it’s for a home delivery pizza: I can picture it, sure. . but not with that particular old guy. When he and I had our set-to in his office and he called me a whore, there was real contempt in his voice when he said the word. He spat it out; the old bastard spat it all over me, in fact. He was saying that in his eyes a puta is the lowest of the low. So you see, I’m not sure I can see him soiling himself with one. I have a feeling that Alex and his boss can spend all day tomorrow checking the brothels between here and Figueras, or between here and Madrid for that matter, and they’re going to come up empty handed.’