Blood Red

Forty-one

I still had plenty of cash left, but I had bought all my essentials and anyway, shopping for frills wasn’t really on my agenda, even if I did find myself looking longingly at an iPod Touch that looked just like Santi’s clever phone.

Rather than wander for the rest of the hour I went into a place that I’d noticed earlier, a busy café called the Alhambra. . there’s imagination for you. There’s a delicacy, a confection, in the south of Spain in particular, called churros. Imagine something that looks like a doughnut, only lighter, in strips rather than circles, and deep-fried. I’d never tried them before, and since I doubted whether they’d be on the menu at Barcelona women’s prison, I thought I’d better. I looked around and saw that most of the people were eating them dipped in hot chocolate, and so I went along with that. My waiter brought me a great pile of the things, so many that I suspected that he’d assumed I was waiting for someone to join me. It was heavy stuff, and may have accounted for the fact that many of the other customers were on the chubby side. I managed two, then had the hot chocolate replaced with a straight café con leche, more to my taste.

It took me the rest of the hour to munch my way through what I decided would be a once in a lifetime experience. I paid the bill, and went back to my internet shop. The booth I’d used earlier was occupied, but I found another that was almost as far away from the door, and with nobody on either side.

Mark Kravitz came on line instantly when I called him up. ‘Hiya,’ he said, then seemed to peer at me. ‘Is that chocolate on your top lip?’ he asked. There’s a small box on the screen in Skype in which you can see your own image. I checked and it was; I wiped it off, hurriedly.

‘How did your phone call go?’

He smiled. ‘Every bit as well as I expected and more.’

‘Are you going to tell me who you rang?’

The smile stretched; I’d never seen him look so amused. ‘The Home Office. Top floor.’

I saw my image stare at him. ‘Justin Mayfield? The Home Secretary?’

‘That’s the man.’

A year and a half ago, when I’d got into the situation with my cousin, Frank McGowan, to which Mark had alluded earlier, it had led the three of us to cross the path of one of the British government’s rising stars, a friend of Frank. It had also left Mr Kravitz and me in possession of some information that could have turned Mayfield into a black hole overnight and had him banished to the furthest known point of the political universe. We hadn’t used it; Mayfield had been stupid rather than criminal and we didn’t see any point in terminating his career when there was a chance that he might actually be good at the job to which he’d just been appointed. I’d been keeping a distant eye on British politics, and that’s how it seemed to have turned out. Word was that all doors were open to him. ‘You’re not thinking of. .’

‘Hey,’ he exclaimed. ‘I didn’t threaten him, not at all. I told him that I’d been contacted by a British subject who was being stitched up in a murder investigation on the basis of leaked information and a crime scene investigation that would be a pure fucking joke, if its failings weren’t so serious. He was appalled; then I told him who was on the wrong end of the business. I didn’t have to mention last year; he’d have done something anyway. For you he’ll push it all the way.’

‘What’s he going to do?’

‘He’s done it. He phoned his opposite number in Spain, and got him to agree to a specialist forensic team from Scotland Yard being flown over, “to assist the local investigation” as he put it, by examining the crime scene, and all the other evidence. He called me back fifteen minutes ago, to tell me they’re on the way.’

‘Won’t the crime scenes be compromised by now?’

‘Yes, but not hopelessly. Justin’s established that the house and garden have been under guard since the man’s death was found to be murder, and there’s a new security lock on your storeroom. There’s every prospect of finding something.’

‘But if they don’t, am I not deeper in it?’

‘Justin says no; he’s vouched for you personally with the Spanish, and he says he’s got something else up his sleeve.’

‘Does that mean I can go home now?’

‘No, not yet. He said to give the Scotland Yard people a couple of days. They have three scenes to examine, remember.’

On screen, I saw myself look puzzled. ‘What’s the third?’

‘The car; the Dolores woman didn’t leave it there, or set it on fire. But don’t worry; the Home Secy’s well on your side. Almost the first thing he asked me when I mentioned your name was how you were doing.’

‘What did you tell him?’

‘I told him that you were festering away as an Earth mother out in Spain, casting around for things to do.’

‘Why did you tell him that?’

‘Because it’s true,’ he declared. ‘You’re bored out of your skull; that’s what I see every time we speak on this device. The voluntary information office you told me about, and showed me a picture of; what’s that other than a desperate attempt to keep yourself busy?’

‘It’s my contribution to the community; that and my involvement with the wine fair that kicked all this business off.’

‘You’d make a better contribution by getting a proper job.’

‘I’ve got one,’ I said stubbornly. ‘I’m an Earth mother, remember.’

‘Sure, and when you’re fifty, and Tom’s an independent young adult, what will you be then?’

‘Happy that he’s independent.’

‘And bored and lonely.’

‘Maybe not lonely,’ I murmured.

He shrugged. ‘Okay, so you find a man, and you move on from being a mother to being a Spanish housewife. That’s not you, Primavera. . and you know who’d have been the first to tell you so, if he was still around. He’d tell you to go out there and get your life back.’

My vision grew blurred; I blinked to clear it. ‘But the part I want back the most, I can’t have.’

‘So move on; that’s what he’d say, like I’m saying.’

‘Where I live now, he loved it too.’

‘I didn’t say move house. Get a life, Primavera, get a life.’

I scowled at him. He was helping me, but at the same time, he was telling me things I didn’t want to hear, not from anyone else, at any rate. ‘If you come up with any ideas about how I might do that,’ I growled, ‘be sure to pass them on.’

‘I will,’ he said, ‘I will. Call me back on Thursday; hopefully I’ll have good news by then, on all fronts.’