Blood Red

Fifty-four

I picked him up very early next morning and dropped Tom off; all three of us had an overnight bag. There wasn’t much said as I drove south; Alex seemed to be still half asleep, and I never have anything to say to anyone before eight, save my son. . not that I have anyone else looking for conversation. I had the radio on, for traffic information, but eventually Alex broke the silence.

‘Imelda Hernandez grew impatient waiting for something to happen,’ he announced. ‘Prosecution can take a long time in this country. She knows that, but nearly two years after the event, she began to suspect the truth, that her evidence had been ignored. She tried to contact Javier Fumado, several times, but she was ignored. Eventually, she was so frustrated that she went to someone else. She went to see the mayor.’

‘Yesss,’ I hissed, ‘that fits absolutely. To stir the family pot, no doubt.’

‘No. Thing is, Senora Hernandez isn’t from L’Escala. She moved here five years ago from Valladolid, after her husband died. She lives up on the hill and she hardly ever goes into the old town. She doesn’t know who’s who, so when she told Justine her story, that her neighbour and a mystery man had pushed her husband off a cliff, she had no idea that she was talking to Henri’s daughter.’

‘Indeed,’ I whispered. ‘When did this happen?’

‘About six weeks ago.’

‘And after that she followed them; she established their patterns, the time of their meetings, and when she was ready she acted.’ I frowned, as a thought occurred to me. I wonder if she had her suspicions. Was that why she kept Dolores close, in the town hall? ‘The London CSI team found Justine’s DNA at the scene, I bet.’

‘Sure, and discounted it, because I’d taken her there, on Hector’s orders.’ He twisted in his seat to look at me. ‘Primavera, what are you saying?’ he asked.

‘You know what I’m saying: that Dolores wasn’t an innocent victim; she was as much a target as Planas.’

‘You’re telling me that Justine Michels murdered her own mother?’

‘Exactly. She took revenge for her father; killed Planas, kidnapped Dolores. . she even covered herself by saying that they’d spoken on the following Sunday. . starved her for a week, and when the moment was right, she throttled her.’

‘I don’t believe you,’ he whispered.

‘Yet you believed that I did it. Don’t deny it, you did, or you were prepared to, on the evidence.’ My mind flashed back to that Sunday, re-ran the movie. ‘She must have seen me,’ I said. ‘She must have seen me slip and grab that chair. She saw me leave a palm print on it, on the thing that she knew was the murder weapon. And then there was my shawl,’ I exclaimed.

‘What about it?’

‘When you drove us to Planas’s house, I sat in the back. I remember now; I was wearing it then. Alex, you’ve got a cop’s memory. Was I wearing it in the garden?’

He closed his eyes as he thought back. ‘I don’t recall that you were,’ he said, eventually.

‘I don’t think I could have been, or when I slipped it would have fallen off, and I’d have noticed it. I reckon it must have dropped off my shoulders in your car. But when you took us back to the village, I sat in the front and Justine went in the back. That’s when she took it, for sure.’

Alex threw his head back, and let out a deep breath. ‘And do you know what? She had me keep her informed of every step of the investigation. I told her the lot, including the fact that we’d found your DNA on the chair, and that we were going to have to talk to you about it, probably on the following Monday. But I told her also that we weren’t taking it seriously, that not even Hector at his most zealous could see you as a killer, not over a sum of money that would hardly buy new tyres for your Jeep.’

‘When did you tell her this?’

‘At Planas’s funeral, outside in the square.’

‘That figures. My assumption was that she might have decided to get rid of Dolores on the spur of the moment, because her car had been found, but now I can see that she was already planning it when she came to the reception in Meson.’

‘Maybe, but putting the body into your store, that was a huge risk, was it not?’

‘Not after Justine drugged me. She put something in my wine glass, Alex, when I wasn’t looking. All of a sudden I was out of it; I left not long after you and Gomez, and I remember virtually bugger all after that till next morning, when Charlie got spooked and I found the body.’

‘You did? Not Tom’s grandfather?’

‘Mac never saw the body, or knew it was there, until after Gerard and I had both gone. No, I found it, like an idiot I panicked, and Gerard got me out of there. Justine must really have thought she had me stitched up. She was right too, for a few days.’

‘Justine and Gerard,’ he murmured. ‘Now he’s taking the fall for her. She must have seduced him.’

‘A nice oldfashioned term, Alex. Ben says that she can make people do things for her, simply because they want to please her. Yes, I suppose you could call that seduction.’

We drove down the autopista in renewed silence for a while after that, each of us with plenty on our minds. We were driving into Barcelona Airport when I remembered favour number two. ‘How did you get on with tracing Justine’s communications?’ I asked.

‘It’s under way,’ he replied. ‘If and when our people come up with something, I’ll hear about it.’ He looked at me, as I drove into the multi-storey car park. ‘Are you going to tell me where we’re going now?’

‘Malaga.’

‘Why the fuck are we going to Malaga?’ he asked, bewildered.

‘You’ll find out when we get there.’