Inhuman Remains

Fourteen

At first I wasn’t going to call Mark: it was still the middle of the night and an hour earlier where he was. I had no idea of his domestic situation, but I knew that if he was married with kids, he wouldn’t appreciate having them roused.

I lay there, my resolution firm and my toe throbbing, until four o’clock. That was when I picked up my mobile and called his number; I supposed there was a fair chance he’d be switched off and that all I’d be able to do was leave a message. But he wasn’t. He picked up after five rings and he sounded just as sharp and business-like as ever.

‘Prim,’ he said, before I’d had a chance to announce myself. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I am,’ I told him, ‘but someone isn’t. Did you have anything to do with the Sevilla cops breaking down the door of Calle Alvarez Quintero forty-seven an hour or so back?’

I heard a light chuckle. ‘They bought it, did they?’ He paused. ‘Yes, that was me. I have an associate in Madrid. I had him make an anonymous call.’

‘Not only did they buy it, they woke me in the process of following it up. Did you get that pic of Macela?’

‘Yes, I surely did, and it got results. His real name’s Hermann Gresch, German, not Lithuanian, with a distinguished past in the fraud business.’

‘A past is all he’s got now, I’m afraid. I’ve just seen them carting him out of number forty-seven, stone ginger.’

‘Jesus!’ Mark shouted. ‘Prim, I really must urge you not to go any further with this.’

‘It may have been a heart-attack, nothing more sinister than that. They were kind enough to wheel him under my balcony, so I had a good look; there wasn’t a mark on him.’

‘That means nothing, and you know it. I need to find out how he died, but I don’t buy natural causes or misadventure, given the circumstances.’

I was touched by his urgency. ‘You’ve done enough already. Look, I’ll meet Bromberg tomorrow, and if she doesn’t give me what I need I’ll go to the police.’

‘Prim,’ he countered, ‘I’m not leaving you in the middle of this situation. If this is a multi-million-euro scam, as it might be, you could put yourself in danger. You told me you saw a man go into that house this afternoon, and now Gresch has been carried out of it dead. Think about it.’

‘But that guy’s a public official.’

‘So was Saddam Hussein.’

‘Mark, I’m going to meet Bromberg.’

I heard him sigh. ‘If you insist. If you’re that reckless. We still have a few hours till your meeting. I’ll use them as best I can.’

‘Doing what?’

‘Finding out as much as I can about Hermann Gresch; past known associates, see if a woman shows up among them. Also, I’ll do some digging into Señor Caballero. What did you say his job was?’

‘The lad at the city hall described him as the planning co-ordinator. ’

‘Okay. Let’s see what that means, and how important it makes him.’

‘He’s too important for Ignacio to interrupt when he was leaving; he sounded very deferential.’

‘In that case, I’m even more worried about him. Once more, I’m going to ask you, get on a plane and go home.’

‘As soon as I’ve seen Bromberg and got a lead to Frank.’

I heard him draw a breath. ‘I didn’t want to say this,’ he murmured, ‘but given what’s just happened to his associate, there’s every chance that by now Frank’s helping to fertilise a small part of Andalucía.’

‘You didn’t have to say it either. I’d worked that out for myself. But one way or another, I need to know.’

‘Then take care for the next few hours. Don’t hang around your hotel. If Gresch was murdered, the police will start asking questions in the area. Chances are the guy you told me about, in the shop, will tell them about you asking questions yesterday. As soon as you decently can, get out of there. Do one of two things: go somewhere very noisy, where you’ll be lost in the crowd, or somewhere very quiet, where nobody’s likely to find you.’