Doctor Frigo (34 page)

‘Feeling better?’

I nodded. He sat down again.

‘I’m afraid the General was a little fuddled tonight,’ he said. ‘On the tapes he is much clearer and more specific both about Villegas’ double role and about the attempt to implicate Segura which was frustrated – the gun-purchase trick which misfired I mean. He probably told Paco about that part of it, how he saved his life and so on. That would account for the old man’s loyalty to him don’t you think?

‘Yes.’

He pushed the envelope towards me with a fingernail. ‘Those are copies of the relevant parts of the transcription
in case you want to use them. No incriminating fingerprints until you put yours on the envelope.’

‘Thank you.’ My jacket was on the chair next to me. I took the envelope and put it in the inside pocket.

‘And now what do you intend to do about Villegas?’

I took another sip of whisky. ‘Nothing.’

‘Nothing?’ He grinned. ‘Well, I could have guessed that you weren’t going to give him an injection that would kill him. That would be a bit risky even for you. But I’m sure that your friend the Monsignor would be glad to arrange publication of those transcripts if you asked him.’

I drank some more whisky. ‘You asked me what was the matter with him. I don’t mind telling you now. He has a disease of the central nervous system that’s going to kill him anyway. Nothing can be done about it.’

‘What disease?’

I told him, in detail.

‘How long?’

I sighed. ‘The same old question. I don’t know. I can tell you this. Within a matter of months he will almost certainly be incapable of transacting business publicly. There’ll be no hiding it.’

‘How many months?’

‘Two, three, I can’t say for sure.’

For a moment he was silent. Then he said: ‘Who else knows, apart from this man in Paris?’

‘Delvert.’

‘Who doesn’t want the boat rocked until his mission’s accomplished. I see. Now, this disease. Does it affect the mind, change the personality, weaken the power to reason?’

‘Eventually it reaches the brain. If you are asking me if he is in any way gaga now, the answer’s definitely no.’

‘Then we haven’t much time.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘And neither have you. It’s past seven. You’ll be late for your cocktail party. What about the General? What would you like us to do with him? You’ve kept your part of our
bargain so it’s your decision. Kill him or send him home? Which is it to be?’

‘Has he any children?’

‘None by his wife. Three illegitimate by a woman who works on his finca. The eldest is eight.’

‘Does he suport them?’

‘Dotes on them. Proof of the old shit’s potency, see?’

‘What would you do?’

‘Send him home. He’s served his turn. But then he didn’t kill my father.’

‘Send him home.’

I put on my jacket and stuffed my tie in a pocket. He resumed his beekeeper’s hat as he showed me out.

On the way back to the car I was bitten again. The two in the car had kept the windows shut and it was like an oven inside. By the time we got to the French embassy I was a mess. If I hadn’t had my invitation card I don’t think they’d have let me in.

I asked for a bathroom and was very promptly shown to a lavatory adjoining the cloakroom. I was still trying to rinse the tastes of vomit and whisky out of my mouth when Delvert strolled in. I took no notice of him. He watched me for a moment before he said anything.

‘One would think,’ he remarked then, ‘that a man of El Lobo’s intelligence would have more sense than to locate even one of his safe-houses in a mosquito swamp. And such mosquitos! I still itch at the thought of them.’

‘You’ve been there?’

‘Not as recently as you. Both His Excellency and Madame are most eager to meet you, but you would probably prefer to cool off in my office first. It’s air-conditioned.’

He led me to it up some back stairs, the cocktail party nosie fading as we went. It was a very small office, obviously not that of the real Counsellor, but, as he had said, air-conditioned. I wasted no time in coming to the point.

‘In St Paul,’ I said, ‘you stated that if I were to believe,
for good and sufficient reasons, that Villegas played a decisive part in bringing about my father’s assassination, you would accept my resignation from the post you gave me as the man’s doctor.’

He nodded.

I took El Lobo’s envelope from my pocket. ‘Here are transcriptions of tape-recordings made of an interrogation of General Escalon. They are quite authentic. I have met the General myself and he confirmed that.’

‘Under duress?’

‘He had had a little too much brandy, but he wasn’t wearing thumbscrews and he spoke freely.’

He took the envelope, read the contents, looked impassive.

‘Extremely interesting. Don Manuel is far more complex than he appears. He surprises even me. That’s if General Escalon is telling the truth.’

‘I believe he is.’

‘And so you want to resign. Understandable. But haven’t you made that course a little difficult now?’ He lifted a copy of this morning’s
El Dia
and held it in front of me. ‘How are you going to explain such a sudden, and apparently irrational, decision?’

‘I don’t have to give an explanation.’

‘You? A person of such consequence?’

‘Very well then, I won’t resign. I’ll do what you yourself suggested the other day. I’ll say that I am dissatisfied with the patient’s progress, call in Dr Torres from the hospital and ask him to arrange for a consultant neurologist who will give a second opinion. I then bow out and leave it all to Dr Torres. I should tell you, though, that he is a Johns Hopkins graduate and would certainly get someone from Baltimore for a patient of this importance.’

‘Let’s leave the manner of your withdrawal from the President’s household for the moment. You have an appointment with Don Tomás tomorrow morning I think.’

‘Yes.’

‘He will offer you the portfolio of Minister of Education in the new government.’

‘Absurd!’

‘I dare say. Politically it would look well though. In practice, Don Tomás himself, who created that highly successful department, would guide your footsteps and correct the errors of your inexperience.’

‘Naturally, I shall refuse immediately.’

‘Why? You won’t be asked to accept immediately. You will be given twenty-four hours to consider the proposal.’

‘I shall still refuse.’

‘But for what reason?’

‘I don’t have to give any reason. I can just get on a plane and leave.’

‘That sounds more like Dr Frigo than Dr Castillo. Besides I don’t think you would find it as easy as that.’

‘You mean you’ll see that I’m denied an exit permit?’

He slapped a hand down on his desk. ‘No, I don’t mean anything of the sort, Doctor. I realize that you’ve just had an upsetting experience, but I am not General Escalon. I’d be obliged if you didn’t address me as if I were.’

‘My apologies, Commandant.’

‘When I said that you wouldn’t find it easy I meant that you will be under considerable moral pressure to accept. In St Paul you didn’t believe me when I spoke of the Castillo cult. You know better now. And this hasn’t exactly helped play it down, has it?’ He flicked the newspapers with the back of his hand.

‘That was an accident. A priest offered to take me to my father’s grave. I accepted. Why not? After all those years I wasn’t at all sure that I could even find it by myself.’

‘Well it’s done now anyway. But that’s not all. Don Tomás can be persuasive. You, of course, can also be obstinate. But consider. You talk of bowing out from your post with Don Manuel in favour of this Dr Torres.’

‘Who already knows what the trouble is.’

‘You told him!’

‘Of course I didn’t tell him. But he happens to have an exceptional physiotherapist as well as being an able man himself. On the available evidence, he guessed. You can’t keep these things as secret as you seem to think.’

‘But you still have to bow out. How do you do that gracefully? Confront Don Manuel with Escalon’s confession?’

‘The man’s mortally ill already. I’d rather not see or touch him again if I could avoid doing so, I admit. He’s detestable and I no longer feel obliged to do anything for him except hand his case over to a competent successor. Confront him? What would be the point?’

The smile. I had almost forgotten it. ‘That’s sensible of you. Judging from this transcript, I would say that, unless he has very much changed over the years, if there were a confrontation, you would instantly become a very bad security risk indeed. I wouldn’t give much for your chances of avoiding elimination. Father Bartolomé would jump at the chance of obliging him where you’re concerned just at the moment.’ He brushed the ugly thought away. ‘On the other hand, if it looked as though you were about to accept a portfolio in the provisional government, your new duties would provide a completely credible excuse for giving him a new doctor.’

‘That still doesn’t get me to the plane.’

‘Not immediately, no, but within a few days, and if you are still of the same mind, there should be no difficulty at all.’

‘What about all these moral pressures you spoke of? Are they just going to evaporate?’

‘No, but they can be neutralized. You’ve not read your country’s Constitution, I take it.’

‘Which one?’

‘It doesn’t matter which one. They are all unanimous on one point. In the current version it’s Clause twenty. Section eleven. No person who has ever sworn allegiance to, or
adopted the nationality of, any other country can hold Ministerial office.’

‘What of it?’

‘In here – ’ he tapped his desk drawer – ‘I have a French passport which shows that you became a naturalized French citizen two years ago.’

‘But I didn’t.’

‘I’m sorry, but this passport says you did. And when, deeply distressed, you feel obliged to reveal this sad fact to Don Tomás and your other colleagues, your resignation will be in your pocket ready. It cannot be refused. A statement will have to be issued. You may even have to give a news conference in which you reaffirm your respect for the Constitution and the wisdom it embodies.’

‘Is this true?’

‘Perfectly. As for your public supporters here, including Monsignor Montanaro, they may regret and even deplore the fact that, in a weak, unguarded moment, you allowed yourself to be seduced from your true allegiance by the perfidious French, but there will be nothing they can do about it. You were after all a lonely exile. They can only bow to the rule of law and try to forgive themselves for sending you away.’

I stared at him, suspiciously I’m afraid. ‘May I see this passport?’

‘Of course.’ He took it from the drawer and handed it over.

It was as he had said.

‘May I keep it?’

‘May I keep this?’ He held up the transcript.

‘I haven’t read it.’

‘Do you really want to?’

I shrugged. ‘I’ve heard the General.’

‘Then keep the passport, Doctor. There’s just one thing about it that you should know, however.’

‘It’s invalid. I see.’

‘Not at all invalid. Perfectly genuine in all respects
including the naturalization. All we ask is that you do not use it immediately, for a week at least let us say, until you would have had time to read the Constitution or …’

‘Until the boat’s tied up and it doesn’t matter if someone starts to rock it.’

‘I see you understand. The passport is perfectly valid unless we say it isn’t. So, Doctor, don’t do anything hastily that can be done calmly. Above all, no fireworks. Are we agreed?’

‘All right. Agreed.’

‘Then let us go and meet His Excellency.’

I don’t really remember much about His Excellency but Madame his wife was most attractive, an intelligent jolie laide of the kind who can always beguile me.

Her fine eyes ran a quick survey before she decided how best to cope with me. Then she put out her hand.

‘You should beware of press photographers, Doctor. Never again let them pose you. You look so much better relaxed, less severe.’

‘That’s due to mosquito bites, Madame.’

‘Oh dear, so you are susceptible?’

‘And to delayed shock,’ said Delvert. ‘Don Ernesto has just learned that he is to be invited to join the new government.’

‘Then we shall see much more of you. Good. You know Elizabeth Duplessis, I believe. I do hope that you can persuade her to visit us. She could stay here, couldn’t she, Armand?’

Delvert smiled and nudged me on. The audience was over.

The police driver, slightly bewildered still, but reassured by the presence of so many other official cars, brought me back to the hotel.

There was an unpleasant little incident outside.

As I started to go up the steps I became aware of a group of kneeling figures with candles lit before a large square object. I paused and then saw that the object was a framed
oleograph of my father. I went on up and called the manager.

He wrung his hands but said that he could do nothing. ‘They say that the blood still comes out of the stones,’ he explained; ‘your father’s blood, Doctor. We know that this is absurd and impossible. Well’ – he hesitated – ‘at least I know. I was assistant manager here at the time of your father’s martyrdom.’

‘My father’s death you mean. Well?’

‘The blood soaked into the stone of the steps and could not completely be removed by’ – he looked abjectly apologetic – ‘by washing.’

‘By scrubbing and detergents you mean. So?’

‘Those stones were replaced by new ones. It was at the request of the police, you understand.’

‘Don’t those people know that?’

‘They have been told. It makes no difference.’

‘Even though it’s absurd and impossible?’

He spread out his hands helplessly.

‘Can’t anyone tell them, send them away?’

‘Doctor, it has been tried. They always come back. Perhaps if
you
told them …’

It was the last straw. I didn’t even bother to answer him. I got my key, ordered some sandwiches sent to the room and then sat down with my recurring decimal.

I feel a little better for having put all this down. It will now go into the bottom of my bag, along with the (possibly invalid) passport.