Murdered by Nature (16 page)

‘As I mentioned, Benavides speaks some English, but is far from fluent. There's the chance he muddled up what Kerr said, both on the phone and—'

‘You have not expressed any such doubt until now.'

‘When listening to the conversation on the phone, he would have been worried he might be caught, and when under tension, one's memory can become unreliable.'

‘You are frequently under tension?'

‘Why do you suggest that, señor?'

‘You have forgotten the four thousand two hundred euros found in Kerr's possession. By the laws of probability, they were paid in response to the demand made over the telephone.'

You have always made the point that that is a possibility, not a fact.'

‘It would help if you could appreciate that different circumstances affect facts.'

‘Surely a fact is a fact?'

‘I was forgetting the necessity to explain matters to you in a simple form. Circumstances can change the light in which facts are viewed.'

‘The euros were withdrawn by the señor, not the señora.'

‘You find it difficult to understand that a husband will defend his wife to the utmost of his ability?'

‘But—'

‘You will tell the señora you have proof she was being blackmailed, and you will demand what provided the cause for this.'

‘If you're beginning to think she could have had a hand in Kerr's murder . . .'

‘A possibility which became a probability the moment the link between Kerr and the Ashtons was established.'

‘One could make the mistake of thinking she might in some way be involved in the murder, but that is totally to ignore the kind of person she is.'

‘I know of no one whose judgement of character should carry less weight than yours. Report to me when you have questioned her.'

G
reixonera de senyals
: lamb fries, olive oil, lemon juice, lard, eggs, milk, flour, breadcrumbs, nutmeg, pepper and salt. Dolores had added culinary magic to the marinated fries. Alvarez was slightly annoyed when Juan and Isabel demanded second helpings before leaving the table. His second helping thus became smaller.

‘I should like to go to Mestara,' she said.

There was no response.

‘Cristina is fortunate. Luis is happy to drive her to wherever she wishes to go.'

‘Because if he doesn't, she forgets to buy what he likes,' Jaime muttered.

‘How do you know that?'

‘Luis told me.'

‘Interesting!'

Alvarez wondered how long it would be before Jaime understood the unspoken threat.

‘I suppose I could go by bus, but then it is impossible to carry anything heavy.'

Such as wine. ‘One of us should be able to drive you.'

‘I would not wish either of you to disturb yourself in order to do so.' The false wish was sweetly spoken. She carried plates and cutlery into the kitchen.

Alvarez refilled his glass, leaned forward. ‘Why tell her that?' he asked in a very low voice.

‘Tell her what?' Jaime asked.

‘Cristina cuts off his wine if he doesn't take her shopping.'

‘She didn't say that's what would happen to us. She would never do something as rotten as that.'

‘Why d'you think she remarked it was interesting news?'

Jaime refilled his glass after a quick look to see she was not watching him from the kitchen. ‘You think she could be wondering about trying that with us?'

‘Without a moment's hesitation.'

‘Then I'll make it clear she can forget it.'

‘And she'll tell us to buy our own booze.'

‘A husband made to do the shopping? Never!'

‘Women's liberation means attempted female domination.'

‘You think she'll ever get the chance to dominate me?'

‘It's not impossible.'

‘Next thing, women will start reckoning they're as good as men at everything.'

‘Not when it comes to having babies.'

‘It's no good talking to you when you're in one of your daft moods. I suppose that's because you've made a balls-up at work.'

‘In one sense, you could say that.'

Dolores stepped through the bead curtain. ‘If you wish to continue talking about things you do not wish me to know about, I'll have my orange in the kitchen.'

‘We were only saying—' Jaime began.

Alvarez hastily intervened. ‘That we don't understand how a woman can prepare wonderful meals, keep a house spotlessly clean, and then go out of her way to help others.'

‘If I was a naive fifteen, I might find your words flattering.' She returned to the kitchen, reappeared with a bowl of oranges, three plates, and three small steel knives.

‘It need not be until tomorrow,' she said as she sat.

‘What needn't?' Jaime asked.

‘That one of you drives me to Mestara.'

‘I would happily do so,' Alvarez said, ‘if only the case I'm on hadn't become so complicated, and the superior chief so impatient, that I have to spend twelve hours a day at work.'

‘Twelve?' she said, expressing surprise. ‘Are you sure that's correct when you have an hour for breakfast, two hours at lunch, a siesta of two to three hours, after supper a couple of hours watching a film of an obnoxious nature, and finally a sleep of very many hours?'

‘If I do have a siesta today, it will be a very short one. I have to question a woman, and I don't know how to go about it.'

‘Try speaking to her,' Jaime suggested.

‘This woman is English?' she asked.

‘Yes,' Alvarez replied.

‘Young?'

‘Youngish.'

‘Beautiful?'

‘Even if she was visually perfect, even though she is now so wealthy she could light cigarettes with hundred euro notes, I am not romantically interested in her.'

‘You are quick to deny something which has not been said.'

‘Maybe she's not
¡Hola!
material, but the money will make up for that,' Jaime observed.

‘She is newly bereaved.'

‘Very ready to be comforted.'

‘You hold marriage to be of as little account to a woman as it is to a man?' she asked Jaime sharply. ‘Money is of far greater importance than affection. You cannot understand why someone who has lost a beloved wife or husband is too bereaved to think of another relationship. Perhaps I can be thankful for your sake that if I die first, you will suffer no sorrow since you will no longer have the cost of feeding me.'

‘What are you going on about? If you die before me, I'll be inconsolable.'

‘Because you will no longer get your meals cooked, the house cleaned, your clothes washed and ironed, a shoulder to lean on when something insignificant upsets you. But perhaps you will die first, content in the knowledge I will tend your grave every day with fresh flowers and through the distorted glass of memory will remember you as a man of love, compassion, and great kindness.' She stood. ‘I will go up to my bedroom. If you want coffee, you will make it.'

They watched her climb the stairs and turn into the passage; a door was shut.

‘If you had four feet,' Alvarez said, ‘you'd put them all in your mouth at the same time.'

‘I suppose you think that's amusing?'

‘With her in an ill temper and supper to cook, and me being told to believe the impossible, there is not a sliver of humour in my universe.'

Alvarez's customary pleasure gained from driving along the bay road was absent. His mind was too occupied with the coming meeting, his need to question Señora Ashton and inevitably making it seem he believed her capable of, guilty of, murdering Kerr . . .

As Alvarez drew up outside Son Dragó, Benavides stepped out through the front doorway, walked over to the car. ‘You wish to speak to me again?'

‘No. With the señora.'

‘She is not here.'

There was a call from the hall. ‘Manuel?'

‘She has a sister who sounds exactly like her?' Alvarez asked sarcastically.

‘Inspector, please forget what I told you.' Emotional pain was visible in the expression on his plump face. ‘She can't have done it.'

‘Emilio,' Laura said as they entered the hall, ‘I want to know if you can tell me . . . Inspector!'

‘Good evening, señora.'

‘You're working late.'

‘Unfortunately so.'

‘Whom do you wish to talk to this time?'

‘You, señora.'

‘You'll find it a fruitless conversation.'

‘I sincerely hope so, señora.'

‘A strange wish.' She looked quizzically at him. ‘We'll go into the sitting room.'

Benavides crossed the tiled floor, opened the door, stood to one side as they entered.

‘Inspector, would you like coffee or a drink?' she asked as she sat.

‘If I might have a drink.'

She spoke to Benavides. ‘I'll have an orange juice.'

He left the room.

‘May I ask you an out-of-the-way question?' she asked Alvarez.

‘Of course, señora.'

‘You must notice more about people than most. Do you think Manuel is very troubled about something?'

‘I wouldn't have judged so.'

‘I've gained the impression he has become reluctant to stay here because, bluntly, I am now his employer.'

Benavides saw himself as a traitor and was ashamed to face the woman he had betrayed. ‘Señora, I am as certain as I can be that your fears are unjustified. He has told me how happy he is to serve you, as he did your husband.'

‘Thank you for telling me. Now, an impertinent question.' Again, that artless smile which escaped her sadness. ‘Have you always lived in Mallorca?'

‘I was born at the other end of the island and was there for many years before I moved to this end.'

‘You must have seen many changes.'

‘So many, I sometimes wonder if I remember correctly.'

‘A friend who has been here for a long time says it's been like moving a century in forty years.'

‘In some ways, he is correct. When he first came to the island, it is likely roads were badly made, were dirt in villages; shops were family run and sold mainly locally produced food; the furniture was limited; towns had irregular electricity and in the countryside there was often none; as little as two hectares of land would enable a man to grow the food his family needed; donkey carts were the major form of travel; doctors were few, and many patients could not afford their fees, yet perhaps were treated for nothing; and pigs were killed at
matançes
and might provide the only meat a family would eat for a long while. When tourists arrived and brought money with them, goods were imported from abroad and for a while could become a symbol of pride. Refrigerators were kept in the
entrada
so that friends and neighbours would see them, cars became commonplace, roads were macadamized, donkey carts became too dangerous to be used in the growing traffic, and supermarkets introduced food and goods from around the world.'

‘It was a wonderful change for people?'

‘We used to have a saying, señora. Find a hundred peseta coin and tomorrow you will receive a bill for a hundred and one pesetas. When there were few rich but many peasants, peasants envied only the rich. As times changed, the man with a Seat Punto envied the man with a Mercedes, and the owner of a small town house envied the owner of a large villa in one of the
urbanizacións
. Drug dependancy arrived and, with it, theft in order to sustain the dependency. Houses had to be locked. Supermarkets drove the small family-run shops out of business. Land began to lie idle because to work it demanded too much labour for too little income.'

‘Then modernization was a bad thing?'

‘There are now doctors and health centres in every town or large village, hospitals treat the ill without payment, and no rich man can use the threat of poverty to make another do as he demands. It is like an orange tree. Never feed and water it and it will produce small, juiceless oranges; feed and water it too heavily and the oranges will be large, but will have less taste and begin to rot soon after picking.'

‘One needs the happy medium.'

‘But how does one know what that is until one has learned what it is not?'

There was a knock on the door, and Benavides entered. He straightened the runner on Laura's table, placed the glass of orange juice on it; as he handed Alvarez a brandy and ice, he mouthed a few words. He was no lip-reader, yet Alvarez was convinced he had been asked to ignore what he had learned.

Laura held the glass above her lap. ‘It's been interesting to talk to you, but I'm sure you're wanting to ask more questions.'

‘I fear so.'

‘Then let's get them over and done with.'

‘Señora . . .'

‘Yes?'

‘It is difficult for me.'

She smiled. ‘And for me as I wait to answer a question which might be about anything.'

‘Is it correct that you knew Colin Kerr?'

She started, as if jabbed by a needle; the features of her face tightened, and a smile was aeons away. She had forgotten the glass in her hand, and it tilted to spill orange juice over her dress. She stood, hurried out of the room.

He stared through the nearer window at the bay. Shock or surprise? Surprise because she had believed any such contact was unknown or shock because this had been disclosed?

If Kerr had been blackmailing her, over what?

Benavides entered, spoke angrily. ‘The señora says it will take time to change, so you can leave.'

Alvarez sat in his office, stared through the unshuttered window at the uninviting view of the wall of the property on the other side of the road. Had Benavides merely blamed him for the accident of the orange juice, or had he feared a continued questioning of the señora could uncover a new link to inculpate her and that was why, in the señora's name, he had been told to get out? Was Benavides constantly, by word and manner, denying the possibility of her guilt in order to cover his own guilt? Would it be a waste of time further to consider the possibility of a link between Kerr's death and the staff? Salas had contemptuously dismissed the possibility that Kerr had a criminal record in England, but was that possibility so absurd? A further request to ask for the information to be provided would be sharply dismissed since Salas viewed hunches as pernicious irrelevancies. What would be the consequences to him if Salas was right and he was wrong?