Alvarez lay in bed and vainly wished he had been born brave. Then he could walk the streets without imagining the blade of a knife sliding into his flesh; would not die a dozen times an hour …
There was a knock on the door. ‘Enrique,’ shouted the owner of the hostal.
‘What’s happened?’ he replied, fearing disaster.
‘You’re wanted on the phone.’
‘Who is it?’
‘Never asked.’
No one but the family knew where he was staying. But had ‘they’ managed to trace him, were about to taunt him with his impotence? With trembling fingers, he pulled on trousers and shirt.
The telephone was on the half-landing and he stood by the receiver, off its stand, for several seconds before he finally found the courage to pick it up. ‘Yes?’ he said in a croaky voice.
‘What the devil’s going on?’
It was perhaps the first time that he was grateful to find his caller was the superior chief. ‘In respect of what, señor?’
‘Why do I have to phone your home to find out how to get hold of you? Why haven’t you left a note of your new address at the post as required by regulations?’
‘I decided to move away from home so that my family was no longer at risk. It then seemed better not to tell anyone at the post where I’d moved to in case someone inadvertently passed on the address.’
‘It’s long after eight o’clock. Why aren’t you at work?’
‘But it’s Sunday.’
‘I expect my officers to work whatever the day when there’s an emergency.’
‘What emergency?’
‘How typical that I have to acquaint my inspector in Llueso of what has been happening in his area!… Last night, a little after midnight, the guardia post in Cala Beston was rung by a woman who refused to identify herself and said that two South American child killers were tied up in an old finca. Since there had been no reports of children having been murdered, or of known murderers visiting the island, the message appeared to be a hoax. However, the sarjento, a man of initiative who comes from Madrid, decided to direct a patrol car to the finca named to make certain. There, the crew discovered two men who had been bound and gagged and who were in a hysterical state. They begged to be taken away before the women returned and cut off…’
‘Yes, señor?’
‘It is immaterial. They were taken back to the post and questioned; by then recovered, they made the absurd claim that it had been a joke which had gone wrong and even went so far as to deny that they had ever said they had been attacked, tied up, and threatened by women. They were staying at the Hotel Emperatriz and the rooms they occupied were searched. Amongst their baggage were found two handguns. Their passports showed them to be Bolivian and…’
‘Bolivian!’
‘That’s what I have just said.’
‘They’re the men who have been threatening me!’
‘That seems very probable, which is why a request has gone through to the authorities in Bolivia for information concerning them.’
‘They’re in custody?’
‘The handguns allow us to hold them.’
‘Then I don’t have to worry any more! I don’t have to wonder if every man who approaches is set to kill me. I don’t have to feel the cold steel sliding into me…’
‘Control yourself.’
‘Señor, if you knew how awful it has been for me…’
‘I have no intention of dwelling on something which brings discredit to the force. What now concerns me is the part you have played in this incredible incident.’
‘Me? How could it be anything to do with me?’
‘Because the episode is so vulgar and ridiculous that I can be certain you are deeply involved.’
‘I’ve been here, in the hostal, all night. Mateo, the owner, will tell you that we had a drink or two together and it was late at night – or perhaps early in the morning – before we parted.’
‘On this island, where truth is adjustable, a man will swear to anything.’
‘But you said it was women who tied up the two men…’
‘That is what they claimed when hysterical. Once they regained their senses, they naturally denied such stupidity. Even if a Mallorquin woman took part in such an incident, which I can find just conceivable, it becomes inconceivable that she could then bring herself to utter such a disgusting threat.’
‘You haven’t said what that threat was.’
‘Unlike you, I gain no pleasure from such perverse details.’
‘Señor, if the attackers weren’t women, why would the two Bolivians, however scared, have said they were, knowing that would turn them into a laughing-stock?’
‘That is immaterial. What is very material is the question, what part did you play in this disgusting affair?’
‘Absolutely none.’
‘I find that impossible to believe and I warn you that when the truth is revealed, you will learn to your cost that justice can never be served by injustice.’ The line went dead.
Alvarez replaced the receiver. He was a target no longer! He felt as if he had drunk deeply of the finest Vega Sicilia, had won El Gordo, could float on air …
* * *
When he stepped into the house, suitcase in one hand, he immediately caught the scent of rich, spicy cooking; when he entered the dining room, his hopes were running high. Jaime, seated in an armchair, looked up. ‘I thought you weren’t coming back for a time?’
‘Things have changed.’ He put the suitcase down, looked at the bead curtain. ‘Is she doing some proper cooking?’
‘That’s what I’m hoping.’
He drew in a deep breath. ‘D’you think it could be Colomins amb salsa?’
Dolores stepped through the bead curtain. ‘So it is you!’ She embraced him and kissed him several times on both cheeks. ‘I was just about to phone the hostel to tell you to come here for lunch.’
‘Colomins amb salsa?’
‘You’ll just have to wait to find out,’ she said archly. She returned to the kitchen.
Alvarez sat at the table. ‘What’s changed her around so suddenly?’
‘How would I know? Unless it was Antonia,’ Jaime replied.
‘How could she have done anything?’
‘It’s like this. Most of yesterday, Dolores was real bitchy and I couldn’t do anything right. Went for me all ends up because I hadn’t cleaned the drain outside the kitchen. As I said to her, a bloke has to sit down and rest his limbs from time to time if he’s not to wear out. You should have heard her reply. She –’
‘Never mind all that.’
‘Easy to say. But I do mind since it’s me that gets worn out working.’
‘When did Dolores change?’
‘Yesterday evening, she said she was going out to see Antonia. I asked her who was going to do my supper and she called me so lazy I’d starve to death rather than make myself a sandwich. A sandwich for supper! Is that why one marries?’
‘And she was different when she got back?’
‘Which wasn’t until nearly one o’clock. When she woke me up, I told her I’d been worried sick that something had happened to her and what did she think she was doing, being out so late. She didn’t shout back at me. She didn’t start spouting all that nonsense about being a person in her own right, whatever that means; she just apologized. Apologized! And this morning, she’s been all cheerful and doing some proper cooking. Weird, that’s what it is. Like I always say, if you can understand a woman, you need to have your brains tested. One moment sweet, the next sourer than a lemon in October. If us men acted like them, the world would be in a right proper mess…’
Alvarez ceased to listen as a frightening possibility occurred to him. Dolores’s mood had changed dramatically between early evening and the middle of the night; she had left Jaime to get his own supper when normally she would never consider such a dereliction of her duties; she never stayed out late in the evenings because she needed to be at home to be certain Juan and Isabel were safe; she was not particularly friendly with Antonia; she had decided to cook a special meal before he had arrived, yet how could she have known there was cause to celebrate when he had not told her what had happened? When the two Bolivians had been found, they had hysterically claimed to have been attacked by many women …
If he had a word with Antonia, he might be able to learn what was the truth, but there were some truths that a sensible man made certain he never did know …
‘So what do you think?’ Jaime asked.
‘That I need a drink.’
‘It’s still early. I mean, she sees us drinking now and maybe it’ll push her back into a mood.’
‘I doubt that very much.’ Alvarez leaned across to open the door of the sideboard.