‘The papers?’
‘And the bank statements,’ said Juliette. ‘I remember them now.’
Chapter Five
The next morning Seymour went up to the committee’s offices, where he found Mr Bahnini, head down, already at work.
He took out the scraps of paper he had found in Bossu’s filing cabinet and laid them on the desk in front of him.
‘Could you tell me, Mr Bahnini, to what these refer?’
‘They are names of places. Azrou, Immauzer and Tafilalet. And, of course, Casablanca.’
‘Anything special about them?’
‘The first three are in the south. They are small towns in the interior.’
‘Anything else about them?’
Mr Bahnini shook his head.
‘I would say there is very little to distinguish them. Apart from being the only towns in miles and miles of desert.’
‘Beside them are some numbers. And dates. Azrou, for instance: 5000, 2nd April. Immauzer, 7000, 20th May. What do the numbers refer to? Could they be sums of money?’
‘They could.’
‘There wouldn’t be any reference to these sums, if they are sums, in the minutes of the committee? I was just wondering if they were authorized expenditure.’
Mr Bahnini shook his head.
‘They would not be,’ he said definitely. ‘The committee is not authorized to disburse funds. It has a few for expenses, of course. For stationery, my salary, and so on, but there are all minor and do not correspond to any of these sums.’
‘Perhaps they’re not money then.’
Mr Bahnini studied them.
‘Although what else could they be?’ he said.
‘Take a look at the dates. Do they correspond to anything in Bossu’s diary?’
‘He didn’t keep one,’ said Mr Bahnini. ‘But I did.’
He produced a desk diary and began to go through it.
‘He was certainly away from the office on those dates,’ he said.
‘So they could be dates of meetings?’
‘But why would he have been having meetings in places like that? Casablanca, I could understand. But Tafilalet! Mr Bossu had business dealings all over the place, it is true, but — Tafilalet! It’s just an oasis.’
‘No record here, then?’
‘No. Of course…’
‘Yes?’
‘He had business dealings of his own. He only worked for the committee part time. The sums might relate to them.’
‘Where would I find out about them? Did he have another office somewhere?’
‘I don’t think so, sir.’
‘His bank, perhaps, might have a record of cash transactions. Do you know which bank he used?’
‘I am afraid not, sir. His wife, perhaps…’
‘Doesn’t know a thing. And Renaud has taken all his papers away. I could ask him, I suppose.’
Mr Bahnini was hesitating. He cleared his throat deferentially.
‘I wonder, sir…’
‘Yes?’
‘I am not sure, sir, that, given the location of the places, he would have made much use of his bank. In the south they usually prefer money in physical form.’
‘Coin, you mean?’
‘Or bullion. Silver is much in use.’
‘And if Bossu was making payments there, that is what he would have used?’
‘There are no banks there, sir. The south is a very backward place. Not to say lawless.’
‘Hmm. So if he wanted money in hard form, where could he have gone to get it?’
‘I suspect the big moneylenders in the souk, sir. But a bank here would be able to advise you.’
‘Thank you. I’ll try them.’
‘There is one other thing, sir.’
‘Yes?’
‘Money in that form is heavy The first part of the journey could be done by truck, but after that he would have had to use camels. And porters. Also…’
‘Yes?’
‘Almost certainly he would have needed bodyguards. The south is, as I have said, a lawless place.’
Seymour asked if he could see the committee’s minutes. He settled himself at Bossu’s desk and Mr Bahnini brought them to him. Then he ploughed systematically through them. There was no mention of any of the places on the slips of paper, nor any reference to the dates or sums. He began to get, however, a sense of the committee’s preoccupations. Impressed by his display of clerical adhesiveness, Mr Bahnini warmed to him and dropped in from time to time to explain particular points.
Much of the most recent discussion referred to a venture at Marrakesh. Mr Bahnini said that this was to do with a project to build a railway, which, it was hoped, would open up the interior. Of course, Marrakesh was a long way inland and since it did not fall within the area of the proposed Tangier zone it was, strictly speaking, nothing to do with the committee. Tangier interests would, however, be providing the money and for that reason were interested in the legal powers that the committee would be recommending. Strongly interested, judging by the frequency of the committee’s returns to the subject.
‘They are interested, of course, in the likely route the railway would take.’
‘Is that the responsibility of the committee to decide?’
‘No, but what they decide — the scope and nature of the legal powers they decide on — could have a considerable bearing on the route. That is terribly important, of course, because once the route has been decided on, businesses will be jostling to take appropriate action.’
‘Appropriate?’
‘Well, they would be able to plan ahead.’
‘Buy land, you mean?’
‘That sort of thing, yes, sir.’
‘And Bossu being close to the committee’s deliberations…’
‘I must insist, sir, that anything he did would be separate from his work on the committee. The Chairman is a stickler for propriety. But, of course, outside the committee room-’
‘And close as he was not just to the committee’s working but also to the interests of other parties-’
‘He would be well placed,’ said Mr Bahnini.
‘Thank you, Mr Bahnini. I think I understand what you are telling me.’
At one point Seymour heard Mr Bahnini talking to someone in his office. They kept their voices down and he couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they appeared to be having an argument. The other person seemed to be a young man. After a time he went away.
When Mr Bahnini next came in to see how Seymour was getting on, he appeared vexed.
‘An awkward customer?’
‘Very. My son.’
‘The one you were talking about with Macfarlane?’
‘The same.’
‘The one who has just finished his studies and is uncertain what to do?’
‘It is not that he is uncertain. He doesn’t appear to want to do anything. He just sits in the cafe all day with his friends listening to music.’
‘He probably finds it hard to put student life behind him.’
‘They all do. But it’s time they did. They can’t sit around for ever.’
‘You couldn’t tempt him to take up Macfarlane’s offer? As a temporary expedient?’
‘That’s just what I’ve been trying to do. But he will have none of it. The committee is just a cover for the French, he says, and he refuses to have anything to do with it. He won’t work for the Mahzen because he says it’s too corrupt. All right, what about business, then, I say? There are plenty of jobs there if only you could be bothered to look for them. That would be working for foreigners, he says, and he doesn’t want to do that.’
‘What does he want to do?’
‘Sit around in the cafe and chat. And his friends are just the same. They say they will only work for Morocco. Look, this is Morocco, I say: here! No, it’s not, they say. It’s France or Spain or some other rich country.
‘ “It’s all very well for you to talk,” I say to him, “but before you start taking a high-and-mighty line about principle, you’ve got to find a way to live. At the moment you’re living on me!”
‘That always makes him angry, and my wife says I mustn’t say things like that. But it’s true. And it’s true for the others, too.
‘Take young Awad. He spends all his time lolling about in the cafe, too, but he can do it only because his father is rich — his father is a Minister in the Mahzen, Suleiman Fazi. Did you say you had been to see him? I met him once, he’s a nice man and he’s just as worried about Awad as I am about Sadiq.