Clara made a face, then shrugged. ‘Okay. I don’t know how I’ll be able to keep it to myself, but I’ll do my best.’
‘Anyway, it may not be him. We’ll need to borrow this book for a while to do some tests. I’ll give you a receipt and the names and telephone number of the local police you should contact if you remember anything.’
‘What do I tell the boss when he notices the book is missing?’
‘Tell him the police confiscated it and he should ring Lieutenant Mozas if he wants more information.’
Clara gave her a plastic bag for the book and called them a cab. Kathy thanked her and the girl said as they left, ‘You know, I hope you don’t catch him,’ and gave them a broad grin.
Kathy dropped Peter at the hotel on her way to the police offices. As they shook hands on the pavement there was a cry from Audrey McNeil, hurrying towards them, looking flustered. It seemed that the meeting with her bridge partner had been something of a disappointment, not to say a shock, for ‘Juanita’ the grandmother had turned out to be a forty-year-old, childless, male butcher, who had taken a great deal of shaking off. He had been unapologetic about his deception, apparently, and became quite plaintive when Audrey said she would never play bridge with him again.
‘The shocking thing, when I think about it,’ she said, ‘is how convincing he was as a grandmother. I remember all our little exchanges of news about our children and grandchildren, and he was so plausible. I thought I knew Juanita so well! I can still hardly believe she doesn’t exist.’
‘Well, maybe you should think about becoming someone else,’ Peter said, clearly enjoying this. ‘Become a biker or a lion-tamer or something. Wouldn’t be hard for you.’ He winked at Kathy, who was getting back into the taxi.
It seemed that the only progress that Linda and Tony had to report was that Kathy’s list of the occupants of Passeig de Gracia 83 had been left for her attention. They were twitchy with impatience at the delays. ‘Jeez says that there’s been some panic over an ETA bomb threat or something, but reading between the lines, I think he’s embarrassed. My guess is that Alvarez is making us wait.’
‘But why? What’s his problem? He was pretty unhelpful with me yesterday.’
‘Yeah, well, it was Dick Chivers’ fault really. When he was over here a couple of months ago, Superintendent Chivers got a bit stroppy, acting as if these guys were working for us. Jeez says that at one point the super made Alvarez look bad in front of his superiors, and he hasn’t forgiven him. If he’s found out anything he’s probably holding onto it to see what glory he can earn for himself before he passes it on to us.’
‘Well, I’ve got something that might help us.’ She described her visit to the Pavello and showed them the entry in the visitors’ book.
‘Wow!’ As Linda craned forward to look, Tony leaned over her shoulder, unconsciously stroking her arm. ‘That is his writing, isn’t it?’
‘Looks like it.’
‘Have you checked the rest of the book?’
‘Not yet.’
Linda turned the pages back. ‘Let’s start at the beginning.’
While the two of them pored over the entries, Kathy examined the list that Alvarez’s officer had left for her. The information was sparse, confined to a single sheet. Thankfully, she saw that the business descriptions had been translated into English. The building contained a lawyer, a financial consultant, medical consulting rooms, an accountant, a media company of some kind, two stockbrokers and an insurance broker. Almost any of them might have been of use to Charles Verge, Kathy guessed.
‘Is anyone around?’ she asked.
Linda looked up. Tony’s hand was now stroking her neck. She caught Kathy’s look of amusement and shrugged his hand away. ‘Jeez left his extension number if we need him.’ She handed it to Kathy who dialled and asked Lieutenant Mozas if someone could help her with the list. He came in after a few minutes with Alvarez’s detective in tow.
‘How can we help?’ He gave Kathy a smile that was almost too big to be sincere, as if he felt compelled to compensate for his captain’s offhandedness.
‘I wondered if you had any more information on these companies?’
Jeez translated to the other man who seemed to have no English, then turned back with the answer. ‘No criminal connections that we know of.’
‘Okay, but what else? The lawyer, for instance?’
Again there was some discussion in Spanish or Catalan. The other policeman consulted a notebook, then Jeez said, ‘Family law.’
‘Well, that doesn’t sound likely. What about the financial people? Could they have any connections with the UK?’
‘That would take a lot of investigation,’ Jeez said doubtfully. ‘There’s no one shady there that we know of.’
Kathy persisted. ‘What kind of doctors are in the consulting rooms?’
More discussion and studying of notes. ‘There are three doctors on the nameplate; an endocrinologist, an orthopaedist, and a third man who’s retired.’
‘Do we know what he did?’
Jeez shook his head.
Kathy thought about the list, then spoke to Tony, telling him about Passeig de Gracia 83. ‘It’s probably a wild goose chase, but five of these businesses are in the field of finance.’
‘Yeah.’ Tony rubbed his nose thoughtfully. ‘Why don’t we send their names back to London, check if they’ve done any transactions with the UK recently. At least it would look as if we’re doing something. They’re probably thinking we’re sunning ourselves on the Costa Brava for all the activity they’ve seen.’
Jeez got to his feet and asked if there was anything else he could do. Afterwards Kathy recalled that she had very nearly thanked him and let him go, but instead she said, ‘Could we find out what the third doctor did, and also whether the lawyer ever had any of the Verges family as clients?’ She saw the look on Jeez’s face and added, ‘I’m sorry, Jeez. I’d do it myself if I could.’
‘No sweat.’ He smiled graciously. ‘We’ll do it right away.’
An hour later he found her in the corridor by the water cooler. She had stepped out for a drink and to get out of the stuffy atmosphere in the office. Burly cops with guns and combat boots strolled by, eyeing the unfamiliar blonde.
‘Okay, the information you wanted. The lawyer says he’s never acted for the Verges family and has never met Charles Verge or his cousins. The doctor was a reconstructive surgeon.’
‘Reconstructive?’
‘Plastic.’ The immobility of Jeez’s features was more telling than any expression would have been. ‘A pioneer of…’ he peered at his notes, ‘… closed rhinoplastic procedures, whatever they are.’
‘Well…’
‘You know we checked out all the plastic surgery clinics in Barcelona for Superintendent Chivers, don’t you?’
‘I didn’t know that, but…’
‘This man retired four years ago, on his seventieth birthday.’
‘I’d like to talk to him.’
‘I don’t think that would be worthwhile. He’s too old, he doesn’t work at Passeig de Gracia 83 any more and, also, he’s known to us.’
‘Known to you? You mean he’s a crook?’
‘Quite the opposite. He was awarded a police medal for his work on two of our men who were badly hurt by a bomb. He is very highly regarded by the CGP, especially by Captain Alvarez, whose men were the victims.’
‘I see. I’d still like to talk to him. Will you come with me?’
‘Only if Captain Alvarez approves.’
‘Well, I’ll speak to him.’
‘He isn’t here.’
‘Jeez…’ He was being obstructive, she realised, his embarrassment only making him more stubborn. ‘We can reach him on the bloody phone, can’t we?’
Jeez clenched the muscles of his jaw, then said, ‘I’ve already spoken to him, Kathy. He’s busy and doesn’t want to talk about it just now. He’ll discuss it later. Maybe tomorrow.’
‘Maybe tomorrow?’
‘That’s what he said.’
‘Jeez,’ Kathy heard herself speaking slowly and deliberately, holding back her irritation, ‘did he specifically say that I wasn’t to speak to this man?’