Corruption's Price: A Spanish Deceit (27 page)

In Davide's view, any 'smoking guns' might be in the Accounts M in two forms. The first was associated with identifying the organisations listed as having made payments into the Accounts M and that they had actually made such payments.

Establishing this, Davide suggested, would be difficult but not impossible. It needed cooperation from the original paying organisations. The good news was that, in effect, they already had inside access to this dimension through the client relationships that ORS possessed with Constructores Equilibris, ServiArquitectos and MMH and their purchasing records over the past five years. It would be even better, however, if they could have access to their full accounting systems.

"You mean, Señor Shape, that if Pedro and his people can obtain access to these complete accounting systems they may find additional payment details made by Constructores Equilibris, ServiArquitectos and MMH. In effect, if the payments to Márquez are confirmed in their formal accounting records, this would pretty much verify that the receipts side of the Accounts M is accurate."

"Precisely,
Señoría.
With the added consideration you could authorise Pedro's people to start looking for similar verifications in other organisations listed as making payments. If found, these would further increase the credibility of Márquez's receipts."

"I understand. Furthermore, would it be reasonable to suppose that these cash payments were claimed as legitimate business expenses when they might not be? I'm thinking of the tax implications."

"I wouldn't know,
Señoría
. That's beyond my knowledge. I don't easily understand the business tax laws applicable in Spain. But, if you were right, I'd think we might provide the tax authorities here with a good case for deeper investigation."

"Knowing my fellow countrymen and how businesses here function I'd be amazed if any payments made were not claimed as expenses against taxes. Do you agree, Pedro?"

"Our friends in the Hacienda tax office would almost certainly take the same position as you suggest,
Señoría
. Indeed, I can almost hear their lips slavering if we were able to provide them with due cause to look for detailed expenses that might illegitimately have been used to reduce what those organisations should have paid in taxes. Remember how Bankia/Caja Madrid misused their
tarjetas
negras?
"

"Indeed I do. You look puzzled, Señor Shape? Pedro refers to the lamented yet fantastical instance when senior executives of that bank were given corporate credit cards to use for their own private purposes, including taking cash from ATMs. The charges to the credit cards were absorbed as if they were part of the normal operational costs of the bank."

Davide enquired, "And the income effect on the executives?"

Pedro dryly appended: "By some inexplicable oversight these executives, for the most part, forgot to declare any benefits, or even to bother to itemise and claim what were genuine expenses."

"You astonish me!"

"We astonished ourselves, Señor Shape. Anyhow, please carry on."

"There's not much to add here about the payments to Márquez. Rather, it's for you two to decide how to proceed."

"And regarding her payments out?"

"That's more difficult. As yet the team hasn't found an equivalent 'smoking gun'."

"What would you consider an equivalent?"

"Ideally it'd be a payment listed by her that's documented in some way in the financial records of the recipient named in the Accounts M."

"Do I understand correctly? You mean if at least one payment out by Márquez is matched independently to a recipient name's records this would start to prove that the names on the Accounts M-Out side of the ledger are accurate? Of course, the more such items, the greater the implicit accuracy."

Pedro confirmed this, adding that it would be difficult because of the cash dimension. Cash was anonymous. The team was not there yet.

"But this also brings to the fore the different dimension this represents. Exploring deeper into Constructores Equilibris, ServiArquitectos and MMH, and even other organisations, shouldn't be too difficult with your authority and if you cite their managements to appear as witnesses before you. No doubt there'll be much howling, but no matter. Some would argue that this is why these executives are so well paid.

"No, as Davide says, the greater difficulty is on the payments outside of the ledger, what you referred to as the Accounts M-Out. First, there's the specific problem he's identified. But there's a second. The names listed potentially include politicians of all levels, civil servants, the Church and even the principals of various charitable organisations. There's a mountain of financial Semtex that could ignite if we find a connection and if at least some of the names are accurate."

"So what do you suggest, Pedro?"

"I'd like to divide this investigation of Márquez's Accounts M in two from here on. The first part would continue with the payment in, what we'll now refer to as the Accounts M-In. We'd start by citing Constructores Equilibris, ServiArquitectos and MMH executives as witnesses before expanding on this, depending on what we find. I'd focus my CNP people on this.

"My preference for the Accounts M-Out is to proceed with greater caution as well as secrecy to see if we can find Davide's smoking gun. My specific uncertainty is whether or not I should ask you to cite Señora Márquez as a witness and see if this unlocks a Pandora's Box. The trouble is that in citing her to appear before you so we might accidentally throw the key away.

"I'd prefer, therefore, to focus Emilia and Caterina, supported by my distant cousin Ana who'll recognise names and their significance, on searching for these sorts of connections. I'd detach at least one of my CNP people to assist them."

"Sounds reasonable to me, Pedro. Liaise with my office about whom you'd like me to cite and when so we can move ahead as you wish on the 'M-In' side."

Tuesday: Emilia

Against her better judgement Emilia allowed herself to be persuaded. She knew from previous conversations that Felipe attended exercise classes in the Retiro and that he had invited Davide in the past. What she had not learnt, until invited, was that Felipe had persuaded Alberto to join him. Whether Alberto had agreed because he was genuinely interested or because he was doing the boss' bidding remained unclear. Whatever the reason, Emilia was cheered when she accepted Alberto's suggestion.

The first reason for her satisfaction was that she was amongst a group of younger men and women, mostly English-speaking, but with sufficient locals to add some spice. The second was the location, the Retiro to the east of the Paseo de la Castellana. It was beautiful, much more of a structured and well-kept park than the Casa de Campo, to which Davide has taken her and Caterina on their arrival several weeks earlier.

The third was that she found herself to be fitter and in better shape than nearly everybody attending, even Alberto and Felipe. All those hours in gyms and on beaches back home making sure she did not add weight now proved worthwhile. She saw the effect on Alberto and others, which wasn't impressive.

The fourth reason was that her hard-won fitness released a mental freedom. She could allow her mind wander. Where others had to concentrate to keep up, she was able to switch in and out as suited her thoughts.

The work with Pedro was proving rewarding if also frustrating. Her experience in forensic accounting was a factor that his CNP colleagues clearly regarded with some awe. She found herself teaching as much as delving, even though the latter was the whole point.

But, and this was the downside, she really did require deeper access to more data than Caterina had captured on that smartphone. Emilia could not wait for the day when
Juez
Garibey delivered full access to the accounting systems of CE, MMH and ServiArquitectos. She was sure she would find pointers to enable her to help the CNP guys crack the payments-in side of Márquez's accounts.

Working with Caterina was still fun yet a coolness outside work had descended. This had happened once before, when Emilia had misbehaved (if she was honest) by seducing Caterina's lout of a rugby-playing boyfriend who had been treating Caterina like dirt. Though she was sure Caterina never knew about that one night stand there had been a similar chill until Emilia had verbally emasculated said-boyfriend in public in a bar in front of Caterina, thus releasing the latter from his baleful clutches. Oh, the things she did for best friends.

This time, however, the
froideur
persisted. Perhaps it was to do with Davide. Or was it that Emilia was spending an increasing amount of time staying at Ana's? Anyhow, on current evidence they would not be travelling much together. Emilia was unsure she was all that sorry. Caterina could be so straight-laced.

Her mind floated on. Alberto was amusing if no great shakes in bed, more enthusiasm than subtlety though she liked his devotions. That said, she sensed he possessed a long-term agenda involving her. That was unlikely to happen. Meanwhile, she enjoyed him for what he was worth and he was doing well so far to retain her interest, if only via rationed access on those occasions when either Davide or Caterina were visiting
tío
Toño, which was not often enough, or Ana went away for the weekend. Of course seeing Alberto, who worked with Ana at ORS, meant that anything concerning Ana demanded discretion.

Emilia considered, looking around here to see what else might be to her taste. She did, only to see Felipe bouncing away at the latest exercise, and without much elegance. It made her remember that this was his original stomping ground. She applied unfamiliar caution.

The trainer leading the fitness class completed the abdominal exercises, which Emilia loved, as did Alberto for the effect when she showed hers to him, and led them on a brisk 2K fartlek to 'warm down'. This exhausted everyone, the mix of sprinting and walking being a killer.

Once complete she saw Felipe cosying up to a striking, and strikingly unfit, blonde with an obvious American accent. Fair enough. That was his choice for today. Looking around, Emilia spotted a fit-looking pair running their eyes over her in appreciation. She smiled at them to which they responded in kind. Were one, the other, or both possibilities for another day, or night? She exchanged nods, preparing the ground for another day.

Alberto appeared before her to suggest going to his parents' home to shower and change. This was different, and not entirely welcome. Emilia had not been invited back to his house before. The notion of appearing in sweat-sodden exercise clothes for a first meeting with his parents definitely lacked appeal. Although she did have her change of clothes with her, because she was moving between Ana and Davide's tonight, his suggestion failed to excite.

"Don't look so worried, Emilia. My parents will be at the theatre by the time we get there. I thought ..."

His voice trailed off at the manifest uncertainty on Emilia's face.

"No; it's a good idea. Let's go out for some fun afterwards. I feel the need to have a few drinks and a good time. Okay, Alberto, let's do it your way. Who knows? I might even tell you more of what I am doing at work!"

Emilia had been just about been able to resist the temptation to tease him about what she was working on, and she was now careful not to say too much again.

Alberto relaxed. He did want her to meet his parents. Actually, he wanted them to meet her even more. All they knew was that she was Australian and that they had met at work. So far, this was good enough. It was as well that they did not know what else he and she 'got up to', which he loved, but would shock them. She was so inventive.

Tuesday: Madrid

In the evening
Juez
Garibey de Williams took his favourite table at the small restaurant round the corner from his apartment in Orense. His wife had gone to visit an old friend, sadly constrained to a hospital bed after some serious surgery, the cause of which was never specified. He suspected a malignant disease. He also suspected his wife thought the same or knew, yet nothing was ever said.

He ordered a salad, which the chef here did rather better than was usual in Madrid or most parts of Spain. It was not the tired lettuce with tasteless tomato accompanied by tinned asparagus, tinned tuna, tinned maize and tinned anything else that so many places in Spain seemed to believe made a worthwhile salad. Here each day the salad was different and almost always tasty. He rejoiced in anticipation of the unexpected.

To follow he ordered a well-done
solomillo de cerdo
. A good pork steak was his favourite. To accompany his meal he chose a Crianza from Rioja. He knew he would not finish it and that ordering a bottle was an indulgence. But a freshly-opened wine always tasted better than a glass from a bottle first used at lunch or left over from the previous evening – however well stoppered.

The wine tasted fine. He took another sip and thought about the sequence of what he had set in motion with Pedro.

He had authorised the separation of the investigation into two teams. Today he had supervised the issuing of formal invitations to the senior financial officers at CE, MMM and ServiArquitectos, for their attendance at his
Sala
next week. After much debate he had chosen to phrase the summons as being about past payments and little more.