Corruption's Price: A Spanish Deceit (30 page)

Emilia wondered what would happen tomorrow, after the weekend. Inma had taken Monday and Tuesday off to relax and repair. Assuming there were no issues with the already operated-on right eye, the left one was to be 'done' on Friday. She proposed to take another couple of days off the following week.

Looking round Inma's apartment, Emilia was struck by its combination of austerity and touches of luxury, like wonderfully comfortable chairs and sofas and a state of the art sound and TV system. She sat back, indulging herself and being quite happy that Inma was preparing a typically late, by Australian standards, Spanish lunch.

So far the weekend had turned out to be pretty good, better than sitting alone in Malasaña with an occasional fling with Alberto if he allowed himself out. On the other hand, she and Inma had mostly talked about the inconsequential, and eyes, of course. She was pleased to be able to help. She wondered if Inma was looking for more.

Yet Inma must be at least a decade older than herself, though in even better physical shape. They had talked about exercises. But Inma had been instructed to take it easy, so she was not allowed to show Emilia what she did to keep her figure so wonderfully firm.

The only difficult moment yesterday had occurred when Miriam called, apparently to apologise for not being there during and after the eye operations. Inma, while trying to hide it, was clearly disappointed by something else that was said, or not said. Emilia hadn't asked more.

Inma emerged from the kitchen: "Will you lay the table? We're almost ready. The implements, if I may call them that, are in the second drawer from the right in the dresser at the end of the dining room table. I thought we might be a little formal. Oh, and wine glasses are in the cabinet above."

She disappeared back into the kitchen.

By the time that Emilia had done as requested Inma had reappeared with a tray of various delicacies to pick at
.
These would, Emilia was told, be followed by
individual shoulders of best Spanish
cordero,
reared in La Mancha or possibly Extremadura.

"It looks and sounds delicious."

"I hope so. Wine?"

"Yes. Thank you."

Emilia sipped at her glass. She hesitated. "Inma, what happened in Rome? Can you tell me anything? Davide and Caterina refuse to say more than occasionally mention the names of people who mean nothing to me."

"You ask a horribly difficult question. In fact I can't really tell you that much. Well, I will tell you a little but I warn you that I may irritate because I will almost certainly provoke yet more questions which I won't be able to answer. The long and short is that I was part of a conspiracy to redirect some of the Vatican's revenues."

"Redirect?" Emilia's eyes widened at this. "That sounds like doublespeak. You mean as in abstract, steal, take?"

She wasn't sure how else to put it.

"Essentially, yes, steal. But not for myself. For Opus Dei. How much do you know about Opus?"

"Nothing."

For the next hour or so Inma held Emilia spellbound as she described belonging to Opus, how it enabled her to work for herself as well as the benefit of Opus. She told Emilia about how she had been caught at Tel Aviv airport's security wearing a metal cilice. When it was clear that Emilia hadn't a clue what a cilice was she had explained it was a hidden, spiked chain worn under your clothes meant to remind believers they should suffer. The security people had thought it might be a weapon and had looked very puzzled when she tried to explain its significance. Both Inma and she had laughed and laughed at the absurdity.

This broke the ice further and Inma was able to continue by describing the meeting with Miriam, how they had become lovers the day before Conor, Davide and Caterina caught up with them at Inma's
finca
outside Yuste (not that this place name meant anything to Emilia).

"If you'd like to come with me one weekend to visit you'd be most welcome."

"Sounds great. But what happened in Rome? What you describe was all in Spain, wasn't it?"

"Pretty much. In Rome I'm on thin ice. Probably best is that we were caught, for Miriam was doing much the same as I but for her father's church. Because neither of us were taking any personal benefit and we cooperated, no more was said."

"They let you off totally when you were ripping off the Catholic Church? How did you arrange that?"

Inma winced at the clinical accuracy of the 'ripping off'.

"I can't say much more. But now you know sufficiently little to whet your appetite. I see it in your face. Really, I can't tell you more. Only Davide can. Indeed, he was the key player throughout."

Inma placed a sympathetic hand over Emilia's "You're frustrated. You shouldn't have asked and I shouldn't have mentioned what I did." Inma softened this with a sympathetic smile. "Changing the subject, I've a question for you, though you might think it intrusive."

Inma stopped. She really wasn't sure of herself. Could she raise such a topic? Yet, especially after the call yesterday when Miriam had apologetically made it clear that there was minimal chance she would be back in Madrid any time soon and they both should get on with their own lives, her need to know more was becoming acute.

"Yes?" prompted Emilia.

"From what I understood from Caterina and Ana, you like men and women. You'll have understood from what I told you previously, Miriam has been my only lover, apart from one time as a teenager when I was pretty much raped by a Mexican boy on holiday camp. He was no lover. What's it like sleeping with a man? What's different between the two sexes?"

Emilia sat rigid. No question could have surprised her more. All she could immediately think to say was, "Why?"

"Because my world is upside down. Am I looking in the wrong place? Would I be expecting the impossible? I've awful memories of that boy. I think you're the only person I've ever met who likes sex with both sexes."

She was babbling, but at least this gave Emilia time to gather her thoughts.

"I'm not sure you are asking the right person. I'm hopeless, a failure with relationships, though perhaps not quite as bad a Caterina."

Inma looked disapproving.

Emilia changed tack.

"Only as long as you understand my own limitations, maybe then I can share some insights, though that sounds far too worthy."

"I'd be grateful. I'm lost, you see. Miriam leaving really has upended me. Tell me."

Emilia drew a deep breath, all the while wondering where this would go, or end.

Monday: Sala de lo Penal, Madrid

Juez
Garibey was looking forward to this morning. As requested, the top financial executives of CE, MMH and ServiArquitectos were to appear in front of him today. Deliberately he had chosen the sequence. First he would see what CE and MMH had to say and whether they would cooperate with opening their full accounts.

But it was with ServiArquitectos that his real hopes lay. Its equivalent executive had been around a long time and would know more than she would want to admit today. As so often, obtaining information during an investigation would be like drawing blood, for these large companies came equipped with armies of lawyers.

After seeing all his staff were ready he entered his
Sala
to take his seat. Facing his own table was another longer table, with room for several people and with more chairs behind. The table was occupied by the Señor Enrique Ruelas of CE, with a lawyer on either side.

After the opening courtesies and acknowledgements,
Juez
Garibey began. First he stated that this was a hearing to discover facts. He proceeded to confirm that CE was indeed a client of ORS. He next described how a number, he did not say how many or the value, of payments seemed to have been made by CE over several years in the past to a variety of companies. These payments seemed to be mostly duplicates of other payments or involved credit notes that CE did not reclaim. He continued that he was investigating the possibility that this was a mechanism to hide improper transactions. He added that he did not know if his investigations would lead to anything though it seemed there was a possibility that shareholders and possibly Hacienda, the state tax agency, were the ones to suffer.

One of Señor Ruelas' lawyers, at the first opportunity, deferentially asked what this was all about and where it was leading. He continued. "In any case, was the
Señoría
not aware that his client had only been appointed as chief financial officer and from outside CE during the past twelve months? He could not, therefore, be responsible for anything that went on before his arrival."

Juez Garibey smiled innocently, delighted to obtain the opening he sought.

"Am I to understand that you're saying that Señor Ruelas cannot know the details of accounting actions completed from before his appointment?" The lawyer agreed. "I presume, therefore, that Señor Ruelas and CE would be willing to cooperate with this investigation?"

Señor Ruelas and his two lawyers looked dubious. They asked for permission to confer.
Juez
Garibey granted this.

"What assistance are you looking for and what would it involve?"

Internally
Juez
Garibey rejoiced, pretty sure he had landed fish number one.

"What I'd like, if Señor Ruelas and CE will assist this
Sala
, is only to be able to obtain access to the full accounting records of CE for the eight years prior to last year, which would be before Señor Ruelas joined. If the access could be provided either as what I'm told is called 'an offline data dump', for I assume the accounts are computerised, or with online access, this would likely be sufficient."

"Will you want more from Señor Ruelas after that?" enquired the second lawyer.

"I don't think so, especially if you'll provide supporting evidence that Señor Ruelas arrived from outside CE as you say he did. Third party evidence, for example an announcement from the
Bolsa
or that appeared in the business press, would suffice. After that I do not think this Court would need to bother Señor Ruelas himself further, though that will not necessarily excuse the previous management."

The lawyers exchanged looks, and with Señor Ruelas, who had said not a word thus far. These indicated mutual assent. The first lawyer said as much to
Juez
Garibey.

"If CE will make the records available to my office during the following week, I think we can conclude Señor Ruelas' participation here and now. Thank you for your cooperation."

The two lawyers, thought
Juez
Garibey, appeared relieved that their client would not face further questions. After all, their focus was Señor Ruelas, rather than CE. Yet it was CE's accounting data that were his real objective.

A more or less identical scenario played out two hours later. MMH, though putting up more spirited objections, had agreed to make its full accounting records available.
Juez
Garibey was pleased. He was sure that Pedro and his team would be too.

The next appearance was going to be more awkward even if it might be more revealing. He signalled to his assistants to introduce Señora Cyntia Cárdenas, the long-serving head of finance at ServiArquitectos. Moments later a short, round lady in late middle age appeared flanked by no fewer than four lawyers, one of whom Juez Garibey recognised as the in-house counsel for ServiArquitectos, another lady who had a reputation for her vicious exploitation of the law for her company's benefit. She was called ... her name came to him: Adoración Carbajal, an inappropriate first name unless you did as she demanded. Though well into her forties, or possibly fifties – it was not obvious – she still insisted on being called
Señorita
, having never married and in spite of modern conventions. She also made herself remarkable. Her way of dressing emphasised a large head on a long neck – almost out of a Perugino Mannerist painting. Idly he wondered if she would recognise the similarity. Probably.

They took their seats and he started in the much the same way as he had done with CE and MMH. Señora Cárdenas looked bored, clearly wondering what was going on. Juez Garibey deliberately took his time.

Unlike with CE and MMH, where he knew that the financial officers were too new to their organisations to know anything of substance, with ServiArquitectos he produced a detailed list of multiple transactions. He pointed to a copy and his assistant took it to Señora Cárdenas.

"What you have in front of you is an itemised set of invoices paid by ServiArquitectos, organised by year. In addition, for each of these invoices you'll see that they've been paid twice or more. Can you explain how or why this happened?"

Before Señora Cárdenas could respond, Señorita Carbajal intervened with, "
Señoría
, you cannot just present my colleague with a list and expect her to explain anything on the spot today. Don't you realise how many transactions in a year ServiArquitectos handles? It's millions. Wouldn't you consider this as behaving unreasonably?"

"That's a possibility. But, Señorita Carbajal, the amounts are substantial, what the accountants term 'material'. Perhaps Señora Cárdenas will recognise some of them and be able to explain?"