Corruption's Price: A Spanish Deceit (37 page)

"What did you say to them?"

Zavala stifled a bitter laugh. It came out more like a strangled wheeze.

"What did I say? I told them to get stuffed. I'm not paying a
céntimo
back to either ServiArquitectos or CE. They screwed me and my people. Why should I care about them? For the record, with MMH, I had virtually no significant dealings."

"Would you like to elaborate?"

"With the utmost pleasure. The bastards at CE and ServiArquitectos – I apologise if my language offends you,
Señoría
– placed major orders with me for fitting out their vast construction sites. Not only that, but they negotiated purchase prices to my bone. Yet when
la crisis
hit, they walked away, leaving me with a mountain of manufactured products they'd ordered and were declining to pay for. Rather than honour their agreements they preferred to renege. In so doing they obliged me to take major losses. In due course their actions forced me to make people, my employees, redundant."

Luis Zavala was in full flow, his bile rising with every sentence. His sense of offence was apparent to all present in the
Sala
.

"So you knew that you were double invoicing and not applying credit notes?"

"Of course I did. Who do you think runs my business?"

"What did you do with these monies? Did ServiArquitectos and CE know what you were doing?"

"Certainly they knew. How would I have obtained the extra monies? It was a scheme dreamt up by them to provide me with money so that I could deliver their means to purchase influence to achieve their business objectives. They made me an accomplice. To be fair, I did cooperate. I can still see the original business advantages for me."

"Let me be certain I understand. ServiArquitectos and CE executives suggested that if you double invoiced, for example, they would authorise the double payments. You would then keep the extra revenue and, when it was practical, you would apply those funds to buy whatever influence they suggested."

"Right."

"And how did you help the two companies achieve their objectives?"

"Simple. My company paid Señora Márquez who distributed the monies as I told her and as I was told by the CE and ServiArquitectos executives."

"How did she do this?"

"I don't know the precise details. That was up to her. But she was good and discreet. If I had to bet, it'd be with envelopes stuffed with cash or paying for holidays or weddings or similar. I once heard that she used ATMs and prepaid debit cards. That way the lucky recipients could go to a machine and take out anonymous cash."

"Again, if I may go through what you have said ..." Juez Garibey ran through the details. Zavala confirmed Garibey had understood. "Why have you told me this?"

"Because you asked."

"I was unclear. Why are you recounting these details to this
Sala
? What's your motivation? Have you reasons? You understand that you are probably admitting to committing offences which draw attention to other illegal acts?"

"Of course I have reasons. Those two companies cost me millions. Worse, I had to make over 200 of my staff redundant. It broke my heart every time I had to tell an employee they no longer had a job. I was condemning them to penury in order to save what I could for the others.

"Did CE or ServiArquitectos ever pay a cancellation charge or show other than paper remorse? Not a bit of it. They just turned their backs on me and my people. They deserve any comeuppance that you or any other authorities want to visit upon them. I haven't much sympathy, just as they hadn't for me or my people."

Juez
Garibey listened intently.

"As for me ... Am I condemning myself? Yes, probably. I no longer care. Between you and me I probably don't have that much longer. I'm almost eighty. I've had a good life and owe this to others."

Zavala smiled sardonically. "Plus I don't think that, however hard your authorities pursue me, you'll send an octogenarian to prison. We're now too civilised. It didn't happen to Berlusconi in Italy. It won't happen to me here either."

Juez Garibey stopped for a moment before agreeing.

"In that you are almost certainly correct. Tell me, would you look at some transaction details concerning ServiArquitectos and CE to see if you recognise any of the amounts or details? I can't promise you that this will prevent others from pursuing you but I can say I'll recount your goodwill."

"As I have already mentioned, I'm not sure I need even that. But if it will assist you to reveal the crookery they encouraged me to participate in, certainly."

"Thank you, Señor. I suggest we take a break while my people prepare the information. Afterwards we'll try completing everything by this evening so I can let you return home."

Luis Zavala lowered his head in acceptance. He was pretty sure what he was doing was right. A small insistent voice in his head, which sounded much like his beloved though long-dead wife, was cheering her approval: "Well done, Luis. You never forgot our people."

Saturday: Madrid

Pedro arrived at
Juez
Garibey's apartment. This was a novel experience. Though he had known him since he was a relatively junior CNP officer, Pedro had never been invited to Garibey's house. It was unusual, not least that it was a Saturday.

After ringing the doorbell he was invited to the seventh floor. The elevator was better than most in Madrid – modern despite being installed in a relatively old building.

At the front door he found the
Juez
, smiling with a cheer that surprised. In fact, Pedro recognised, he felt much the same.

"Pedro, come in.
Café
?"

"Thank you,
Señoría
."

"Here I can demand you forget the formality. There's no one else but my wife to know and she's gone out. Remember, it is Rafa. Your
café.
"

"Thank you. I'll try."

"Sit down. Make yourself comfortable. Shall I start or should you? I think I will, if you'll excuse an old man's impatience?"

"Please do,
Señoría
, er, Rafa."

Garibey passed a mock glare at Pedro before summarising what had happened the previous day with El Cerámico. He started going through the details that Luis Zavala had confirmed the previous afternoon. When finished, Pedro was amazed.

"You look surprised, Pedro."

"Indeed. If I've comprehended, you've single-handedly provided substantiation for the M-In accounts. If Luis Zavala will testify to this, we'll have made a huge jump forwards."

"Don't jump to your desired end point too fast. First, I'm not sure that El Cerámico will testify to anything more than what he told me yesterday, at least not in open court. No, don't look dispirited. What he's done as you say is confirm that one side of the Márquez accounts are accurate, and on a monumental scale. We can now use this as leverage with Márquez. If she can be persuaded to open up we won't need El Cerámico at all. It's a matter of timing and nuance."

"So what I have for you may assist a showdown with Márquez or even Señor Gómez."

"Okay, time to add your share."

Pedro started with the laptop. After some troubles obtaining a power brick, for Gómez had not brought this to the
Sala
, Caterina showed Carlos and Pedro a file that she had created deep in the BIOS. According to her this was an area of a computer that did not change even when you installed a new operating system or a new disk. Caterina had said that originally her computer came with Windows installed. Whoever had obtained it after it was stolen had installed something called Ubuntu. This reformatted the hard disk, thereby removing any evidence of the backup of Márquez's smartphone. But this installation of the new operating system did not affect the BIOS.

Before opening a tiny file with an anonymous numerical name she had written down for Pedro and Carlos what would be inside: her name, her date of birth and when this ownership file had been created, the day after she bought it. Following her instructions they opened the file to find exactly what she said. It was absolute proof that the laptop was the one stolen from ORS, though not that Señor Gómez was incorrect when he asserted he had bought it in the
rastro
.

"Very interesting, Pedro. Your Caterina is both enterprising as well as pretty."

"She is. She's also, I'm afraid to say, emotionally odd. I don't know how else to put it."

Garibey raised his eyebrows in enquiry.

"She has this on/off relationship with herself about Davide. I saw it a little during the HolyPhone episode. It's much more obvious here. I thought she was living with Davide. Now it seems she's not. What baffles me is that she hurts herself almost more than him. Most of the time it's with him where my sympathies lie. And it's to him I turn next, along with my cousin Ana."

"Don't tell me she's taken a shine to Davide – or Caterina?"

"It is either Davide or Emilia. Something's going on. But no matter on that score. At Emilia's insistence Ana started on the M-Out records. What she wanted was the application of local knowledge to find a name or names to follow up to try to prove the accuracy of the M-Out accounts."

Pedro continued by explaining about Cardarzob. When the significance emerged Garibey looked astonished.

Pedro proceeded to explain about what Ana had surmised, which Davide tested and retested for reasonableness. From the M-Out accounts they had collectively thought they could associate names to at least a half-dozen people with reasonable certainty, plus two of those people had transactions that might be traceable, providing Garibey gave the go-ahead to request the records.

Next, Pedro dropped his bombshells. There were another group of codenames where Ana was fairly sure she could reasonably guess at the identity of the payee. Among these were Church people, as evidenced by Cardarzob, plus members of Opus Dei and politicians at all levels, along with lawyers, businessmen and social butterflies.

Pedro hesitated before saying, "I'm not going to give you the list but will read you some of the names that Ana thinks are reflected in the M-Out accounts."

Having listened to him read, Garibey said, "My God, Pedro! If that's true, this is even worse than the B Accounts case. This is a minefield you present." He halted himself. "What do we do next?"

"My recommendation is that you authorise my people, supported by Davide and Ana, to follow up what the latter believes. I'm going to ask you to go one stage further. Please find a formal way to bring Ana and Davide into this process because this is so sensitive that it must not leak until we establish the truth, or otherwise, of the M-Out details. I don't want even Caterina or Emilia on the inside. They're not Spanish."

"Neither is Davide."

"His mother was Spanish and he has UK and Spanish passports. By the way, his uncle is Toño Sánchez Ocaña, the lawyer."

"What a coincidence! Do you know him?"

"No, only of him."

"I've met him a couple of times. He was formidable in his day. That Davide should be related is perhaps a godsend, or a liability. Does he know anything?"

"I haven't asked but will let you know when I do."

"Thank you. Now I 100 per cent agree that I should bring Ana and Davide into the formal process. Will you arrange for a time when they can visit me in my
Sala
so that I can pull my heavyweight act?"

Saturday: Madrid

Ana put her mobile phone back into her handbag and said to Davide, "I think you may receive a call any moment."

"What do you mean?"

Before Ana could explain, Davide's smartphone beeped. It was Pedro.

"Davide, I've just been with
Juez
Garibey. Can you speak up? There's a lot of background noise from your end."

"I'm on a bus.

"Ah. Thank you for warning me. I'll be careful in what I say. As mentioned, I've spoken with
Juez
Garibey. He wants to see you and Ana early next week to make each of you formally a part of my investigating team in such a way that is distinct and discrete. He and I are insistent that what Ana thinks she's uncovered remains completely beyond wider consumption until we've proved or disproved some of the M-Out entries. Apart from me and
Juez
Garibey, only Ana, you and a couple of my people are to know anything. Please do not say anything to anybody without my or
Juez
Garibey's express approval. That includes Emilia and Caterina as well as Carlos and Lucas."

"I understand."

A
céntimo
dropped: "What bus are you on? The background sounds very similar to when I was talking with Ana a few moments ago. Are you with her?"

"Good police work, Pedro. Yes, she's beside me – laughing her head off."

He scowled at her, which only made Ana chortle more. When she smiled like that she possessed a radiance he hadn't appreciated before. Most people look better when they smile, especially Caterina. But Ana's one placed her in a different league.