The Ambiguity of Murder (16 page)

The waiter returned, served them, left. Lockhart stirred sugar into his coffee. ‘You do not seem very impressed with my revelation, which I should have expected to arouse great interest.'

‘I already knew about the row,' Alvarez answered.

‘I should have realized that a man with your talents would have divined all. Then you even know the identity of the second man?'

‘Yes.'

‘And he is a suspect?'

‘Not exactly a suspect, since the precise nature of the death is not yet established,' Alvarez replied evasively.

‘But you agreed that antagonistic relationships often end in violence. Surely here there is motive enough?'

‘There are other matters which have to be considered.'

‘Your discretion is exasperating.' Lockhart drank. ‘I, in my admiration for you, will offer a gem that life has, painfully, taught me. Never trust a man with a downturned moustache: upturned, inventive; downturned, sadistic.'

‘I will remember that.'

‘Guido's companion had a downturned moustache. Rest assured, he is capable of the vilest outrage without a moment's hesitation.'

Santiago Pons might have a stubbled face when he could not be bothered to shave, but he had never had a moustache.

Lockhart raised his glass and stared at Alvarez over the top of it. ‘There seems to have been a shift of emotion. You no longer bear the smug visage of a man who has just been excitedly told what he already knew.'

‘Describe the second man.'

‘Quite definitely, not my type.'

‘Ill-featured?'

‘How very percipient. I do find that ugliness casts a cloak over even the most charitable impulses.'

‘How old was he?'

‘I seldom make that judgement because it's a knife edge between flattery and insult.'

‘What was this man's name?'

‘I've no idea. There was no graceful introduction.'

‘His nationality?'

‘I had no way of judging as I did not hear him speak. Since Guido was shouting in gutter Spanish, one must presume he understood the language, if not at such a low level.'

‘Are you sure this second man is not a figment of your imagination?'

‘Why should I take the trouble to invent him?'

‘To divert attention from Señor Robertson.'

‘I thought we'd agreed that that was unnecessary? Will a full description satisfy you? Early thirties, slick black hair, dark-brown eyes, ears that stuck out and should have been attended to when young, a thin mouth containing bad teeth under that disgusting moustache – any man of taste eschews unnecessary hair – a pointed chin, a bull neck, and a complete lack of dress sense … Is that sufficient?'

‘Perhaps too much.'

‘What is that supposed to signify?'

‘It is very detailed when you saw the man for so short a time.'

‘Your suspicions are in danger of becoming a phobia. I always take great note of people's appearances. For instance, although we have not in total enjoyed each other's company for long, I have noticed how your hair is beginning to thin at the crown.'

‘It is not,' Alvarez said indignantly.

Lockhart laughed.

CHAPTER 18

As soon as Alvarez arrived at Son Fuyell, Susana and Inés asked him what was to happen to their jobs, and they seemed either not to listen to his answer or else to disbelieve his assertion that he didn't know, because they repeated the question several times. Half an hour passed before he was able to say: ‘You know Señor Lockhart, don't you?'

They looked at each other.

‘He used to drive Señora Robertson here?'

‘The lady who came even though she was married?' Susana sniffed loudly.

‘Did he ever arrive on his own?'

‘Never,' she said firmly.

‘Hang on,' Inés said. ‘There was one time.'

‘Never!'

‘Yes, there was. Don't you remember, you asked the señor for extra time off because your sister was ill and he didn't want to give it to you. The señor was here then.'

‘My niece. Such a stupid girl.' The set of her mouth made it clear that she had no intention of explaining the nature of her niece's stupidity.

‘When was this?' Alvarez asked.

‘Not all that long ago,' Inés answered.

‘Margarita was in hospital at the end of last month and the beginning of this,' Susana said.

‘Tell me about the time Señor Lockhart came here on his own?'

Inés played with the spoon by the side of her empty mug. ‘It's difficult to remember much.'

‘Try your best.'

‘Well … There was a knock on the front door and it was him. Said he'd been invited by the señor whenever he had the time. I told him, the señor and visitor had just gone down to the pool and to go there. Wasn't no time before he was back and left. Can't say I was all that surprised, since the señor was in such a foul mood. Him and the other man had been shouting at each other from the start.'

‘What was the trouble?'

‘How would I know?'

‘You might have heard what they were arguing about.'

‘In this place, you can hear 'em, but not understand unless the door's open. And when I took coffee in to 'em in the large sitting room, they became silent, but from the looks on their faces, anything could happen.'

‘What exactly do you mean by that?'

‘Well … If they'd started fighting, I wouldn't have been surprised.'

‘You imagine too hard,' Susana said.

‘You should've seen them, then you wouldn't talk like that.'

‘What time of day did this other man arrive?' Alvarez asked.

‘The señor had just come down for breakfast.'

‘Was the visitor expected?'

‘Didn't sound like it when the señor swore like anything after I told him who had arrived.'

‘What was the visitor's name?'

‘It was something like … Algaba, only it wasn't that.' She stared across the kitchen table, her sight unfocused. ‘Alfaro; Alfonso; Algarra?… Algaro, that's it! Who says I haven't got a good memory?'

‘I do,' answered Susana, ‘when it comes to remembering what needs doing.'

‘What about his Christian name?' Alvarez asked.

‘Visitors don't tell me that. Unless later on…' Inés giggled.

Susana looked disapprovingly at her.

Alvarez briefly wondered just how disturbed Inés had been by Zavala's approach in the library? Perhaps she'd been more annoyed than upset, realizing that compliance on her part was most unlikely to lead to her becoming chatelaine of Son Fuyell … ‘Tell me, d'you think this Algaro was from the island?'

‘I'm certain he wasn't. He spoke Castilian and with a terrible accent. Maybe he was from Galicia.'

‘Do you think he was a maricón?'

‘Are you joking? It was women the señor was interested in.'

‘Yet it seems he invited Señor Lockhart to the house.'

The two women looked at each other, doubtful, then surprised. Finally, Inés said: ‘These days it seems you can't never be certain until…' She stopped when she caught Susana's look.

‘Try to describe him.'

‘I wouldn't want to be seen with him, that's for sure!'

‘Why not?'

‘'Cause he was uglier than Rodolfo, what works in the bakery.'

‘Was he a big man?'

‘Depends what you mean by big.'

Showing no impatience, Alvarez continued to question her until satisfied he had heard all she could remember. Her description of Algaro did not closely match Lockhart's description of the man who'd been rowing with Zavala, yet, in part because of the moustache, he had no doubt they were of the same person. Lockhart had been telling the truth and so now there was a fourth suspect …

Later, when Alvarez was on the road to Llueso, he called himself a fool. No wonder the name of Algaro had seemed to ring a muffled bell; had he not been a fool, it would have rung a loud peal. Rojas Algaro, the chauffeur who had driven the Jaguar which Bailey claimed had first hit the child.

*   *   *

He sat at his desk and waited, telephone to his ear. Was the superior chief forever too busy to answer the telephone immediately, or did the plum-voiced secretary claim he was in order to bolster his image?

‘Yes, what is it?' Salas said, as ever scorning any preliminary and polite greeting.

‘It's Inspector Alvarez from Llueso…'

‘Good God, man, stop wasting my time. I have every reason to know where you're from. What do you want?'

‘I have to report a new development in the Zavala case. There is fresh evidence…'

‘Fresh, or merely uncovered long after it should have been?'

‘Señor, until I spoke to Señor Lockhart, I had no reason to know. Inés should, of course, have had the sense to tell me all about the matter initially, but I suppose she didn't stop to realize it might be important; not, of course, that at the time I could have appreciated its true significance…'

‘Are you incapable of making a short, lucid report? Tell me what happened without all these totally unnecessary asides.'

Alvarez did so.

‘You are now claiming there has to be a connection between Algaro's visit and Zavala's death? On what grounds?'

‘Considering what happened in England, it would be such a coincidence if there was not one.'

‘Coincidences occur all the time.'

‘I know they do, but –'

‘You have, no doubt, always worked on the principle that common sense plays little part in criminal investigation?'

‘Señor, Algaro always drove the Jaguar which Señor Bailey swore overtook him at a dangerous speed and hit the child. Algaro was never questioned by the police because he was able to claim diplomatic immunity, attested to by Señor Zavala. Why would a diplomat protect a chauffeur on false grounds? That was a question never answered. Now we learn that Algaro came to this island and visited Señor Zavala unexpectedly, with the result that there was a violent row. Within a short time, Señor Zavala drowns in circumstances which suggest murder. The sequence of events seems unmistakeable.'

‘Only to someone who never questions the obvious.'

‘But if the two men were engaged in something they wished to keep secret, the publication of which would have had disastrous consequences for one of them, everything begins to fit.'

‘What are you suggesting?'

Alvarez took a deep breath. ‘Despite the evidence that Señor Zavala enjoyed many heterosexual relationships, that this was a homosexual one.'

There was a long silence before Salas finally spoke, and when he did, each word was edged with ice. ‘Experience should have prepared me to expect that, given the slightest opportunity, you would once again pander to your relish for matters of an objectionable nature.' There was a shorter silence. ‘A short while ago, I suggested it would be in your own interests to consult a psychiatrist. Have you done so?'

‘No, señor. With great respect, I think you misunderstand the situation. I don't introduce matters you find objectionable because it gives me any pleasure to do so, only because it seems necessary. After all, sex is a large part of people's behaviour.'

‘To the few who lack self-control.'

‘And I should like to make the point that in these days a homosexual relationship is not viewed by most people as objectionable.'

‘The unthinking are easily led and there are always those who seek to destroy the fabric of society by leading them.'

Alvarez stolidly continued. ‘Such a relationship would explain many things. While its publication would probably not have harmed Algaro, it might well have harmed Señor Zavala's career if the Bolivian ambassador had been old-fashioned and viewed adversely either the nature of the relationship or that it existed between people of such different rank. Knowing this, Algaro blackmailed Señor Zavala into defending him when he was threatened with being tried in court on the grounds of killing the child.

‘Blackmail develops a life of its own. Algaro may initially have intended to employ it only the once, but having found how remunerative it could be, he forced Señor Zavala to give him many sums of money up to the time the other resigned from the diplomatic service. This resignation dramatically altered circumstances because Algaro no longer had the power to blackmail. But later, when he learned Señor Zavala had come to live on this island, he thought he saw the chance to regain the initiative by renewing the relationship. That was why he visited Son Fuyell. To his consternation, Señor Zavala made it clear that he had no intention of agreeing. It does happen that a man whose tastes are both –'

‘Refrain from unnecessary details.'

‘Algaro, finding his plan had failed, became aggressive and threatened to make their past relationship public on the island.

‘It was a feather threat. While one or two of Señor Zavala's more old-fashioned … while one or two of his more moral friends might be disturbed by the revelation, most would hold it to be of little account…'

‘What else can you expect of foreigners?'

‘And even those who might be disturbed would hide that fact because wealth always buys acceptance, if not approval. But however useless, the threat aroused Señor Zavala's very explosive temper and he ordered Algaro to clear off in terms that aroused Algaro's bitter resentment to fever pitch.

‘From the little I have been able to learn about him, Algaro is probably from a tough environment; when young, he may well have lived in a shanty town around La Paz where violence was the natural way of getting what one wanted. By now, he wanted revenge and so he decided to murder Señor Zavala. But he possesses a degree of cunning and knew that if murder was obvious, his visit to Son Fuyell would be remembered and that could result in his being apprehended before he had time to leave the island, and he set out to make the murder look like accident so that he would have time to escape.'