Death Trick
Page 18
‘In my village, every man does because . . .’
‘The less I know about your village, the better. Describe your knife.’
It in no way resembled the kitchen knife found in Roig’s body.
Julia was picking peppers; both large, cone-shaped ones which had turned a bright red and also very much smaller ones, thin and elongated, that were a dusky red and which contained the fires of hell.
‘Have you time for a word?’ Alvarez asked.
She straightened up slowly and reached round to the small of her back and pressed down with clenched fist to ease the pain.
He picked up the two cane baskets and carried them to the patio, where he sat while she went into the house. She returned with two glasses and an earthenware jug of wine which she put down on the rough wooden table. He filled the two glasses and passed her one. ‘I’ve learned several things since I last saw you.’ He drank. ‘The señorita is pregnant, isn’t she?’
‘Poor girl.’
‘Why does she not have an abortion?’
‘Because her religion forbids it, of course.’
Had it not also forbidden her fornication? ‘Will she have the baby adopted here, on the island?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘But she’ll never dare return to her village with it?’
‘Of course not. There, women don’t flaunt their little bastards for all the world to see their shame.’
‘So what’s going to happen to her?’
‘How should I know?’ she said tiredly. ‘Perhaps Carlos will marry her.’
‘In spite of all that’s happened and the fact that he’s her cousin?’
‘A distant enough cousin. And I’ve seen him look at her with desire.’
‘Is she fond of him?’
‘When a woman’s with another man’s child and no sight of marriage to him, how can she afford to worry about love?’
‘Was it to save Vidal that you pulled out the knife that was in the body and which you recognized as his and replaced it with a kitchen knife?’
She spoke scornfully. ‘Of course not.’
‘Then it was to try and save the señorita’s reputation?’
She nodded.
He’d correctly deduced Oakley’s innocence, but on a totally false premise; he thought Oakley would appreciate the irony of that.
She spoke stolidly, as if the answer was of small moment. ‘Will I have to go to prison?’
‘That’s up to the courts, not me.’
‘If I do, who’ll look after Adolfo?’
‘It would do him good to have to look after himself.’
She shook her head as she pushed the jug across the table. ‘Fill up. There’s more inside if that’s not enough.’
When he returned to the office, he was finally going to have to nerve himself up to telephoning Salas to say that, yet again, Oakley had returned to life. So the longer his return could be delayed, the better. He refilled his glass to the brim.
THE END