The Spanish Hotel

by Gary Philpott

  “Okay.” Another snort of air came out through his nostrils. “Alice took off the belt and the zip on her dress came down. She started touching herself inside her underwear. Her lower underwear that is, she was not wearing a bra. That is what made me ask her to do what she did next.”

  “And what did she do next? At your request that is.”

  “She finished stripping and masturbated in front of me. First standing up, but then sitting down on the other armchair. I stood up with the intention of going to join her, but she told me to sit down again. She didn’t stop until the album she was playing had finished. I estimate that to be about fifty or sixty minutes from when I went to the shower.”

  “Just so I don’t make assumptions I shouldn’t make, was it on this occasion that Alice used one of the two red candles from the shelf above her gas fire?”

  “Yes it was. Is that why you made me go through all that, just so you could establish that? How can that have any significance with regard to your investigation into Alice’s fall?”

  “Until I know exactly why Alice, as you put it, ‘fell’, I don’t know what the significant details are and what the insignificant details are. So I need all the details.”

  “If you don’t mind me saying so Chief Inspector Collins, you are sounding somewhat hostile towards me. I have let you into my home voluntarily, that is because I want to help you. I am just finding it difficult to talk about this, particularly during a holy time such as this. I know I have sinned, but I don’t intend to ask you for forgiveness.”

  Collins did not apologise for his style of questioning. “Where did this go after the dancing and the masturbating was over?”

  “It went to the bedroom. We had sex on top of the bedding in the missionary position. After that we both climbed under the sheets and went to sleep.”

  “Can I clarify a couple of things? One, did you use a condom?”

  “Yes, we did.”

  “Secondly, if you were asleep, how do you know Alice was asleep?”

  “Well I don’t, I just assumed she was.”

  “Was Alice asleep when you woke up?”

  “No, she was not in the bed anymore.”

  “And what time might this have been?”

  “I got up at about eight-fifty, but I had woken earlier than that, probably about quarter-past-eight. I dozed in and out of sleep during that time.”

  “Did it not concern you that a woman who had been so giving to you the night before was no longer lying by your side?”

  “The truth is that what concerned me the most was that I had missed breakfast before the Sun had come up, and I had to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for my lecture at eleven o’clock.”

  “A lecture you just about got to by the skin of your teeth?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s now eight-fifty, what did you do?”

  “I went through to the sitting room. That’s when I saw Alice sitting on the balcony smoking. I picked my clothes up from around the room and put them on. I knew if I went out on the balcony we would argue. I did not want that, so I slipped out as quietly as I could.”

  “Two details needed here. Did you replace the candle to the holder on the shelf before you slipped out? And can you tell me what Alice was wearing out on the balcony?”

  “Yes, I did put the candle back. If you found fingerprints on it, they will be mine. Alice was wearing a coat, that’s all I can say.”

  “Was she barefooted?”

  “I am not sure. Maybe I didn’t notice or maybe I couldn’t see her feet, I don’t know.”

  “Let me see if I’ve got this right. You are stating that you did not even speak to Alice on Wednesday morning. You are claiming you slipped away without so much as a kiss goodbye. You didn’t even bother to say goodbye to a woman you had made love to less than twelve hours earlier?”

  “It was not an honourable thing to do, but that is what I did. Though I would not describe what we did as making love. We did not love each other.”

  “Did anyone see you leaving?”

  “No, I used the stairs rather than the lift.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know, I think I felt embarrassed about what I had done. I should never have agreed to dinner, I knew what dinner with Alice meant.”

  “And because of that you did not want a total stranger to see you use the lift?”

  “I don’t know, maybe I was trying to protect Alice’s reputation. After all, if I bumped into someone by the lift, the chances are it would have been one of her neighbours. All I can tell you is that I did not want to stand on her landing waiting for the lift to come. That is why I used the stairs.”

  “No kiss goodbye, but you wanted to protect her reputation. Now you are out on the street, it must be about nine o’clock or maybe a bit later depending on how long it took you to get dressed. What did you do?”

  “I went to the end of the street and turned right up to the bus stop on the high street. I got on the first bus that arrived. I saw Wood Green on the front of it, which would have been good for me, but my guess is that I missed the stop or it had already been there. It went along roads I didn’t recognise. I ended up at Moorgate. I got off there and caught the tube to work.”

  “How long did you wait for the bus?”

  “I don’t know, not long, about three minutes.”

  “Do you remember the number of the bus?”

  “I do actually.” Hasem smiled. “One-four-one.”

  “I might just get someone to retrace your steps. Two hours from staircase to lecture theatre seems an awful long time to me.”

  “The bus did take an awful long time to get to the tube station at Moorgate.”

  “As I say, I’ll get someone to try it. I’ll let you know how they fare. Spain.”

  “I will quite happily tell you about Spain, but I need a glass of water first. Do you want one?”

  “No thanks, but you go ahead.”

  Hasem returned with a large cut-crystal glass containing water and at least five ice-cubes. He once again sat down on the wicker chair in his hallway, and placed the glass down on the glass-topped wicker table separating the two men.

  “I hope you don’t want every detail of what Alice and I did in Spain. Please tell me, what do you want to know?”

  “Again, why don’t we keep it chronological? Whose idea was it to go to Spain?”

  “Alice’s. Our relationship was in the passionate stage at that time, and she said she wanted to have sex every minute of the day, though that’s not how she worded it.”

  “I guess that would explain why she booked the flights and paid for the hotel?”

  “Yes, though I did pay my share. I gave her the cash. When we were in Spain she paid for the hire car, but I got an equivalent amount of money out of a hole in the wall to spend while we were there. I didn’t expect it to last the week, but local food was relatively cheap and there wasn’t exactly much else to spend your money on. Alice insisted on paying for jewellery and the two linen blouses she bought. Oh, and she also bought a tacky flamenco dancer’s dress that she left in the hotel room.”

  “Accidentally or deliberately?”

  “Deliberately, she said it had served its purpose, but I think she kept the fan that went with it.”

  “So what was all the other money for?”

  “What money?”

  “The three hundred pounds you withdrew from an ATM on Fleet Street the day before you travelled, and the three hundred pounds you withdrew at the airport less than two hours before you flew. That was in addition to the three hundred euros you withdrew from your other account.”

  “You have access to my personal bank accounts?”

  “I work for the serious crime squad. I’ll let you think about what other information I have access to. Why did you withdraw close to a thousand pounds in the space of two days?”

  There was a long pause before he answered. “Anxiety. I don’t like to travel abroad without a reasonable amount of cash on
me. I have had trouble when I’ve tried to use my cards abroad in the past. It was just a precaution. Originally I planned to change some of it to euros at the airport bureau-de-change, but the rate they were offering was a complete rip-off,” Hasem started to sound animated. “The margin between the buying and selling rates was something like sixteen percent, and then there was a commission fee on top of that. I worked out that if you changed a hundred pounds sterling into euros, and changed it back again five minutes later, you would be left with only seventy eight pounds in your wallet.”

  “Did you drive straight to the hotel?”

  “Alice did, yes. The insurance on the car only covered Alice. We checked in and went up to the room.”

  “Ah yes, the checking in. The hotel could not find a record of your name when we contacted them. Why is that?”

  “I had left my jacket in the car. The weather was good, therefore I had taken it off during the drive up to the village. I intended to go back and fish out my passport as soon as we had dropped our luggage into the room. Alice had other ideas, and I got distracted. I will say though, the hotel never asked for it at any time after that.”

  “Outline the rest of the week for me.”

  Hasem puffed his cheeks out as he let out a heavy sigh. “The pattern was pretty much the same. We did what couples do in hotels rooms. We went for walks and lazed on the sunloungers at the back of the hotel, though the breeze up there meant it was a bit cool to sunbathe. Most lunchtimes were spent in a hillside restaurant not far from the hotel, as were most evenings. We drove down to Motril one evening and had dinner in a pizzeria there. While we were down there we did some shopping for an hour or so. That is where Alice bought the flamenco dress and the jewellery.”

  “Which day did you drive to Motril?”

  “It was the Thursday. Boredom had set in by then. We thought it would break the week up a bit.”

  “Why not Granada?”

  “What do you mean, why not Granada?”

  “Have you ever been to Granada?”

  “No, I haven’t.”

  “Do you know if Alice had ever been to Granada?”

  “No, I can’t say that I do.” He raised his glass and sipped the iced water.

  “Alice once went to Benidorm, but had not been back to Spain since because she didn’t like Spain. Now, tell me, why…”

  Hasem, butted in, “She found it on the Internet, it was very cheap and the flights were cheap as well.”

  “But wouldn’t you expect a couple like yourselves to discuss where you had been in Spain before? After all, you had plenty of time to chat. Would you also not expect a couple like yourselves to take a day trip to Granada? Ninety-nine percent of tourists holidaying in that region go there for at least a day. Many travel for hundreds of miles just to see the Alhambra Palace.”

  “Alice had taken me to Spain for reasons other than seeing the sights, she…”

  “We’ll come to the sex in a minute,” interrupted Collins. “But what I want to know is the real reason you went to Spain. I want to know what you did there that you are not telling me about.”

  “We wanted some unrushed time, just the two of us.”

  “Okay, tell me about this unrushed time, tell me about the sex.”

  “I have never met a woman that was so insatiable as Alice. Three times a day was still not enough for her. We started to argue about it on the Wednesday. That was when she wanted to do it in an olive grove. It was below the village, overlooked by dozens of houses. That’s when I put a stop to it. It was arguments all the way from there. I told her I didn’t want to see her again once we were back in England.”

  “Did you have sex again after the disagreement in the olive grove?”

  “Not until the Tuesday night at her flat.”

  “You quoted Alice as saying ‘the flamenco dress had served its purpose.’ What was its purpose?”

  “She danced in it, in the hotel room. Eventually she took it off to reveal some sexy underwear underneath it and then…” Hasem stopped speaking.

  “You have just realised the inconsistency in your story, haven’t you?”

  Hasem nodded.

  Collins continued, “The dress was bought after you said you stopped having sex.”

  “It was the Friday, after our evening meal. Alice got drunk on two bottles of wine and then put on one of her shows back at the room. I should not have succumbed, but temptation got the better of me.”

  “In my book there is nothing wrong with succumbing to temptation where two consenting adults are concerned. What I don’t like is witnesses misleading me.” Collins simultaneously drummed his fingers against both arms of his chair.

  “I am sorry. I don’t find talking to you about sex particularly easy. For some reason you seem obsessed with it.”

  “Tell me, a simple yes or no will do, did you have oral sex with Alice Evans in Spain?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you have anal sex with Alice Evans in Spain?”

  “No.”

  “Now why would she tell a good friend that you did?”

  Hasem sat up straighter to adopt a much more confident posture. “I have absolutely no idea.” He opened up his hands.

  “The suggestion is that it was against Alice’s will.”

  “Now hang on a minute. I knew you would eventually find me and want to talk to me about my time with Alice before her death, but this is a whole new ball game. I am not going to answer any more questions without a solicitor present. You are obsessed with sex, Detective.”

  “I don’t think it is me that is obsessed with sex. What I am obsessed with is establishing a motive to either murder or suicide, and I am coming down in favour of murder at this juncture.”

  “Are you accusing me of murder?”

  “What doesn’t fit well with me is that you are the last known person to see Alice Evans before she fell from her balcony. You failed to come forward when you knew we would be investigating her death. I suspect you never would have come forward if I had not hunted you down. From what you have told me I am not getting the impression that Alice was suicidal on Tuesday evening. So if she had no reason to jump, what exactly did happen Wednesday morning?”

  “No more without a solicitor.”

  “You phone your solicitor while I phone for a squad car to take you down to the station.”

  “Are you arresting me?”

  “As yet I have not cautioned you, but I am happy to do so. My advice to you would be to leave it at the helping us with our enquiries stage. Why don’t you see what your solicitor recommends?”

  Chapter 5

  Having caught a late flight to Malaga out of Luton airport, Detective Inspector Stuart Doyle and his girlfriend Claire Marsh stayed in Torremolinos for the night. They drove along the coast and up into the Sierra Nevada the next morning. Once in the village they set about looking for the hotel Verde Vista.

  They rounded a left-hand bend only to realise that was it; there was no more village. Completing a U-turn on the narrow winding road was proving difficult, but after almost a kilometre Stuart found a steep downhill drive on the left. He swung the Ford Fiesta across the road and into the drive. By keeping the distance he went down the drive to a minimum, he thought he could get away with it. He was wrong. The bottom of the car scraped on the ridge between the road and steeply sloping drive.

  Shifting into reverse with the handbrake pulled up in his right hand, he came off the clutch until he felt the car trying to move. He dropped the handbrake and eased down on the accelerator, the front wheels spun spraying up a cloud of dust as they did so.

  “Sorry babe, we’re going nowhere like this, I think we’re grounded. I’m going to have to ask you to get out.”

  “Next thing I know you’ll be asking me to push,” said Claire with a smile on her face.

  “Not push, but if you could try to lift the front up as I try and reverse off this lip.”

  Her smile evaporated. “You’re not joking are you?”
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br />   “No,” said Stuart. “ We need to raise the middle of the car a bit.”

  “Aren’t the front wheels the drive wheels on this car?” She sounded very sceptical about what she was being asked to do.

  “They are, but the suspension will keep them on the ground.”

  “This is going to cost you a twenty-minute back massage.” Claire climbed out onto the dusty track and shut the door.

  Stuart gave her the thumbs up and a smile through the windscreen.

  With her upper body bent over the bonnet, Claire took hold as best she could of the front bumper and started to lift. Stuart revved the engine, the wheels spun, another cloud of dust spewed into the Spanish country air. Claire held her breath and squeezed her eyes shut. Suddenly the car accelerated backwards and she only just avoided a headlong fall into the dirt.

  While still gaining her balance, Claire heard a screech of tyres and an extremely loud bang. Squinting through the cloud of dust she saw that a large white Renault had crashed into the back wing of their car, spinning it round so it was once again facing the wrong way. Broken headlight and taillight glass littered the tarmac.

  The driver of the Renault called the police on his mobile before even stepping outside his car. He ranted and raved in Spanish until a police car arrived forty-five minutes later.

  Almost two hours after first arriving in the village, Stuart and Claire were given directions to the hotel by the Spanish police officer. They let the Renault go first, and after completing an eight point turn, took the same route down the hill.

  Back in the village they passed a restaurant, the last building on the left. As instructed Claire kept her eyes open for a bar on the right. When she saw it, she shouted for Stuart to stop. Above the bar was a large sign with Don Pedro spelt out in black letters on a lime-green background. In much smaller dark green letters were the two words they had been looking for, Verde Vista.

  “No wonder we never saw the bloody thing!” exclaimed Claire.

  “We’re here now and at least the car is still drivable. I don’t know about you, but after that fiasco I could murder a beer. Why don’t we leave the bags in the car, check in, and give Don Pedro here a try?” Stuart let the car roll forward and steered it closer to the kerb.