"There are two other dimensions to consider. First is that all my dealings in the past with the Palacio de Idiotas –"
"Where?" asked Marta.
"I'm sorry. It's an in-joke that the headquarters of our esteemed Foreign Ministry, the Palacio de Santa Cruz, which lies behind the Plaza Mayor, is known as the Palacio de Idiotas. It has an outpost, beyond the M30 ring road, with two office towers where many of its inmates have to work. Its equivalent name is Torres Idiotas."
"Are you serious?"
"Yes, mostly. In fact I have some sympathy with these descriptions. A cousin worked as a civil servant, a funcionario, in both the Palacio and in embassies abroad. His tales of the egos and greed of some of our representatives are hard to believe. For example, he told me of one who claimed expenses for highway tolls at weekends when taking his personal friends around. How petty can you get?
"Even more significant for me is the way this Ministry treats its non-diplomatic staff, like my cousin. It's depressing and so short-sighted. No annual reviews. No interviews for posts. No awareness training before people go abroad. If there is a system for deciding who goes where, nobody knows what it is. Possibly random; possibly enchufe-like connections. Or maybe something quite different. As my cousin describes it, nobody has a clue. What stuns me is that, if I had run my firm in such a way, my staff would've walked out and the business would've collapsed years ago.
"We're in the twenty-first century yet the Palacio has no recognisable human resource function. Rather its people management, if that's not a contradiction, seems to operate on the mushroom principle. You remember?"
"I don't, sorry."
"Keep people in the dark but throw in some manure every so often to keep them happy."
"It can't possibly be that bad," argued Marta.
"Yes, it can and is. That's not, however, to say all our diplomats are useless. Many are excellent, some exceptional. These are the ones labouring for the good of the country, even though they're denied proper support.
"Nevertheless the whole set-up is far too like a self-perpetuating parody for my liking. But my points are two. Personally I'm not sure I want to run the risk of becoming like them. I certainly don't want my wife acquiring airs and graces, as some wives do, to which she and I cannot honestly pretend. And, forgive me when I repeat myself, but why am I being considered for such a post? Plus there's now the problem that you've raised today, whose implications may extend further than you may have considered."
Alfredo ran out of words. After a minute or so he resumed. "Marta, I think we both need to do some deeper thinking. Do you have to return to Valencia today? Can you stay?"
"Are you propositioning me yet again, Alfredo? If you are, the answer is still no. And yes, I really do have to return this evening."
"You misunderstand me. All right, I didn't word it well. I apologise."
Marta blinked in surprise. By long-proven experience Alfredo did not apologise for anything.
"For the record, I am not propositioning you. I want to talk through the broader implications of what you've raised today. Could you meet me this weekend or next? Sooner would be better in my judgement. As to where, one possibility is a modest house in the campo in the hills outside Soria. This I use for discreet business meetings when discretion matters. You'd have your own chalet in the orchard. There we'd have time to talk and work out what to do."
Marta was not entirely convinced. On the other hand she had already concluded she had no real ally or anyone else to talk to about the implications of what Luis had said yesterday. This still resonated and bothered her. Alfredo probably needed to know. He was, after all, a lawyer, used to handling confidences. She came to a reluctant decision.
"I accept. Make it this weekend. My darling husband has arranged for us to visit some of his relatives whom I really don't want to see. I'll make my excuses."
"Thank you, Marta. From what you've described I truly believe we may need each other."
CHAPTER FIVE
Coincidence and Acquaintance
Friday, ten days later: Alcobendas
Emilia and Caterina arrived at the office much later than planned. The Metro, usually so reliable in Madrid, had left them standing on the Bernabéu station's platform. One minute the train was working fine, the next they were following everybody out after an incomprehensible – at least to Caterina – announcement from the driver. They had waited for the broken train to go and for three trains to pass before there was enough room to empty their platform and enable normal service to resume. But it had lost them almost an hour.
Walking into the ORS offices, they bumped into Felipe. He had a big smile on his face, and was looking pleased with himself.
"What's up?" asked Emilia, who lost few opportunities, at least in Caterina's view, to try to attract Felipe.
The good news was that these endeavours seemed to be gradually succeeding. Emilia's attention had wandered from Davide. This was a relief to Caterina in one way, though it had not solved her own problem of what to do about Davide. She had not been able to sum up the courage, or even cheek, to talk with him beyond work topics. Neither had he made any sort of approach towards her, remaining unfailingly and annoyingly courteous. She couldn't blame him. The ball was firmly sitting on her net cord. Caterina smiled to herself at this infelicitous tennis image. She returned her attention to Felipe.
"... talking with our audit teams handling the CE and ServiArquitectos accounts. Today each company reported it had received large return payments, for exactly what we had suggested be repaid. No questions; just the full refunds. In all, the two payments amounted to almost a quarter of a million euros, which is a nice 30 per cent fillip for us before the weekend."
Emilia and Caterina glanced at each other. Two large payments for exactly what had been asked. That didn't sound right, especially after what they had learned this week and last regarding the way that monies tended to dribble into the three existing ORS clients. They remained silent.
"Neither of you look particularly pleased." Felipe sounded slightly offended. "May I ask why not?"
Emilia responded with her biggest and most winning smile.
"Sorry, Felipe. We got stuck in the Metro and were anxious to get here. Of course it's good news. Congratulations! That'll make your bosses in the US happy with you."
Caterina admitted to herself that Emilia's best smile response looked like it would dig them out of their embarrassment. They were still having to remind each other they were outsiders in ORS, though it was beginning to feel otherwise.
Appearing more relaxed, Felipe thanked Emilia before saying, "It's good, isn't it?" Listen, I was talking with Ana earlier. The company owes you some sort of treat. Let's all go out this evening for dinner and for some music afterwards. What d'you think?"
"Sounds great! Caterina? We don't have anything planned, do we?"
Caterina was less overtly enthusiastic: "What about Davide? Are you including him?"
"Of course I'm including him. It would be crazy not to. Didn't Davide arrive with you?"
"No," replied Caterina. "He stayed home to do some thinking. I'm not sure he's planning on coming in today. Hasn't he called?"
"Ana will know if he has. I'll ask her to make arrangements, perhaps somewhere in Barrio Salamanca or maybe Huertas, which is apparently where the best fun is. Shall we plan to meet about nine for a drink and then dinner?"
Without waiting for confirmation he headed towards his office.
"Well done, Emilia! For once your big brazen smile worked in our favour. Raining on his celebration would not have been in good taste. Plus we now get to go out and do something different for a change."
"You think Davide's a tad dull? Stop, stop, stop, Caterina! Don't overreact! I know you, remember. I'm only teasing. But does it mean I may dance with Felipe if I smile right?"
"Or with Ana. I saw your eyes light up at the mention of her inclusion. You may have been gently pursuing Felipe – by your standards – but whenever Ana passe
s you fail to disguise your interest from me. She's good-looking and under-thirty, if rather taller than you, though I know that makes no difference to your 'selection criteria'."
"No comment. Or, what about both of them together?"
"Emilia, control yourself. I know you're capable of a threesome but remember Felipe is probably very Tex-Mex conservative, while Ana always behaves as if she was brought up properly."
"So was I. It just didn't stick, despite Mum and Dad trying to convince me to become a good catholic-breeding engine. Anyhow, we've been through this too many times before. Changing the subject, what do you think about that coincidence of payments? Curious, no?"
Caterina nodded in pensive assent as they entered their shared office.
Friday, 10 days later: Soria
A week later than she and Alfredo had originally planned, because her darling husband had been insistent she join him when visiting his tedious relatives, Marta was again enjoying driving her car with its top down. After more than two hours driving the turn-off for the pueblo of El Rollo was further than she expected. To her surprise, on leaving Soria, the landscape was initially more like the American West though this soon disappeared in her mirror.
Some kilometres later Marta turned right, down a country lane, making her way through fields and trees towards where she expected Alfredo's house to be. When looking up the area on Google she had been surprised to find how high it was and that there were 2500M mountains only a little further north, ones where she could now see snow. Whether this was a leftover from last year or the product of an early cold blast from early autumn was unclear.
After a further ten minutes Marta finally drove into El Rollo. It was smaller than she had imagined. Shortly she came to a rather handsome Spanish-baroque parish church with multiple storks nests on almost all corners as well as the bell tower. She regretted that the storks had left. They must look fine when swooping to land. But that was a spring and summer pleasure, not one for this time of year. The storks had wisely migrated to warmer places.
Marta now realised that she'd made a mistake and gone too far. Alfredo had advised that if she reached the church she would have driven past his place. She retraced her route and found an open entrance to a rather imposing house, quite unlike those in the centre of the village. It was neither small nor secretive but tall and open with large windows and more than a suggestion of wealth. Marta parked and looked around. There were a handful of similar houses nearby. She wondered why. This did not look like a rich area. The fields looked too unproductive.
As she emerged from her car and locked down the convertible's roof, the front door opened and a lady with short white hair cut in a modern style stepped out. Looking more closely, the woman was probably not that much older than herself, though slenderer and definitely without her own generous curves. She had the look of a smoker, or ex-smoker.
"Marta? I'm Purificación de María, though call me Puri. Can I help with your luggage or anything?"
Marta was uncertain how to react. Was this a neighbour of Alfredo's? Was it his cleaning lady (though she seemed too self-possessed for that to be likely)? Something more formal? A housekeeper? A girlfriend? She opted to kiss Puri, albeit puzzled.
"I can see bemusement in your face. Let me be open. Alfredo and I are more than occasional lovers. I live in the house over there." She pointed to one, rather smaller, across the road. "I keep an eye on this one when Alfredo is not here. We have good times together. By the way, the reason I'm meeting you is because Alfredo's running late. He called to ask me to welcome you if he hadn't arrived on time. He sent a text message ten minutes ago, stating he was filling his car at a gas station just south of Soria. He should be here any time."
"It is a pleasure, if unexpected, to meet you, Puri. How long have you known Alfredo?"
"Not as long as you. Yes, Alfredo told me that you were at university together, including how he lusted after you yet failed to get anywhere. Impressive that you resisted him."
Marta blushed. This was way too direct to make her comfortable.
"The simple explanation is he's not my type."
"I understand. I also understand that you were concerned that he might start misbehaving while you were here. Regard me as your insurance policy. He'll be as a beautifully trained mascot in front of me."
She laughed at Marta's overt discomfort.
"Don't worry. All will be fine. I know, and you probably recognised long ago, that Alfredo is really only interested in influence now that he has the money to drive him onward. I accept that. I know my place, as does he. If he misbehaves in front of me there'll be hell to pay. Speaking of which, here he is."
Puri gestured to the car driving up from which emerged Alfredo.
After kissing Puri more tenderly and respectfully than Marta would ever have imagined, Alfredo turned to her, barely touching her cheeks. He bade both enter his house.
"I'm not staying, Alfredo. I've prepared tea, knowing your fondness for that ridiculous English afternoon habit. I've also prepared dinner, which is in the refrigerator. All you have to do is take it out and put it in the oven and, yes, there are instructions for you. There's more than enough for two. I realise you want some privacy with Marta. On the other hand, if some distraction is needed, please call me. I'm having trouble with my latest work, so would welcome being distracted myself.
"It was a pleasure meeting you, Marta. I hope we'll have more time to get to know each other over the weekend. You look interesting, if you will permit me to say it. Look after her, Alfredo."
Without further fuss, Puri walked down the steps, passed both cars and, with a wave of the arm but without turning back, crossed over to her own house. She had reduced Marta to silence.
Alfredo broke that silence with, "Let me take your bags and show you to your rooms."
Marta at last found her voice: "Rooms?"
"I have a couple of guest cottages or chalets at the back, around the huerta. As you'll see, each has two bedrooms and a sitting room with a fire, which hopefully Puri will have lit for you. It is up to you whether you keep it going or let it die."
Marta followed him through the main house and out into an orchard dotted with a variety of fruit trees and even a small vegetable patch with raised herb garden. Alfredo ushered her into the first cottage where a fire was indeed alight with plentiful wood beside it.
"Will this do? I should warn you that mobile phone reception is not great round here. I had ADSL installed and the password is on the card on the mantelpiece. You may find it easier to use Skype or Whatsapp or something similar if you want to contact anyone. Or there's the house phone on the table in the corner.
"Make yourself comfortable. Afterwards, when it suits you, join me for some tea? As it is a fine yet cooling evening I'll probably take it on the sheltered terrace over there overlooking the huerta. Take your time." He departed.
In truth Marta was more dumbfounded than anxious to change or do anything. She needed time to wrap her head around her arrival, the house and cottage, but most of all Puri and her matter-of-fact disclosures about her relationship with Alfredo, including her knowledge of his persistent pursuit of herself. After Alfredo had left Marta pottered around, taking things out of her overnight case, connecting to the Internet to send her husband a message confirming that she had arrived. He would probably not notice.
Standing before the fire Marta wondered if she could be comfortable telling Puri about her 'mister'. She thought not, at least until she knew Puri better. On the other hand it would be nice to have a confidante in a similar situation. Was this too much to hope for?
When Marta joined Alfredo she said, "I'm speechless! This is not the 'small place near Soria' you mentioned the other day. Likewise, I was not expecting Puri or her declaration that you two are lovers."
"Ah, she told you. I suspected she would after I described your reluctance, and reasons, to stay with me alone. She is different, no?"
"You're dead right there. But what about your wife?"<
br />
"Esmeralda is really not much of this world nowadays ..."
"You mean she's ill? Something like dementia?"
"She's not ill in the medical sense, but to me she has a form of dementia. She's lost to religiosity and its rituals. Her devotions and being seen to make them are more important than me. When our daughter died she retreated into Catholicism. She's all but become clausura, like a nun in a closed order. Her only contact with the world is through her priests and spiritual advisers. We barely talk. The net of it is that providing I try not to rub anything in her face publicly she ignores me. That's how it's been for well over ten years."
"I'm sorry, Alfredo. I'd no idea. You've hidden all this well."
"If I have it's because I've had to. I should also apologise to you about all those passes I made over so many years. In recent times I did it mostly because I could see how it irritated you and, as I always felt sure of rejection, I felt there was little risk."
He smiled lopsidedly, wondering how she would absorb this.
For an instant Marta was outraged. Then the funny side grabbed her. She started giggling like a girl.
"You're a horrible, bad man, Alfredo! Every lunch that we've had for years and years I've waited for your pass knowing I'd have to reject it. If I'd understood I would've said 'yes' just once, if only to see the look on your face. Never mind. I really am sorry about what's happened with you and Esmeralda. She and I never hit it off but I always assumed it was through jealousy. Obviously I was wrong. Anyway, what about Puri and this place?"
"You don't like your tea? No problem. Let me show you the house and I'll tell you all. Generally we eat fairly early, at least by Madrid or Valencia standards. We still need to decide what to do and whether to ask Puri to join us."
Corruption's Price: A Spanish Deceit Page 6