Corruption's Price: A Spanish Deceit

by Charles Brett

  Monday: Soria

  "Alfredo, you don't look happy. What is it?"

  "I am sorry, mi amor, I'm not. It's what Marta said, or rather didn't say."

  "What do you mean? You think she's not telling us something? From my one meeting, and phone calls, that's not what I'd expect."

  "Misleading us? No, but perhaps not telling us everything. That might be why. My skin prickles at the thought of her not doing exactly as we agreed before she visited ORS. Never mind, we need to consider different options. As I told Marta, I'm going to take the lead in Madrid. My focus must now be on working to shut ORS in Spain, preferably as soon as possible. Tomorrow I'll return to Madrid. Today I must start setting up meetings."

  "With whom?"

  "Puri, mi amor, I don't think you yet appreciate that what ORS is asking for represents only the tip of an iceberg. Think of it this way. ORS is the equivalent of a row boat floating up to what seems like another piece of ice when underneath the waters lurks 95 per cent more iceberg or, in this case, potential revelations.

  "You were shocked the other day when Marta described the process by which monies were redistributed from successful companies into decision making. The difficulty is that this process stretches from local councils and ayuntamientos or town halls through provincial governments to the Comunidades and even central government."

  "I know I was unhappy about this decision buying. But it was 'only' about business, no?"

  "Sadly not. This is also about power and influence. What I'm deeply afraid of is not of anything specific that ORS possesses but of what might follow if more and more questions are asked. Imagine what would occur if the press, self-important muckrakers that they are, were to get hold of even a whiff of this and begin to make lateral associations or enquiries. Even if these are wrong in specific detail, it won't necessarily stop them digging and digging.

  "No. I must act and fast. The sooner Spain sees the back of ORS the better for us all. What I have to consider is where to begin."

  "I hope you are not thinking of unfair pressure or blackmail or anything illegal?"

  "Hopefully it won't come to that but it might have to."

  "Alfredo, please! You can't be serious."

  "I can, and I kick myself. Why does it have to be me at the centre of acting? Just when ..." He paused to consider. Maybe I should accept a post as an ambassador. No, that would be no solution, or at least not a quick enough one."

  "Why not?"

  "Who knows how long it'll take whoever makes those decisions to decide? The process is so unpredictable it's akin to a lottery. No, it isn't worth considering any further, though the idea of being in a comfortable ambassador's residence somewhere far from Spain does have its allure. In any case, there's another aspect about such a post that I dislike. It'd mean being without you ... I don't want that."

  "Thank you, Alfredo. But you realise I could still accompany you, if not formally."

  "How?"

  "I don't need to be wherever you are officially. I'm sure I could do some climate research in the same city. That way we could be with each other even if we were not formally living together."

  "Yes, that could work. I hadn't thought that far ahead. I was just thinking that not having you around was sufficient reason to show minimal interest and decline."

  "Well, maybe you should rethink, even put out some initial indicators that you are interested, no?"

  "That's not a bad idea. Meantime, however, I must start that anti-ORS organising. It will be my job for the rest of next week. Hmmm. There is one other thing, if you don't mind?" Puri nodded for him to continue. "If you're speaking with Marta, might you get her to give you a blow by blow description of what went on in her meeting at ORS? You might learn more than I can."

  "You want me to spy on Marta?"

  "No, no, no, not spy. Just ask for a description. I think we'll find some differences between what we agreed she should do and what actually happened. Knowing for certain could help us all."

  He beseeched. Puri gave way.

  "All right, I will, but only if she calls me and if I can bring it up naturally – assuming she wants to talk. I'm not pushing her. Okay?"

  "Okay. As usual you know best. Now I'm going to my desk to make a few telephone calls. Afterwards I must leave before dinner, which is a pity, because I'd hoped to enjoy that with you."

  "We'll have next weekend and the one after. And do have a think about that overseas possibility."

  Monday: Malasaña

  It was early evening, at least by Spanish standards. Ana was in a state of shock. What Emilia had projected onto the big screen had taken her breath away. First there were the ORS transactions. They had taken her through their analyses, listing key transactions and amounts. They had also set out to try communicating their rationale behind the idea that these records were somehow a form of personal accounting mechanism.

  By accident, Ana thought, they had brought up one picture of Márquez's lover. They had removed it immediately without saying anything. They might not recognise him but Ana did. He spelt trouble, big trouble. Furthermore, if implicated in any way with ORS, this could become even messier.

  Whilst thinking about this they had shown her some details of the transactions. The first name to hit her was of Gómez y Hermano, a major professional services firm. This went from bad to horrific.

  As displayed, to Caterina and Emilia, it was just a list. While Davide, Caterina and Emilia were sitting in a wonderful fluffy cloud of foreigner ignorance Ana began to recognise other names.

  Having endured for as long as she could, Ana returned to Davide, advising him that, in her opinion, there was good reason to take better advice than she could give. One option was to seek advice from a law firm. Davide had looked decidedly reluctant. She did not blame him. Ana mentioned a different idea. Davide raised his eyebrows in question.

  She had recommended talking with a senior policeman, one who was a member of her family but was highly regarded and rising fast. The only doubts in her mind were whether he was available and if she could persuade him to listen unofficially, at least to start.

  Davide thought this reasonable. She had made a call. To her relief, she obtained confirmation that he would be in Malasaña by 8 p.m.

  It was now nearly 9 p.m. There was still no sign of him. Her nerves were getting to her. She was in and out of the terraza smoking. She hated doing it. Ana thought she had licked the habit, except on social occasions. Clearly she had much further to go.

  The doorbell rang. Davide indicated for her to answer the door. Ana opened the piso door, inviting in her cousin. She began introducing him to Davide, who interrupted her by greeting Pedro, and enquiring about Barajas.

  After addressing Davide with, "Why should I not be surprised?" Pedro turned to Ana, saying, "You didn't tell me whom I was meeting. Why not?"

  "Why should I? Why on earth would I think you would know each other? How do you know each other?"

  Ana was taken aback, not least by the obvious friendliness between them.

  "You know, Pedro, she's right. How could she expect us to have met? After all, you are some high and mighty muckity-muck handling Interpol and diplomatic matters, no?"

  "Not any longer. I've moved on to new responsibilities."

  "Before telling me, let me get Caterina. You remember her?"

  "You mean Conor's assistant at Interpol? The one with those astonishing black eyes and white-blonde hair?"

  "That's the one. Clearly you really are a policeman – you don't forget the important details. But she's no longer at Interpol. She's here with another Australian friend, travelling. It was accidental when she 'found what she did'."

  Davide left the room to fetch Caterina.

  "I'm astonished, Ana. What's the connection? The first, and last, time he and I met when his friends Conor and Caterina managed to create not one but two diplomatic incidents at Barajas airport inside a morning, one of which continued for weeks."

  "I know nothing about
that. All I know is that they don't understand the implications of what they've found."

  "What d'you mean?"

  "Think of the 'B Accounts scandal', except with hard evidence. And more."

  "Ah. I'm beginning to see why you called me."

  Caterina, accompanied by a smaller, more intense-looking lady of about the same age, appeared with Davide.

  Pedro greeted and kissed Caterina in welcome. She introduced him to Emilia to whom he offered the same courtesies.

  "Sorry, I don't have long and I'm already running late. Ana tells me that you've some interesting information from a smartphone." Ana looked at him, amazed at such understatement. "Would you like to tell me more?"

  Davide began by going through what he had told Ana earlier. He added that it was Ana who suggested talking to the authorities informally, rather than going to a legal firm.

  "That was a good thought," Pedro affirmed. "I believe you showed Ana some of the information. May I see it?"

  Emilia nodded. Pedro and she, with Caterina in tow, left for Davide's study.

  "Is there anybody in Madrid you don't know, Ana? Not that I'm complaining. He was most helpful when I first encountered him."

  "I could ask the same about you and people in Madrid. Felipe, Inma, Pedro ... who's next?"

  "What d'you think Pedro will recommend?"

  "I've no idea. The one thing he won't mind me saying is that you may have managed to upend the biggest can of Iberian worms for a generation."

  "That's serious. Oh well. We'll have to wait and see. A drink?"

  "To be honest I could do with one."

  They headed to the kitchen wondering how long it would be before Pedro appeared.

  It was many minutes before he returned with the others. Davide offered everyone else a glass of wine. Pedro declined.

  "Thank you all for introducing me to this. What only Ana knows is my new posting within the Cuerpo Nacional de Policía. Probably you will find it easier to call it the CNP, Emilia, rather than the Policía Nacional. My job is now to head a unit supporting the Audiencia Nacional focused on corruption, money laundering and the like. So this may be highly relevant, if we can substantiate your initial conclusions.

  "I'd like to stay longer but can't tonight. Tomorrow I'd like to bring in some colleagues before we decide how to handle everything. That said, I think there's already sufficient for me to approach a Juez de Instrucción, or investigating judge, at the Audiencia Nacional de lo Penal, probably to meet with on Wednesday or Thursday. After that it'll be the Juez who'll direct how to proceed.

  "As you seem to have everything organised here, may my officers work here tomorrow? It should only be for tomorrow. After that we'll move to either ORS under CNP direction or to a more formal CNP location. For the moment, meaning until I say otherwise, please say nothing to anybody outside this group and remain here. We don't want the evidence having the opportunity to go walking."

  With more of a grimace than a smile he departed.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Pressures Rise

  Wednesday: Alcobendas

  Ana arrived early at ORS, finding Davide, Caterina and Emilia waiting outside the offices, unable to enter because none of them had keys. She let them in and phoned for some coffee. The office coffee that Felipe chose to drink offended her as the worst sort of American instant – watery and disgusting. From her experience on Tuesday, with the breakfast that Davide insisted they must have round the corner in Malasaña, she had learnt that all three, like her, appreciated the real stuff though they had argued whether Italian or Spanish was superior.

  The next to arrive were two CNP policemen, Carlos and Lucas. More coffees were summoned as all gathered in the meeting room where only last Friday Señora Márquez had met with Felipe.

  At nine on the dot Felipe appeared. He had been warned about the CNP the previous day but he was still not quite prepared to find policemen in his offices, albeit in plain clothes rather than uniform. To create some space for himself, he fled to the kitchen in order to prepare what he knew everybody else considered revolting.

  As he returned with his usual monster American mug, Pedro arrived. Now they had a quorum.

  Pedro opened proceedings, starting by re-explaining his position and responsibilities supporting the Fiscalía Anticorrupción. He continued with a summary of what first Emilia and Caterina had found, followed by all that Carlos and Lucas had confirmed the previous day. There followed a description of what he proposed to do next, if this was acceptable to ORS.

  What he did not say was that, even if it was not acceptable to ORS, this would be too bad. He would just step in and overrule ORS.

  Essentially he was telling Felipe and ORS that the Fiscalia Anticorrupción would like to 'borrow' its facilities and analytical capabilities to dig deeper into the information that Marta Márquez's smartphone contained and to correlate in detail, if at all possible, the transactions and payments that ORS' three clients possessed. He would subsequently like ORS to approach each client's management and discreetly introduce the police interest.

  Of particular importance, he explained, was discretion. One reason for working from the ORS offices was that these were well away from any larger formal facility where the presence of more people meant that it was likely that someone would say something they shouldn't. A second reason was the data had been obtained on ORS premises; he did not elaborate further. A third reason was he wanted somewhere neutral until receiving formal guidance from a Juez de Instrucción about how to proceed.

  Regarding the Juez de Instrucción he informed them he had already obtained an appointment with Juez Rafael Garibey de Williams for late that afternoon. This would initially be informal but he would like Caterina and Emilia to be present with Davide.

  Glancing at Felipe and Ana, Pedro was uncertain whether or not to involve them. On balance he thought he should, if only to impress on them how significant this 'find' might be. He said as much.

  Moving on, he started discussing security. From after the session with the Juez, assuming he received the expected go-ahead, the ORS offices would receive the presence of a twenty-four-hour CNP guard to ensure no external access. This also meant that Carlos would need a list of ORS employees and the times they worked. He re-emphasised that nobody in ORS, beyond the people in this room, should know anything about what Emilia and Caterina had uncovered except that it might involve something possibly illegal at one of ORS' clients, which was why the CNP officers were present.

  At this Emilia coloured, though no one noticed. At the weekend, and before Ana recognised any importance, she had mentioned Caterina's copying of the smartphone to Alberto when she had needed to put off their date. She had not said that much, Emilia thought, but she did remember lightly joking about the phone and how it contained some interesting data and pictures.

  She wondered whether to mention her indiscretion in the meeting. No, there couldn't be any harm done. She would have a quiet word later with Alberto, when re-arranging their date, to make sure he said nothing to anybody. Indeed, this would be her first task after this session with Pedro finished, not least because she really did want to see Alberto.

  Monday night with Ana in bed beside her had been agony. The temptation to kiss Ana to see what might happen had been immense. She thought Ana would reciprocate if she, Emilia, acted first. But she had managed to refrain, just. Professionally that was probably for the good. But, in order to excise the beguiling images of a semi-naked Ana coming to bed and the possibilities foregone, she needed Alberto even more badly than before.

  Having completed all he had to say, Pedro addressed Felipe: "Do you agree? By the way, there'll almost certainly be some compensation payable to ORS for the inconvenience caused, though how much I can't say."

  Felipe, overwhelmed by officialdom and having discreetly looked up Pedro's rank in the CNP, meekly agreed, saying, "That's fine. I guess you'll want this room for working. Should Ana arrange for the systems that Caterina and Emilia have been using
to be brought in here?"

  "Yes, please. That makes sense about your systems though we'll also be bringing in our own tomorrow, now that you've agreed. We will, however, want to keep yours and ours physically and electrically separate to avoid any danger of cross contamination, however inadvertent. It would also help if we could have the keys to this room as well as to access the offices."

  Turning to Caterina, Pedro asked, "Have you brought your laptop with the simulation of the smartphone running? Good. A task for Lucas is to acquire some identical smartphones so that we can replicate everything that Márquez was able to do, though we'd better not start on this until we have met with Juez Garibey de Williams."

  After the meeting broke up, Emilia went to find Alberto, who was delighted to see her. After exchanging exasperatingly (to Emilia) chaste kisses they arranged to meet when they could.

  Wednesday: Alfredo

  Alfredo was displeased. The more he tried to find reasons for encouraging ORS to leave Spain, the more frustrated he became. Monday and Tuesday had produced nothing sufficiently tangible to be worth going out on a limb.

  Yet, by chance, he had learned his godson, Alberto, was employed at ORS. Alfredo's first reaction had been incredulity. Had he stumbled on a new avenue forwards, one close to home? Maybe Alberto would be the goldmine needed to provide the reason to encourage ORS to leave Spain.

  To find out more he had suggested dinner to Alberto. This had occurred the previous evening. It had been pleasant though frustrating because what he had heard gave rise to concern for his godson. Failing to stay in contact with Alberto should teach him not to let family connections slide, even if his justification to himself was the pleasure of being with Puri.

  Throughout dinner Alfredo had done his utmost to persuade Alberto to share any malpractices or errors that ORS had made or was making. He had obtained no joy. Instead, Alberto had spent the time talking about how good ORS was to him and how much he appreciated the CEO, Felipe Garcia-Martín.