Corruption's Price: A Spanish Deceit

by Charles Brett

  "Stop being such a stupid bitch and cry-baby! If you've something useful to say, say it, or just plain fucking shut up! Don't try denying it. I recognise the bloody signs. You think you're being too fucking clever by half, but you're not."

  Davide winced at her language. He was still unaccustomed to the coarseness that Emilia used. He knew the Spanish would be unfazed for they deployed many of the same casual profanities in day-to-day conversation.

  When Emilia repeated herself, Caterina sat forward at the table "If I was to have a suitable new laptop I'd be able to work. And if I could work, I'd be able" (she paused to blow her nose) "to access and retrieve the backup of the smartphone copy that I made last Monday."

  Stunned silence washed over the room. Legions of pins could have dropped and no one would have heard them. Brains worked furiously to absorb what she was saying. It wasn't quite the effect that Caterina expected but it confirmed her occasional ability to play an audience.

  Eventually, the first words emerged from Pedro: "Where did you store this backup? Please, please, I hope it wasn't in Australia or America."

  "Nope. I thought of that, especially after my time in Lyon with Interpol. It's on a server in the EU. Plus I sent a pointer that I'd made the copy to my old boss in Interpol. There is, therefore, a formal record of what I did, when and where within an official organisation."

  Pedro ran round the table and kissed Caterina before telling her she may have saved the day.

  Turning to Carlos, Pedro almost shouted his encouragement: "Can you find whatever computer she wants? How long until we can get one? How soon until we know if we have a good copy? How –"

  Emilia interrupted with: "You miserable, wretched, sour, rank, exploitative bitch! You've watched us waiting in misery, just for the fucking joy of it. I could tear your bloody eyes out, one after the other, and very slowly remove anything else that matters." Emilia turned in her seat to face Pedro. "She doesn't need a bloody new machine. Don't even dream of agreeing to buy her one. Any compatible computer will do." Addressing Ana: "ORS must have a spare laptop somewhere. Or what about using the ones Carlos or Lucas have?"

  "Raining on my parade, Emilia?" Caterina's voice dripped with contempt. "Thank you so very much. So considerate, as always.

  "That said, Emilia is partially right. We could use an ORS or CNP machine. However, I'd counsel using a demonstrably virgin machine. This has the particular benefit of reducing the chances of corruption or infection that must exist on any pre-used machine. In the circumstances I think it's worth minimising risks.

  "I recommend we be extremely careful about how we retrieve and restore the copy, and that we document every action with a view to satisfying evidential requirements. After that, I'll also start rebuilding my tools, including the smartphone simulator."

  Before Emilia could respond, Pedro pre-empted her. "You're probably right, Emilia, in that a new laptop isn't strictly necessary. Yet Caterina makes valid points. I'm going to side with her, plus she does deserve a replacement. Just knowing that we may still possess an original changes everything."

  He turned from Emilia to address Caterina: "Get with Carlos and see what you can find for yourself. You may even want him to take you round the corner to San Sebastian de los Reyes where there are some big computer stores. Or, if need be, we can try throwing some official police weight around at any supplier you choose."

  Caterina almost simpered. This drove Emilia over the edge.

  As everyone else moved, ready to begin work, Emilia sidled up to Ana, whispering, "Could I borrow that bedroom? She really, really pisses me off."

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Slow Progress (and Six Weeks Later)

  Monday: Madrid

  Juez Garibey looked up as his assistant opened the door to usher in Pedro and Davide Shape. He was looking forward to this. From what Pedro had said over the telephone regarding progress over the past six weeks, there should be much to learn as well as, hopefully, decisions to be made and actions to initiate.

  Though he knew he shouldn't feel this way he wanted Pedro to succeed; to complete a case which might see some of the tainted, who all too often thought they enjoyed a self-assigned impunity that abused ordinary people, appealed to his sense of justice. He would, however, have to watch himself to ensure he didn't let this enthusiasm overcome fairness and the application of the law or its arcane processes, however dumb the latter could be on far too many occasions.

  After exchanging greetings they got straight to business.

  Pedro started, "I am going to ask Davide to describe the work that my people and his Australian colleagues have been doing during the past six weeks. Why? My experience is that he's rather good at bridging the gap between the technological and 'normal' worlds by providing explanations that are understandable to humans. Afterwards I'll add the policial dimension."

  "That's fine with me. Before you start, Señor Shape, I've done some asking around. Despite my lack of belief in its propositions I have good friends in the Church who eventually put me in touch with the secretary to a Cardinal da Ferraz in Rome. Pedro had already told me about you. Seemingly you also come extraordinarily well recommended by people in the Vatican. You must tell me more about this HolyPhone one day. Anyhow, I'm preventing you from talking."

  He waved a hand, instructing Davide to begin.

  Davide commenced by summarising how the copy of the smartphone was originally made. He continued by describing the break-in to the ORS offices with the theft of the key laptop, followed by Caterina's unexpected announcement that she'd made a backup of the backup, and also documented its existence to an Interpol colleague.

  Next, Davide covered the steps that Pedro, Caterina and Emilia had worked out for recovering the backup of the backup into a place and form which it would make its evidence legally usable. This had involved creating a master copy within a CNP system using a unique verification key issued by FNMT, the Spanish equivalent of the UK's Mint or US Treasury. As it happened, her backup of the backup had used a version of this, which would remain in place. The significance was that copies could be compared, if needed, to establish that no alterations or tampering had occurred to the original data contained. With such verifiable authentication in place, they had been able to start on the real analysis.

  Juez Garibey nodded in appreciation of the care taken and the implications for judicial processes and any evidence that might need presenting in court.

  Using the primary data the team had begun by examining the 'M Accounts', the term they had adopted as shorthand. This was followed by a prolonged period in which Emilia, supported by Caterina and two of Pedro's best CNP investigators, tried to fathom the logic behind the way that Márquez organised her information.

  After many false starts, which led to many dispiriting dead ends, Emilia had put forward the idea that the underlying structure might encapsulate a simplistic, or possibly deliberately individualistic, form of personal accounting ledger. After several failed attempts they were now working with what seemed to be two parts to the puzzle.

  The first was a list of what resembled a record of receipts of payments to Márquez made by a number of large organisations – including ORS' clients Constructores Equilibris, ServiArquitectos and MMH – along with the details of deposits into a small and select group of bank or caja accounts, though the individual account details were not present. The team speculated that absence of the latter might be because Márquez knew these by heart, so there was no need to keep those details in the M Accounts. Nevertheless, there were clear hints of a trail from the original paying organisations, if they could only work out which accounts to ask to access.

  The second part was a list of withdrawals, of payments out. These were almost always in cash. There was also a listing of the names or initials to whom specified amounts were given. It was much the longer 'ledger' of the two.

  Before commenting on the names of those who paid in and those who received, Davide mentioned that there was as yet no primary evidenc
e to connect the cash withdrawn to the lists of payments out to individuals and organisations. It might be correct or could even be a deception, though none could think why one half might be correct and the other invented.

  In Davide's view, any 'smoking guns' might be in the Accounts M in two forms. The first was associated with identifying the organisations listed as having made payments into the Accounts M and that they had actually made such payments.

  Establishing this, Davide suggested, would be difficult but not impossible. It needed cooperation from the original paying organisations. The good news was that, in effect, they already had inside access to this dimension through the client relationships that ORS possessed with Constructores Equilibris, ServiArquitectos and MMH and their purchasing records over the past five years. It would be even better, however, if they could have access to their full accounting systems.

  "You mean, Señor Shape, that if Pedro and his people can obtain access to these complete accounting systems they may find additional payment details made by Constructores Equilibris, ServiArquitectos and MMH. In effect, if the payments to Márquez are confirmed in their formal accounting records, this would pretty much verify that the receipts side of the Accounts M is accurate."

  "Precisely, Señoría. With the added consideration you could authorise Pedro's people to start looking for similar verifications in other organisations listed as making payments. If found, these would further increase the credibility of Márquez's receipts."

  "I understand. Furthermore, would it be reasonable to suppose that these cash payments were claimed as legitimate business expenses when they might not be? I'm thinking of the tax implications."

  "I wouldn't know, Señoría. That's beyond my knowledge. I don't easily understand the business tax laws applicable in Spain. But, if you were right, I'd think we might provide the tax authorities here with a good case for deeper investigation."

  "Knowing my fellow countrymen and how businesses here function I'd be amazed if any payments made were not claimed as expenses against taxes. Do you agree, Pedro?"

  "Our friends in the Hacienda tax office would almost certainly take the same position as you suggest, Señoría. Indeed, I can almost hear their lips slavering if we were able to provide them with due cause to look for detailed expenses that might illegitimately have been used to reduce what those organisations should have paid in taxes. Remember how Bankia/Caja Madrid misused their tarjetas negras?"

  "Indeed I do. You look puzzled, Señor Shape? Pedro refers to the lamented yet fantastical instance when senior executives of that bank were given corporate credit cards to use for their own private purposes, including taking cash from ATMs. The charges to the credit cards were absorbed as if they were part of the normal operational costs of the bank."

  Davide enquired, "And the income effect on the executives?"

  Pedro dryly appended: "By some inexplicable oversight these executives, for the most part, forgot to declare any benefits, or even to bother to itemise and claim what were genuine expenses."

  "You astonish me!"

  "We astonished ourselves, Señor Shape. Anyhow, please carry on."

  "There's not much to add here about the payments to Márquez. Rather, it's for you two to decide how to proceed."

  "And regarding her payments out?"

  "That's more difficult. As yet the team hasn't found an equivalent 'smoking gun'."

  "What would you consider an equivalent?"

  "Ideally it'd be a payment listed by her that's documented in some way in the financial records of the recipient named in the Accounts M."

  "Do I understand correctly? You mean if at least one payment out by Márquez is matched independently to a recipient name's records this would start to prove that the names on the Accounts M-Out side of the ledger are accurate? Of course, the more such items, the greater the implicit accuracy."

  Pedro confirmed this, adding that it would be difficult because of the cash dimension. Cash was anonymous. The team was not there yet.

  "But this also brings to the fore the different dimension this represents. Exploring deeper into Constructores Equilibris, ServiArquitectos and MMH, and even other organisations, shouldn't be too difficult with your authority and if you cite their managements to appear as witnesses before you. No doubt there'll be much howling, but no matter. Some would argue that this is why these executives are so well paid.

  "No, as Davide says, the greater difficulty is on the payments outside of the ledger, what you referred to as the Accounts M-Out. First, there's the specific problem he's identified. But there's a second. The names listed potentially include politicians of all levels, civil servants, the Church and even the principals of various charitable organisations. There's a mountain of financial Semtex that could ignite if we find a connection and if at least some of the names are accurate."

  "So what do you suggest, Pedro?"

  "I'd like to divide this investigation of Márquez's Accounts M in two from here on. The first part would continue with the payment in, what we'll now refer to as the Accounts M-In. We'd start by citing Constructores Equilibris, ServiArquitectos and MMH executives as witnesses before expanding on this, depending on what we find. I'd focus my CNP people on this.

  "My preference for the Accounts M-Out is to proceed with greater caution as well as secrecy to see if we can find Davide's smoking gun. My specific uncertainty is whether or not I should ask you to cite Señora Márquez as a witness and see if this unlocks a Pandora's Box. The trouble is that in citing her to appear before you so we might accidentally throw the key away.

  "I'd prefer, therefore, to focus Emilia and Caterina, supported by my distant cousin Ana who'll recognise names and their significance, on searching for these sorts of connections. I'd detach at least one of my CNP people to assist them."

  "Sounds reasonable to me, Pedro. Liaise with my office about whom you'd like me to cite and when so we can move ahead as you wish on the 'M-In' side."

  Tuesday: Emilia

  Against her better judgement Emilia allowed herself to be persuaded. She knew from previous conversations that Felipe attended exercise classes in the Retiro and that he had invited Davide in the past. What she had not learnt, until invited, was that Felipe had persuaded Alberto to join him. Whether Alberto had agreed because he was genuinely interested or because he was doing the boss' bidding remained unclear. Whatever the reason, Emilia was cheered when she accepted Alberto's suggestion.

  The first reason for her satisfaction was that she was amongst a group of younger men and women, mostly English-speaking, but with sufficient locals to add some spice. The second was the location, the Retiro to the east of the Paseo de la Castellana. It was beautiful, much more of a structured and well-kept park than the Casa de Campo, to which Davide has taken her and Caterina on their arrival several weeks earlier.

  The third was that she found herself to be fitter and in better shape than nearly everybody attending, even Alberto and Felipe. All those hours in gyms and on beaches back home making sure she did not add weight now proved worthwhile. She saw the effect on Alberto and others, which wasn't impressive.

  The fourth reason was that her hard-won fitness released a mental freedom. She could allow her mind wander. Where others had to concentrate to keep up, she was able to switch in and out as suited her thoughts.

  The work with Pedro was proving rewarding if also frustrating. Her experience in forensic accounting was a factor that his CNP colleagues clearly regarded with some awe. She found herself teaching as much as delving, even though the latter was the whole point.

  But, and this was the downside, she really did require deeper access to more data than Caterina had captured on that smartphone. Emilia could not wait for the day when Juez Garibey delivered full access to the accounting systems of CE, MMH and ServiArquitectos. She was sure she would find pointers to enable her to help the CNP guys crack the payments-in side of Márquez's accounts.

  Working with Caterina was still fun yet a coolness outside
work had descended. This had happened once before, when Emilia had misbehaved (if she was honest) by seducing Caterina's lout of a rugby-playing boyfriend who had been treating Caterina like dirt. Though she was sure Caterina never knew about that one night stand there had been a similar chill until Emilia had verbally emasculated said-boyfriend in public in a bar in front of Caterina, thus releasing the latter from his baleful clutches. Oh, the things she did for best friends.

  This time, however, the froideur persisted. Perhaps it was to do with Davide. Or was it that Emilia was spending an increasing amount of time staying at Ana's? Anyhow, on current evidence they would not be travelling much together. Emilia was unsure she was all that sorry. Caterina could be so straight-laced.

  Her mind floated on. Alberto was amusing if no great shakes in bed, more enthusiasm than subtlety though she liked his devotions. That said, she sensed he possessed a long-term agenda involving her. That was unlikely to happen. Meanwhile, she enjoyed him for what he was worth and he was doing well so far to retain her interest, if only via rationed access on those occasions when either Davide or Caterina were visiting tío Toño, which was not often enough, or Ana went away for the weekend. Of course seeing Alberto, who worked with Ana at ORS, meant that anything concerning Ana demanded discretion.

  Emilia considered, looking around here to see what else might be to her taste. She did, only to see Felipe bouncing away at the latest exercise, and without much elegance. It made her remember that this was his original stomping ground. She applied unfamiliar caution.

  The trainer leading the fitness class completed the abdominal exercises, which Emilia loved, as did Alberto for the effect when she showed hers to him, and led them on a brisk 2K fartlek to 'warm down'. This exhausted everyone, the mix of sprinting and walking being a killer.

  Once complete she saw Felipe cosying up to a striking, and strikingly unfit, blonde with an obvious American accent. Fair enough. That was his choice for today. Looking around, Emilia spotted a fit-looking pair running their eyes over her in appreciation. She smiled at them to which they responded in kind. Were one, the other, or both possibilities for another day, or night? She exchanged nods, preparing the ground for another day.