Sonja would have instinctively gone to his aid if Sebastian had not held her back, steering her towards the door.
‘Pretend you’ve seen nothing,’ he whispered in her ear as Sonja swallowed the terror that had mushroomed in her belly at the man’s pitiful cries. ‘A blow like that for every week’s delay, Nati says.’
Sonja wished that he had not bothered to translate Nati’s threat, as, no matter how hard she swallowed, again and again, forcing herself to take deep breaths, she could not overcome her fear. Her legs refused to obey her and she felt faint. As they left the building, Sonja could see the man curled into a ball on the floor, his arms around his damaged leg.
‘As you see,’ Nati hissed, turning to Sonja. ’It’s best that my people keep their word.’
Sonja got into the car and as Sebastian shut the door, she saw the knowing look on his face. All of a sudden the suggestion he had made in the mausoleum no longer seemed so far-fetched.
80
‘Where are we going now?’ Sonja asked, pretending to be curious. Her head was still numb, and she felt as if she were on the point of passing out. Sebastian had left them outside a nightclub, whispering ‘We talk later’ to her as he’d got out of the car. Sonja had nodded almost imperceptibly.
She would have to think over their conversation carefully. She needed to consider it at home and in her own space, with the usual reality in front of her, the overheated madness of Mexico far behind her.
‘Now we’ll take you home,’ Nati said.
‘We’re going to the airport now?’
‘That’s right, mi amor. I don’t sleep well in Mexico. You never know when a grenade is going to come flying through the window. Poor José might have been popular with the people around here, but he also had plenty of enemies. Now I’ve inherited them all, and probably a few new ones as well.’
Passing the same street they had driven down on the way from the airport earlier – the one that had seemed abandoned – Sonja saw it was now very much alive. Not only were the storefronts open, the street was filled with people with shopping bags and the food stalls had multiplied, and she asked herself how big the market in this area could be for tacos and sopes, which, judging by the signs, was what they mostly sold.
Even the darkness seemed swelteringly hot as they walked out to the aircraft, which was lit up on the runway. Sonja still had in her hands the dish of food the old native woman had handed her, and it seemed important to Nati that it came with them. On board the jet, she took the dish from Sonja and passed it to the stewardess.
‘Heat this up,’ she said. ‘We’re hungry.’
As the words left Nati’s lips, Sonja could feel how desperately hungry she was. She felt completely empty and the sinews in her belly began to cramp at the thought of food. She had hardly eaten a thing since the steak at the restaurant in Reykjavík, but could not for the life of her recall how long ago that evening had been. Time and space had stretched and twisted since Nati had knocked on her door.
The stewardess appeared with the dish soon after take-off and Nati clapped her hands in delight.
‘Mama’s molé!’
‘Mama’s?’ Sonja asked. ‘Your mother’s?’
‘Yes!’ Nati said. ‘Chocolate and chilli sauce with chicken. Just taste it; it’s wonderful.’
‘Was that your mother who brought the food?’ Sonja asked, thinking of the tiny native woman who had handed her the dish instead of standing in line to wait for a chance to speak to Nati. There had been no indication that she recognised her daughter, or had any desire to speak to her.
‘That’s her. We don’t talk. She’s … what shall I say? … She doesn’t approve of my lifestyle. But she still wants me to eat properly and thinks I’m too thin,’ Nati laughed.
‘But she came to the memorial service,’ Sonja said, with a sudden need to defend the little woman, even though she would have hardly taken it well if someone had sought to defend her own mother’s shortcomings.
‘She’s no doubt delighted that José is dead. She never approved of him. And he tried his best to be good to her – even bought her a house that she refused to move in to. But if she wants to live in a mud hut and cook over an open fire, that’s her business.’ Nati fell silent for a moment and gazed out of the window. ‘Taste it,’ she said. ‘There’s nothing that tastes as good as your mother’s food.’
The food was indeed excellent and Sonja felt herself becoming calmer as she ate, taking a second helping of the thick, dark sauce. Nati watched in satisfaction.
‘It’s fantastic,’ Sonja said, and Nati beamed with delight. It was as if Sonja had heaped praise on her own cooking and not her mother’s.
They ate in silence for a while and the stewardess filled their champagne flutes. Sonja gulped it down, as, despite being sweet, there was a heat to the sauce that burned her throat.
‘I was wondering,’ she said at last, putting her plate aside, ‘when you were going to help me get my son back – when you were going to make Adam agree on custody.’
Nati swallowed the final morsel and wiped her lips. ‘I don’t work like José,’ she began. ‘Now that I’m taking over, there will be changes to the way things are done. And I want to see how you manage with the limpet.’
‘But you promised me when I helped you with the body, remember?’
‘Helped me?’ Nati said and there was a look of astonishment on her face that would have convinced Sonja if she hadn’t known better. ‘You were the one who killed him! I have it on tape.’
Sonja leaned back and sighed. This conversation had gone in completely the wrong direction. The friend card that Nati had played on their journey south and the female solidarity idea had evaporated.
‘You said you needed a friend, and friends help each other,’ Sonja said, aware of the hurt tone in her own voice. ‘Why did you want me to travel with you to Mexico if I’m not your friend?’
Nati bit a toothpick, sucked it for a second and spat it out onto the carpet. Her eyes narrowed as she glared at Sonja. ‘I wanted to let you see who you’re working for. You work for me, and I’m not José. I don’t need to buy love by doing favours. I don’t need any narcocorridos or a magnificent mausoleum. I don’t give a fuck if people love me or not. I’m a thousand times happier if they’re afraid of me.’
Sonja closed her eyes, unable to look at Nati any longer. The conversation with Sebastian returned to her, and now she fully understood what he had meant when he had told her that nobody could ever trust Nati.
81
María had highlighted in red every one of Agla’s calls to financial institutions. She’d put the spreadsheet together to track the pattern of her calls and now it was almost complete. There were still two numbers to be accounted for: one in Luxembourg and one in Paris. These had to be mobiles registered to individuals. She started with the number with the Luxembourg code, but, regardless of where she searched, nothing came up. She toyed seriously with the idea of calling the number, but that could be dangerous. She had no desire to let Agla and her friends know too early that they were being watched. The tracks could disappear quickly, as she knew from her own bitter experience of working for the special prosecutor’s office.
She decided to concentrate on the other number, the French one. María typed the number into a Paris directory and the owner’s name appeared instantly: William Tedd. Presented with a name that seemed to be English rather than French, María put it through Google to see where it might take her. There were a great many links, so she added Paris to the search terms and immediately saw from the first entry that she had found what she was looking for. This William Tedd worked for an American bank and was based in Paris. She sighed. She had found from Agla’s phone records exactly what she had expected to – confirmation that Agla was involved in some kind of financial activity. But this still did nothing to assuage her pangs of conscience over how she had come by this information.
She looked at the clock and saw that it was close to midnight. She picked
up her phone and car keys, and was about to activate the alarm system when she hesitated. That name, William Tedd, was one that rang a bell somewhere. This wasn’t a name that they had checked out as being linked to Agla, but she was certain that she had seen it somewhere in connection with some of her overseas funds. She turned round in the dark office and went to the archive room. She tapped in a code that opened the doors with a hiss. It didn’t take long to find the folders she wanted. She took them to the canteen, where she switched on the coffee machine, which flashed a red light to confirm that it was heating up. Now she definitely would need a dose of caffeine if she was going to get through all these documents.
The coffee machine hadn’t even got as far as buzzing to announce that it was ready when María found William Tedd’s name in the case files. He had witnessed a financial transaction they had given up trying to trace, so that didn’t mean much. But in the same file she came across another interesting name. In hindsight, there was nothing about the name that she would have remembered if she hadn’t stumbled across it again recently: Jean-Claude Berger. But he wasn’t a concierge this time; rather, he was the chairman of the board of Avance Investment, the largest investment fund that Agla used and which the prosecutor’s office was keenly aware was hers, even though it wasn’t in her name. María leaned back in her chair and laughed out loud. Concierge and chairman of the board. Could Agla really have been so carelessly overconfident?
82
Tómas could see that his mother was glowing with joy at the sight of him. He could barely contain himself – and he had been revelling in playing the fool since his mother arrived. He had hardly been able to believe his ears when his father had told him that Mum was coming for a visit. A visit! She had not been inside the house since she had left, and his father had always made him run out to the car when she came to collect him, and never once invited her in. And now she was sitting on his bedroom floor, laughing as he did a handstand on his bed while Dad made coffee in the other room.
‘Because I have to go abroad for work, you won’t be coming to me until Sunday,’ Mum said. ‘But we have the whole of the next weekend together.’
Tómas did a back flip onto his bed. He didn’t care that his weekend with her had been delayed, now that she had come to see him. There was so much that he needed to show her, and she had never played with Teddy, who seemed to like her, trying again and again to lick her face as she sat on the floor.
Dad called from the kitchen that the coffee was ready. When they went to the kitchen, they found that he had made hot chocolate for Tómas so that he could sit at the breakfast bar next to Mum and slurp from his mug like a grown-up.
‘Everything all right in London?’ his father asked.
‘I think so,’ Mum replied.
‘Be careful,’ Dad said.
‘I always am,’ Mum told him.
‘We’ll talk when you’re back,’ Dad said.
‘I’ll let you know,’ Mum said.
It was like a normal conversation between normal people, and Mum seemed so happy, tugging at his earlobes and ruffling his hair, and Dad didn’t seem to be angry at all. There was just a normal expression on his face, as if he was quite happy to have Mum coming round for a visit. Maybe things were better between them? The teacher at school had told him that it was always difficult after a divorce, and people would argue a lot, but that would get better with time. Maybe now that time had come?
83
Sonja went straight from the airport to Nati’s house in Chelsea. At the front door she took a single long breath and knocked immediately, so as not to let the fear inside her turn into hesitation. Best to get it over with. Amadou opened the door and Sonja walked straight past him and into the hall.
‘Sonja!’ Nati called in delight, coming out into the hall. ‘Come in!’
Sonja greeted her with no great warmth. There was no reason to pretend that years had passed since they had last met, considering it was only two days ago that they had parted at Reykjavík airport.
Nati showed her into the living room and Sonja felt the goose pimples rising along her legs. But now the room looked completely different, so much so that it hardly seemed to be the same place. It had been filled with plants and lamps, colourful paintings had been hung on the walls and the furniture was pale bamboo. They sat in armchairs either side of a small table and Amadou appeared with a tray of coffee. Sonja was about to stand up and take the tray from him, but a shake of Nati’s head told her to sit still. Amadou supported the tray with the stump of his hand, placing it with a clatter on a side table so that coffee spilled from the pot. He placed cups, a sugar bowl and a jug of milk on the table between them and poured the coffee into the cups. One-handed, it took him a long time while they sat watching in silence. Then he leaned down, used the stump to take hold of the tray and left the room.
‘It’s a little painful,’ Nati said and Sonja was sure that she could see something mischievous in her expression, as if she enjoyed watching the one-handed man’s tribulations.
‘How much am I carrying now?’ Sonja asked.
‘Four,’ Nati said. ‘And it goes straight to Greenland, where my guy will take delivery. Well, he lets his partner in Nuuk have a small amount that he uses to mix cheap crack for the locals. They seem to be obsessed with getting out of it any way they can. I’m telling you this so you know I’m aware of what goes on. It’s best if my people realise that I know everything. None of them should imagine that they can go behind my back.’
‘Understood,’ Sonja said and sighed. The feeling of resignation that had enveloped her like a blanket on the flight to Mexico wrapped itself again around her. She would just do as she was told. It was pointless trying to change her circumstances – for the moment. But Sebastian’s proposal was still on her mind.
‘If I turn a blind eye to that kind of thing,’ Nati said, ‘it’s because it’s to my advantage. But if someone’s cutting and stealing, and I reckon that it’s bad for me, then neither God nor a thousand angels will be able to save that person. You understand me?’
‘Completely,’ Sonja said, taking a mouthful of the coffee that Amadou seemed to have added sugar to without her noticing.
‘This is your last flight. You can find someone else to carry small shipments by air, and you can take over the big shipments with the limpet.’
‘I don’t have any people in Iceland,’ Sonja said. ‘I’ve always worked by myself and have no idea how to find someone for the flights. Isn’t it best if Adam continues to look after this?’
‘No,’ Nati said in a flat tone.
Sonja waited for her to say more, but she sat with a smile on her face while Sonja wriggled like a fish caught on a line, as she tried to think of a way to escape.
‘How about Adam looks after the limpet? He has plenty of men around him who can learn to dive and who are strong enough to carry something that heavy. That way I could carry on with the flights and the Greenland route—’
‘Adam has done nothing but fuck up these last few months,’ Nati interrupted. ‘His people keep getting caught by customs so I don’t trust him any longer. But I trust you. You’re someone who has talents. You take over the limpet next week and find someone to look after the flights from here to Iceland. And you can let Adam have the little bit he needs for distribution in Iceland.’
‘Adam won’t be happy with that,’ Sonja said.
‘I’ve told him how things are going to be. He has no choice but to do as he’s told.’
Sonja was taken by surprise. ‘When did you tell him this?’ she asked. ‘When did you tell him that I’m supposed to take over?’
‘The day before yesterday,’ Nati said, pouring more coffee into her cup.
This was astonishing. Could Adam be happy to have been taken out of the game? He had been more friendly towards her yesterday than he had been at anytime since they had parted. He had been courteous, invited her in and his welcome had almost been warm. Could Nati have said something to him that put he
r in a stronger position when it came to him? Was being Nati’s friend such an influential thing? Sonja decided to tempt fate by reminding her of the favour she had asked, and which Nati had promised.
‘When will you tell Adam that I need to get custody of our son?’
Nati put a finger to her lips. ‘Shh,’ she said loudly. ‘Don’t push, Sonja. We’ll see how things go over the next few weeks, and if you work hard, then we’ll see what can be done.’
It was the reply Sonja had expected. She got to her feet, ready to say goodbye.
‘I had better take the gear up to the hotel and get it packed,’ she said.
But Nati shook her head. ‘You’re not going to any hotel,’ she said. ‘You’re staying here. And I expect a better welcome than last time I knocked on your door. Understood?’
Sonja nodded and sat down again. She took a gulp of the over-sweet coffee and it seemed to stick in her throat so that she was unable to swallow. It made no difference how much she wriggled like a fish on a hook. She should just as well forget all her own plans, give up and go with the flow. It made no difference what she did, the trap continued to close around her.
84
‘Do you have to bring this stuff to bed?’ Maggi asked as she dropped the stack of papers on the bedside table and got in beside him.
‘I was just going to go through a few of the annual reports,’ María said. ‘Is that any different to reading Yrsa?’ She pointed a finger at the book in Maggi’s hand. ‘I read this kind of stuff because I enjoy it, just the same as you and your crime books.’
‘I know,’ he said and rolled onto his side.
That wasn’t a positive sign. Turning his back was a signal there was something he wasn’t happy with. It was as if he had sensed something. Maybe she should tell him the truth about what had happened with Agla. Maybe it would clear the air if, as she feared, he had sniffed out that she had been up to something underhand. Perhaps he’d be amused if he told him she had lied her way into a ‘bankster’s’ house with a story about the pair of them going to a strip club.
Trap Page 18