“It would be difficult to forget”
Jemima blushed remembering her seduction in the darkened bookshop.
“Quite. Before that we talked about your uncle and father and how they had been murdered by my grandfather.”
The smiled slid from Ben’s face, replaced by a looked that combined anger and sadness.
“Yes, yes I remember”
“And you believed me?”
Ben nodded staring at her.
“Listen to this” Jemima tapped the play icon on the screen of her iPhone and the telephone conversation she had had with Debbie and uncle Alexander filled the office. As the conversation played, she could remember the feelings as each part of the conversation flowed past. The realisation that the family were involved in some way in drugs, cocaine. That her grandfather and uncle were murderers. The relief that her father hadn’t been involved and something else. Something she knew she was missing, but what? Watching Ben’s face as he listened to the recording; she saw a range of emotions from shock to anger and then confusion cross his face.
When the recording finished Ben sat a lost look on his face. After a moment he managed to control his emotions and whispered,
“I wonder who was there when Jonas died? Uncle Alex said your father wasn’t there. So who was? Whoever it was could have been involved in his murder. Charles might have ordered his death, but he wouldn’t get his hands dirty. That would have been left to someone else.”
Ben paused lost in thought,
“I think I can find out, but it might take a while.”
Jemima nodded and motioned him to go on.
“No, I need to think it through. Why don’t you tell me about your problem”
Jemima looked at him sitting in front of her, eyes closed lost in thought. She shrugged, thought and then began.
“I want to leave my family.”
His eyes shot open and he stared at her, trying to decipher any hidden meaning within her statement.
“Being a Cortez, part of the Cortez clan wasn’t something I was proud of. I was just a Cortez. An insignificant Cortez, but still a Cortez. So I was given a generous allowance, a very generous allowance. From time to time, if Felicity needed something doing with discretion, I would get a call and do it. I can be a scary bitch if needed, so I was sent to scare people. Who would run from a girl? No one, not until they met me anyway. I explained to people the consequences of not doing as the Cortez’s asked. They always decided I was right. In hindsight, I’ve been naive. I thought it was petrochemical secrets, bioethanol deals, business shit.”
Jemima paused for a moment, took a sip of her now lukewarm tea and continued,
“As you heard on the recorded message, it seems the Cortez clan are altogether different people to the ones I thought I knew. My grandfather, may he burn in hell, was a violent misogynist. My sister is a sociopath and as you heard my uncle is also unpleasant. Stupid, gullible and unpleasant. He doesn’t know the trouble that is going to come his way, none of them do.”
Jemima took a large gulp of her lukewarm Darjeeling tea and then a smaller sip.
“Those foibles I knew and could excuse as long as they left me alone. Drugs I cannot forgive, condone or be involved with. Odd if you think about it for a moment. I’m happy to frighten people for business reasons, but not druggy reasons. A girlfriend I was very close to was an addict, coke. She died when she got her hands on some ultra pure stuff and snorted her brains out. Heart attack. Now I know why. Ben, until I met you I thought I was a died in the wool lesbian. I felt comfortable in the company of girls, women. They were softer gentler, without the brutal rough edges that men seemed to have. Making love, sometimes just having sex, was safe. I wasn’t going to be hurt, as I had been when my grandfather raped me. I wasn’t going to be taunted or humiliated as I had been by both my grandfather and Felicity. What had been teenage experimentation and would have developed into a healthy bisexual lifestyle became a search for gentleness and safety, which I assumed I would only be able to find with a woman. I now know how good making love to a man can be. No pain, no humiliation, just love and respect. I have never known that before. Thank you. Can we do something together later? I want to keep you close.” Ben looked stunned, his face revealing that he had had no idea that Jemima felt that way. He hesitated unsure what to say. He knew he had to say something, but he didn’t want to get it wrong. Nodding his head in understanding, he stared into her eyes and said.
“Now, if you’d like, it’s time you met Marmite”
“Marmite?”
“Marmite. A ten week old black Labrador bitch who is going to be a big part of our lives. If you pass the Marmite test and would like to, perhaps we could check you out of The Eastbury and check you into chez Ben and Marmite. What do you think?”
When she stood up; picked up her coat and walked out of the office and down the stairs he knew he’d blown it. Jumping up, he grabbed his jacket and crutch and ran as fast as his damaged leg would allow. He flew across the room to the office door, tripping over the chair in his haste, all the time chanting under his breath,
“Shit, shit, shit. Too soon you idiot.”
As he came out of the door onto the stairs, he looked down and saw her beaming up at him.
“Do we need a taxi or can we walk? We don’t want to keep Marmite waiting.”
Chapter 28
Alexander leaned back in his armchair and took a large sip of Courvoisier L’Esprit.
“This cognac comes in a Lalique crystal decanter and costs nine thousand five hundred dollars a bottle. A shade under six thousand pounds, magnificent. Thank you for complementing this enormous cognac with a Chinese takeaway. Not Le Gavroche is it?”
Felicity brushed aside his feigned displeasure with a brusque,
“We need to talk, I’m needed elsewhere tomorrow, so Chinese food and a very acceptable bottle of Meursault Premier Cru will have to suffice. To business. We have a vast amount of product arriving in a couple of weeks, vast.”
Alexander interrupted with irritation.
“Yes, you said, three tonnes. A fair bit, but father brought in a similar amount for the city snorters in the late eighties. Every month.”
“Six tonnes a month.”
Alexander’s mouth fell open and his florid complexion paled as he considered the logistical problems, the risks and the rewards.
“You have a market for that amount? The price will plummet, supply and demand you know.”
“Of course I know. We have assumed the mantle of European distributor. If the Serbians, Russians and Italians want product, they now have to buy from me. Pablo’s emissaries will have apprised them of the new arrangements by now and I expect we will be hosting these gentlemen next week to discuss the new pricing structure.”
Alexander nodded, a look combining greed and fear on his face and said,
“You’ve got my numbered account in Lichtenstein I assume?”
Felicities smiled and shook her head,
“Now grandfather is gone you need to start earning your take. In recognition of your new responsibilities, you will receive ten million pounds,” she paused for effect, watching for the reaction his greed would provoke.
“A month.”
The sound of shattering cut crystal as the Swarovski brandy goblet slipped from Alexander’s hand to the marble floor reverberated around the high ceilings of his grace and favour apartment in Admiralty House. He whispered,
“Ten million pounds a month. Who will I have to kill?”
“Ruin, not kill, ruin. Then you will take on their mantle. Your crowning glory. The role we have been grooming you for since grandfather bought your seat for you in the early sixties.”
“Prime minister?”
Felicity gave a derisory laugh,
“No, the role grandfather had in mind for you was Home Secretary. Head of the police, border agency, customs and excise, you will be invaluable in keeping product flowing into the UK. He was hoping to have lived to direct you in your new role, but no
one could have realised it was going to take quite this long. You, Uncle Alexander are going to allow the Home Secretary to smooth the way for our next shipment and then he will be discovered to be a heavy cocaine user. You will plant the cocaine in his office, his home, his car and on his person. You will then alert the authorities to this shocking discovery. The Home Secretary will resign and you will be asked to step into his position.” She looked at the excitement on his face at the prospect of the money and the power. Alexander was extremely malleable. If you kept his bank account full and massaged his ego periodically, his influence was there for the taking.
“One last item I require.”
“Key’s to the tower of London?” Felicity gave a short insincere laugh.
“No, nothing so grandiose. A house of commons all area pass, highest security clearance.” Alexander looked at her, incomprehension on his face.
“Sure, Debbie can issue one for you tomorrow.” Felicity shook her head.
“No, I need it to be issued by the Home Secretaries office. Issue it in the name of Ben Sanderson. Effective immediately.”
***
William stared at his brother trying to work out what he was thinking, feeling as the recording of Alexander’s voice played for the fifth time.
“Listen to this part again” Ben said, “Listen and tell me what you hear. “ He tapped the play icon on the iPhone and forwarded the conversation to the point he was looking for.
“Okay now. ‘No, just the players. The ones who father respected.’”
William looked at the faces of Annabel and Jemima and then at Ben.
“I don’t think we understand what you are trying to tell us. I think we need elaboration.” William paused for a moment of thought before saying,
“Oh, hold on a minute, let me think. Is the key to understanding, identifying the people who were there?”
Interrupting Annabel said, “This happened forty odd years ago. Knowing who was present is going to be quite difficult unless we can find someone else who was present and ask them.”
“No.” Ben said, “The Cortez clan where a bigger draw then than they are today.”
Looking at Jemima for confirmation, he continued, “Now the Cortez’s eschew publicity of any kind, apart from Alexander and that’s only allowed in his professional life.”
Jemima nodded confirmation, “Felicity has employed a public relations firm to ensure the family is not mentioned in the press. I’m not sure of the details, but I think she offered them an annual fee of two hundred thousand pounds. This reduces by ten thousand pounds each time there is a mention of a Cortez in the press, online, or anywhere. It works well. I know that in the last three years they have kept one hundred per cent of their fee and the Cortez’s have preserved their anonymity.”
Ben took over from Jemima continuing with his story.
“I spent an interesting day in the British Newspaper Archive at the British Museum. They are digitising their entire collection, but to begin with they are working with the newspapers prior to nineteen hundred. So I went in person. I found a reference to Alexander’s political launch party in February nineteen seventy-three in three newspapers and two periodicals. The most interesting for us is the Illustrated London News. Their archive is now online.”
Ben opened his MacBook Pro and logged onto the Illustrated London News’s archive pulling up his saved searches. Turning the screen to show the pictures to everyone, he scrolled through twenty-five different photographs of the event.
“I have identified the Cortez’s who were present that night and as Alexander said it was everyone apart from Jemima’s father James. So from left to right we have a very young, eighteen years old I believe, Alexander. Next to him and in the middle of the shot is his father Charles and beside Charles is his other son Frederick Cortez, now Aldhelm. William and Annabel’s bishop. All the family accounted for. Important family that is. Wives wouldn’t have been invited to this type of event, left at home to breed. If you look closely you can see a man at the bar behind them, Jonas Sanderson. So when this photo was taken he was still alive. Someone at that event killed him. They laced his chilli with a large dose of cocaine and some time after eating it he had a huge heart attack and died.”
***
William scratched Wooster’s ears as they lay on the sofa. Ben and Jemima had left soon after they had finished discussing the recording and Annabel had an early meeting to attend at the boy’s school, so had opted to go home to ensure she got a good night’s sleep. He regretted agreeing to Annabel staying in her own home for the night, he needed someone to help him make sense of Ben’s revelations.
Addressing Wooster he asked,
“Which Cortez is it? Was it a Cortez or just a paid body? The chef? A waiter? Does it matter who actually poisoned his food, Charles Cortez ordered it to be done.” Looking down at the sleeping Labrador, William smiled and said,
”I’m sorry Wooster, as a sounding board you are lacking. I need to speak to Ernest.”
William stood up, took a large swallow of Bells whiskey and walked to the mirror in the hallway. Concentrating, he visualised Ernest and Juanita and then he spoke to them asking that they come to him.
Staring at the mirror, William waited for his face to morph into either Ernest's or Juanita’s. This time Ernest stared back at him an eyebrow raised in question.
“Good evening Ernest.” William said, wondering if he should say thank you for coming. Instead he said,
“Ben’s bright. Bright and imaginative. Can I trust his reasoning?”
The voice of Juanita came into his head and said,
“Why William. What has happened?”
“Jemima has proven that Jonas was killed by the Cortez’s. A bi-product of this proof was that she discovered that the cocaine used to kill him and Ernest was Cortez cocaine. In her recorded telephone conversation with her Uncle, he let slip that the cocaine or ‘Cortez marching powder’ was there families. Ben acquired archive photographs of the event showing various shots of the Cortez family at play. It shows Charles, Alexander and Freddie together at Alexander’s launch party. Jonas’s killer was at the launch, but who? A family member? A chef? A waiter?”
“Difficult.” Ernest said hesitating before he continued. “James was never involved, Alexander was being groomed and Charles needed to keep his veneer of respectability intact. If this person was a Cortez it only leaves your bishop. A chef or waiter paid by Charles would be more logical. No chance of any mud sticking to the family if it was ever discovered that Jonas’s death was anything other than natural causes.”
Juanita’s voice overrode Ernest’s in William’s head, interrupting his self-congratulation.
“Mierda! We have a problem. I told Ernest that I thought we might have company. I’d had a feeling that there were more people in this part of limbo than there should be. Now I’m sure. While you talked I moved out into the communal areas of limbo. Charles Cortez and a woman called Helena who is misrepresenting herself as a guide is trying to monitor what we are doing. She is from downstairs and very dangerous. She isn’t just here with Charles Cortez to stop you completing your unfinished business. She needs Charles to influence someone on earth to do something she can’t do for herself.”
***
“Hola. Who’s speaking?”
“¿Cómo estás? My name is Jemima Cortez and I wish to speak to my cousin Pablo. Now.”
Jemima heard the sound of the receiver being placed onto a hard surface and in the background rapid Spanish being spoken. After a moment she heard another voice,
“Si, este es Pablo. What do you want Ms Cortez?”
Jemima replied in flawless Spanish,
“I was given your number and asked to contact you by my sister Felicity”
“Felicity? Who is Felicity?” The words were dismissive, as she had expected they would be.
“Felicity Cortez who you spoke to two days ago with regard to delivery. Felicity doubled her requirement and asked you to ensure del
ivery within two weeks. I will be handling receipt of her requirements. Do I need to be less diplomatic? I will if necessary. This telephone I am using will be destroyed within two minutes of the end of this conversation as I assume will yours. So can you recollect my sister now?”
The silence was total as if the call had been disconnect. After a long moment, Pablo said,
“I do not know who you are or what you hope to achieve by these theatricals, please do not call me again.”
Before he had chance to disconnect her call Jemima said,
“Can you afford to lose your single biggest customer, now we are providing product to Europe. I don’t imagine you need angry conversations with our Serbian, Russian and Italian customers. They’re not nice people.”
Raising her voice as she had witnessed with her sister she continued,
“I am a Cortez. Stop fucking around. Entender?”
The voice sounded amused when it asked,
“So Jemima, another feisty Cortez woman eh? What do you want to know?”
Chapter 29
Sarah opened the door to a smiling Jemima at twelve noon.
“Punctual as ever.” she said grinning at her cousin. They hugged and Sarah led the way into the kitchen where she was preparing the lunch they would all have at twelve thirty.
“Freddie has always said to me ‘Better never than late’ George Bernard Shaw, I think.” Sarah laughed and replied,
“If you want to irritate daddy, quote Evelyn Waugh back at him.” Jemima raised an eyebrow in question.
“Punctuality is a virtue of the bored.”
“No, my dear ‘Punctuality is the politeness of kings’ Louis XVIII.” Freddie came into the kitchen smiling. He embraced Jemima and said,
“Ignore my daughters irreverence.” Despite herself, Jemima smiled, she had always liked Freddie. Hugging him back, she was surprised to feel taut muscle rather than the undisciplined fat she had been expecting. Freddie was in much better shape than he appeared.
Bacchus and Sanderson (Deceased) Page 21
