‘It escapes your attention that you have repeatedly claimed motive was the key element and that you rebutted the suggestion the legacy to each staff member was enough to constitute a motive?’
‘The legacy was not the motive.’
‘You are about to deliver a farcical possibility?’
‘Logical, if unusual. Pablo decided he would marry Señorita Gill. She, as you will remember my saying, was in a highly emotional state when she came to the island, a result of which was she had the mistaken belief no one would wish to be friendly to her and if someone did, she was scared. Parra has a hair-oil charm and he cunningly engaged her emotions, said he’d been in love with her almost from their first meeting.
‘She told him that it was impossible, that her uncle would never welcome their marrying. Pablo believed that if Señor Gill was so averse to the marriage, he would leave his wealth to her in such a way that he, Pablo, would not be able to touch it; or he might even disinherit her. There was one solution to the problem and this had the extra merit that, on Señor Gill’s death, she would turn to him for comfort. He would probably have achieved success had he not made the mistake of entertaining a puta and being caught.’
‘It is to be hoped few would have the vulgarity to refer to “entertaining” in such circumstances or suggest his mistake was in being caught.’
‘His wife was so outraged by his faithlessness, she hit him on the head and later inadvertently betrayed him to me. One could say, he was hoist by his own petard.’
‘Only if one is of your persuasion,’ Salas said angrily before replacing the receiver.
A Question of Motive Page 18
