Benefit of the Doubt

by Les Cowan

  “I don’t know what it means but he made me repeat it three times. He says every time he hears your name he has to move. First it was to Edinburgh, then back to Spain, now somewhere else. They were planning to move anyway, but when they found out you were here they had to bring everything forward. He was very angry, then he started laughing. I don’t know why. I got locked in my room. I could just hear them all laughing downstairs.”

  “Is that it or is there more? You said he was looking forward to meeting me.”

  “He said he thought last time would have been enough but you didn’t – sorry…” She corrected herself as if it had been learned by heart. “You don’t learn very well.” Jen looked embarrassed and blew her nose. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what it means. He just told me to tell you.”

  “That’s ok. Don’t worry about it. We just need to know exactly what he said.”

  “He said this time he needs to tell you himself. He said if you want to see the girl again… I think that’s the other person, not me…” David nodded. “Well, if you want to see her again you have to meet him.”

  “And how can I meet him?”

  “He says you should leave the hotel this morning and drive east. He’ll contact you. He says he has your mobile number.” David took a deep breath and let out a long sigh.

  “Is that everything?” Jen looked down and frowned for a second, thinking.

  “He says you have to go alone and not tell the police. If you tell anyone or anyone knows where you’re going the Señora will die.” She stopped and looked down again. “I’m really, really sorry,” she said. “I didn’t think…”

  “Es loco,” Juan said under his breath. “Imposible. No puedes ir.” David said nothing then looked up at Juan.

  “I know, but I’ve got to go. It’s my fault Gillian’s here at all. I’ve no choice. You’ll have to cover for me with Rodriguez. He’s been so good I hate to deceive him but there’s no other way. If he finds out he’ll want to put a tracking device on the car or something. If Raúl finds that he’ll just kill Gillian and probably me too. At least this way she may get out alive.”

  “You better get out alive as well.” Juan smiled ruefully. “Alicia won’t let me home without you. ¡Vaya con Dios hermano!” David smiled and gripped his hand. They sat for some moments, hands tightly clasped, and looked steadily into each other’s eyes.

  “One other question,” David finally asked, looking back to Jen. “You said Raúl knows my mobile phone number. How?”

  “I don’t know,” Jen replied, shrugging her shoulders. “There were lots of people who came to the house but there was one visitor only Raúl would see. He used to come late at night or early in the morning. There was some sort of signal, then everybody had to get out of the way. Nobody was allowed to be there. Raúl would take him into a side room and when he went away Raúl would tell his men what they were going to do. I think that’s who told him you were in the hotel. Maybe he gave him your number somehow.” Juan and David exchanged glances again.

  “Does Captain Rodriguez know about this?” Jen nodded. “He asked me about everyone that came to the house and if there were any unusual visitors. I told him about this one but I wasn’t able to tell him what he looked like or anything.”

  “But how did you know about him if it was all so secret?” Juan put in.

  “Carlos told me.”

  “Who’s Carlos?”

  “He was the only one that was nice to me. He gave me his phone to send the messages.”

  “And who did he think you were sending messages to?”

  “I told him it was a lottery game. He made me agree to give him half if I won.” For the first time Jen managed a weak smile. “I told him it was for El Gordo. That’s the big prize, isn’t it? We used to talk about what we would do if we won.”

  “Do you think he believed you about the codes?” David asked.

  “I don’t know. He never tried to stop me but he told me not to tell Raúl or any of the others. He said if he had enough money he would get out of the gangs and buy a hotel in Ferol – that’s where he’s from. He said he’d get a big house by the sea, far from Madrid and all the pushers and addicts. He’d make it into a hotel and we would sit on the rocks and fish in the evening. Or we could take guests out in his fishing boat. Then we’d have barbecues on the beach with fresh fish.” Jen’s eyes were bright, for the first time not with tears. “He was supposed to keep watch on me but then we got talking. I suppose we were both bored. I helped him with his English and he taught me some Spanish.”

  “And how did Carlos get involved with Raúl in the first place?” Juan asked, thinking back to his own childhood.

  “He’s Raúl’s nephew. He told me his mother told him to have nothing to do with his uncle but he wouldn’t listen. Then he got involved and couldn’t get out.” Jen looked down again and twisted her paper tissue. “Just like me.”

  Incredible. A guardian angel right in the heart of the gang. Who the late night visitor was seemed more of a mystery. David remembered Rodriguez talking about leaks in previous operations, which was why he was leading this one himself. Maybe one of his aims was to find out where the leaks were coming from. It was classic Escobar – greasing police palms as insurance – like reinvesting some of the profits to keep one step ahead of the enforcers and free to do more business.

  “And how did you come up with the idea of the codes in the first place?” David asked now that Jen had settled a bit and was talking more freely.

  “My mum made me take the Bible Granny gave me when I left. It’s all I had to read. Once things… changed… I read it the whole time. It’s all there was to do. But I couldn’t really understand it and I was just going to throw it out when I found the book of Psalms and it just seemed to be all about me. Whoever wrote it was in trouble the whole time and wanted God to help him. They were praying, just like me. I didn’t have anyone else to turn to. Carlos was great but there wasn’t much he could do. He couldn’t stop the other ones… the older ones…” What he couldn’t stop them doing David could guess. Now was not the time to ask.

  “Then I thought about you,” Jen continued looking at David. “Granny used to talk about her minister. She was so pleased you’d started helping them at church. I started wondering, like, if you knew all the bits I was reading and could explain them to me. Then I wondered if Granny might be reading the same bits I was reading at the same time. I just thought if I could tell you what I was reading then you would know what I was thinking. Then I had the idea of the lottery codes and asked Carlos if I could send a text. He was bored too and that was when he made me promise to give him half if I won. So he let me have the phone whenever I needed it. And he used to tell me when a message came in. I told him it was the winning code they sent out to everybody that had entered but I don’t know if he believed me.”

  Clever girl, David thought again, just as he had that day at Hacienda, which now seemed so long ago, when the first code had arrived and he had almost missed it. Very clever.

  “Ok Jen, that’s great. You’ve done really well. Is there anything else you can think of that might help us?” She shook her head. “Well, if you remember something you can tell Juan and he’ll decide if the police need to know. Maybe you should get some sleep now. You can use your mum’s room. Then we will get you to a doctor, as soon as possible.” Jen understood and nodded. They took her upstairs and Juan managed to find a big T-shirt of Alison’s for her to wear. When he knocked gently and put his head round the door ten minutes later she was already asleep.

  “What are you going to do?” Juan asked as they sat together next door. “You don’t mean to go ahead and meet him? It would be suicide.”

  “Maybe so. But how could I live with myself if I get home in one piece and Gillian doesn’t? I think you might be right but I have to go. And I can’t hang about. Rodriguez is still busy. If he gets any idea of what’
s going on he’ll want to stop it. The sooner I can get away the sooner Gillian might be free. It’s not her they want. I’m sure of that.

  “So,” David got up, pulled down a small case, and started throwing a few things in. “I don’t know where I’m going or how long I’ll be away but you’ll have to keep the captain happy and not have him looking for me as well. It would be best if I can get to one of the cars without having to speak to him. Anyway, I’ll have to try my luck.” Juan was about to come back with his usual rejoinder but this wasn’t the moment for splitting hairs. He knew what David meant and his part in it. He nodded.

  “Make sure you take your Bible so you can send us a message,” he said.

  David laughed with a release of tension.

  “I hope that won’t be necessary!”

  Less than five minutes later they were crossing the lobby and heading out to the car park when Rodriguez suddenly appeared out of a side room. “Oh no,” thought David, “now we’re in trouble.” But the captain merely smiled at them.

  “You’re leaving us?” he asked.

  “Just for a few days, I hope,” David answered truthfully. “I don’t know if you know what happened to my wife but I’m afraid this is all too much like history repeating itself. Anyway, I don’t think you need me any more. I really just need to get away and calm down a bit. Juan will know how to get in touch. He can look after Alison and Jen if need be.”

  “I see,” said the captain. “I hope that’s a wise decision. I am aware of the history a little. It is most regrettable. Déjà vu, I think the French call it. I’m afraid we do not have a better term in Spanish.”

  “Nor do we in English,” David agreed. “At any rate I hope I’ll be back before long.”

  “Of course. Now, I have some other matters to deal with. Vaya con Dios, Señor David,” he said, still smiling. He gripped David warmly by the hand, then he was off again striding purposefully across the red-tiled floor to another meeting. Strange – he had used the very same words as Juan, “Vaya con Dios”. Did the captain know more than he was letting on? Anyway, David had enough to occupy his mind without that as well. They made it out to the car park without being further accosted, Juan handed over the keys and set up the SatNav. They embraced, maybe for the final time.

  “Good luck!” Juan shouted as the car moved off.

  “I didn’t think you believed in it,” David shouted back.

  “God knows what I mean!”

  Chapter 26

  Valdepeñas

  David pulled onto the long, winding downhill drive to the roundabout then right to join the carretera de circulación. This took him past the bridges into the town – the gates of the city – then up to the major roundabout out of town. Now the first dilemma. There is no main road that runs due east from Toledo. The N400 would take him north-east towards Aranjuez then on in the direction of Cuenca. Or, according to the SatNav, he could take the south-east road, the CM400, initially towards Mora then bending more east to Alcazar de San Juan or south to Valdepeñas. Neither was exactly east, but if Raúl had his number no doubt he would be put right. He remembered that first evening when he and Gillian had shared a meal and talked all night at Hacienda. After the Albariño they had had a Gran Reserva from Valdepeñas. In the absence of any other guidance he turned south-east.

  Now, for the first time all morning, he had time to think. Where was Gillian? How was she? Was she alive? Realistically he thought it was unlikely she’d been harmed – over and above the shock of being abducted in the middle of the night. Even Raúl, psychopath as he might be, had no reason to deliberately ill-treat her. She was the bait and he was the fish. Now he was swimming onto the hook. Or, to put it another way, she was being held to ransom and his life might be the price. Well, he was prepared for that. He was sick of the whole business and just wanted it to end. After finally feeling he was getting his life back together, here it was all slipping back through his fingers like sand. Funny, the Spanish word for sand is arena. The arena where the ancient Christians were ripped apart by wild beasts was covered in sand to soak up the blood. Here he was, walking up the tunnel to face whatever lay ahead, perhaps with as much chance of survival as they. The best he could do might be to make a good death. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints,” said the psalmist. Sometimes it felt like, whether or not his death would mean something, his life was of little worth. After the worst seemed to be over, having made it to the surface, here he was about to go under again.

  He knew a long time ago it was Raúl who had been responsible for what happened to Rocío. The message confirmed it. But he had grappled with that already. Bitterness and hatred was doing him more damage than it was doing Raúl so he had to let it go. Now this morning’s events brought everything back – more real, more immediate, and more horrific than before. Without Gillian he felt he just couldn’t start all over again. If he had to go home without her, how could he cope? Where would that leave him? And in the meantime it was hard not to blame it all on a teenage girl who thought the world was her plaything. After treating her mother with complete contempt she had put other lives at risk as well. Even so, it was hard to feel angry in the light of how she had been that morning. And that brought him back to Gillian. It seemed highly unlikely that both of them could come out of this in one piece. Raúl thought he had a score to settle – or maybe more like a fly he had to squash. One more life would mean little to him. But if Gillian didn’t survive, David thought in a matter-of-fact way, then his life was over too. It was a bridge too far – a mountain too high – whatever. But in the meantime – oh God, please let her be alive. Let me find her. Let her be ok.

  His mobile phone rang, cutting across his thoughts. His heart sank as he flipped it open.

  “David Hidalgo…” A pause.

  “Señor David. How are you? I feel I know you though we’ve only spoken once. Do you remember? On the radio?”

  “Raúl?”

  “Of course. I apologize for getting you out of bed so early this morning. But I understand you and El Capitán had it in mind for me to get an early morning call of another sort.”

  “These are entirely different things. All I wanted was the girl back. If you’ve broken the laws of Spain that’s your problem. You would have been given the chance for a fair trial.”

  Raúl snorted with disgust.

  “Fair trial, fair trial! Don’t talk to me about a fair trial. If Rodriguez could have taken me back to Madrid in a body bag he would have been delighted. Anyway, I did not phone you to exchange insults. I would like us to have a civilized conversation. You have caused me a great deal of disruption over the years. I need to persuade you this is in neither of our interests.”

  “Nothing would please me more than never to hear your name again. All I want now is to get my friend back and leave you alone.”

  “And so you shall, Señor David. So you shall.”

  “Can I speak to her?”

  “Of course. Do you think I have no human feelings? But let me remind you, any attempt to place my operations in jeopardy and you will neither speak to her nor to me nor to anyone else again. Is that understood?”

  “Of course. I’m coming alone. The police think I’m taking a few days out. Nobody knows where I’m going.”

  “Bueno. The Señora…” There was a pause, then David heard Gillian’s voice.

  “David, is that you?”

  “Gillian. Thank God. How are you? Are you all right?”

  “Yes. I’m fine. Splitting sore head but I haven’t been hurt. Where are you?”

  “Coming to get you, I think. Jen turned up at the hotel when they took you away. She gave me a message from Raúl. He says he wants to meet me. This is his way of making it happen. I’m so sorry you got mixed up in any of this.”

  “My choice. Remember?” She sounded tired but coherent. Not hysterical, not blaming, not angr
y, amazingly not even sounding frightened. Serious, but matter of fact. She was made of sterner stuff than David gave her credit for.

  “How’s Alison? It was horrible when they came in. I couldn’t see what they were doing to her.”

  “She was drugged but she’s in hospital now. She’s going to be fine. I love you.”

  “I love you too. I…” But at that moment the phone must have been dragged away and Raúl’s voice came back on.

  “Yes, yes. Very touching,” he said. “If you follow my instructions – exactly – you can whisper sweet nothings in person. Where are you?”

  “About twenty-five kilometres out of Toledo. Just passing Mora. Your instructions said east but there isn’t a road due east.”

  Raúl again let off a snort of disgust and impatience. “Stupid girl!” he said. “I told her south-east. Never mind. You are on the right road by good luck.” If Juan was right and there was no such thing as luck then he was meant to be on the right road. It was his first sign of hope and raised his spirits a little.

  “Keep going. Continue south towards Valdepeñas. You should be there by noon. Find somewhere to stop and wait for my call. Remember, do not try to inform anyone else. If you make any attempt neither of you will live.” With that the line went dead. Valdepeñas again. Another good sign. David thought back to that conversation with Juan in his freezing Edinburgh flat so long ago, when Juan had said that the story wasn’t finished yet. That was true then and still true now.

  Despite everything going through David’s mind, anxieties over Gillian, and the surge of adrenaline that came from speaking to Raúl, as he calmed down, there was something liberating in a strange sort of way in being out on the road, on his own, without any other demands on his time or attention. The sky was a solid dome of blue softened at the horizons. The hills and slopes slipping by were of baked red earth or rough scrub of parched greys and browns. The day was getting hot but the air conditioning kept the car cool. David wasn’t used to such luxury. He adjusted the angle of his seat and tried to relax. Orderly rows of olive trees or almonds marched up the slopes away from the road. Here and there, Moorish towers and castles looked down from the peaks by the roadside, still on guard more than 500 years after the reconquista. The modern Spanish road network was now second to none thanks to European funding, and between that, light traffic and SatNav instructions, little concentration was needed. It was the oddest feeling. Here he was, quite possibly driving to his death, but instead of a rising feeling of panic he was, if anything, feeling more and more at peace. Where was that coming from?