Corruption's Price: A Spanish Deceit (26 page)

When they finally made it to the kerbside by the ORS offices Emilia decided to go straight in. Caterina dithered and chose to accompany Davide whilst he returned the rental car. She felt calmer after the conversation with
tío
Toño.

The rental car office was busy. It took a further thirty minutes to finish the paperwork, after which Davide decided, arbitrarily, that he wanted a
café
to strengthen him for the rest of day. As Caterina was unfamiliar with the concrete jungle that Alcobendas resembles, with streets wide enough to confuse, she agreed. In fact she really wanted to get going. What
tío
Toño had told them about Salvador had piqued her interest. Could there be a connection to find in the smartphone? She liked the idea of bringing such an unpleasant man down to earth. Best of all she would finally have her laptop back. She had missed it.

It was almost noon before they finally entered ORS. They noticed the police car outside before meeting a workman who seemed to be replacing the ORS front door. Davide commented that he didn't think Pedro would take security to such an extreme.

Next they saw the smashed conference room door, where Pedro, Lucas, Carlos, Emilia and Ana were sitting round the table inside. They joined the assembly, which was funereal. Caterina headed to where she normally kept her laptop to find it gone.

"Where's my machine?"

Pedro gestured at the door, saying, "You've not made the connection? We had a break-in last week. The two laptops from this room have disappeared, along with their power bricks. What we don't know is if this was opportunistic or deliberate, planned and related to what we possessed. Either is possible. Anyhow, both are gone. It's a major disappointment."

He reddened saying all this, before trying to appear positive. "Now the investigation must be based around whatever you printed out previously, as I've had to explain to
Juez
Garibey. He, in turn, pretty much accused me of screwing up. According to him it's quite possible he'll have to discontinue the investigation, unless we can convince him otherwise."

Emilia interrupted, "We printed a lot, though not everything. I'm sure, Pedro, Caterina and I can create enough to convince your
Juez
to continue. Providing you still want to?"

"Thank you. You know the bitter irony, Emilia? Your authorisations to work with us arrived by fax this morning from your home offices. What a waste."

He glanced over their downcast faces.

Caterina said, "How can we have 'lost' my laptop? You said you were going to place a guard in the office."

"Caterina, I'm sorry your laptop has disappeared. But it has. We thought it sufficient to place security outside the offices for the weekend and later reinforce on the inside starting this morning. We were wrong.

"We don't even know when the break-in occurred. It's possible it happened while we were with
Juez
Garibey, before we had any authorisation to proceed. I agree this seems improbable. After all, who could possibly know, except us, that we had the smartphone copy? The only other person who knew is Felipe. I can't see him breaking-in to rob his own offices.

"It's also possible, despite our best efforts, that the
Sala
leaked information. That's happened before. But so fast? Again it's doubtful. We are missing a link, unless it was plain bad luck and a chance break-in."

Caterina added, "I suppose the only good news is that someone will have to buy me a new laptop."

She stared at Pedro until he gave in with a curt: "If we must."

"I really think you want to buy me a replacement, one that of course exceeds the capabilities of my stolen one."

"If you insist. How much will it cost?"

"I've no idea. My old machine was state of the art, albeit from a couple of years back, so it'll probably be expensive. I will, of course, want today's top of the range equivalent."

Emilia said, "Caterina, why are you fussing about this? It's hardly the most important issue for today, even though I know you're a pain in the arse when you don't have your toys."

Emilia found Caterina's attitude unhelpful, unnecessary and wholly inconsiderate – all of which spiced her own discomfort knowing what she had told Alberto about key details and had not disclosed. Could he have told anybody? She did not like the implications.

Pedro said, "Let her be, Emilia. She's entitled to feel aggrieved. We screwed up."

Caterina responded: "I really can't stress enough how much I need a replacement."

Emilia raised her eyes. "Why the bloody urgency now, Caterina?" A suspicion crept into Emilia's mind. She tilted her head, saying, "Are you not telling us something we should know?"

Caterina projected innocence incarnate, which drove Emilia crazy. The rest of the room watched in trepidation as Emilia began to fulminate at Caterina.

"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 evidence 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.