Corruption's Price: A Spanish Deceit (32 page)

"I apologise,
Señoría
. I do have a lawyer but he was waylaid outside. I expected him here by now."

She had a good, clear voice. Her nervousness was evident but not overwhelming, as it was for some. As he was deciding how to proceed, a youngish man in an advocate's black robe hurried forward to stand beside Señora Márquez.

"My apologies,
Señoría.
I was detained briefly, receiving some information that may be applicable to your questions."

Juez
Garibey doubted that. After all, no one knew exactly what his questions were going to be. Only Pedro and his team had an inkling. Only they knew about the smartphone data copy.

His eyes narrowed. No, that wasn't necessarily true. Might Señora Márquez have realised that her smartphone had been copied? She would certainly know what was on it. Also, there was still that unsolved theft of the laptops. He must proceed with care.

"Señora, I have asked you to appear today as a witness in order to ask you about payments that seem to have been paid by three companies, Constructores Equilibris, ServiArquitectos and MultiMedia Hispania. You know you're appearing under oath."

Juez
Garibey stopped, deliberately. It would do no harm to let the gravity of the circumstances set in. He resumed.

"I've a selected list of payments here, many of which seem to be duplicates, and a second list where credit notes were not reclaimed by CE, ServiArquitectos or MMH. Do you recognise any of these transactions and can you explain how they were handled by the issuing organisations, several of which I believe to be your clients?"

Internally Marta was shocked. It was bad enough having to appear at all in a court in front of a criminal
Juez de Instrucción
. But his producing printouts of transactions that she was sure only CE, MMH and ServiArquitectos would possess surprised her. That the
Juez
also seemed able to connect these to her specific clients made matters worse. She waited as the papers were brought to her.

She spent a while looking at them. To all intents and purposes these were the same lists that the wretched ORS people had sent her when demanding repayment. Perhaps
Juez
Garibey had access only to ORS records. If so that would not prove much, except that her clients had over-invoiced or under repaid. It was not her fault that CE, MMH and ServiArquitectos had not been responsible. Nevertheless, she took her time thinking about how best to reply.

"Well, Señora?"

"
Señoría
, I do recognise some of these. Are you aware, for example, that any discrepancies between MMH, CE and ServiArquitectos have been resolved with Inocenta Acosta and the Gómez law firm? A third, with FyP, is under negotiation."

Juez
de Garibey had not known this. He would have to talk with Pedro.

"I presume what you say is readily verifiable?"

Marta mumbled assent.

"Well let's consider your other three clients, though we may have to come back to FyP if the negotiations don't succeed. Can you explain why these companies in effect accepted overpayments from their customers? Can you also tell me what happened to the excess receipts within your clients?"

"Without going back to examine each one,
Señoría
, I cannot. That's something that would require substantial work."

"Is it possible?"

"I imagine so, providing no records have been destroyed."

Juez
Garibey stated blandly, "Which they shouldn't have been if the legal requirements on retention have been observed."

"I agree."

"Shall we reconvene next week? I wouldn't expect you to substantiate every transaction in a few days, but I do expect explanations for at least, say, one hundred of the largest items from each invoicing organisation – for both duplicate payments and for lack of credit notes processed."

Marta looked at her lawyer who said to her, "That does seem reasonable. He's not asking for anything untoward yet, though what might follow is unknown."

He stood, "
Señoría
, if it takes more time than you anticipate please permit my client to postpone next week's appearance. Her clients may take longer to deliver than either you or she expect."

"Fair enough. I appreciate your point."

Juez
Garibey was disappointed though not downcast. The process of assembling information and evidence was always laborious and often painfully slow. What had happened in front of him had not caused surprise. He had decided beforehand not to go on the immediate offensive with Señora Márquez, at least until he knew more. He left the
Sala
.

Back in his working office he called Pedro, who acknowledged that he had not taken on board that there had been settlements or the implications of ongoing negotiations with FyP. Pedro confirmed that he would follow up, by asking more questions of Felipe.

After summarising what had happened with Márquez,
Juez
Garibey went out for a coffee, preferring to leave the building and frequent a favourite bar than drink what was available from the
cafeteria
. About a half an hour later he returned to find a message from his assistant asking him to call Pedro as a matter of urgency.

Over the phone Pedro said, "Márquez was correct about the two settlements and the negotiation. In my view that does not stop you asking the same questions about what happened to the excess monies. But it's unclear, after the repayments, whether CE, MMH and ServiArquitectos have done anything wrong, so we must focus on the recipients.

"But here's an interesting aspect. Felipe, the
gerente
of ORS, went to visit Luis Zavala, head of the El Cerámico business, who turned him out, refusing pay a penny to CE or ServiArquitectos. Felipe is about to initiate legal proceedings against El Cerámico. I have the feeling that, given how Felipe described his abortive meeting with Luis Zavala, the latter might talk. What about citing him to appear?"

"Interesting. You must tell me more. But I think that's a good idea, especially if we can arrange it before Márquez returns."

They continued discussing options.

Wednesday: Madrid

"That was awful, Alfredo. I haven't been present before a
Juez de Instrucción
before. He was polite but I felt afraid."

"What did he ask?"

"Not much. He presented several lists of transactions, the same as ORS, from CE, MMH and ServiArquitectos and asked me to explain. I said that your firm and another client had settled and that FyP was negotiating. He seemed to lose interest in those that had settled, and potentially FyP –"

"–It's excellent news!" Alfredo waved to a waiter to take the debris of their lunch away. "If he's lost interest in my firm it opens up new opportunities for me."

"What are you talking about?"

"If my firm is off his suspects' list, as is Inocenta – she's lovely, by the way, we did enjoy meeting her – and potentially FyP, the scope for finding anything to lay at our door reduces. It also means I could represent you in any future appearances, assuming you want me to."

"You mean because your firm is no longer being reviewed? Okay, though you seem optimistic to me."

"Ah, but that's where I have the advantage. I know how
Jueces de Instrucción
work. If they don't chase an issue it generally means that they regard that avenue as being a dead end and closed. In addition, think again. What wrong to CE, MMH or ServiArquitectos has occurred if full restitution has been paid? None. So where can he go from there?"

"You've almost convinced me. I'd love to have you by my side in front of Garibey. He may be near retirement but he has a formidable presence. The young lawyer you sent doesn't have the gravitas to offset my nerves and Garibey's persona."

"At ease, Marta. My sense is this is coming under control. Plus I have three other pieces of news for you."

"Yes?"

"First, we loved being in Valencia with you. Puri was enchanted with Inocenta. The two are very similar. She sends profound thanks via me, and will no doubt say the same in person when you two next speak. She wants to know if you'll visit us soon, and perhaps bring what she called 'your man'. I assume not your husband?"

Marta went pink.

"Don't worry. Your secret's safe with us and you can always stay at Puri's and he at my house, or the other way round, if discretion is to be the order of the day."

"Thank you, Alfredo. It might be better the other way around, though I doubt my mister will find it easy to get away. His wife's pregnant."

Oops, she had said too much, but Alfredo carried on, seemingly regardless: "Excellent! That's almost arranged. I'll leave it to you and Puri to resolve dates while I concentrate on matters here.

"The second piece of news is that, and I have it on reliable authority, ORS is almost insolvent. My godson, my source, says too little money is coming in. Any FyP settlement will only prolong the agony."

"My last piece of news is that I did as Puri suggested. I followed up on the possibility of the ambassadorship. My feelers apparently went down well and I've an impending appointment in the offices of the
Jefe de Gabinete
for the
Presidente del Gobierno
. I expect to be invited out to Moncloa later this week or next."

"That's wonderful news. Have you been given any idea of where?" A thought occurred to her. "Or when?"

"Don't worry." Alfredo touched her arm in sympathy. "No announcement will be made anytime soon. It won't affect my availability to appear beside you in front of Garibey."

Marta felt acute relief. Knowing that she would have a heavyweight in court relaxed her, until she had thought this might be snatched away. It seemed it would not be. Alfredo carried on as if it was of small consequence, which it probably was.

"As for where? It seems that there are two broad choices, given that I speak passable English. My French is not nearly so good. The first is a smaller South or Central American country, which rules out Brazil, Mexico or Argentina and probably Chile, Venezuela or Colombia. I rather fancy Panama and I do know the present incumbent there has to return to Madrid within the next twelve months to take up a new position being created for her."

"And the second choice?"

"One of the lesser European countries, perhaps one of the Baltics or Balkans."

"Have you any preference?"

"The European ones would be closer to home and more interesting. The South American ones would be warmer and more familiar – if further from Spain. I think, at least at the moment, the latter.

"But what cheers me most is your news that Garibey is no longer interested in my firm. What concerned me was that my ambassador opportunity might be hamstrung by the threat of ongoing enquiries. If those are out of the way we may be free and almost far away, having sorted you out into the bargain."

"Thank you. You said 'we'? Including Puri?"

"If all goes to plan, yes. She wouldn't be my formal partner living in the ambassadorial residence, but she'd come to the same place and we'd live unofficially together. To our great relief my so-called wife isn't interested in leaving her spiritual advisers."

"You told her? I thought you said she'd leak like a sieve?"

"I asked her if work took me away from Spain for a couple of years whether she'd want to accompany me. She was horrified and rejected it out of hand. I said nothing about being an ambassador. I think the precedent is set. Her mind's made up. She tends not to alter her decisions. Usually this is a disadvantage. This time it should work in my favour."

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Getting closer

Monday: Alcobendas

Pedro sat down with Carlos, Lucas, Caterina and Emilia and said, "I'd like to review progress. How did you get on last week, Lucas?"

"You mean with talking to CE, MMH and ServiArquitectos?" Pedro nodded. "Pretty well. With Caterina's assistance we soon obtained access to the accounting systems for past years for CE and MMH. To keep each happy we agreed to have a single dedicated computer here for each company." Lucas pulled a face. "It did mean, sir, having to buy more machines, for the sake of acting while the iron was hot, so to speak. I hope you won't mind. They were quite expensive. Caterina insisted on large memory and disks to enable us to undertake the maximum processing, even storage. They are now connected."

Lucas looked towards Caterina for support, who distractedly nodded her head, before turning back to her new laptop. She was working and preferred no disturbance.

Pedro said, "You mentioned CE and MMH but not ServiArquitectos. Do I surmise there's a problem?"

"Not really. The ServiArquitectos people were obstructive but eventually delivered pretty much all we asked, albeit with more constraints than with the other two. For example, we only have access to the specific five years agreed with the
Juez de Instrucción
and 'not a day more', to quote them. In contrast, CE and MMH have let us explore seven years. According to Caterina, this may prove an advantage."