Michael Pearce - A dead man of Barcelona

‘After two years?’

The Chief of Police was silent for a moment. Then he said, ‘Are you sure you want the investigation to be completed?’

‘Want it?’ said Seymour, taken aback. ‘Of course we want it!’

‘But are you sure? Even if it revealed something that perhaps was better not revealed?’

‘Surely in circumstances like this, an inquiry has to be made. And if it is embarked on, it has to be completed.’

‘And then?’ said the Chief of Police.

‘Well, what happens next depends on the circumstances. There will be several possibilities. A decision will have to be made by the appropriate authority.’

‘And you think that procedure has not been followed?’

‘I don’t know that it’s been followed. That’s the point.’

‘You don’t think the authority may have some discretion in this? Over the publishing of the findings?’

‘Well, in principle

‘And may have exercised that discretion?’

‘What are you saying? That there is some reason for hushing it up?’

The Chief of Police held up a hand. ‘That there may be a reason. That discretion may have been exercised. There doesn’t have to be anything sinister here. The reason may simply be in order not to distress the family unduly. Or there may be some wider reason. That it might distress a Government, say. Or complicate an already complicated situation.’

‘You are saying this was the case here?’

‘No. Just that it may be the case. We keep coming back, you see, to that question you asked, a very good question. What exactly was Senor Lockhart doing during Tragic Week?’

‘Was he taking sides, you mean?’

‘Or did he have his own agenda? In which case, what exactly was that agenda? You see, Senor, even after all this time, these questions still have to be answered.’

‘There is another question which has to be asked,’ said Seymour. ‘Even after all this time.’

‘I know, I know!’ said the Chief of Police.

‘It is about how Lockhart came to die.’

‘A shock!’ said the Chief of Police. ‘It came as a terrible shock. I couldn’t believe it! I went home and told my wife and she couldn’t believe it, either. A man like Senor Lockhart, known to all, respected by all. But in the midst of life we are in death, Senor Seymour. One moment Senor Lockhart was with us and the next he was taken away.

‘ “Let it be a warning to you, Alonzo,” my wife said. “You, too, could be carried off if you go on the way you do. Remember, God has his eye on you!”

‘ “Father Roberto has his eye on me, more like, and has been talking again,” I said.

‘Don’t get me wrong, Senor, my wife is a good woman and on the whole has her head screwed on all the way. But, between you and me, Senor, she listens a bit too much to the people in black. She’s always there at the church, morning, noon and evening. Well, that’s as it should be. And perhaps she’s right. Maybe I should go there more often. But how to find the time? In our job one is always busy. And never more busy than that dreadful week!

‘Madrid was on to me, Colonel Ramirez was on to me, the Legal Department was on to me — “Get those men processed!” they said. But there were hundreds of them! I didn’t know which way to turn. I’ve only got a handful of men, and, between you and me, Senor, some of them are not great hands at paperwork. So it all fell on one or two. And me. And it wasn’t until about the third day that I saw Senor Lockhart’s name on the list.

‘ “Christ, what have you done?” I said. “There’s a respectable man here!”

‘ “How were we to know he was respectable?” they protested. “We just took him in like everyone else!” And, you know, Senor, when I thought it over, I couldn’t blame them. In the heat of the moment…

“‘All right, all right!” I said. “But, boys,” I said, “you’ve made a mistake. You’ve picked up someone who was nothing to do with it. Someone who’d popped out for a look-” “But, boss,” they said, “he was something to do with it. And he hadn’t just popped out for a look. He’d been there all the time. We’d seen him.” ’

‘Seen him doing what?’ said Seymour.

‘Talking. Talking to them. In a friendly way. Giving instructions, my men said. Telling them what to do.’

‘How do they know that?’ said Seymour.

‘That’s just what I asked them. They said they’d heard him. But, between you and me, Senor, I had my doubts. How anyone could hear anything in all that racket beats me. I said, “Look, lads, this is an important man and you’ve got to be sure. Sure enough to be able to stand up to a lawyer asking you twisty questions.”

‘Well, they weren’t so sure then, and I wasn’t so sure, either. All the same, I wasn’t not sure, if you know what I mean. I mean, what the hell was he doing there? If he wasn’t mixed up in it somehow?

‘The fact was, we’d taken him in, and there he was in the prison, and that’s no place for any respectable man to be. Particularly with all those hoodlums. So I sent a man down there post haste.

‘But by the time he’d got there, Lockhart had already died. I was — well, I won’t say I was distraught, I’m not that kind of man, you can’t be in my job, but I was pretty cut up, I can tell you. “He’s a decent man,” I said to my wife, “and now — this!”

‘Well, she thought a bit. “Yes, a decent man, yes,” she said. “But he’s also a big one. There will be questions asked about this. And you’re going to have to find some answers.” “I’ll get down there right away,” I said. “No,” she said. “Don’t you do that. All you did was pull him in. It’s for others to answer questions about what happened afterwards.” ’

‘But, just a moment,’ said Seymour. ‘Is it? He was in police custody when he died. Your custody.’

The Chief put his hand up. ‘Ah, no, Senor. I must correct you on that. He wasn’t in my custody.’

‘Not in your custody?’

‘No. You see, Senor, we had so many coming in that in no time at all our cells were full. So we had to send them straight down to the main jail. And that’s where Senor Lockhart was taken. And where he died.’

‘Ah, Senor Lockhart!’ said the prison governor, shaking his head. ‘A bad business, that! Tragic! One of the many tragic things that happened during Tragic Week. I couldn’t believe it when I heard.’

‘When you heard?’ said Seymour. ‘But surely you knew that he had been admitted?’

‘No. Not straightaway. You have to understand, Senor, that hundreds were being admitted. We were swamped. It was days before we sorted ourselves out. And, besides, we weren’t supposed to be doing the initial processing. That is normally the responsibility of the police. But everything was at sixes and sevens during that week. It took time to sort it out. And it was only when things were beginning to settle down that I heard that an Englishman had been admitted. And it was some time after that that I heard it was Senor Lockhart.

‘ “Senor Lockhart?” I said. “But that is ridiculous!” For Senor Lockhart is well known around here. Was well known, that is. I knew him myself. My wife knew him. Socially. I sent someone down immediately. But then they came back and told me he was dead. “Dead?” I said. “How can he be?” For all prisoners are looked at by a doctor when they are admitted. Now, as I said, we were all at sixes and sevens that week and there may have been a little delay. But he should have been seen by a doctor, and in fact he was seen by a doctor. Who should surely have spotted it if he had been wounded.

‘I called him in at once. “What’s this?” I said. “What sort of examination is this, when you can’t even tell when a man’s got a bullet in him?” “But, Governor,” he said, “he didn’t have a bullet in him!” “Oh, come,” I said, “what did he die of, then?”