Quintin Jardine - Blood Red

‘Thanks for the offer,’ I murmured, ‘but I’ve never backed down from a man in my life.’ Not even from one who was holding a gun at the time , I thought. ‘I’m not about to start now.’

‘Well,’ he continued, ‘you don’t want to get yourself barred from the Miryam, since it’s one of the best restaurants in town. Starting a barney in a Catalan bar might not be too clever either. That leaves the town hall or the estate agency.’

‘I’d have to make an appointment in the town hall. I’m known there, since I more or less forced my way into Justine’s office, so I couldn’t use a false name, or anything like that.’

‘The estate agency then,’ Ben declared, before a frown crossed his face and his manner seemed to change. ‘Unless. .’

‘Unless what?’

‘Unless we forget the whole thing?’

Matthew took a deep breath, but said nothing. I took a deep breath, then said plenty. ‘Are you saying that you’d fold this project because of the blind, stupid, antediluvian prejudice of a vicious old man? Is the village behind the wine fair? Yes it is. I know this because I’ve been talking to people myself. Everybody supports it. Are you going to let them down?’

‘But. .’

‘How many wine producers have you signed up?’

‘A dozen,’ he admitted. ‘As many as I can handle, all my targets, the best in Emporda.’

‘And you’re going to let them down too? Ben, why did you come up with the idea for the fair?’

‘To promote the shop and make it known outside St Martí, to promote Empordan wines, and of course to make money.’

‘Noble motives all, and worth standing up for. So don’t even think about scrapping it. And even if you do. .’

‘What?’

‘I won’t. You brought me into the fair’s organisation, you gave me a job and I’m going to do it. This is personal now: I will not let this fail. There are other venues.’

He frowned. ‘Where?’

‘My house was my original thought, but I’ve had a better idea. The car park beside the village. It’s vast; I can rent as much land there as we’ll need, for as long as we’ll need it. And it’s flat, so we can hire a big tent, as insurance against rain.’

‘But all that will cost.’

‘And I’ll underwrite that, if it comes to it. But that’s still second choice. The fair should be within the village walls, not beneath them, and it should be in Plaça Petita. It’s public land, the people’s land, the people want the event and they’re fucking well going to have it, or my middle name isn’t Eagle. . and now you know that, I’ll have to kill you both,’ I added.

Matthew laughed, as he tugged on Mustard’s lead, diverting his attention from a Dalmatian bitch. ‘The snowball’s rolling, Ben, and the further down the hill it goes, the bigger it’s getting. Better off behind it than in front.’ He looked down at me; he’s quite a big bloke, six feet or so, and chunky with it. ‘So it’s the estate agency, Primavera?’

‘Looks like it.’ I frowned as a truth took hold. ‘But I’ll need to make an appointment there too, and if I’m as well known in L’Escala as people say I am. .’

‘However,’ said Matthew, ‘my son’s been talking about buying an apartment out here. He’s asked me to look around for him. If I call Planas’s office, say he’s been recommended as the best-connected agent in town and ask for a personal appointment, I’m sure I’ll get it.’

‘I want to see him myself,’ I insisted.

‘And you shall, Cinderella, you shall; you’ll be coming with me.’

The estate agency was housed in a ground-floor office that had once been a bank, facing on to a small square where a fruit and vegetable market is held during most weekday mornings. Angel had told me that his father had moved the business from its original home and had been given permission by the town council. . now there was a surprise. . to demolish that building and redevelop the site as apartments.

The sign over the door read ‘Immobiliària Ruiz’, Angel’s mother’s name, I guessed, from what he had told me. It had been attached over the previous signage, which was predominately blue, a clash with the yellow of the lettering, and the logo of the former occupant was still visible on the smoked-glass frontage.

It had taken two days for Senor Planas to find a space in his crowded diary to see us. Even then, I wasn’t certain that he’d be there. My fear was that he might have turned the appointment over to one of his sales staff.

‘Let’s go,’ said Matthew, quietly. We crossed the sun-bathed square, picking our way through the stalls, before stopping briefly to study some of the homes for sale that were displayed in the window. I’d seen many of them elsewhere; there are around fifty agencies in L’Escala, and very few of them have exclusive selling rights over properties. I’d wondered how they could all hope to survive, until I’d learned that there’s a loose cooperative agreement in place and that their standard commission rate is a whopping five per cent plus tax.

We stepped through the double doors and looked around. The place still looked like a bank; it was divided more or less in two by a massive counter, behind which I saw four desks. Three were occupied, one by a swarthy, tousle-haired, bespectacled man, in his early forties, I guessed, so way too young to be Planas, and the other two by women. The older of the pair looked up as we entered, and rose to greet us. She was in the same age group as her male colleague; her trouser suit, and the way her dark hair was swept back into a functional ponytail, gave her a briskly professional look.

‘Senor Reid?’ she began, in English; I might as well have been invisible.

Matthew nodded.

‘You are here to see Senor Planas?’

‘That’s right; about property.’

‘Very good. But there is a problem. .’

Here we go , I thought.

‘Senor Planas does not speak English. But we can get over that; I will translate between you.’

‘That won’t be necessary,’ Matthew replied, nodding in my direction. ‘I anticipated that and brought my own interpreter. No offence, I hope, but this is business.’

She was narked, and she couldn’t hide it completely behind her toothy smile, but she swallowed it. ‘Of course,’ she said. ‘Senor Planas is in his office.’ She pointed to a mahogany door to the left of the counter. ‘If you’ll wait a moment. .’

We did, as she vanished through another exit at the back of the office. She was gone for more than her moment, but eventually, the entrance was opened and she reappeared, beckoning us into the inner sanctum.

The man seated behind the small, cheap desk was almost the same colour as the door. His skin was like leather, and looked as if it was folding off his face. I thought back to my crack about ‘the old lizard’ and reckoned that I’d been pretty close to the mark. He rose to his feet slowly, extending a surprisingly big hand as he approached Matthew: I say, ‘approached Matthew’, because again, it was as if I wasn’t in the room. He was shorter than his son, but stockier, and there was a vibrancy to him. His eyes were red veined, but his gaze was sharp. It was hard to put an age to him, but I settled for somewhere between sixty-five and seventy.

‘Senor,’ he intoned, in a gravel voice, ‘you are looking for property, I understand.’ He spoke in Castellano.

‘Indeed,’ Matthew replied, ‘and they say that you are the top man in this town.’ He spoke Spanish too, slowly, as British people tend to, but passably, taking me by surprise.

The reptile face cracked into what might have been a smile. ‘That’s true. Most people who know L’Escala do say that. Tell me what type of property interests you, and I’ll see if I can help.’