Barry Maitland: The verge practice

Kathy felt sick.

They took her back to the cell and left her there for several more hours. Finally, Lieutenant Mozas came for her with a uniformed cop. The two of them chatted amiably in Catalan while Kathy was led out to the front counter of the police station. One by one her possessions were produced and signed for. Mozas looked at his watch and said something to the desk officer, who muttered and sped up the process, then they were leading her to a patrol car in the street outside. It was a balmy evening, with the glow of sunset on the tiled roofs.

‘What’s going on, Jeez?’

‘You’ve got a plane to catch,’ he said. ‘You know, I never saw big guns move so fast, Kathy.’ He laughed and consulted his notebook. ‘Commander… Deputy Assistant Commissioner… Assistant Commissioner… Deputy Commissioner… back to Commander. Is that right? Such odd names. I thought commissioners were the people who check your ticket at the movies. Here’s your orders, by the way.’

He handed her a copy of a fax with the Metropolitan Police letterhead. It read, ‘DS K. Kolla is ordered to report for interview at the office of Commander D. Sharpe, Room 632, New Scotland Yard, at 0900 hrs on Monday 1 October.’

‘Tomorrow morning,’ Kathy murmured.

‘Yeah. Tough.’

‘What’s the story?’

‘You’ve been working too hard, and you’ve had some personal problems, yes? To do with a boyfriend? You’ve had a breakdown, something like that. Anything to keep that headline out of the paper.’

‘What headline?’

‘Drunk lady cop arrested in Spain.’ Mozas laughed again. He seemed to be enjoying himself. ‘Your drink-driving charge will stay on the record, in case you ever try to come back. You’ll have to sort out the damage to the car with the hire company.’

Well, Kathy thought, at least I won’t be giving the speech to the police conference on Wednesday.

‘Boy, your clothes really stink of booze and stuff,’ Mozas said. ‘How’s your hangover, by the way?’

‘Terrible.’

‘Get yourself a drink in the airport. It’ll make you feel better. If there’s time, that is.’ He leaned forward and spoke to the driver, who flicked on the siren and pressed his foot to the floor. Mozas leaned closer to Kathy and lowered his voice. ‘I got rid of your burglar’s tools. I thought you’d want that.’

Kathy looked at him with surprise. ‘Why did you do that?’

He shrugged. ‘I thought you were in enough trouble without the physical evidence. Alvarez wouldn’t have agreed to let you go if he’d seen those.’

‘Thank you, Jeez. I appreciate it.’

‘Lizancos and his gorilla set you up, didn’t they?’

‘Yes.’

‘You know, you should have come to me in the first place, Kathy. I could have helped you.’

‘I’d have got you into trouble, too.’

He shrugged. ‘And now you’ve got yourself into a hole. I guess they’ll kick you out.’

‘Yes…’ She saw the terminal building ahead, and suddenly felt quite calm and settled, for the first time that day. ‘Unless I can come up with something really smart.’

‘Like a miracle?’ Mozas laughed. ‘Good luck!’

Kathy stared out the window at the baggage-handling trucks circling the parked aircraft. Rain was streaming across the glass, making the picture blur and streak as if she were weeping. She sighed and got to her feet, joining the queue of passengers shuffling towards the exit.

There was a crowd waiting on the other side of the barrier. A group of children were waving frantically at a Spanish girl in front of Kathy, limousine drivers held up placards with names. In the confusion Kathy didn’t immediately notice the dark figure standing off to the left, but when she was through the crush and into the open space of the arrivals hall, something made her turn to see Luz Diaz closing in on her.

‘Hello, Sergeant Kolla,’ the woman said. ‘Welcome home.’

‘Hello. You look as if you were expecting me.’

‘Dr Lizancos phoned to tell me about your adventures in Barcelona.’ ‘You know him, of course.’ The woman gave a little nod. ‘How did he know what plane I was on?’ Luz smiled. ‘Captain Alvarez felt obliged to brief the doctor when they decided to let you go. I decided to come and meet you. There are some things we should discuss. My car is outside.’

Kathy hesitated. She met the woman’s eyes and felt a return of the nausea that had disappeared during the flight. ‘I don’t think so. It’s been a long day.’

She noticed Luz’s eyes shift to a spot beyond her right shoulder, and turned to find George Todd standing there. He had his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket, and he was regarding Kathy with the closest attention.

‘Even so, it’s important that we talk before you meet with your superiors tomorrow morning, Kathy,’ Luz said. ‘It concerns Charles Verge. I take it you believe he’s still alive?’

‘Yes.’

‘Dr Lizancos said you were very persistent. He said you wouldn’t give up.’

‘Clever old Dr Lizancos.’

‘I can take you to Charles.’

‘Why would you do that?’

‘You do want to find him, don’t you?’

‘Yes.’

‘Come on, then.’ She linked her arm through Kathy’s and led her towards the doors.

Later, as they headed north up the M25, Luz turned to Kathy in the passenger seat beside her and said, ‘You are a very determined young woman, aren’t you? Did you really do all that breaking and entering in Spain off your own bat, or did someone put you up to it? Chief Inspector Brock, perhaps? I always thought he might be hard to convince.’

Kathy didn’t reply. She watched Luz’s hand go to the indicator and saw the sign up ahead for the exit road into the dark countryside beyond the highway.

After a while, she recognised the village they passed through. She caught a brief glimpse of light glowing from the windows of the pub, and then they were plunged back into the darkness of winding lanes between tall hedges.

Finally, the car slowed and turned in to a gravel drive. Kathy made out the razor-sharp line of a dark wall against the night clouds. They were at Briar Hill, she realised, Luz Diaz’s home and Charles Verge’s first building.

Luz led the way through the opening in the wall into the glass pavilion, so like the one in Barcelona, and down the spiral staircase into the studio lounge, George Todd following close on Kathy’s heels all the while. So far he had said not a word. Luz indicated a seat for Kathy, then threw the short jacket she was wearing over the back of another chair and sat down.

‘I’m dying for a drink. Scotch for me please, George. What about you, Kathy?’

‘Water, please.’ Kathy sat. Beyond their reflections in the glass wall she could make out the shapes of dark tree masses across the fields. They waited while George poured the drinks and then sat down, placing himself, Kathy saw, in the background, between her and the stairs, but also where he could watch her face.

‘Kathy…’ Luz Diaz leaned forward, cupping her glass in her two hands as if offering something precious to her guest. She fixed Kathy with dark eyes that dilated slightly with concentration, a calculated, rather theatrical effect, Kathy thought. ‘What I am going to tell you I will never repeat outside of this room, and will vehemently deny if you repeat it to anyone else. As far as the world is concerned, Charles Verge was murdered on the twelfth of May by his partner Sandy Clarke. As all the world now knows, with the exception of you it seems, he was an innocent victim, an architect of world standing, a tragic loss.’

She sat back, placed her drink on the glass table at her elbow and lit a cigarette. ‘Okay. Now the truth. Charles Verge may have been a genius, I wouldn’t know, but he was a deeply flawed character. He bullied his colleagues relentlessly, treated his male employees like slaves and female staff with contempt. He was manically jealous of his peers, was obsessed with his public image, and paranoid in his suspicions of disloyalty in those around him. After Gail left him, these tendencies, which she’d more or less reined in, blossomed unchecked. His second wife actually encouraged them, because she thought that, seeing everyone else as potential traitors and enemies, he would rely totally on her.’