David Unger - The Mastermind

Within a week of Rosa Esther’s return, Guillermo puts their apartment up for sale. Property in Zone 14 is selling like hotcakes because there are armed guards patrolling the residential areas and rich Guatemalans want security above all else.

He lists the apartment at four hundred thousand dollars. Guatemala is flush with drug money, and within two days he finds a buyer who will pay in cash.

Guillermo gives Rosa Esther her half and then signs a lease for a compact two-bedroom apartment in a new nine-floor rental building in Las Cañadas. As the first occupant of the building, Guillermo gets a large discount on his rent for the first year. He likes that it is a rental: it reflects the impermanence that characterizes his new life.

Rosa Esther hires a moving company, which will transport the kids’ belongings and some pieces of furniture to Mexico City by land. On the day of the move, she insists that Guillermo be at work: she doesn’t want him around to interrupt any emotions she might want to express.

When he comes home, he discovers he has been left a bed, a bureau, and a couple of end tables and lamps. The living room has one chair, the dining room is completely empty except for the pole lamp in the back corner and a modern crystal chandelier in the center, both leftovers from his father’s store. The walls have shadows where hangings and paintings once were displayed.

With no family to fill up his nights, Guillermo is lonely. But he is stuck here for another week before he can move into his new, smaller quarters. He is surprised by his feelings of loss, something he hadn’t anticipated.

* * *

One late afternoon, days after Rosa Esther has left for Mexico, Guillermo and Maryam are lying in bed in the apartment in the Plazuela España drinking Chivas on ice and munching almonds after having made love. Their sex is always an unpredictable adventure, with a newness that Guillermo no longer questions, but clearly loves. Maryam swears she has been faithful to Samir all these years, but as she has aged, she has become aware of her increased sexual drive and her desire to have it quenched. Her years of reading Playgirl have helped her realize what she wants in bed.

“What’s next?” he asks, caressing her hair.

Maryam looks at him quizzically. “What do you mean?”

“What are we going to do?”

“That’s a big question. Have you even told my father that Rosa Esther left you?”

Guillermo stops stroking her hair. “I told him that my marriage was ending. I didn’t have the nerve to tell him that Rosa Esther had moved to Mexico.”

“Well, I can’t tell him!”

“Next time we meet I’ll tell him. Though I’m sure it won’t make him happy. Your father likes order.”

“And what am I supposed to do with Samir? Am I to continue happily married?”

“I hope not,” Guillermo says, tipping his drink at her. Maryam is lying with her head on his lap, looking up at him, holding her own glass in one hand. She sits up whenever she wants to have a sip, which is what happens now.

“You don’t love him.”

“I don’t, it’s true. But I am afraid of him,” she says, taking a sip of her drink and stirring the ice with her tongue. “He may seem calm to strangers, but he has a violent temper. I’ve seen how he screams at the workers in his store. At times he isn’t even aware of it. And he sometimes screams at me.”

“Do you think he would ever hit you? If that’s the case, then we should tell him together.”

“That, Guillermo, is a horrible idea. It’s one thing for me to tell him privately, another to have his replacement bearing witness as I tell him. I mean, how would you feel if you were told by Rosa Esther and her new lover that she would be leaving you?”

“I would want to kill them both — on the spot.”

“Exactly. It would be better if I told him. I just need to find the right moment.”

“When?”

“Not now.” She is thinking. “Maybe in a couple of weeks.”

“Maryam!”

“You have to give me a few weeks.”

* * *

Ten days after Rosa Esther has left, Guillermo gives up the furnished flat in the Plazuela España building. Why pay the extra rent when he is now living alone and Maryam can visit him in his apartment at any time? He never thought he would escape his marriage; furthermore, he never thought he would be interested in living together with another woman. If he did ever leave Rosa Ester, he’d always imagined living alone.

But the weeks pass. When he tells Ibrahim that his wife has left him with Ilán and Andrea and is now living in Mexico, Guillermo is surprised at his client’s response: Ibrahim is taken aback, but asks no questions, says nothing other than to offer his condolences. He must suspect that there is more than a friendship between his daughter and his lawyer and is wondering what might happen next.

Maryam says nothing to Samir. Guillermo is incensed by the lack of progress. He trusts Maryam, but wonders why she’s so hesitant to simply tell Samir that she no longer wants to live with him — it’s not as if they have kids together.

Guillermo fills his nights working on cases, especially Ibrahim’s. After months of nearly perfect reports with no suspicious withdrawals, he notices new discrepancies in the Banurbano monthly accounts, but now in increasing quantities. Something tells him that while other money-laundering channels are being shut, there’s added pressure to use the bank as a way to move funds and to support programs that have not received legislative approval. Guillermo feels a bit out of his element since he is not an accountant and doesn’t fully understand certain transactions, but he knows that something illegal is going on.

Guillermo does not confess his confusion regarding some of the bank transfers to Ibrahim, since the older man relies on his judgment and has staked his reputation on making the bank’s transactions completely transparent. When Guillermo reports the irregularities, Ibrahim tells the other members of his advisory board. When their response is muted, he tells them he is considering discussing his findings with the press, since he doesn’t trust the president and the judiciary doesn’t seem to care about his allegations.

An appeal to the people might lead the Banurbano managers or even the president to make a public clarification of what’s going on.

Guillermo, aware of how the government can manipulate the truth, advises otherwise; he feels that proof — not accusations — is what they need. He advises that they should collect more evidence, but Ibrahim is incredibly stubborn and impatient — he feels the moment has come.

What follows is ominous. After delivering his threat to the board, Ibrahim receives an increasing number of hang-up calls and anonymous threats. Someone wants him off the board, pronto.

Obviously the president or his wife won’t ask him directly to resign. Oddly, Ignacio Balicar has stopped defending presidential pet projects at the meetings; he seems to be waiting for something. Nothing is done directly in Guatemala. It is all subterfuge, behind smoke screens, curtains, clouds, blankets. It is clear that something cataclysmic is about to happen — this is the calm before the storm — but Ibrahim wants to go public

* * *

Meanwhile, Guillermo is feeling greater and greater loneliness. He is deeply in love with Maryam, but old ways die hard. One night after work he gets together with Araceli at the Stofella, but it is pretty much a disaster. In fact, he has a hard time keeping his erection even when she is touching him. She suggests the little blue pill, which pisses him off.

He doesn’t need the little blue pill. He needs Maryam.

That night he texts her.

Can you talk ?