Dennis Wheatley - Vendetta in Spain

265

De Richleau handed over the King's letter. The General read it through, nodded, and said, 'This confirms the instructions I have already received from His Majesty. Naturally I shall be delighted to have you as my personal guest, and this morning I spoke to Comandante Urgoiti about you. He is the head of the Security Bureau, and will supply the man who is to accompany you on your investigations. I will have them both up here tomorrow morning.'

'If you could arrange for me to meet them this evening I would be grateful,' replied the Duke, 'because I would like to start on my job as soon as possible.'

'Just as you wish.' Quiroga glanced at his watch. 'It is not yet six o'clock; so I will have Urgoiti here between seven and seven-thirty. If you will come with me now, I will show you your quarters.'

'Thank you. There is just one other point. For the purposes of this investigation I feel it would be best to drop my title and call myself by some simple name. I thought of Carlos Goma.'

The General nodded. 'I think that's wise, and Carlos Goma would do very well.'

As they left the General's office and crossed a big interior courtyard, de Richleau asked, 'What do you think my chances are of running Ferrer to earth?'

The General shrugged. 'You should be a better judge of that than I. His Majesty informed me in his letter that you have lines of inquiry that the police are unlikely yet to have tried. I know no more than that.'

'I have. What I really meant to ask was, do you think it likely that Ferrer is still in Barcelona?'

'I would say the odds are that he is; or if not in the city, not far from it. You see, here he is accounted a hero, not only by his fanatical followers but also by thousands of misguided people; so he can move from one to another of scores of different hiding places without much fear of being betrayed. And that does not apply to any other part of Spain.'

'My fear was that after the suppression of the riots he might have fled over the border into France.'

'No; the chances are a hundred to one against him having succeeded in doing that. On the last day of the revolt he was known to be still in the city. Several of our prisoners who have turned King's Evidence have sworn to that and, if you can catch him, are prepared to swear at his trial that he was one of the principal instigators of the outbreak. And on the first day of the riots I closed the frontier. I did more. Within twenty-four hours I had replaced all Catalan frontier police, Guardia Civil and port police by non-Catalans on whose loyalty I could depend. We issued to them hundreds of photographs and descriptions of Ferrer and half a dozen other ringleaders. Three of them were caught, and I don't believe for a moment that any of the others slipped through. The frontier has remained closed ever since, and only people with special papers are allowed to cross it.'

That is excellent news,' smiled the Duke. Tt makes my chances of ferreting him out look better than I had hoped.'

By then they had reached the Captain-General's residence, which consisted of a fine old mansion forming one side of the courtyard. Quiroga showed him first a pleasant sitting-room where he could make himself comfortable until Comandante Urgoiti arrived, then took him up to a bedroom that had been prepared for him. A soldier servant was already unpacking his luggage, and the General left him there to have a wash after his journey.

When he came downstairs to the sitting-room he found there a plump but pretty girl of about seventeen, who introduced herself as Mercedes, the General's daughter. She was busily engaged stitching some gold thread on to a canvas-backed piece of blue velvet, and after some small-talk the Duke asked her what she was making.

With a shy smile, she replied, They are to be a pair of bedroom slippers with gold monograms on the toes. I'm making them as a New Year's present. Of course it's a long time yet to the New Year, but I don't work very fast so I thought it just as well to begin early.'

T suppose they are for your father,' smiled the Duke. Tm sure he will be delighted with them.'

She blushed and shook her head. Then, after a little gentle twitting by him, she confided, They are for Captain Juan Escalante. He . . . well, he's not exactly my fiancS, because my parents say I am too young to marry yet. But we are hoping that they will let us get engaged in the New Year.'

T wish you luck then,' smiled the Duke. 'What branch of the service is your friend in?'

'He is a cavalryman, and he has much the smartest troop in his regiment, the 5th Hussars.'

'Is he?' said de Richleau with renewed interest. 'Although I am wearing civilian clothes, I am a cavalryman too.'

Having found a topic of mutual interest they talked on for half an hour, then an orderly arrived with the request that the Duke would accompany him to the General's office.

Over there Quiroga introduced him to Comandante Urgoiti, a short, paunchy, bald man and to Senor Veragua a tall young fellow who had a brown moustache and beard. The Duke had a vague feeling that he had seen the latter somewhere before and was about to question him when he said:

'If your name were not Goma, senor, I could have sworn that you were a Russian refugee that I knew slightly some years ago. I forget his name but he used to frequent the branch of the Somaten to which I belong.'

De Richleau smiled. 'You are right. During the summer of 1906 I lived for some six weeks here in Barcelona, and I often spent an evening at the Somaten Club down by the harbour.' In pursuance of his policy to conceal as far as possible his true identity, de Richleau refrained from mentioning the secret mission he had then been engaged upon, and its having resulted in the closing of the Escuela Moderna . Instead, he added, 'I am surprised, though, that you, as a member of the police force, should still belong to the Somaten. I was given to understand that during the recent revolt it supported the rioters.'

Veragua shook his head. 'It is true that certain Communist elements had worked their way into the Somaten, and got themselves elected as officials at some of its branches. In those where they had secured enough authority they used it to push the members into rash actions; but the majority were against them and after a few days they were thrown out. The Somaten has since been thoroughly purged, and for some while has resumed its ancient function.'

The General nodded. 'Yes, indeed. After the fighting had ceased, the Somaten was of the greatest value in supplying squads of vigilantes to help us restore law and order. They are, of course, all Catalan Separatists; but that is a different matter, as there is nothing illegal about holding such views.'

Urgoiti said that if the Duke would call at Police Headquarters the following morning he would furnish him with a police card, which would enable him to arrest anyone on suspicion or call for help on uniformed men, then proceeded to question him about his plan of campaign. But, bearing in mind Don Alfonso's warning, de Richleau did not mean to risk any leaks through junior detectives to whom the Comandante might mention his activities; so he politely replied that to start with he meant only to make a general reconnaissance.

It was arranged that Veragua should report to 'Senor Goma' at eight o'clock the following morning, and the two detectives took their leave. When they had gone Quiroga unlocked a steel cabinet and took from it one of a number of pistols, with a box of ammunition, and said:

'You had better carry this. It may come in useful.'

De Richleau had brought his own revolver, but the weapon the General handed him was one of the new German automatics. It carried eight instead of six bullets and, being flat, was easier to conceal about the person than the old-fashioned pistol with its revolving magazine. Having examined its mechanism with interest, he thanked Quiroga, and they then crossed the courtyard to the residential quarters.