The Man from Barcelona

5. Galicia

They travelled several hours' journey north, and both Mirabelle and Antonio fell asleep on the train. Leon woke them to change trains at a junction station, to travel north-west into Galicia. Professor Méndez's housekeeper had wrapped up a meal of bread and dried ham for them, and they ate it while they were waiting for the next train. Once aboard Antonio fell asleep again, laid across the seat of the compartment with his head in Mirabelle's lap, while Mirabelle and Leon discussed their case.

'Spain is not like Britain,' explained Leon. 'Corruption is a normal part of government. In the countryside, the old ruling families still control almost everything. They have their own private armies and use them against each other, the government, and even their tenants if necessary. Politics is run in the same way. The men who hold government office will use force and bribery to get power and they don't hesitate to use blackmail or fabricate charges. I suspect that Joan Josep is being targeted by a leading police official who wants him out of the way for some reason.'

'The documents you photographed in Barcelona had a lot of accusations against him,' mused Mirabelle. 'He certainly seemed to be guilty of something.'

'But when I looked further, I couldn't find any evidence of the crimes he was supposed to have committed,' said Leon. 'Dates and places did not tie up. There were no witnesses named, and no definite evidence.'

'So where are we going now?' asked Mirabelle. 'Apart from going to see his mother?'

'I hope she may know why a government official should want him out of the way,' said Leon.

'Perhaps it was over a woman,' suggested Mirabelle.

Leon laughed and kissed her. 'A crime of honour! It's possible. At this point in our investigation, everything is possible.'

'I thought that the new government in Spain had sworn to stamp out corruption,' said Mirabelle. 'Isn't that why the King appointed the Prime Minister? – to stamp out corruption and ensure law and order?'

'Yes, that was the agreement. It will take a long time – there are so many vested interests to overcome, and so much to do. The Prime Minister is currently more interested in fighting wars – he's gone to Morocco. The King wants justice, but the reforming ideals he had as a young man have faded with age. His ideals were based on passion, and passion doesn't last.'

Mirabelle laughed fondly at him: Leon always denied the value of emotion, but she knew he was just as passionate about justice as in those days when the Four had fought the Red Hundred and won.

*

Mark Leicester was so badly concussed that the matron at Gloucestershire Royal Infirmary insisted that he stay in for a second night. Aunt Alma remarked drily that she was probably hoping that the family would make a generous donation to the Infirmary's almoner: 'They know we can afford to pay.'

'Don't complain; it's a good cause,' Lucy reminded her.

In the ward where Mark was staying, in the bed opposite his, lay an emaciated man with a bandaged arm. At morning visiting time Lucy, who was always interested in people and anxious to help them, left Miss Goddard talking to her nephew and went over to find out what was wrong with him.

'I fell off a ladder, miss,' he said.

'Are you a house decorator?' asked Lucy.

'No, I'm a window cleaner. The doctor said I was lucky not to break a leg.'

Lucy commiserated with him. 'Don't you have any visitors?' she asked.

'Oh, yes – the wife and kids will come in this evening.' He nodded towards Mark. 'That your brother?'