For James Bond, substitute Karl Donaldson.
‘Where should I begin?’ Lopez said thoughtfully. ‘Not at the beginning. That is too far back. All you need to know is that Mendoza worked his way up the crime ladder until he was doing business with the Cosa Nostra in Sicily. They loaned him money to carry out operations for them, he paid them back and both grew rich. . a happy situation. I have known Mendoza for many years. We were gang members in Madrid as kids, running protection rackets, stealing, hurting people. I followed him up the tree until I was well placed in the’ — Lopez shrugged here — ‘thing that he calls his organization.’
Donaldson pretty much knew the history of Miguel Lopez, but he let the man talk uninterrupted.
‘But I always wanted what he had, always believed I was the better man, and that is how my campaign started. Manoeuvring and manipulating him carefully and skilfully into positions where he was made to look, shall we say, less than competent? Situations in which the Mafia paymasters would start seeing him as a liability. . without, of course, him suspecting I was the one responsible for doing it.’ He grinned at his own brilliance. ‘I was always the better brain.’
‘I’m sure,’ Donaldson said sincerely. ‘Examples?’
‘The loan he made to a gangster in the north of England. Marty Cragg. . a loan which would never have the chance of being repaid. . I made it happen. The loan was made with borrowed Mafia funds and in the end he was forced to kill Cragg and transfer the loan to his wiser brother, Roy. A man who now languishes in prison, unable to pay it back.’ Lopez grinned, shook his head sadly.
Donaldson scowled, remembering the murder of Marty Cragg. It had taken place at the same time and place as the murder of Donaldson’s undercover operative, Zeke. Both men had bullets put into their heads underneath a motorway bridge in Lancashire.
‘I know what you are thinking. Was I there?’ Lopez placed the palm of his hand against his chest. ‘Am I correct?’
‘Yep.’ Donaldson swallowed.
Lopez held Donaldson’s stare. ‘I was there when Verner killed Marty Cragg and the FBI agent,’ he confirmed.
Donaldson felt something surge through him.
‘Mendoza ordered the killing. Verner did the deed. And the knock-on was that the Cosa Nostra was very unimpressed by the way in which Mendoza dealt with the whole situation. Killing a federal agent is frowned upon and they became very twitchy.’
‘And you were there?’
‘I was there.’
‘OK.’ Donaldson held himself back from launching himself across the table and strangling him, but he did weigh up the odds of success. ‘Carry on.’
‘Whilst all this was going on, I was ingratiating myself with our Sicilian colleagues, whilst subtly destroying Mendoza’s reputation. Little by little. Then I gave you Verner on a plate. One of our best killers, killed himself by an unknown assassin. . you, I guess, Karl.’
Donaldson’s teeth ground loudly.
‘What was the story with the illegal immigrants and the drugs?’
‘The next big opportunity. Another Mafia-financed operation. Millions of pounds worth of cocaine and twenty illegal immigrants. At first I thought I would give them to you, then I changed my mind. I had something in place which I thought would be more effective.’
‘Hence the phone call telling me the lorry had changed.’
‘Hence that.’
‘I really need to make contact with the outside world.’ Donaldson said, sipping more coffee, freshly ground, tasting amazing, rich and slightly bitter. Donaldson looked at John Elliot. ‘I think my mobile phone went down the river. Can I make a call from the house phone, please?’
‘Under normal circumstances, you could,’ the ex-pat said. ‘However, the storm yanked down all the phone lines and we don’t have a mobile phone between us.’
‘Oh.’
‘That doesn’t mean to say we can’t still help you.’
Trapped by his own foolhardiness and now he was going to pay the penalty. He was still listening hard to Lopez, hoping he would remember everything, but the other part of his mind was formulating his escape plan.
‘I’ve been grooming people,’ Lopez boasted, ‘moving people into positions. . when I was in Manchester two, three years ago, I met a man with ambition. He wanted to become a major dealer, or should I say, I contacted such a man. Very ambitious, very determined. I began to deal with him. He had a good organization.’ Lopez chuckled at that thought. ‘He was sure he could set up the necessary infrastructure — he and I have been building up his business and suddenly he was ready for the big one — which I put his way, although he and I have never met, nor does he know my true identity.’
‘The drugs in the lorry?’
‘They were Mendoza’s drugs destined for another big Manchester dealer with whom there have been business ties for several years, a man called Sweetman. I let my ambitious man into the secret and suggested he might like to help himself.’
‘Making Mendoza look a fool.’
Lopez nodded sagely. ‘And also ensuring that my own man will come out of this. . not well.’
Donaldson looked puzzled.
‘My plan is now very simple, Karl,’ Lopez explained. ‘Very simple indeed. I am about to take over Mendoza’s organization on my terms. A management buy-out, you might call it.’
The vehicle was a battered old Land Rover. It bounced along the deeply rutted track, throwing the two people about inside it like balls in a bagatelle.
Donaldson held on to the door frame as his backside jolted out of the seat.
Maria gripped the steering wheel, holding the black rim grimly.
Donaldson eyed her, a mock-worried expression on his face. She caught his look, smiled radiantly.
‘How far before we get to a road?’ he shouted over the din.
‘This is a road,’ she teased, then relented. ‘Another mile.’
Donaldson worked it out, guessing that Elliot’s farmhouse was about four miles away from a real road, up narrow, treacherous lanes. ‘You do this journey often?’
‘Four days a week.’
‘Ahh — Torrevieja, teaching.’
‘It’s great for the bum,’ she shouted, hitting a boulder and pitching the Land Rover sideways.
Lopez had finished, told Donaldson everything he wanted to say. He stretched. ‘My men will now deal with you, Karl. Goodbye.’ He stood up.
‘This seems to go against your policy of killing federal agents.’
‘Not policy, Karl, best practice. . but having said that, no one will find your body, so no one will actually know if you are dead or alive. I’m sorry things did not work out for us, but you were simply an avenue I was exploring. It proved to be a dead end, not what I wanted from my perspective.’
Lopez clicked his fingers. As if on cue, there was a flash of lightning, followed almost immediately by a deep roar as thunder rent the atmosphere. The rain suddenly became torrential, beating down loudly on the roof of the restaurant. ‘The storms from the mountains have joined us,’ Lopez said. He coughed. ‘My men will deal with you cleanly and effectively. I owe you that much.’