The Policia Municipalbuilding looks right down on to the commercial quay, so that I was not surprised when a police car with two officers in it drew up on the quayside. We were just taking the last of the fresh stores on board and they parked there, watching us. If I had not come ashore when Luis uncleated the stern warp preparatory to letting go, they would have been on the radio immediately for a harbour launch, which would have stopped us before we had even reached Bloody Island.
I watched from the quay as Luis coiled down the stern warp, then ran for'ard to hoist the jib. The mains'l was already set and flapping on a loose sheet as the engines took her out into the open waters of the harbour and Carp turned her into the wind, heading east to clear the old grassed-over fort on Figuera Point at the entrance to the harbour proper. She looked a lovely sight once the sails had been hauled in tight, a rather hazy sun glinting on the new paint of the hull and transforming the twin bow waves into silver glitters of spray.
I turned then, thinking as I walked back to my car that I might catch up with them before they cleared the point. But then the police car cruised up alongside. 'You are not going with them?' It was Inspector Molina, and he was smiling at me. 'Such a nice boat. It must be very tempting. And Malta. Your wife comes from Malta.'
He was still smiling as I said, 'Yes, I would have enjoyed the trip. But you have my passport.'
'Ah si, and you are a law-abiding citizen of our island.' And he added, 'They can see your boat is preparing to sail from up there.' He nodded in the direction of the citadel with the slip road snaking up like a staircase with two hairpin bends in it. 'I just come to make sure.'
It was on the tip of my tongue then to tell him he would have been better employed searching the Santa Mariaand the villa on Punta Codolar, but I checked myself. Sooner or later it was surely inevitable they would find the gun where I had hidden it. 'Adios.'They drove off and I went back to the office to ring Lopescado at the Taberna Felipe in Ciudadela. The Santa Mariahad left.
'When?'
But he didn't know. Sometime during the night, he said, for it had been there the previous evening. In fact, all three of them had come ashore about eight o'clock. They had sat around outside and had a few drinks, then they had gone into the fish bar for a meal. They had left about ten-thirty and gone straight back to the ship.
'All of them?' I asked.
'Yes, all of them, and the boat is still there when I go to bed, with a light shining in the wheelhouse aft as well as a riding light at the forestay.'
'Did you gather where they were going? Did they clear customs, anything like that?'
'No, I never saw any official go on board, not then, nor any time earlier during the evening. But then I was very busy last night, a beeg party from Banyos, a German party…' He hesitated, then said, 'Once, when I am serving the next table, I hear your name mentioned. It was something about the policia.They were arguing about why some information had not been acted on. The last I hear they think you will try to leave Mahon sometime today. No, you will haveto leave. Those were his words 'Whose words?' I asked. 'Was it Evans who said that?'
'Si. The boss man with the Guevara moustache. Pa: Eevanz.'
He couldn't tell me anything more and when I put the phone down I sat there at the desk for a moment, gazing out towards La Mola and the Mahon entrance four miles away and wondering where the Santa Mariawas now, what Evans was up to. I could just see Thunderflash,her white hulls and sails outlined against the hazy shape of Lazareto Island. Once they were clear of Punta del Espero, the easternmost tip of La Mola, they would have a beam wind and a fast run to Cape Favaritx, then only five miles and all downhill to Macaret at the entrance to Port d'Addaia. Perhaps I should have arranged for them to put into Es Grau, but the entrance was very narrow and overlooked by almost every house in the little fishing village. In any case, I hadn't known then that Evans had sailed, and even if he did intend to spend the night at the villa on Punta Codolar he would probably anchor the Santa Mariain Arenal d'en Castell. It would be very sheltered there in an easterly blow. A picture flashed through my mind then of him opening a can of beer, or sitting down to a quick meal, at the table in that kitchen with the gun he thought was still on board the catamaran right there under the floorboards at his feet.
Soo came in then with the news that the council had been in session at the ayuntamientomost of the day. Nothing had been decided and there was talk of a local election.
I finished my packing and took her to the Atlante, the restaurant a few doors away, for an early meal. Sitting there, drinking vino verdeas an aperitif, we discussed the possible choices that a newly elected council would have. But even we, whose interests were identical, could not agree I favoured Gonzalez Renato, while Soo wanted Antonio Alvarez to be the next alcalde, chiefly I think because he would support a progressive building and development policy.
It was just as the waiter was serving our marinated sardines that the door opened and a small man in a brightly coloured short-sleeved shirt, and wearing a red floppy hat pulled down over his ears, looked in. He said something to Manuel, the patron, glanced quickly across at us, nodded and then left. 'Who was that?' I asked the waiter, conscious suddenly that I had seen the man lounging against one of the bollards when I'd come back from seeing Carp and Luis off in Thunderflash.The waiter hesitated, looking at Manuel and repeating the question. Manuel in his turn looked uneasy, as though reluctant to be drawn into giving me any information about the man. 'Vigilancia!' Iasked him, and after a moment's hesitation, he nodded. The Cuerpo de Vigilanciawere plain-clothes security police and like the Guardia Civilthey were paramilitary and came under the direct control of the Provincial Governor. The fact that they had me under surveillance was confirmation, if I needed any, that I should get out while the going was good. Also it suggested that the killing of Martinez was regarded by the authorities as something more than just an isolated terrorist incident.
I suppose I had fallen silent after the door had closed on the man and Manuel had confirmed he was one of the Vigilancia.Certainly my mind was concentrated on the future, on what life held in store for me — for both of us. 'Eat up,' Soo said, 'these sardines are delicious.' And then, almost in the same breath, 'What will you do when you get there? How long will you stay? Have you decided yet?'
It was a strange meal, both of us trying to look ahead, and at one stage, when we were sitting over our coffee and a large Soberano, I had the distinct impression that she was flying something close to a flag of seduction. Soo was odd that way, always had been. I think it was the Maltese in her. She was so volatile in her emotions, one minute cold as ice, the next minute… I remember we sat there like a couple of lovers, gazing into each other's eyes and actually holding hands across the table, clinking our brandy glasses.
God almighty! Why can't people be more sensible, more consistent? And why the hell was I so set on a son? What would a son do for me? You change its nappies, see it through all those infantile diseases, watch it teething and grow up, and the next thing it's borrowing the parental bed to poke a girl or getting high on drugs, or worse still, standing for cap'n in place of Dad, waiting for the old sod to drop dead.