‘Yes, I understand he had a brilliant career. I read that when he was only twenty-three, he was appointed Assistant Paediatrician at the Hospital de San Carlos and that, when he was only about thirty-one or so, in 1950, he opened a consulting room at the Clínica Ruber. Such precociousness could hardly have been the norm, not even then. With so many people dead or in exile or imprisoned and so many people like your grandfather, who was banned from practising as an ophthalmologist, they must have had to make do with whoever was available, plus, of course, they had to have a spotlessly franquista record. That would certainly have cut down the number of candidates. But that still can’t be the whole explanation.’
‘Yes, he was suspiciously precocious, but then he wasn’t alone in that. Mainly, though, I’m just relieved to know that you’re not completely in the dark about him, as I feared when I first saw you out partying with the bastard.’
‘As I said, my boss asked me to befriend him and see what I could worm out of him. I have to say I didn’t get very far. I gleaned all those facts about his life from Who’s Who, and then Muriel pulled me up short, told me to leave him alone. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to know why, according to you, he’s such an utter bastard. I did quite like him — sometimes — not that much, you understand, because there’s also something chilling about him, something voracious, even when he’s at his most friendly and paternal, offering fatherly advice. But then it’s rare to meet anyone entirely devoid of charm. I even introduced him to a few of my female friends, but from what you say, I suspect they might not thank me for that. Am I right?’ I suddenly felt alarmed and guilty. Perhaps I had unknowingly let a wolf in among the lambs.
‘Yes, you are,’ replied Vidal, frowning. ‘Mind you, the man’s older now and perhaps makes do with just looking. Let’s hope so. What kind of relations did he have with those friends of yours? Do you know? Did you see for yourself?’
I was feeling increasingly uncomfortable.
‘To my surprise, and if he’s not lying and merely bluffing, he certainly got at least one of them to do much more than you’d ever imagine he could, given the enormous age gap. To be honest, I don’t know how he did it.’
Vidal did not for one moment believe Van Vechten would have played by the book. His instant response was:
‘He’ll have threatened them with something, you can be sure of that.’
‘With what though?’
‘There’s bound to be something. Do your friends take drugs? Do you all take drugs? Did he see you doing it?’
‘In certain places, almost everyone takes drugs now, José Manuel, you know that as well as I do. Especially when you’re out clubbing. I think Van Vechten himself, being a wealthy man, sometimes bought drugs for my various girlfriends or gave them drugs in small quantities, just as an enticement. It’s a sure-fire way of winning people over or at least of wooing them. Well, a temporarily sure-fire way, because young people will flock to anyone who’s got the stuff.’
‘There you are, then. He’ll have threatened to tell their parents: “As a doctor, I’m very worried about the company your daughter is keeping. I met her once through a young friend of mine …” etc. etc. And who are the parents going to believe, the famous Dr Van Vechten, celebrated paediatrician, or their crazy, nightclubbing daughter? He’ll have taken care to give her the drug only when they’re alone and with no witnesses. And if her parents are of the liberal variety, he’d threaten to report them to the police and get them into trouble, not deep trouble admittedly, but they might be frightened enough to want to avoid it in exchange for a small favour. The man’s capable of anything. Or if a girl has had an abortion and been foolish enough to tell him about it, because you did say he offers fatherly advice, didn’t you? He has the advantage of being a doctor, and I know from my own experience as a doctor that people do tend to ask your advice and even to confess. By the way, as a cardiologist, I would recommend giving up the drugs. Cocaine plays havoc with your blood pressure and your heart, if, that is, you’re into coke. I’m not asking, mind. What you do is your own business. But people take these matters very lightly, and there are always consequences. Just so you know.’
I’m afraid I blushed a little, even though I took cocaine only rarely, if someone happened to offer me some, which was not that often. Van Vechten had never offered me any, of course, although I suspected that he used it himself, but I couldn’t be sure. Perhaps he reserved it for those accompanied visits to the toilets and for when we did the home run in his car and he dropped off his final female passenger.
‘OK, I’ll make a note,’ I said and rapidly changed the subject. ‘But would he really go to the police? Would he be capable of that? Because girls nowadays aren’t that easily intimidated.’
Vidal did not hold back. He really had it in for Van Vechten.
‘It’s the same now as it’s always been, and fear doesn’t take long to come back, you just have to feel exposed and helpless, or to be with someone who makes you feel afraid, and he’s a past master at that. Look, I’m going to tell you what his so-called help consisted of, the famous solidarity that has given him such a good reputation among anti-franquistas, although you’ve probably worked that out for yourself. He would go and visit people he knew things about, people who had escaped the worst initially, but who still didn’t dare poke their heads above the parapet. I’m talking about the 40s and 50s and even the very early 60s. People who had no money, who couldn’t write anything under their own name, for example, even as translators, people who had to use a pseudonym on film scripts or articles, assuming any newspaper editor was brave enough to ask them to write one, or else they’d work illegally for someone just to earn a few pennies. Teachers who weren’t allowed to teach, lawyers and architects and ophthalmologists, businessmen who had been barred from trading and had their business confiscated. As happened to people from my own family. It’s true that he did tend and treat their children, but not in that legendarily selfless way, not for free. The stuff he could blackmail them with was far more serious than anything he might use against your young friends now, no, forget frigging drugs or parents.’ Vidal was a cultivated man with a wide vocabulary, but this didn’t mean he couldn’t be foul-mouthed if the occasion called for it. ‘He could threaten them with prison or even death, at least in the immediate post-War years, when the victors had no qualms about shooting people wholesale, in Madrid and elsewhere. He and Arranz swapped information and would take turns visiting when the other one got bored. And as far as I know, they didn’t beat about the bush, they didn’t bother with hints or innuendos. They were absolutely blunt about it, saying to some: “I know that, during the War, you did this and this, took part in illegal shootings or tipped off the militias, that you have blood on your hands,” and to others: “I know you remained loyal to the Republic, that you wrote anonymous editorials for newspapers or broadcast propaganda programmes on the radio, that you worked for such and such a ministry, even if you were just a private and had been posted there and were simply obeying orders. That doesn’t matter, it’s enough for them to screw you good and proper. I pass on a lot of information to the police and what I say goes, it never fails. It’s taken me a while to find you, but I know exactly what you did during the War. And even if you’d done much less it would be the same. In your case, I don’t even need to invent very much, just exaggerate a little. I could easily say that you collaborated with the Russians or that you condemned half your neighbours to being shot and left in the gutter. Just as you might have done with me if you’d had the chance; who knows what would have happened if you’d caught me here at the time of the uprising. A few years have passed since then, but if I blab to the people who are always happy to listen to what I have to say, it’s the firing squad for you or else life imprisonment, and why would I keep quiet? So it’s up to you: you either have a bit of a hard time accepting my conditions or you stop having any time at all, either good, bad or indifferent. You certainly won’t see your wife and children again, that’s for sure. Never — or at least not for a very long time. You decide.” ’