Free The Butcher Beyond by Sally Spencer

continued, ‘Look, he’s probably off on some kind of official visit, that’s all.’
    â€˜Then why didn’t he tell you where he was going?’
    Jessica waved her hands helplessly in the air. ‘Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps he thought his secretiveness would give him an air of mystery which would make him more attractive to me. As if he needed to do that! He might be a funny-looking little thing, but he’s
my
funny-looking little thing, and I adore him just as much as he adores me.’
    â€˜Oh, I admit he doesn’t look like much of a catch,’ Miriam said airily, ‘but he is quite an important man, you know, Jessica, and there’s a certain kind of woman who finds that attractive in itself. At any rate, I certainly wouldn’t trust him, if I were in your place.’
    Jessica felt the embers of revolt which had been smouldering in her stomach suddenly – and unexpectedly – burst into flame.
    â€˜I know you wouldn’t trust him, my dear,’ she said sweetly. ‘You didn’t trust either of your own husbands, either. Perhaps that’s why they’re now both your
ex
-husbands.’
    Though Don Antonio Durán was not strictly his boss, Captain López was far too much of a political animal to ever cross a mayor – especially a mayor who was soon to be elevated to the post of Provincial Governor. So when, in the early afternoon following the murder, Durán rang to ask if he could see the Captain as soon as possible, López replied that ‘as soon as possible’ could be right away.
    He drove up to the Mayor’s villa, which was located on the edge of town. A servant led him into the west wing of the house, down a corridor laid with thick carpets, and into an office which was lined with pale oak panels.
    The
Alcalde
was sitting behind his heavy mahogany desk, in a chair which must have been specially built to take his considerable bulk. Yet he probably hadn’t always been a grotesquely fat man, López thought. The small sharp eyes, at least, hinted at the leaner and hungrier man who still lived inside the huge frame.
    â€˜I hear there’s been a murder,’ Durán said, without preamble – and without inviting the Captain to sit down.
    â€˜That’s right, Your Excellency. It was—’
    â€˜A middle-aged Englishman who arrived here alone, yesterday.’
    â€˜You are well informed, Your Excellency.’
    â€˜It is my business to be well informed.’ The Mayor paused. ‘A murder is bad for the town – especially at the height of the holiday season.’
    â€˜I know that, Your Excellency. That is why I am pursuing my investigation with all the vigour of—’
    â€˜On the other hand,’ the Mayor interrupted him, ‘there is a distinct danger that the cure may be even worse than the illness.’
    â€˜I beg your pardon, Your Excellency?’
    â€˜Our visitors, with their pockets full of money, could find a full-scale murder inquiry very unsettling.’
    â€˜Yes, I agree they well might. But since we must face the fact that there
has
been a murder—’
    â€˜I have been imagining two possible conversations our visitors might have with their friends when they return home,’ the Mayor cut in, ‘two different conversations prompted by two entirely different police responses to the murder. Are you following me?’
    â€˜Yes,’ López said dubiously.
    â€˜The first conversation takes place following a very low-level police investigation. “I hear there was a murder where you were staying,” the friend might say. “That’s right,” the visitor would agree. “And did the police catch the killer?” “No, they didn’t.” What do you think the friend might say next, Captain López?’
    â€˜That it reflected very badly on Spain, and on the honour of the Guardia Civil?’ López