Read Dead Clever for Free Online Page B

everything’s moving once more or would you have gone ashore immediately?’
    ‘Immediately,’ Ware answered. ‘All the time I’m aboard, I’m at risk. As soon as I’m ashore, I can adopt a new identity.’
    ‘Which we have to uncover.’
    ‘That’s the hard part, isn’t it . . . Enrique, I’ve obviously got to go to Stivas, but I’m not going to get very far on my own. Imagine my stumbling through my dozen words of Spanish, asking around after a man whose name I don’t know! Is there any chance you could come along with me?’
     

 
CHAPTER 6
    Salas was his normal ungracious self. ‘Yes. What is it?’
    ‘I’m ringing in connection with the Green case, señor,’ replied Alvarez.
    ‘What about it?’
    ‘A problem has arisen.’
    ‘With you, problems are forever arising.’
    ‘As you know, señor, inquiries show that the plane crashed into the sea and there can’t be any doubts on that score.’
    ‘A man with your talent for confusion can always produce doubts.’
    ‘The question is, was Green in the plane when it crashed?’
    Salas said, in tones of disbelief: ‘Didn’t you assure me beyond the slightest possibility of contradiction that he had died in the plane?’
    ‘As a matter of fact . . .’
    ‘And now you’re trying to tell me that he may, after all, still be alive?’
    ‘You did say, señor, that if I was certain he was dead, probably he was alive.’
    It had been a mistake to believe Salas might find some wry amusement from the memory. ‘When I said that, Inspector, I was indulging in an ironic flight of imagination. I should have known better than to believe that however wild the flight, it could ever hope to keep pace with you.’
    ‘At the time I was not aware of the fact that—’
    ‘I have to confess that I cannot begin to understand why fate has been so unkind to me. Had I ever done a whit less than my duty, had I even once been guilty of the slightest degree of incompetence, I could console myself with the thought that you were under my command because as a man sows, so must he be made to reap. But I am denied any such consolation.’
    Alvarez waited, but when Salas said nothing more, he finally broke the silence. ‘señor Ware and I believe that Green parachuted from the plane to board a boat which landed him in Stivas. So inquiries need to be made there. señor Ware has asked if I could go with him to make such inquiries because he will find it extremely difficult to make them on his own. All my expenses will be met by the company for whom he is working.’
    ‘He is suggesting you accompany him?’
    ‘Yes, señor.’
    ‘Then the man’s a fool.’
    It had taken only nine years to transform Stivas from a small, timelessly peaceful fishing village into a tourist centre where time was expensive and peace was virtually unknown. The marina had been enlarged three times and was now filled with yachts, motor-cruisers, and power boats, very few of which flew the Spanish flag. Tax evasion was one industry that was not subject to cyclical fluctuations.
    The harbourmaster’s office was in a large building set at the west end of what had been the original harbour. The harbourmaster was a paunchy man who had grown so rich through his job that he was having great trouble in concealing his wealth. When he shook his head, his jowls wobbled. ‘No, there’s no way,’ he said in Catalan.
    ‘The motor-cruiser’s a pretty big one, so someone may have remarked it.’ Alvarez spoke in Mallorquin and they understood each other, although there were some differences between their vocabularies and pronunciations.
    ‘You call her big? Here, we don’t call a cruiser big until she’s over thirty metres long and then it’s a job to remember one from the other.’
    Alvarez tried to look impressed. ‘Still, I’d be very grateful if you’d ask all your chaps if any of them remembers the Morag coming into harbour.’
    A moment later he led the way outside where the sharp sunshine unkindly