‘And that’s the lady in the case,’ Osnard said, with quiet appreciation. ‘Looks as though she’d put on quite a turn.’
‘The same, Andy, and now joined to Miguel in very holy matrimony though they do say she resents the limitation. And what you are seeing tonight is a triumphant demonstration of Miguel and Amanda’s return to grace.’
‘Hell did he swing it?’
‘Well, first of all, Andy,’ Pendel continued, very excited by an omniscience that stretched well beyond his knowledge of the case, ‘there is a backhander of seven million dollars spoken of, which our learned judge can well afford seeing he owns a trucking business which specialises in the informal importation of rice and coffee from Costa Rica without troubling our overworked officials, his brother being a very high official in Customs.’
‘Second of all?’
Pendel was loving everything: himself, his voice, and the sense he had of his own triumphant resurrection.
‘Our highly judicial committee appointed to examine the evidence against Miguel came to the wise conclusion that the charges lacked credibility. One hundred thousand dollars was regarded as a grossly inflated price for a simple assassination here in Panama, one thousand being more the appropriate figure. Plus name me the trained top judge who signs a personal cheque to a hired assassin while being of sound mind. It was the committee’s considered opinion that the charges were a crude attempt to frame a highly honourable servant of his party and country. We have a saying here in Panama. Justice is a man.’
‘What did they do with the assassin?’
‘Andy, those interrogators had another word with him, and he obliged them with a second confession confirming that he had never met Miguel in his life, having taken his instructions from a bearded gentleman in dark glasses that he met once only in the lobby of the Caesar Park Hotel during a power cut.’
‘Nobody protest?’
Pendel was already shaking his head. ‘Ernie Delgado plus a group of fellow saints in the human rights area had a go but as usual their protests fell on stony ground, owing to a certain credibility gap,’ he added, before he had even thought what this might be. But he rolled straight on like a driver in a runaway truck. ‘Ernie being not always what he’s cracked up to be, which is known.’
‘Who to?’
‘Circles, Andy. Informed circles.’
‘Mean he’s on the take like the rest o’ them?’
‘It has been said,’ Pendel replied mysteriously, lower-ing his eyelids for greater veracity. ‘I’ll say no more, if you don’t mind. If I’m not careful, I’ll say something contrary to Louisa’s best interests.’
‘What about the cheque?’
Pendel noticed with discomfort how the little eyes, as in the shop, had become black pinholes in the bland surfaces of Osnard’s face.
‘A crude forgery, Andy, as you suspected all along,’ he replied, feeling his cheeks heat up. ‘The bank teller concerned has been duly relieved of his post, I’m pleased to say, so it won’t happen again. Then of course there’s the white suits, white playing a very big part in Panama, bigger than a lot of people understand.’
‘Hell’s that mean?’ Osnard asked, the eyes still bearing in on him.
It meant that Pendel had caught sight of an earnest Dutchman named Henk who habitually bestowed strange handshakes and talked in confidential murmurs about mundane matters.
‘Masons, Andy,’ he said, now seriously bent upon deflecting Osnard’s gaze. ‘Secret societies. Opus Dei. Voodoo for the upper classes. Reinsurance in case religion doesn’t do the job. Very superstitious place, Panama. You should see us with our lottery tickets twice a week.’
‘How d’you know all this stuff?’ Osnard said, giving his voice a downward trajectory that made it carry no further than the table.
‘Two ways, Andy.’
‘Which are?’
‘Well, there’s what I call the grapevine, which is when my gentlemen get together of a Thursday evening, which they like to, quite by chance, and have a heart-to-heart and a glass of something in my shop.’
‘Second way?’ The close, hard stare again.
‘Andy, if I told you that the walls of my fitting room hear more confessions than a priest in a penitentiary, I’d still be underselling them.’