Trash - Andy Mulligan [30]
‘I’m pleased to meet you,’ he said. ‘I will tell you anything you want to know. What is your brief?’
I still hadn’t spoken, and I wasn’t sure that I could. I wasn’t sure what my voice would sound like if I did. I moistened my lips and said: ‘I’m so sorry to have …’ I couldn’t think what to say. ‘To have … disturbed you. But Gardo …’
I looked round and Gardo was standing there, still as a post. He had not greeted the man, and the man had still not greeted him.
‘Believe me,’ said the old man, ‘a visitor is always welcome. Without visitors I would have gone mad, and they come in fits and starts. I can go several weeks with nobody. Then it is as if I am back in fashion: I have two in a day. You, my dear, are the first face for some time. And your boy, this is … ?’
‘This is Gardo,’ I said. ‘You know each other, don’t you?’
The old man looked at me and then at Gardo. He seemed puzzled, and he smiled.
‘You do know each other,’ I said. ‘It’s actually Gardo who wants to see you. About your house.’
The man said something in his own language, and Gardo replied softly. The man spoke again, and Gardo said nothing.
‘Miss Olivia,’ said the old man, smiling. He closed his eyes and waited. ‘I’m sure your boy is a good boy, and I am delighted that he’s brought you here. But to answer your question …’ He paused again, this time for breath. ‘To answer your question: no. I am not acquainted with him and I have never seen him before. As for a house … I have no house. I have almost nothing. It was all taken from me a long time ago.’
‘Gardo, you said this was your grandfather,’ I said.
Gardo was looking away.
‘I don’t understand,’ I said. ‘You told me … Sir, I’m a bit confused.’
‘Yes. So am I.’
‘The reason I came was … I just said it: Gardo wanted to see you about your house.’
I was going over Gardo’s story in my mind, and the confusion was getting worse and making me panic. Was it the wrong prisoner? There had been confusion over the number. Were we sitting with the wrong man?
‘Olivia, you don’t know who I am, do you? You don’t know anything about me.’
‘No,’ I said. ‘I have no idea.’
He said something to Gardo in his own language, and Gardo answered softly.
The man drew breath sharply, and closed his eyes. ‘He says you paid ten thousand pesos to get to me. He is very generous with your money, I think. The going rate, Miss Olivia, is fifteen hundred. They got five thousand from a journalist once, but they kept him waiting three days and it was coming up to the Zapanta election.’
‘I don’t understand,’ I said. ‘Do you know Gardo or not?’
‘No.’
‘Then …’
‘He has used you to bribe his way to me. The money you paid bribes the administration here. The guards will bring people to me, and – like I said – there are often people wanting to see me, and I thought you must be one of them. The prison authorities make a good living from me, I think.’
‘But I don’t … I still don’t understand. Why do people come to see you?’
‘Gardo, you’re not going to explain this?’
Gardo said something in his own language, and there was a short, abrupt exchange. Gardo seemed to be pleading, but the old man interrupted. ‘No,’ he said. ‘No. We speak in English with Miss Olivia. Miss Olivia has paid for this interview. We will say everything in English.’ He looked at me. ‘Your boy is playing a game and he wants to ask me questions on his own. He wants to speak to me privately, and I have said no. I can see you are bewildered, and – I am also very surprised … please.’
He bent forward in his chair, and I thought for a terrible moment he was going to be sick. He leaned on his stick, and seemed to be waiting for the pain to pass. He said something to Gardo in his own language again. Gardo took a cup from the table and filled it from my water bottle. He handed it to the old man, but the old man was shaking. He got a hand to the cup, but Gardo had to keep hold of it and feed it gently up to his mouth. The man clutched the boy’s arm.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. He drank again. ‘I was saying … If I tell you