Chapter Five
So that’s how I ended up in a half built shack in Cuba, reading a police file. Sort of, I’ll explain more later. Lets get back to that smoke filled room with the sun still burning my exposed neck, through the ineffectual flimsy curtain. Lisa handed me the brown envelope, her hands shaking a little.
‘This is it,’ she whispered again. She stared determinedly at me, ‘I know it is.’
Our contact Jorge smiled a slow greasy smile while the guard lit up a thick cigar, his gun hanging limply by his waist. I took another look at Lisa in the half shadows, her face was a mixture of relief and disappointment. I hesitantly opened the file.
The first thing I saw was the picture. It was so realistic that at first that I was fooled, but I looked closer at it and saw it wasn’t a photograph at all, but a painting. Miniature brush strokes captured every detail perfectly. It was a painting of an ordinary man, handsome. He had a smooth, wide face and a large expressive mouth that seemed to be smiling and frowning at once. A mess of thick dark hair cropped closely and dark but warm eyes.
I put the picture aside, feeling Lisa’s eyes burning into me, harsher than the sun.
Patient admitted 24th March 2010
Patient. I repeated the word in my mind. I looked up at Lisa, she nodded encouragingly for me to keep reading.
Patient admitted 24th March 2010. After entering Holguin police offices of his own will. He requested calmly to be physiologically tested after confessing to the murder of Marietta Benavente, one day previously. After questioning it was revealed that the Patient knew details about the crime scene which were not publicly printed.
Due to lack of evidence, the confession was not enough for the police to make an arrest, so patient was referred to us. Tests showed a number of personality disorders, depression, possibly bi polar, as well as a disregard for conversation and interaction. Though symptoms and signs were present for disorders and defects, the results of the tests were inconclusive.
Doctor’s opinion’s differ on the patient, frequent changes in behaviour are common as well as manipulation of the staff and other patients. Despite this, the patient has been calm and polite towards staff members.
I had read enough. I placed the file back on the table and wrapped my hands around the arms of my chair to keep from punching something. The sun burnt me still and the sick feeling in my stomach became an angry pull, it was dragging me through the brick and earth and down into a hole. I breathed deeply.
Lisa was watching me with pleading eyes and I hated her for a moment. ‘Well?’ She asked, I began to hate her even more.
‘I think we’d better go,’ I said through gritted teeth. I wondered how much English Jorge could understand, clearly more than he was letting on. I tried to focus on the black fly circling my head. ‘Why are we here?’
‘For answers,’ Lisa said, her eyes were wide and glittering. I had never seen her so confused, I had always been so ready to follow her until now.
I snorted, ‘for another dead end,’ I said, I kept my tone calm.
‘No,’ she said, eyes blazing now, ‘I know. You heard me when I gave you the file, I know.’
‘Ten hours,’ I hissed back, ‘for this.’
‘Lawrence,’ Lisa started softly, ‘he confessed.’
‘Because he’s insane!’ I couldn’t contain myself any longer, Jorge’s dark smile, the nonchalant guard and the heat swirled over in my mind, playing like a montage. ‘This is the file from a mental institution.’
Lisa clicked her tongue impatiently, ‘you don’t think someone who could do this would be crazy?’ She tried to rationalize, ‘besides, he knows classified information.’
‘So do you!’
‘You don’t even know his name yet,’ she said.
‘What’s his name?’ I humoured her.
‘Jarl,’ she announced confidently, ‘that’s Norwegian.’
‘Yes,’ I nodded, somewhat sarcastically, ‘yes it is.’ I paused, ‘doesn’t start with an M though,’ I smiled.
‘That just proves what we already thought,’ she smiled wider than I had, ‘it’s too much of a coincidence.’
‘No,’ I shot back, ‘it’s just a normal coincidence. There is still no evidence or proof.’ I breathed in sharply, ‘Lisa, is this really how you want to end it?’
I was scared by the look on her face, it reflected Jorge’s smile too much. I knew that she had done something stupid.
‘It’s not over yet,’ she whispered. ‘We’re going to talk to him. Jorge can get us visitor’s passes.’
That was exactly the stupid thing I was afraid she had done.
‘I’ve had enough,’ I stood up from my chair and the guard went rigid. He stamped out his cigar and aimed his gun right at me. He started shouting at Jorge in rapid Spanish.
‘We have to pay him,’ Lisa said calmly.
‘We already did!’ The heat and the headache wasn’t improved by having a gun barrel in my eye line. The aeroplane food threatened to make a reappearance, it rumbled unsteadily in my stomach.
‘We paid him for file,’ Lisa said as the Guard’s shouts got louder, Jorge replied just as loud and rapidly, he had stepped up from his desk. ‘We didn’t pay him for the visitor’s passes.’ The guard took a step closer to me.
‘In my bag,’ I said quickly, if it was between a mental institution or my life I would have to take the former.
Lisa scrambled through my bag and pulled out my wallet, she threw everything I had on Jorge’s desk. Then it was like a cloud descended on the whole scene. The Guard lowered his gun and Jorge sat down quietly, he counted his money. After he was satisfied and my heart had stopped threatening to burst out of my chest, he handed Lisa a small blue wallet and nodded.
After the shouting, it was deathly silent, it was as if it had never happened. Not for me though, I felt a new wave of empty fear wash over me. How convenient for Lisa, for me to have to agree to her crazy, futile plans at gunpoint.
I could feel the layers of sweat rippling off me as Lisa took my hand and squeezed it. She smiled hopefully.
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