‘When did you first take a look at the job?’
‘I went there last week to see the layout, the quantity of large furniture, the number of packing cases needed, all that stuff. I called her the next day to tell her it would be a two-day job and gave her a quote.’
‘A two-day job?’ said Ramirez. ‘So when did you start?’
‘Tuesday.’
‘Which would make it a three-day job.’
‘Sr Jimenez called to say he didn’t want his study moved until Thursday. I told him it would cost even more than double and that we could do the job in the time. He insisted. I don’t argue the point with rich people; I just make sure they pay. They’re the worst …’
He trailed off when he saw the look from the policemen.
‘How many people knew about the change from the original arrangement?’ asked Falcon.
‘I see what you’re getting at,’ he said, unable to get comfortable. ‘Of course, everybody had to know. It involved changing all the jobs around. You don’t think that one of my men is the murderer?’
‘What’s intriguing us,’ said Falcon, leaving Bravo’s suspicion to hang in the air, ‘is that, if our scenario is correct, the murderer must have known about the change in the arrangement. He must have known that Sr Jimenez was going to stay an extra night and be on his own. He could only know that from Sr Jimenez himself or from here. When did you confirm the job with Sra Jimenez?’
‘Wednesday, 4th April,’ he said, flicking through his diary.
‘When did Sr Jimenez make the change?’
‘Friday, 6th April.’
‘Had you already assigned a work team for the job?’
‘I did that on the Wednesday.’
‘How do you do that?’
‘I call my secretary, who informs the depot foreman, who writes it up on a whiteboard downstairs.’
Falcon asked to speak to the secretary. Bravo called her in: a small, dark nervous woman in her fifties. They asked what she’d said to the foreman.
‘I told him that there’d been a change, that Sr Jimenez didn’t want the study to be touched until Thursday morning and that a small bed should be left in the kids’ room.’
‘What did the foreman say?’
‘The foreman made a coarse remark about what the bed would be used for.’
‘What does he do with that information?’
‘He puts it up on the whiteboard in red to show that it’s a change,’ she said. ‘And he posts the comments about the study and bed in a separate column.’
‘He also types it on to their worksheets,’ said Bravo, ‘so there’s two ways they can’t forget. They’re not very gifted people in the removals business.’
The three men went down into the depot and looked at the whiteboard, which contained all the information for all jobs in April and May but with the Jimenez job still open. The foreman came out. The secretary was right, he looked the sort who kickstarted the day with a couple of brandies.
‘So everybody in this depot would know of the change to the Jimenez job?’ said Falcon.
‘Without a doubt,’ said the foreman.
‘What’s the security like here?’ asked Ramirez.
‘We don’t store anything here, so it’s minimal,’ said Bravo. ‘One man, one dog.’
‘During the day?’
Bravo shook his head.
‘No cameras either?’
‘It’s not necessary.’
‘So you can just walk in off the street through the back there from Calle Maestro Arrieta?’
‘If you wanted to.’
‘Any overalls gone missing?’ asked Ramirez.
Nothing had gone missing, nothing had been reported. The overalls were all standard issue with MUDANZAS TRIANA stencilled on the back. It wasn’t a difficult thing to copy.
‘Anybody been in here who shouldn’t?’ asked Ramirez.
‘Just people looking for work.’
‘People?’
‘Two or three guys a week come in here and I tell them the same thing. We don’t recruit people off the street.’
‘What about the last two weeks?’
