tie them all together and if they fell out, if Jarvis got greedy or wanted out, then pop, Mercer puts a bullet in his head.â
âItâs possible. Harryâs got bad hands but he could still pull a trigger without any difficulty.â
âIt makes a line of enquiry.â
âWhat do we know about Jarvis before he came to Spain?â
âHe was a teacher. Thatâs what he put down on the forms.â
âHow old was he?â
âFifty-one, and heâd been here for just over three years.â
âAnd from the autopsy no health problems except being dead. A fit teacher under fifty who can afford to pack it in and retire to Spain. Nice going. Did he do any work here?â
âNot officially, none that we could turn up.â
âSo how was he fixed for money?â
âThe bills we found at his house seem to have been paid on time and he had statements showing just over two thousand euros in the current account of his bank, and a pass book for a deposit account where he had a balance of over twenty thousand.â
âFixed up OK then, and it wasnât from any teachersâ pension fund.â
âFrom his bank statements there was a regular monthly payment of three thousand euros into the current account from the deposit account.â
âSo how did the deposit account keep up with that?â
âCash deposits. Various sums, nothing regular and nothing so big questions might get asked.â
âA teacher leaves his job in the UK and comes to Spain. Heâs not taken on a pension so heâs not taken early retirement, has no job that anyone knows of, but heâs comfortably off with a steady but erratic income. What was his house like?â
âNeat, clean ââ
âNo, I mean what sort of house was it, big, small, in a good area?â
âComfortable, two bedrooms, all the fixings and itâs in a nice enough area, residential, quiet, handy for town and the beaches if you donât drive.â
âSo not at the cheap end of the market?â
âNo, not the cheap end.â
âDid he own it?â
âNo, he rented it.â
âFrom?â
âFrom a company that has properties in different parts of Spain, Iberian Property Holdings. It operates out of Gibraltar and only deals on-line. We didnât look at it closely but it looks genuine.â
âGibraltar?â
âProbably a tax thing. Also it means they can bypass a lot of UK and European regulations. It doesnât mean anything, lots of small companies do the same.â
âAn ex-teacher who moves to Spain, rents a nice house and lives comfortably with a decent supply of money which comes from nowhere at all.â
âWho ends up dead in his own kitchen with a bullet in the back of his head.â
Jimmy finished his beer. âAnother one for you?â he asked Suarez.
âNo thanks.â
He beckoned the waiter. âOne more beer, please.â The waiter left. A group of four elderly people speaking English loudly came in and sat at a table by the window, obviously relieved to be out of the Spanish sun. Having paid to get it they were now busy avoiding it. They must have liked the look of the pictures in the holiday magazine as well. Jimmy pulled his mind back to the business in hand.
âWhat about Henderson?â
âFifty-four, owns an accountancy business in the UK, Coventry. Semi-retired and came over here five years ago with his wife. He goes back to England about six times a year to keep an eye on things. They had a house in town when they arrived, then two years ago they moved out and bought the place where they live now.â
âDid they sell the other house?â
âNobody checked, why?â
âWhen I was a copper you checked everything. Times must have changed.â
âOK, Iâll check. And before you ask, I checked to see if Mercer really does write crime thrillers. I went on Amazon