A Thousand Cuts Read online

  A THOUSAND CUTS

  For Ali

  BY THE SAME AUTHOR

  Shadow of the Rock

  Sign of the Cross

  Hollow Mountain

  Sleeping Dogs

  A THOUSAND CUTS

  Thomas Mogford

  CONTENTS

  By the Same Author

  Prologue

  Part One Gibraltar, Present Day

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Part Two

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-One

  Thirty-Two

  Thirty-Three

  Thirty-Four

  Thirty-Five

  Thirty-Six

  Thirty-Seven

  Thirty-Eight

  Thirty-Nine

  Forty

  Forty-One

  Forty-Two

  Part Three

  Part Four

  Forty-Three

  Forty-Four

  Forty-Five

  Forty-Six

  Forty-Seven

  Forty-Eight

  Forty-Nine

  Part Five

  Part Six

  Fifty

  Fifty-One

  Fifty-Two

  Fifty-Three

  Fifty-Four

  Fifty-Five

  Fifty-Six

  Fifty-Seven

  Fifty-Eight

  Fifty-Nine

  Sixty

  Sixty-One

  Sixty-Two

  Sixty-Three

  Sixty-Four

  Sixty-Five

  Sixty-Six

  Sixty-Seven

  Sixty-Eight

  Sixty-Nine

  Seventy

  Seventy-One

  Seventy-Two

  Seventy-Three

  Seventy-Four

  Seventy-Five

  Part Seven

  Seventy-Six

  Seventy-Seven

  Seventy-Eight

  Seventy-Nine

  Acknowledgements

  A Note on the Author

  Also available by Thomas Mogford

  PROLOGUE

  Gibraltar, April 1940

  ‘Frightened?’ Harry looked across at his superior officer in surprise. He couldn’t imagine Engineer Commander Arthur Baines being frightened of anything.

  The older man stopped in the darkness of the road, reaching into his pocket for a pouch of tobacco. ‘Poor choice of word, perhaps,’ he said, as he packed the bowl of his pipe. ‘But it is a daunting thing. To have a child. Suddenly, one finds one has so much to lose.’

  As the match flared to life, Harry caught sight of Arthur’s eyes and recognised, too late, the expression he’d seen on the night that the telegram had arrived. The telegram that had told him his eldest son had been killed by the Germans at Scapa Flow. Harry looked down at his feet, cursing himself for his thoughtlessness: he never should have shown Arthur the letter from Lizzie.

  ‘But I’m pleased for you, Beck,’ Arthur said, puffing rhythmically to draw the flame. ‘It’s what makes life worthwhile, after all.’

  The two men continued down the coast road. The Rock loomed to their left, vast and sphinx-like against the night sky, swallowing up the moon. Beneath his boots, Harry felt the distant shudder of another reverberation. Ever since they’d arrived in this strange corner of the Mediterranean, the sappers had been boring into the Rock, dynamiting its heart. Sometimes, in the early morning, Harry had seen them marching back through the Old Town, their faces white with limestone dust. The tunnels were meant to make people feel safe, but they had the opposite effect on Harry. It was as though the Army knew something that the Navy didn’t.

  As they passed the Dockyard, Harry felt the breeze on the nape of his neck, as warm as breath. Under the tobacco smoke, and the usual taint of bunker oil, he smelt a hint of something perfumed – pine resin, perhaps. A light caught his eye, and he turned towards the sea. ‘The generator’s off, Sir, isn’t it?’

  Arthur removed his pipe. ‘I gave the order myself. Why?’

  ‘I thought I saw something flash.’

  They stopped outside the perimeter fence of the Dry Docks. Beyond the barbed wire, three iron gantry-cranes rose like sentinels. Lights sparkled on the Spanish side of the bay – ‘non-belligerent’ supposedly, but they all knew it to be colonised by German and Italian intelligence, just waiting for their chance to invade the Rock.

  ‘Probably just the lighthouse at Algeciras,’ Arthur reasoned. ‘Sometimes they . . .’ He broke off as they both saw the shaft of ghostly yellow light flash inside the Dry Dock graving. ‘We’d better take a look,’ Arthur said, pressing a penny piece into his pipe.

  A wooden sentry box guarded the gateway. They approached the window, but found the hut empty save for a tin plate containing the remnants of dinner, the sandy floor littered with cigarette butts. ‘Useless,’ Arthur muttered. His contempt for the Dockyard Police was well known. ‘Bloody amateurs’ was the phrase he usually favoured, mouthed in silence by the rest of the Corps before he’d even had a chance to speak.

  Harry stepped in front of him, suddenly protective of this upright, taciturn old man. On the gangway to their right, he made out the heavy machinery employed by those of his colleagues tasked with widening Dry Dock 1. There were rumours the Ark Royal was on her way to Gibraltar. It was only a matter of time before Hitler persuaded Mussolini to join the war, and then the Western Mediterranean would need a fleet.

  The jagged silhouette of the fishing trawler reared above them. They’d sailed her in at first light, closed the gate and drained off the water until her fat, barnacled hull lay exposed, wedged on the bilge blocks. First Harry had fitted the Asdic, then the torpedo brackets. Within a month, he thought with a frisson of pride, the Catalan Star might be out hunting U-boats . . .

  Feeling a hand on his shoulder, Harry spun round, but it was only Arthur, silhouetted in the half-light. Relief coursed through him: he wasn’t cut out for combat, he’d realised; the adrenaline served only to muddy his mind. It takes courage to admit that you’re afraid, Lizzie had told him the night before he’d left Portsmouth. And she should know: her father had emerged from the trenches at Passchendaele unscathed by the chlorine gas and shrapnel that had killed his brother and most of his friends. But the terror had never left him, Lizzie had said, the shame at having survived. And that night, safe in her warm embrace, Harry had let himself believe her comforting words. But he didn’t feel so sure of them now.

  ‘We need a light, man,’ Arthur hissed. He jabbed a finger towards the gantry crane: ‘Well, go on, Beck. Get a move on!’

  Harry hurried over to the crane, crouching down and fumbling beneath its base until his hand found the solid heft of the torch. As his fist closed around the handle, he heard a scuffling noise behind him. He flicked on the switch and swung round, feeling his heart race as he circled the trawler, flashing the beam between the toolboxes and storage units that cluttered the platform.

  But the only sound was the slop of the waves against the dock wall. Perhaps it had been a signal from across the water: they’d got through a few bottles of ale tonight, after all. Ha
rry stumbled over something and dropped the torch. The beam went out and he cursed beneath his breath, falling to one knee and groping about in the darkness.

  ‘Beck?’ came Arthur’s voice.

  Harry’s hand fell upon the torch. ‘All’s well, Sir,’ he called back. Then he thumbed the switch back on, and stifled a scream.

  Crouching on the walkway, just five yards in front of him, stood a young man with dark Andalusian skin. The Spaniard stared back at Harry, eyes narrowed beneath his thick black brows, then gave a slow shake of his head and pressed a finger to his lips.

  Harry felt his stomach keel. The torch started to waver, and he heard his father’s scathing voice in his head, remembered him jogging along the sidelines every Saturday afternoon, raincoat flapping, watching his short, scrawny son shiver in the mud, hanging back from the scrum, ‘Get in there, boy!’ Then the contemptuous shake of the head, ‘Lord, preserve us . . .’

  Just as Harry opened his mouth to call for Arthur, he saw the Spaniard point up at the hull of the trawler. Harry raised his shaking torch: one of the torpedo caps had been unscrewed. When he looked back at the Spaniard, their eyes locked, and Harry could see the terror in them.

  A moment later there was a violent, ear-splitting boom, and a blinding cone of light blazed from the side of the trawler. And then Harry was soaring backwards, weightless, unanchored from time and reality.

  A lifetime passed; Harry lay flat on his back, ears pulsating to the rhythm of his heart. His thighs felt damp, but it wasn’t painful or sticky, and he realised with a sting of shame that he must have wet himself. He tried to take a breath, but something was wedged in the back of his throat. He forced his fingers between his teeth and found a wad of something soft. Tossing it aside in disgust, he felt the air seep into his lungs, sour with cordite, warmed by the flames that were flickering all around him now.

  That was his war over, he thought – maybe his old man would even be proud of him. He knew Lizzie would be. He lowered an arm to haul himself up, then collapsed back onto the concrete. The arm was no longer there. He tried to breathe, but the thick coppery blood was filling his lungs. Perhaps he should just lie here for a while. Wait for Engineer Commander Arthur Baines to come and find him.

  Lizzie’s sweet face floated into his mind, and made him smile. She’d said in her letter that she believed it was a little girl she was carrying. Harry hoped he wouldn’t be too much of a disappointment to his daughter. He’d love her like mad, that much he knew. So he closed his eyes, and waited for the ringing in his ears to fall silent.

  PART ONE

  GIBRALTAR, PRESENT DAY

  1

  Spike Sanguinetti walked alone up Engineer Road, scuffed leather briefcase swinging from one hand. His destination – Her Majesty’s Prison, Windmill Hill – had replaced the old gaol at the Moorish Castle, a medieval fortress whose crumbling walls had proven a little too porous to criminals intent on escape. Though it was under a mile from Spike’s office, most of the journey was uphill, and the levanter breeze, laden with moisture from its passage up the Mediterranean, brought the usual film of sweat to his high tanned brow.

  The new facility was housed in an abandoned barracks at the southern tip of the Rock. As Spike reached the old army parade ground, now serving as prison car-park, he paused to catch his breath. The Windmill Hill plateau spread all around him, a curious microclimate of loose scree and thorn bushes – so similar, people said, to the mountains of Afghanistan that visiting troops still used it for training exercises. No sign of any squaddies today, Spike noted as he loosened his tie, just the metal-barred mouths of the Second World War defence tunnels, many of which now housed banks of computer servers owned by the online gaming companies that were the latest colonisers of the Rock.

  A slight man waited by the gate, one hand shielding his eyes from the August glare. Spike recognised Danny Garcia at once by his dun-coloured suit and the oppressed slope of his shoulders. Garcia squinted in Spike’s direction, then gave a wave of greeting and hurried over. ‘Mr Sanguinetti,’ he panted, clasping Spike’s hand in both of his with a smile of relief. ‘So good of you to come.’ His small dark eyes widened. ‘I thought perhaps you’d changed your mind.’

  Spike retrieved his fingers from Garcia’s damp grasp. ‘Sorry I’m late, Danny.’

  ‘No matter, no matter.’ Garcia combed back the remains of his brown hair, then pressed the buzzer. ‘You received the file, I hope?’

  Spike nodded.

  ‘Good, good.’

  The gate swung open to reveal a large, sleepy-eyed prison warder. Garcia lowered his voice: ‘I know you didn’t have much time to prepare, but as I was saying to Laura only this morning . . .’ He darted Spike an embarrassed glance, cheeks aflame with uxorious pride. ‘My wife, Laura . . .’

  Spike suppressed a smile. Good for you, Danny, he thought.

  ‘If there’s one lawyer on the Rock who can handle a tricky client, it’s Spike Sanguinetti. Champion of the Underdog, that’s what I told her.’

  Spike winced a little: it was not a reputation to be cultivated. ‘How bad is it?’

  Garcia pressed his lips together. ‘The prosecution case is strong. Mr Massetti is not what you might call a sympathetic defendant.’

  The two lawyers walked down the breeze-block corridor, newly painted in an especially depressing shade of institutional mint. Most of the cells were empty, and through the open doors, Spike glimpsed padded bunk-beds and curved aluminium sinks. Not too bad, he concluded – better designed than most of the new-build flats his estate agent had taken him to view lately. ‘And Massetti still hasn’t said anything?’

  ‘Other than to intimate that my services were no longer required, no.’ Garcia held open his arms in defeat, looking for a moment like a conscientious social worker who knew that he’d failed his client. Then he forced himself to rally, and passed Spike a slim folder. ‘My notes. They’re a bit rough, but . . .’

  The warder had stopped outside the interview room and was pulling out his keys.

  ‘The trial’s scheduled for 10 a.m. tomorrow,’ Garcia said.

  ‘In the Mags?’

  Garcia nodded. ‘The Attorney General’s seeking prosecution under Section 94.’

  ‘With Cassar on the bench?’

  ‘Afraid so. You can reach me on my mobile . . .’ Garcia trailed off, wringing his small hands.

  ‘But?’

  ‘I’ll be out of town.’ Garcia’s blush deepened. ‘Laura’s persuaded me to take a surfing course. In Tarifa.’

  Spike scratched one ear. If these days even Danny Garcia was getting fit, it might be time to reconsider hitting the gym. He held out a hand. ‘You’ll be doing three-sixties in no time, Danny.’

  He watched Garcia scurry away, then turned to the warder. ‘I’d like to be left alone with Mr Massetti.’

  The warder let out a knowing chuckle. When he spoke, it was in yanito, the Gibraltarian patois of Italian, Hebrew, English and Spanish. ‘Ese tio es waka.’

  Spike smiled. ‘My clients usually are.’ ‘Waka’ was a swear word derived from the English. The ‘N’ preceding the ‘K’ had been lost over time, but the man’s hand gesture had made the meaning clear enough.

  The warder shrugged. ‘You’re the boss, Mr Sanguinetti.’ Then he pulled open the door.

  2

  Christopher Massetti sat slumped in his plastic chair, heavy head lowered. He didn’t flinch as the door clanged shut, so Spike just opened his briefcase in silence, taking an occasional glance at his prospective client as he laid out his notebook and prehistoric Dictaphone on the table. Massetti’s physique was imposing for a man in his early seventies, he supposed, though his face was what Spike’s father might have described as ‘lived-in’: broken nose striated with spider veins, bags like dried apricots beneath the eyes. His shoulder-length hair was squirrel-grey – silver, perhaps, when clean – and his mauve jumpsuit looked like it would need a high-temperature wash after a day spent pressed against his broad chest.
/>   Spike placed the document file on the chair and his hands in his pockets. ‘Mr Massetti?’ Just as Garcia had warned him, the old man didn’t react, so Spike raised his voice. ‘My name is Spike Sanguinetti. Do you understand the charges being brought against you, Mr Massetti?’

  A few seconds ticked past; Spike could hear Massetti’s breathing, thick and hoarse. He rubbed his temple with a thumb and tried again. ‘You’ve been charged with harassment under the Crimes Act 2011. If found guilty, you run the risk of a custodial sentence. At the very least, you’ll be subject to a restraining order preventing you from making any further contact with Eloise Capurro.’

  At the sound of his alleged victim’s name, Massetti opened his eyes but didn’t lift them, just focused on a spot on the floor somewhere near Spike’s feet. At least he’s not asleep, Spike reasoned, then looked down again at Danny Garcia’s notes. ‘You’ve been refused bail due to concerns that you might interfere with prosecution witnesses. The maximum sentence that the court can confer is twelve months, and under these circumstances, I must advise you that’s the probable outcome.’

  Massetti shifted slightly in his chair, but then he just closed his eyes again. Fighting a surge of frustration, Spike glanced up at the clock. He was going to be late for dinner. He placed both hands on the table and willed the man to look at him. ‘We’re due in court tomorrow morning, Mr Massetti. At least tell me how you intend to plead.’

  But the old man kept his counsel, and Spike silently conceded defeat. He started to gather his things together, then caught sight of Massetti’s hands. The wrinkled skin was mottled with old scars and fresh scabs, but it was the fingers that disturbed Spike, working in and out of each other, like muscular worms seeking purchase in stony ground. Massetti must have sensed his gaze as he interlaced them, trying to control the tremors. Withdrawal symptoms: Spike had seen them before. He reached out a hand. ‘You know you have a right to see a doctor, Mr Massetti.’ But as soon as Spike touched Massetti’s shoulder, the old man raised an arm and smacked the back of his hand across Spike’s face.

  Spike stumbled backwards, astonished at the man’s strength. His chair overturned, scattering Garcia’s carefully drafted notes across the floor. Hearing footsteps outside, Spike pulled his hand away from his eye and was strangely shocked to see a smear of red on his fingertips.