Death's Dark Shadow--A novel of murder in 1970's Yorkshire by Sally Spencer

receive Woodend and Ruiz. And receive was the right word to describe it, Woodend thought, because sitting there, bolt upright, dressed entirely in black, and resting her old hands on her carved walking stick, she made it seem as if, after this experience, an audience with the pope would be an absolute doddle.
    The old woman scrutinized the two men thoroughly, and then spoke to Paco in rapid Spanish.
    â€˜Doña Pilar says she has seen you before,’ Paco translated.
    â€˜That’s right,’ Woodend agreed. ‘I was the one who brought Louisa here for the party.’
    More rapid Spanish followed, of which the only words Woodend could catch sounded like tío Echarlee.
    â€˜She didn’t know who you were at the time, but she realizes now that you must be the Uncle Charlie who Louisa spoke of,’ Paco explained. ‘She says she is pleased to discover that Louisa had such a manly man in her adopted family.’
    â€˜Ask her about this Elena woman,’ Woodend said, starting to feel a little hot under the collar.
    Paco did.
    â€˜She says the woman’s full name is Elena Vargas Morales,’ he told Woodend, when the old woman had finished speaking. ‘She comes from a village in the mountains called Val de Montaña, and until a few years ago, she worked in Melly’s Hotel, which is on the seafront.’
    â€˜I know it,’ Woodend said. ‘Ask her if Elena seemed in any way strange at the lunch that she and Louisa went to.’
    Another conversation followed, in which Doña Pilar lifted one of her hands from her stick in order to make extravagant gestures with it.
    â€˜She says that Elena was behaving perfectly normally at first, but when she saw the photographs, a sudden change came over her.’
    â€˜What photographs?’
    â€˜Louisa brought some photographs with her, to show her Spanish family what her life was like in Whitebridge. The photographs were passed around the table. When they reached Elena, she seemed very shocked by them.’
    â€˜Shocked? How?’
    â€˜She went pale, and there was one particular picture that she appeared to be unable to tear her eyes away from.’
    â€˜Who was in the picture?’
    â€˜Doña Pilar does not know that, because Elena was right at the other end of the table from her. But she has absolutely no doubt in her mind that Elena was very upset by them.’
    â€˜What happened next?’
    â€˜Doña Pilar determined to have a quiet word with her friend – to find out what had upset her – but she did not want to appear rude to her other guests by ignoring them, and she decided to wait until lunch was over.’
    â€˜But by then, Elena had gone,’ Woodend guessed.
    â€˜Yes, that’s just what happened. Elena left without even thanking her hostess, which is both very discourteous in Spain, and very unlike Elena, who has impeccable manners. Doña Pilar sent her son – Don Jaime – round to Elena’s cottage the next morning, but she wasn’t there, and no one has seen her since.’
    â€˜Ask Doña Pilar if she knows if Elena has done much travelling,’ Woodend told Paco.
    The old woman laughed at the apparent absurdity of the question that
tío Echarlee
had put to her.
    â€˜She says that women from Elena’s background don’t travel,’ Paco translated. ‘The men sometimes travel – to find work, or because they have been called up to serve in the army – but the women live their whole lives within a few miles of where they were born. They might perhaps visit Alicante, or even Valencia, once or twice, but for most of them, even that is too great an adventure.’
    The old woman spoke again.
    â€˜Besides,’ Paco continued, ‘she couldn’t leave the country without the permission of a male relative. And even if a male relative could have been produced from somewhere, the authorities would never have issued a passport to