They were gone, the gentleman and the lady. There was nothing in the room to suggest that anyone would return, no suitcases or valises, no kicked-off shoes or robes hanging on doors. Even more worrying, I found that my trouser leg had been rolled up; the cut on my shin had been washed with livid yellow iodine and dressed with a bandage. When had that happened? Uneasy, I felt at my chest, but everything seemed the same, the bindings in place. Had they found me out? Were they keeping me here while they called for the police? I listened again, and heard nothing. For a minute or two I became convinced that if I went outside, I would find the world deserted, every motor-car abandoned, the dining room full of half-eaten plates and no one but me left to wander through it all.

Hands a little unsteady, I took up the note, to reassure myself that this was not a dream:

This should keep the sun from your eyes.

With compliments,

A

A. Arthur. The man with the saint’s face and the cryptic smile was giving me one of his hats? It seemed too much, a strange, personal gift. I lifted it gently to touch the inside band, which must have rested against his forehead and lapped the sweat of his brow, only to stop, as another piece of paper fluttered into my lap.

A twenty-five peseta note. I could only stare. Twenty-five pesetas … it was more money than I had ever held in my life. It would buy me a room in La Atunara for weeks, even a good one. It would buy me fifty meals, a hundred drinks. I touched the corner of the note, afraid that I would turn it over and find it one-sided and false. But it was real. What did it mean? Had the man tucked the money into his hatband and forgotten it there? Who would forget twenty-five pesetas? The man must be richer than I thought.

I picked up the note again. With compliments.

It was hush money, I realized, like Morales used to pay to the guardia and the city inspectors. It was a reward for my silence, a request for me to leave Gibraltar quietly and without fuss. I shoved the note into the wrappings around my chest, blinking hard. It was more than I’d anticipated getting from this encounter. Far more. So why was I disappointed?