Habeas Corpus by James Marrison

Author:James Marrison [Marrison, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781405930888
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2016-08-30T00:00:00+00:00

15

Pilar and I drove back to the garage and watched it from the café. We were careful to not sit too close to the window and I knew I would feel better once we were back on the road. Across the road there were signs of activity everywhere and although the garage doors were shut we could see, through the tall iron bars which surrounded the car park, a man carrying a step ladder on his shoulder. Another workman in blue overalls was carrying a piece of new looking timber under his arm and they crossed paths midway across the courtyard, chatted for a few moments and then disappeared on either side of the building. There was no sign of the truck or the Ford Falcon or any militares though.

I didn’t want to hang around for too long. I told Pilar to ask around and see what they were doing and what kind of building it was, but to be careful about it and that I’d see her in no more than ten minutes by the bike. I walked quickly off into the street, edging close to the wall and thinking about what had happened back home the previous night.

There was a well-built looking man peering out from a small kiosk selling snacks, soft drinks and cigarettes … Thin steel girders crisscrossed beneath a roof which spanned the space of what must have originally been a very imposing building. I guessed that it must once have taken up at least an entire block. On the tarmac next to a single steel door stood a small pile of sand and a number of wooden pallets which had been neatly stacked on top of each other, and beyond that a cement mixer.

I bought some cigarettes for Pilar. I looked at the vendor as he handed me some change. Motioning back towards it as casually as I could I said, ‘What is that place?’

‘A garage,’ he said.

‘Militares,’ I said. ‘Right?’

He didn’t say anything.

‘Looks like they are doing it up.’

He looked up sharply.

‘Must be good for business with all those builders around.’

He looked at me a long while, then he shrugged and reached for a newspaper.

I turned away and stopped at the corner. I hadn’t expected much more. I looked up at the drab yellow walls which looked even more brooding somehow in the early morning sunshine. Carefully my eye traced the shuttered windows of an office upstairs. So what was it? A police garage. Obviously used by the militares for something. As a base maybe. But it must have been abandoned for a while or closed. I didn’t think we would learn much more just looking at it and I didn’t want to hang around in case the men came back and recognized me. So I went and waited by the bike, which I had parked down a side alley, wishing we hadn’t split up and feeling more exposed than ever.

‘Christ, where have you been?’ I said when Pilar showed up half an hour later.

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