Doctor Frigo Read Online Free PDF

do you know about him?’ he asked.
    ‘Apart from the fact that he leads the Mexico group, not a great deal. For the past ten years he has worked as a lecturer in the Cuidad Universitario. He must be about fifty now, I suppose. As a student he went to the United States. I’m not sure which university there, but it was for training in architecture I believe.’
    ‘Civil engineering, and that is what he has been teaching in Mexico City. He has been an Associate Professor at the university.’
    ‘When he was elected to the central committee of the Party he was working with a firm of architectural consultants, I know. It could have been as an engineer, I suppose. I was studying for my baccalauréat at the time. That would be sixteen or seventeen years ago. I remember my father saying that Villegas was the sort of new blood the committee needed – young but not too young and trained in a profession, a socialist who had been able to shed most of the doctrinaire cant without compromising his convictions.’
    ‘You sound as if you’re quoting. Were those the exact words your father used to describe Villegas?’
    ‘Yes, but I mustn’t mislead you, Commissaire. It’s not because of Villegas that I remember them. Those were the words my father always used to describe an up-and-coming Party member who had earned his approval. They meant that the man in question had become enough of a pragmatist to see eye-to-eye with him, or that my father thought he had. He wasn’t always right of course. When he was wrongthe man who didn’t see eye-to-eye after all was said to have gone wild again.’
    ‘Did Villegas ever go wild again?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘What else did your father say about him?’
    ‘Nothing that I recall. I wasn’t very interested anyway. Villegas was just a new boy on the committee. The leaders there were all of my father’s generation, men like Calman, Acosta and Hermanos.’
    ‘What about Segura Rojas?’
    ‘Uncle Paco, you mean?’
    ‘
Uncle
Paco?’
    ‘That’s what we called him as children. Segura used to come to our house a lot at one time. Because he often brought us expensive presents he became an honorary uncle.’
    ‘Villegas now refers to him as his Minister of Foreign Affairs. They’re very close, it seems. You didn’t know that?’
    ‘I knew that Segura was in Mexico. The last I heard of him was that he had bought a house in Cuernavaca. Uncle Paco was always one of the rich socialists. He had family money from land holdings in Venezuela. He must be very old now.’
    ‘Sixty-eight, if you call that old. I suppose that at your age you do. But you still think of him as Uncle Paco, eh?’
    ‘I hadn’t thought of him for years until you mentioned his name just now, Commissaire.’
    ‘Well, you will probably be seeing him soon. You referred, Doctor, to Villegas as being based in Mexico. That is no longer true. For the last two months he has been based here. Segura is with him.’
    I stared at him in disbelief, but he was suddenly busy tidying his desk, stacking Villegas’ dossier with several others in a neat pile.
    ‘Here, Commissaire! In heaven’s name why?’
    Commissaire Gillon finished with the dossiers, folded his arms across his chest and then looked up.
    ‘He applied for permission to reside here temporarily for the purposes of vacation and on health grounds and permission was granted. The decision to grant permission was made in Paris. Why it was made is none of my business and certainly none of yours. I would strongly advise you not to speculate about or discuss it. My task is to see that the stay here of Monsieur Villegas, his family and his entourage, of which your Uncle Paco is a member, remains uneventful, protected and, as far as possible, unpublicized. It is also my responsibility to see that he remains in good health. That responsibility, Doctor, I am now delegating to you. You will become Monsieur Villegas’ regular medical attendant, and I can tell you now before