I bled money from stones; no one bothered to check on where the consignments or parts of consignments were going. Suspicion is a way of life in this town but nobody dared to suspect me. I didn’t lie, or not systematically. I managed to convince Pilar and three councilors that my project would be good for the town. The builder didn’t know the real purpose of the work (he was right-wing, very right-wing, and I was always afraid he would try to blackmail me). Why did I use him and not someone else? Anyone else would have talked, of course. I found the design I was looking for in a library in Barcelona. I copied it patiently by hand, until I understood how it all worked. Soon the workmen arrived and electricity returned to the Palacio Benvingut. Then I publicly announced the objectives and the extent of the restoration that had been undertaken, but in a vague and low-key way, after all the project was still in its early stages. I estimated that the work would take five years to complete, and foresaw that when completed the facility would be of benefit to the following departments: Social Services, Education, Fairs and Festivals, Culture, Health (!), Community Affairs, Child Welfare, and Security (!).
