Numbered Account

CHAPTER 55

As the tempo of their lovemaking quickened, the bed began to rock in a steady rhythm. The wooden headboard slapped the wall. The Victorian mattress heaved and sighed. A man moaned, his throaty voice rising in counterpoint to the bed’s increasingly violent motions. A woman cried out, her rhapsodic pleasures serenading them. The tempo grew more frenzied, less rhythmic. The man arched his back as the woman’s hair cascaded onto his chest like a cool summer shower. He expelled a hot breath into the dark, listening room, then lay still.

A clock in a far part of the house tolled the midnight hour.

Sylvia Schon raised her head from Wolfgang Kaiser’s heaving chest. “How can you sleep with that ringing all night long?”

“I’ve grown to like it. It reminds me I’m not alone.”

She ran an ivory hand across his chest. “You’re definitely not alone right now.”

“Not tonight, at least.” Kaiser placed his hand behind her head and guided her down to kiss him. “I haven’t thanked you yet for the news about Armin Schweitzer.”

“Did he confess?”

“Armin? Never. Denied everything. Held his ground to the end.”

“Did you believe him?”

“How could I? Everything you told me made perfect sense. I fired him on the spot.”

“He should count himself lucky to get away with such a light punishment. You could have had him thrown in jail.”

Kaiser grunted. Doubtful, he thought, but let her be content with her victory. “We were together thirty years.”

“You talk about him as if he were a woman,” she said, teasing him.

“True, but then thirty years is a long time. You’ve been with us what, nine years? Your entire life is in front of you. I don’t know what Armin has left.” Kaiser pulled the sheet over his chest. For a moment he felt a pang of remorse.

“He brought it on himself,” said Sylvia. “No one forced him to give our secrets to Klaus Konig. Nothing is lower than spying on your own.”

Kaiser laughed. “Do you believe Neumann holds a similar view?”

She stared at him harshly, then turned away. “He arrived two months ago. That hardly makes him one of our own. Besides, I’m spying for you.”

“You are spying for the bank.” Kaiser fondled her buttocks while silently explaining to her that if she had known Nicholas’s father, if she could see how alike the two were, in appearance and in manner, she’d know that Nicholas was definitely one of their own. “You haven’t finished telling me what you’ve learned.”

Sylvia lifted herself on an elbow and brushed the hair from her face. “Nick wants to find a Caspar Burki. Burki was a portfolio manager in our London branch who recommended a man named Allen Soufi as a client to Nick’s father. Did you know him?”

“Who, Burki? Of course, I knew him. I hired the man. He was an odd type. Kept to himself, as I remember. He retired a while ago. Disappeared from sight.”

“I meant Allen Soufi.”

Kaiser shook his head, feigning ignorance, though his heart had jumped at the name. “Soufi? Can’t recall. How do you spell it?”

Sylvia spelled the name and Kaiser denied having ever heard of it. Soufi was a ghost from the past—a man whom everyone would prefer to remain dead.

“Burki still lives in Zurich,” Sylvia pointed out. “Nick has a hunch he knows who this Soufi is. He’s sure that Burki can tell him if he’s right or wrong.”

“You didn’t give him the address?”

“I did,” she said defiantly.

Damn! thought Kaiser. He felt like slapping her across the face, but he was careful to control his raging emotions. His anger subsided, and he realized that his first concern had been about losing young Neumann, not about the unmasking of Allen Soufi. Strange. When Sylvia had come to him three weeks ago with news that Nicholas was interested in checking the bank’s archive for clues about his father’s killer, he had felt that no harm could come from letting the boy have a look at his father’s moldy reports. If Nicholas were to assume a position of importance on the Fourth Floor, any questions about the bank’s role in his father’s death had to be put to rest.

“Alex Neumann was scared that someone was after him,” Sylvia said, apparently anxious to make up for her error in judgment. “He looked into getting a bodyguard.”

“A bodyguard?”

“Yes. He even called the FBI.”

Good Lord, this was getting worse by the minute! Kaiser sat up in bed. “How do you know all this?”

Sylvia pushed herself away from him. “Nick told me.”

“But who told him? His father died when the boy was ten years old.”

“I’m not sure. I can’t remember exactly what Nick said.”

Kaiser grabbed her shoulder and shook her once. “Tell me the truth. It’s obvious you’re hiding something. If you want to help me keep the bank free from Konig, you’ll tell me at once.”

“You don’t have to worry. You’re not involved in this.”

“Let me be the judge of that. Tell me this instant how Neumann found out this nonsense about Allen Soufi and about the FBI.”

Sylvia lowered her head. “I can’t.”

“You can and you will. Or maybe you’d prefer that I follow Rudy Ott’s advice and cancel your trip to the States. I’ll make damn sure you spend the rest of your career where you are now—a lousy vice president. You and a hundred fifty other losers.”

Sylvia stared at him hatefully. Her cheeks were flushed, and he noticed that a tear had fallen from one eye. “You’ve fallen in love with him, haven’t you?”

“Of course not.” She sniffled, blinking back a few tears, then took a deep breath and said, “Alex Neumann kept a daily agenda. Nick found two of them when he cleaned up his mother’s affairs after her death. For 1978 and 1979. That’s how he knew about Soufi and the FBI.”

Kaiser massaged his neck in a futile attempt to lessen his growing anxiety. Why was he learning about an agenda only now?

“The FBI?” he asked. “Sounds like the man really was in trouble. What exactly did he write in this agenda of his?”

“Just the name of a special agent and the telephone number. Nick was never able to get any information out of them.”

Thank God for that. “My name wasn’t anywhere, was it?”

“Only on the activity reports.”

“Naturally. I was head of the international division. I was copied on every report submitted by all of our representative branches. It’s the agenda I’m interested in. You’re sure my name was not in it?”

She wiped her cheek with the bed sheet. She was looking better now. The girl had obviously realized where her priorities lay. “Maybe a few times,” she said. “‘Call Wolfgang Kaiser.’ ‘Dinner Wolfgang Kaiser.’ That’s all. Nothing to worry about. If you weren’t involved with this Mr. Soufi, it doesn’t matter what Nick finds out.”

Kaiser gritted his teeth. “I’m only worried for the bank,” he said in his most professional voice. But inside his head another voice chided young Neumann. Damn you, Nicholas! I wanted you at my side. Seeing you walk into my office that day was like seeing your father all over again. If I could have convinced you to stay at my side, then I would have known that the course I set for the bank, the actions I undertook to ensure we reached our destination, however extreme, were correct. It was your father who was mistaken, not me. The bank is bigger than one man. Bigger than a friendship. I thought surely you would have recognized that. Now, what am I going to do with you?

“Nicholas doesn’t know the half of his father’s death,” he said, inventing wildly. “Alex Neumann was responsible for his own murder. He had been involved in drugs. Using cocaine on a daily basis. We were about to fire him for embezzling from the Los Angeles office.”

Sylvia sat up straighter, letting the sheet fall from her chest. “You never said anything about this before. Why haven’t you told him these things?”

“We kept it from the family. It was Gerhard Gautschi’s decision at the time. We felt it was the least we could do to comfort them. I don’t want Nicholas to find out. It would open too many wounds.”

“I think Nick should know. It would give him a reason to end this silly search. He won’t stop until he finds out something. I know him. Even if it is bad news, he’ll want to know. It’s only fair. It was his father, after all.”

Christ, now the girl had a conscience. “You will not repeat a word of what I’ve told you to Neumann.”

“But it would mean so much to Nick to know. We can’t hide this from—”

“Not a word,” Kaiser shouted, unable to master his mounting anxiety. “If I learn you’ve told him, you won’t have to worry about Konig eliminating your post. I’ll fire you myself. Is that clear?”

Sylvia flinched. He had scared her. “Yes,” she said softly. “It’s very clear.”

Kaiser stroked her cheek. He had overreacted. “I apologize, darling, for raising my voice. You can’t imagine the strain we’re under. We can’t allow any harm to come to the bank in these next days, not the slightest innuendo of misdoing. My concerns are for the bank, not myself.”

Sylvia nodded her head in understanding.

Kaiser saw that her heart was divided. She needed a reminder of what the bank could do for her. “About the promotion. To first vice president?”

Sylvia raised her eyes to him. “Yes?”

“I don’t see why we’ll have to wait much longer. We can finalize things right after the general assembly. It’ll give you some more clout with the big boys in New York City.”

“You’re sure?”

“Of course I’m sure.” He lifted her chin with an outstretched finger. “But only if you’ll forgive me.”

Sylvia considered the request for a moment. Then she laid her head on his chest and sighed loudly. Her hand delved under the covers and soon it was massaging him. “You’re forgiven,” she whispered.

Kaiser closed his eyes, abandoning himself to her touch. If only Nicholas Neumann were so easily bought.