Diana smoothed over her hair. “I’ve gone blond.”
“You’re different. It’s hard for me to put my finger on it. Did something happen?”
“Life happened.” Diana smiled grimly. “I need to worry about money, always money. That’s why your offer came at a good time.”
Sally put her arm around Diana’s shoulder. “You know you can always come to me.”
“Thanks,” said Diana in a muted voice. “You’re a good friend.”
Sitting in the back seat of the limousine on her way to Marin’s home in Gstaad, Sally felt pity for Diana and her financial and romantic troubles. She was also sorry for herself over her estrangement from Jerry. She didn’t want to admit to herself the tightening relationship with Marin. Every night they spent together was “only one night,” and every time Marin tried to talk about the future of their relations, suggesting they formalize them, Sally stopped the conversation.
Marin graciously stopped pressuring. “I’ll settle for the present,” he said. “Let’s live in the moment.” Those moments and nights were magical and filled with gentleness and intimacy. In the morning, she would return to her room at the guesthouse. Natalia and the rest of the staff made sure not to meet her, but surely picked up what was going on. She knew there was something pathetic and dangerous in the way their relationship played out in plain eyesight, but every night, again, her legs would carry her to his bedroom.
Evening fell. The limousine entered the courtyard, capturing with its headlights a sturdy man seated upright on a bench next to the guesthouse. Next to him sat Joel and Rubi. Sally asked the driver to stop and sat down next to her father. “You’ll catch a cold, Dad,” she said.
“The nights in this season are no different than the nights in the land of Israel during my youth,” the father said. “It’s nice to reminisce. Where are you headed, my daughter?”
“What do you mean? I’m here.”
He knew she understood his intention and continued. “I think you’re headed for a cul-de-sac. At the end, you’ll lose both your worlds: The one you had, and the one you never will.”
As usual, he perfectly articulated her deepest fears. Sally breathed in deeply. “I don’t know, Dad. All sides involved are content living in the moment, not defining the situation, not deciding.”
“You and Jerry are free to decide or not decide. But this situation affects your children. They suffer from it.”
“Roy understands me, and Michael will understand when he grows up, and as I said—nothing is set in stone.”
“Doors close suddenly, and it’s not always you who closes them. Sometimes they can close on your hand. You have to decide rather than let reality carry you away. Both of you.”
“There’s a big operation happening soon, that will probably end the whole Ben David project. It takes up my entire being. When this ends, I’ll be free to decide.” She put her head on her father’s shoulder, and he said, “Tell me.”
She told him of the trap she plans to set for Ben David. When she finished, he was silent. “You seem displeased, Dad. Am I doing something wrong?”
“It’s written in Psalms chapter 7: ‘He made a pit, and dug it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.’ Do you understand the verse?”
“I do, but what does it have to do with me?”
“Like anyone who digs a pit to entrap another, you too only see your little plan. But there’s a larger plan set elsewhere, where it may be that the digger of the pit will fall into it.”
Sally grew apprehensive. “What’s the larger plan that I can’t see?”
“For example, what if they realize you’re listening to them and arrive a day early?”
“They won’t know that. Besides, it won’t help them. The files are in Pierre’s study.” She pointed at the house.
Her father fell deep into thought. “I’ll tell you what the bigger plan is.” He immediately stood up. “Come on in. I want you to write down a few things.”
Later that evening Sally returned to the main house. The door to Marin’s room was open a crack. She pushed it and entered. Marin was seated on a couch, next to the window. He held his habitual glass of cognac and a small box wrapped in a ribbon lying on the table in front of him. He looked at her and gestured at the box. “For you.”
Sally folded her arms behind her back. “I told you, no gifts.”
“You can’t be so extreme, on the one hand contributing so much to my life—arranging a plan to entrap Ben David, preventing Muriel from sucking my blood, forging ties with institutions in Israel for me to donate to, and all this for a modest salary—and on the other hand, not accept even a modest gift.”
“Your gifts are never modest, Pierre, that’s the problem.”
“My gifts reflect my gratitude.”
Sally undid the ribbon and opened the box. A diamond the size of a pea shone at her from within a delicate ring of white gold.
“I haven’t exaggerated, have I? There were larger ones where it came from.”
Sally shut the box with a click. “Thanks,” she mumbled, “but I can’t wear this.”
“Jerry?”
Sally nodded. “Maybe one day.”
52.
The following day, a spring rain fell on western Switzerland, melting the snow on the sidewalks and roads and turning it to black slush. Jacob sounded perturbed on the phone. “I have three things to tell you. First, something weird is happening. Ben David spoke to Attorney Ovadia and asked for an expert to be sent over.”
“What kind of expert?”
“He didn’t specify, just said, ‘You know.’ Ovadia didn’t understand at first, but Ben David wouldn’t explain, only said something I couldn’t understand.” He went silent for a moment and Sally heard the sound of pages turning before Jacob added, “‘They have eyes but cannot see, ears…’”
Sally smiled. “And then Ovadia got it?”
“I think so. He said, ‘I’ll take care of it.’”
Sally’s smile turned into laughter. “Well, it’s a corruption of the verse ‘they have eyes but cannot see, ears but cannot hear.’ In our family, we also use this joke to refer to someone who can’t see what’s before him.”
“So what is it that Ovadia didn’t understand at first, and I can’t understand now?”
“I think Ben David needs an expert to check whether any cameras were installed in his apartment.”
“How do you know?” Jacob asked with an air of surprise, almost insult.
Sally thought for a moment. “I don’t know. A feeling.”
“So why now? Any ideas?”
“Yes,” Sally said. “I have my suspicions. Anyway, what can you do about that?”
“Our cameras are tiny and well-hidden. I don’t think they can physically be found. I’ll stop the broadcast and then they’ll be undetectable with a frequency scanner.”
“All right, you do that. What else?”
“I also think we have a date for their operation. Sunday, two days from now. Speaking to Ovadia, Ben David asked the expert to arrive tomorrow at the latest, because something is happening on Sunday and he wants the coast to be clear.”
“Okay, we have some changes. My dad’s idea. I’ll update you. What’s the third thing?”
“Ben David and Muriel are speaking about opening a bank account in her name. Fifty million dollars will be deposited there and only she will be able to withdraw money from it. Ben David is insisting that she give him power of attorney and she explains that she can’t.”
Sally tried to calculate the time that passed since her meeting with Marin and Darmond. One day. There was no way the will and accompanying documents were drafted so quickly, and that the issue of the bank account was officially conveyed to Muriel. Who leaked it then? Darmond? Someone in his office?”
“Sally?” Jacob said.
“Sorry, I was daydreaming. Are you in Geneva?”
“Yes.”
“Take care of the camera business. I’m coming over to you and we’ll finalize the operation issue. As for the account, I need to examine it.”
Sally spent the next few hours in the space that had almost become her home—the backseat of the limousine. By the time she arrived in Geneva, she had written the details of the operation as a flowchart on a yellow notepad. When she was done, she looked at the chart. It didn’t seem right. She ripped the pages out and started everything again. This time, the operation was divided in two. She read everything again and smiled contentedly.
At the café on Lake Geneva, she presented the plan to Jacob and explained every stage of it. He listed with concentration, and when she was done, he said, “Very sophisticated. I’m trying to think of something you haven’t covered.”
“There’s no such thing, Sally said confidently. Her finger quickly passed over the flowchart. “If A happens, we have a response. If B happens—” she pointed at another part of the chart “—we have another response, and if neither of these happen, we haven’t lost anything, and we’ll wait to pick up the next date of their operation on your systems.”
“That reminds me. Ben David’s guy has arrived. One of my men knows him. He’s an expert in eavesdropping and sells surveillance equipment in Tel Aviv. Your guess was inaccurate,” he said, a glimmer of triumph in his eye. “He isn’t trying to check whether we installed surveillance equipment, but is installing his own. Based on the noises we’re picking up on our distance microphone, he isn’t trying too hard to hide it, but is drilling in the walls and pulling wires through the holes. What I don’t get is why he needs cameras in his home.”
“He doesn’t need cameras nor is he installing them. He’s using them as a blocking means, to render our equipment useless.”
Jacob nodded with appreciation. “You have a point. When you get tired of working on Marin’s issues, you have a job with me.”
Three hours later, a system was installed in Ben David’s apartment, creating a powerful masking shield. Jacob reactivated the cameras and typed a few commands into his computer. A tight wave of lines appeared on the screens. “That’s their masking. It won’t allow radio signals to enter or exit Ben David’s apartment.”
“How will you overcome it?”
“Masking works on a certain frequency range,” Jacob explained. “It’s the range usually used by surveillance equipment. But there are other frequencies, more remote ones. Over the course of the evening we’ll use our frequency scanners and cause every camera to capture a frequency that isn’t interrupted.”
“I trust you,” Sally said, distracted. Her mind was already preparing for the operation.
In the evening, at the plush lounge of Hotel d’Angleterre, Diana was waiting. Sally noticed her from a distance, sitting at a table and speaking on the phone. When she came close, Diana abruptly ended the conversation. “You haven’t ordered your regular coffee?” Sally inquired when she sat down.
Diana seemed more flummoxed than ever. “No, I haven’t had the chance. I needed to finish a phone call first.”
Sally examined her face. “You don’t involve me in your issues, which is fine. It’s your right. But I think I could help you.”
Diana waved her hand in dismissal. “No one can help me. I’m in over my head.” She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “I want us not to talk about this ever, okay? Promise me that when these times end, we’ll forget all about them. Both of us.”
“That bad?”
“Yes. After we finish our job, I’m out of here. I may go to South America, maybe somewhere else. I need to get out of this life, do you understand?”
“No,” Sally confessed. “Explain it to me.”
“Let it go,” Diana blurted out, suddenly angry. “Just leave it. OK? Now tell me what I’m supposed to do.”
“OK,” Sally said in a tone of acquiescence. “The day after tomorrow, on Saturday, we’ll wait at Marin’s office at seven a.m. I don’t suppose they’ll arrive earlier, because the building is shut. We’ll hide and let them approach the metal vault, break in, and extract the files. Then we’ll come out, take them over, and call the police. The surveillance cameras will be used as proof of the crime, and Ben David will finally go to jail, where he belongs.”
Diana nodded mechanically, and Sally wondered whether she grasped what was just said. “So when are you picking me up?” Diana asked.
“A day after tomorrow, at the entrance to the hotel.”
Diana stood up. “Forgive me,” she said in a voice on the verge of tears. “I need to go now.”
For a moment, Sally considered asking one of Jacob’s men to follow Diana and see where she was headed, but then felt it would be unfair to expose the man to her heartbreak. She waved to the waiter and ordered a cup of coffee. After finishing it, she called Fred the driver and walked to the front of the hotel. En route to Gstaad, she noticed that, unlike Jacques, he never exchanged a word with her. Better that way, she said to herself and started reviewing the plains she had made, the overt and covert ones. Somewhere along the way, she had an epiphany. She realized clearly where the rotten apple was in her small organization. Everything seemed to come together and make sense, and the more she thought about it, the more she realized how much she had been misled. When she arrived at Marin’s mansion, she went right to her room and spent the night thinking and noting her conclusions on the yellow notepad. When she was finished, she called Jacob.
“Do you know what time it is?”
“I do. Now listen. There are a few testimonies we need to collect immediately tomorrow morning, without delay.”
53.
It was four a.m. when she accompanied Marin to his car. He was drowsy. “What a terrible time,” he muttered, “I can’t function at such an hour.”
“You’ll sleep on the plane,” she said.
“On a flight to Brussels? You take off, have a drink, and land.”
She didn’t allow herself to kiss him in front of the driver, just shook his hand. “Good luck to all of us,” she said, and he lifted his thumb in response.
The car drove away. Sally passed through the rooms in the house to make sure no one was left. All the employees were sent on a day of leisure organized by their employer. She cautiously collected her handbag with the yellow notepad from her room, went down to the garage, and got into the Land Rover, the simplest car in Marin’s fleet. The roads were empty and she drove quickly. At 6:50 a.m., she parked her car at the parking lot of Hotel d’Angleterre and approached the front of the building. Diana was already there, holding a paper cup of coffee. Jacob arrived at seven sharp, driving a van with two other men she didn’t know who had Slavic features. As soon as they sat down, Jacob stretched out his hand. “Your mobile phones.”
Sally gave him her phone. “I’ve switched mine off,” Diana said.
Jacob looked at the device on the top of his dashboard. “That’s a frequency scanner,” he explained, “and your phone is still giving off a signal.”
Diana reluctantly handed him a small, silver mobile. “Keep it safe,” she said. “It’s a gift from a dear man and I only use it to communicate with him.”
Jacob nodded his thanks. “These phones are dangerous to us. They’re connected to the Internet and can be used for eavesdropping. I promise not to answer any incoming call.”
A metal shutter covered the entrance to the parking lot in the building where the offices of Cosmos Holdings were located. Jacob used a magnetic card and the shutter moved up. “How will Ben David’s people enter the building?” Sally wondered. “At the street entrance there’s a doorman, and here, a shutter.”
“I assume they were able to steal and duplicate a card, or pay off some secretary,” Jacob replied.
The parking spaces were empty with the exception of one car, p
erhaps the doorman’s. They took the elevator directly up to the desolate offices. The air conditioners were off, and there was a stuffy smell in the air. Jacob stopped at the foyer and began explaining. “We want to let them in and catch them red-handed. That’s why Sally will enter this room—” he pointed to the room next to the reception desk “—and you’ll enter this room.” He gestured at one of the silent men toward a room next to the entrance. “As soon as they enter, secure the office door so they can’t leave. Diana, go in with him so you can act immediately if Muriel goes wild.” He nodded at Diana, then pointed at the second silent man. “Meanwhile, me and you will wait in the room with the metal vault. I will confront the burglars and call the police.”
Sally went in to the room allocated to her. The only window in it would not open, and an insufferable scent of cheap perfume stood in the air. It was embedded in the walls and furniture, and Sally searched the desk for indications of who inhabited the office during the week. Based on the objects lying on it, it was a secretary’s desk: A drawer for incoming mail, a drawer for outgoing mail, a computer screen and keyboard, a mouse, and desk calendar. She moved the keyboard aside and opened her yellow notepad. The more time passed and Ben David didn’t arrive, the more the assumptions she’d written down over night became a certainty. She read them again and again and felt both proud for cracking the mystery and great sadness.
At 11:10 a.m., Jacob’s voice sounded. “Everyone to the foyer, please.”
Sally left the room, breathing a sigh of relief. The others also arrived one after the other. “You’re free to go,” Jacob told the two silent men as he escorted them to the door, locking up after them and pocketing the key. “We’ll move to the conference room,” he told Sally and Diana.
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