Elefant

by Martin Suter

The same day

  ‘What about your love life?’ Schoch asked.

  Again they were sitting on one of the sofas in the drawing room, having eaten in the kitchen staff area. Valerie had made a stir-fry in the wok with diced tofu that she’d deep-frozen, let thaw, then marinated in soy sauce to give it a meatier taste and texture. ‘Just let me know when you can’t do without meat any more in the evenings,’ she’d said.

  ‘It’s nothing compared to booze,’ he replied.

  After dinner they’d made tea and repaired to the drawing room. Sabu had stayed in the kitchen, but they’d left the doors open in case she wanted to join them. Some days she was more attached to them than others.

  ‘My love life?’ She feigned a yawn and held a hand in front of her mouth. ‘I’d rather you told me about your life as a banker. Have you remembered now which bank you were with?’

  ‘GCBS, I think it was called.’

  Valerie laughed. ‘You forgot that? It’s on every second corner.’

  ‘If you spend ten years trying to forget something, it works occasionally.’

  ‘What did you do there?’

  Schoch hesitated. ‘I was an investment banker,’ he said finally.

  ‘Those are the ones with the bonuses, aren’t they?’

  ‘And the sixty-hour weeks.’

  No light was coming in from outside any more. Reaching behind her, Valerie pulled a brass chain beneath the shade of a standard lamp, and the sofa they were sitting on was instantly bathed in a yellow glow.

  ‘What does an investment banker do?’

  ‘Makes people like your father even richer.’

  ‘Or poor.’

  ‘Can happen too.’

  They heard the wind in the treetops outside.

  ‘Did you plan to go on living like this? Without a home?’ Valerie asked out of the blue.

  ‘Homeless people don’t make plans.’

  ‘I understand.’

  Sabu had been on her own for long enough; now she came to the door with her ears spread wide and trunk in the air, and stood there expectantly. Valerie put out her hand and the little elephant wrapped its trunk around her finger.

  ‘There was a strange man in the street clinic today.’

  ‘The guy from social services?’

  ‘No, a different one, he was Burmese. He arrived after the other man. I thought he was one of the dog lovers at first because he came into the consultation room with one of them who had an Alsatian mix with a bite wound. The dog refused to be touched, it snapped at me and even its owner. I was just about to sedate it when the Burmese man laid his hand on its neck and spoke to it, in Burmese I assume. And do you know what? The dog calmed down and let me administer the local anaesthetic and stitch the wound.’

  ‘A dog-whisperer maybe?’

  ‘He asked me if he could help out sometimes. I said I couldn’t afford an assistant, so he suggested I give him a probation period: 986 francs per month.’

  ‘That’s the basic welfare payment. He’d get that even without having to work.’

  ‘He said he wasn’t working for money. And I believe him.’

  ‘Did you say yes?’

  ‘I said I’d think about it.’

  ‘And? Will you?’

  ‘It would be a great help to have someone like that.’

  All of a sudden a dog barked fiercely outside and another joined in.

  ‘I didn’t know there were dogs around here.’

  ‘They’re old and you rarely hear them.’

  ‘So why now?’

  ‘One’s barking because the other one is.’

  ‘How about the other one?’

  ‘Because it’s heard something.’

  ‘Did you hear anything? I didn’t.’

  ‘Dogs have better hearing.’

  ‘Even old ones?’

  Sabu had let go of Valerie’s finger and turned her head to the window. ‘Just dogs, Sabu,’ Valerie whispered.

  But Sabu kept facing the window, even when the dogs had quietened down.

  Valerie, who’d been waiting for Sabu’s trunk to grab her finger again, pulled her hand away and took hold of Schoch’s.

  18

  The same day

  To begin with Roux had difficulty working Tseng’s software, but he soon got the hang of it. Now the vet’s Peugeot was a flashing dot moving across the map on his smartphone.

  He followed the object at a safe distance. Once it entered the car park of a shopping centre. Roux had to drive around a few times until the dot started moving again.

  Then it stopped outside a pharmacy. This time Roux had more luck, as he found a parking space three cars behind. Just a few minutes later he saw the vet come out again with a shopping bag.

  The next stop was a shoe shop, where she spent almost ten minutes. Then he followed the dot for quite a while around the periphery of the city. It stopped at a building project near the motorway exit.

  When Roux arrived there he couldn’t see the Peugeot. It must have disappeared into the garage that said: ‘Tenants only’.

  Her private address wasn’t in the telephone book, but now he knew where she lived.

  To be on the safe side he waited for five minutes, then drove away.

  The apartment block was still in sight when the dot moved again, crossed the river and climbed through the university quarter up to the villas, gardens and parks.

  Then the dot came to a stop in a little side street.

  Roux stopped too.

  The dot moved a tiny bit more before stopping again.

  Roux waited a quarter of an hour before driving on. The car with the tracker was parked behind a wrought-iron gate and an overgrown hedge.

  He could only guess what a house that boasted such fancy surroundings must be like up close.

  Roux drove slowly along the road. On either side were silent houses and old gardens, screened by massive hedges. Nowhere he could stop and wait inconspicuously. At least not while it was still light.

  After an aimless drive through the woods above the city he came back. In some of the houses he could see light shimmering through the dense vegetation, and just as he arrived the streetlamps went on. He went on a few streets and parked in a restricted zone.

  Was the apartment block where she’d stopped briefly her real home? And the house where she was now her hideaway? Or where Schoch and his stolen mini elephant were hiding?

  For wherever Schoch was, the mini elephant must be too. This, at least, he’d found out from the one-eyed tramp. Bolle had seen Schoch once after his disappearance. And next to Schoch he thought he’d seen something like a glowing pink, electric toy elephant that looked almost real.

  Roux had notified his Chinese partners at once, but the statement by a homeless alcoholic wasn’t good enough for them. Once he could ‘positively confirm’ that he’d seen the animal, they’d send Tseng again, not a moment before.

  The occasional car drove past and the odd person taking their dog for its evening walk peered warily into his BMW. Roux noticed that his hands were trembling with anxiety.

  The red dot on the screen of his smartphone hadn’t moved again and night had shrouded the villas and gardens in its darkness.

  Roux got out and walked the short distance to the hidden villa.

  The gate to the driveway was made of the same wrought ironwork as the fence, but a metal sheet was welded behind it. The ornate decorations on the fence provided support for both hands and feet.

  Roux wasn’t particularly dextrous or sporty, but that night he was assisted by fortune and the power of desperation.

  He climbed rapidly and silently over the gate.

  A forecourt, a double garage, a front door, barred windows on the ground floor, closed shutters on the first floor.

  Roux walked quietly around the house and came to a tree-lined lawn that vanished into the darkness after about forty metres.

  A few steps led up to a terrace that ran along the entire length of the back of the house. All t
he shutters were closed, but light peeped through the slats of one of them, which were at a slight angle.

  Roux climbed the steps to the terrace, sneaked over to the shutters and spied through the slats.

  The vet was sitting on a sofa beside a gaunt man in a suit. He couldn’t understand what they were saying.

  All of a sudden they interrupted their conversation and looked in the same direction.

  What now emerged into his field of view made his heart thump wildly: the little pink elephant! The perfect toy for children who had everything. It plodded up to the two people, fanning its ears and trunk in the air, and stood beside the woman. She held out her hand and the tiny elephant wrapped its trunk around her finger. The two of them continued talking.

  Suddenly a dog barked, immediately followed by another. Roux froze. The people inside turned their heads to the window Roux was spying through.

  The pink elephant had turned its head too.

  Roux held his breath.

  Finally the dogs stopped barking.

  The little elephant was still looking in his direction, but now the vet and the man were kissing.

  She stood, pulled him up from the sofa and turned off the standard lamp.

  In the darkness of the room he could barely make out the couple any more.

  But the glowing pink elephant following them was easier to see.

  19

  24 June 2016

  The following morning Kaung was waiting for Valerie outside Just a Second at half past seven.

  ‘Think about?’

  Valerie laughed. ‘Yes, let’s give it a try. One month, then we’ll see.’

  He offered her his hand. ‘Kaung.’

  ‘Valerie.’

  ‘Frau Doctor better.’

  ‘Nobody calls me Frau Doctor here.’

  ‘Mistake. Frau Doctor make better healthy than Valerie.’

  She unlocked the door and led him through the still empty shop, the waiting room and into her surgery.

  ‘The practice opens at half past eight. Before then I do a bit of admin and tidy up. So you should really start work at half past eight.’

  ‘Frau Doctor do admin, Kaung tidy up.’

  The bins were full of the previous day’s rubbish: blood-spattered tissues, used bandages and cotton wool, inside-out disposable gloves. The container for disposable syringes was full too, as was the waste-paper basket. The floor was dirty from the dog lovers’ shoes and a yellow puddle had dried by a table leg. The mobile instrument table was utter chaos and Kaung also had to tidy the cabinets with the medicines and bandaging.

  For the most part he didn’t need Valerie’s help and could let her work undisturbed but sometimes he had to ask her where things went.

  Just before Kaung called the first patient in at half past eight and the Frau Doctor got up from her computer to take a look around, she said, ‘My surgery hasn’t been as tidy as this in ages.’

  This wasn’t the only compliment she paid Kaung that morning. She praised his way with animals, his calming effect on the often neurotic street dogs, as well as their owners, some of whom were no less anxious.

  Soon after one o’clock the waiting room was empty and Kaung began to clear up. He saw the Frau Doctor open the medicine cabinet, take out a variety of preparations and put them on the desk. Some of these he knew: colostrum, lactobacillus, calcium, vitamins E and B and a bottle of coconut oil – while tidying earlier he’d noted there was a small supply of this in the cabinet.

  She packed everything into a crumpled shopping bag and locked the surgery behind her.

  The music of Ravi Shankar was playing in the shop and the biting smoke of a beedi hung in the air. Cynthia was sitting behind her painted counter, meditating. The Frau Doctor quietly piloted Kaung past her and out into the street.

  ‘See you tomorrow,’ she said, getting into her Peugeot.

  Kaung watched the car drive off.

  He’d have loved to know where she was going with her supplements and coconut oil. As well as the other ingredients that went into formula milk for young elephants.

  20

  26 June 2016

  Tseng had rented a car at the airport and they’d arranged to meet in the lobby of the same hotel as last time.

  First of all they had to know who they were dealing with and, more importantly, how many.

  Roux was certain that it was Schoch, the man from the cave. But Tseng had asked whether Kaung might not be involved as well, seeing as he’d been Dr Reber’s accomplice, was spotted hanging around the cave and had also disappeared. He knew something about elephants too. It was possible that Kaung had taken Schoch’s place or was a reinforcement. In the first scenario Schoch would probably have emerged again; in the second he’d stay in hiding.

  Tseng insisted they did their research first.

  They drove to the tram stop at the station with the intention of interrogating Giorgio, the man with three dogs who’d given the tip-off that Bolle had seen pink elephants.

  Giorgio wasn’t there, but the other dog lovers were already in a talkative mood and the two six-packs of beer that Roux had brought along loosened their tongues further.

  ‘Schoch?’ one said. ‘If he turns up again, we’ll be the first to know.’

  ‘He won’t turn up again,’ another said. ‘He wouldn’t be the first river sleeper to drown.’

  ‘I’ve heard,’ a third man roared, forming a heart with his grubby thumbs and forefingers, ‘that he’s smitten.’

  ‘In love?’ a fourth bellowed. ‘He’ll soon be back here then.’

  They all laughed.

  Roux indicated that it was pointless, but Tseng took his wallet from his jacket and slipped out a photo – the same one they’d passed around when they were first looking for Kaung. Pellegrini with the elephant routine, Kaung in the background.

  The picture did the rounds.

  ‘What about him?’ Roux said, acting as interpreter. ‘Has he turned up?’

  ‘That’s the guy who helps out in the street clinic, isn’t it?’ one said. ‘The dog-whisperer.’

  So Kaung had reappeared. And he was working for the vet. The advantage of this was that they had him in their sights. He’d be in the clinic when they struck.

  Tseng’s plan was to wait till it was night, then make a recce of the villa. He needed to examine the lock on the garden gate and the one on the front door too. They’d carry out the actual raid during the daytime when only Schoch was in the house.

  For this Tseng and Roux would have to enter the villa through the front door. Like a Chinese prospective buyer with his estate agent who had the key to the property. They would have to be quick – they’d take Schoch by surprise and force him to give them the food for the creature, as well as the recipe for the formula milk, as it was unlikely that Kaung would have another source of real elephant milk.

  What happened afterwards would have to be meticulously planned too. They would take the animal to the Gentecsa laboratory, where Roux would examine, measure, document and film it. And, most importantly of all, take the necessary cell material.

  They’d leave the prototype in the care of Roux’s two assistants, Vera and Ivana, who were both reliable and discreet, and Vera also had a good way with laboratory animals. This was important; Roux knew how tricky young elephants could be. Robbed of their attachment figure, they could fall into depression and sometimes even die.

  Which wouldn’t be a tragedy in this case, because he’d have the cell material.

  Now they were sitting in Tseng’s hotel room, staring at the red dot on the smartphone.

  It hadn’t moved since 4 p.m.

  Roux put a capsule into the coffee machine and made another insipid lungo. The situation and the waiting were making him fidgety, not helped by the mixture of fussiness and composure that Tseng was again exhibiting. What difference would a little bit more caffeine make?

  Roux moved to the window and watched the strange dusk. Blue and mother-of-pearl grey, like the polar n
ight he’d been so tormented by during a year-long academic exchange a long time ago in northern Norway.

  Tseng rummaged in his hand luggage and took out a set of skeleton keys, some binoculars, two small LED torches and a few cable ties.

  It was now dark, but Tseng wanted to wait till midnight when fewer people were about.

  21

  The same day

  Her boss in the animal hospital was not a good loser. He couldn’t stand people handing in their notice. He was the one who sacked people. And he took Valerie’s resignation particularly badly, because he thought the world of her and he felt offended. When she then asked for the earliest possible leaving date, that was the last straw.

  ‘If you’re in such a hurry,’ he griped, ‘you can pack up now.’

  She took him up on his offer without hesitation.

  And so Valerie was already back at the house by four o’clock that afternoon. She was moved by the scene that greeted her: Schoch in one of her father’s slate-grey suits and the Oxford shoes she’d bought for him – the larger shoes were the ones that fitted him – playing ball with Sabu. He must have taken bundles of wool from her mother’s knitting basket and rolled it all together to make one large, solid ball, which he nudged to her. Sabu would stop the ball and push it back nimbly with her trunk and legs.

  When she saw Valerie, Sabu hurried over to greet her.

  Schoch came over too and embraced Valerie. She caught herself checking whether he smelled of alcohol.

  Valerie took his hand and led him to the lift and up to the bedroom. Sabu followed.

  In the middle of the night Valerie and Schoch awoke at the same time, without knowing why. Sabu’s pink reflection on the ceiling seemed to be moving.

  Valerie sat on the edge of the bed. She nudged Schoch, who came and sat next to her.

  Her trunk pointing straight up at the ceiling and ears spread wide, Sabu kept running at the dark and heavy curtain hanging in front of the shutter, which was open to let some fresh air in through the slats.

  Sabu would stop just before the curtain, turn around, go back to the starting point, rock her head from side to side and swing her trunk. Then she’d resume the attack position and charge again.