She planned to rest at home for another two weeks, then fly to Geneva two days before the planned arrival of Ben David to prepare Joel for his bar mitzvah. But one Thursday evening, as she tidied the house for Shabbat, the phone rang. “We’re in trouble,” Diana informed her. “Our two men who were staking out the house froze in their tent last night. They crawled to the road, where a passing car took them to the hospital. Their car remained on the scene, with the binoculars, cameras and night vision equipment. The neighbors grew suspicious and called the police, and that’s it. We’re back in Beersheba.” Sally started planning what to ask Jacob and his investigators. “I’ll see what I can do and get back to you,” she said.
“One moment,” Diana added, “there’s something else. Regarding the mailman, we can relax. He hasn’t arrived in two days.”
Sally thought for a long moment. Something was wrong, something to do with the mailman that lay before her eyes the entire time, and that she simply couldn’t decipher. Something that could not be managed remotely. “I’m coming over,” she said.
35.
As soon as the wheels of the aircraft touched down on the tarmac, Sally grew calm. That’s how it always was. When problems happened far away they seemed oppressive and unsolvable, but as soon as she set out to solve them, she felt she could overcome anything.
Diana, on the other hand, was terrified, on the verge of panic. “They’ve disappeared,” she said, her voice rising shrilly. “They simply disappeared.”
“Who?”
“Our two investigators.”
“Wait,” said Sally, “tell me everything from the start.”
“As you instructed me, the four Swiss investigators set up camp on the mountain, directly across from Muriel’s home. Every day, two of them went skiing while the two others stayed in their tents and observed the house. During the nights, only two remained in the tent and watched the house using night vision equipment. You know the rest. They froze, were hospitalized, and the car was discovered by the police. Tomorrow they’re supposed to go to the police and give a testimony. Two hours ago I came to the hospital to pay for the treatment and debrief them for the testimony, but when I arrived they said they’d paid themselves and then left. Now we have a double problem: Explaining what the car was doing on the hill across from Gstaad packed with surveillance equipment, and making the two patients give their testimony.”
“Why is that our problem?” wondered Sally.
“Because your name is on the summons for questioning. The police will contact the investigations company and—”
“And there they’ll be told that a woman named Sally Amir ordered an investigation of a certain house in Gstaad, never requesting illegal means to be used. I don’t understand why you see a problem where there is none.”
Diana was silent for a moment. “Why do you talk to me like that? All right—I may have overreacted about the danger, but I did it out of concern for you and your project.”
Sally hugged her. “I’m sorry. I’m a bit nervous, that’s all. Forgive me.” She got into Diana’s car. “There’s one thing that worries me,” she told Diana as they sped on the highway to town. “The postman.”
Diana braced herself. “How come?”
“I assume he brought Muriel letters and maybe instructions from Ben David, bypassing the disconnect we imposed on them. The fact he stopped coming means only one thing—that there’s another mode of communication that we’re unaware of. Since Ben David is afraid of talking on the phone or sending e-mails, and the mail stopped coming—” Something in the back of Sally’s mind cut her sentence short. “As I said, the mail stopped coming,” she repeated.
“What did you mean to say?”
“That we don’t really understand what’s happening. Ben David acts in all kinds of ways, maybe even controlling others, and through them, us.”
Diana seemed preoccupied. “What makes you think that?”
“I don’t know. A feeling. Can you take me to your hotel?”
“Aren’t you going to Gstaad, to Marin?”
“No,” said Sally. “I have a few meetings in Geneva.”
Diana stared at her for a long while. “Why do I have a feeling you’re not telling me everything?”
Sally smiled bitterly. “Believe me, it’s for your own good.”
36.
A moment after the porter placed the suitcases in her room, Sally collected her handbag and left. She took the service elevator to the floor above the lobby and took the stairs out of the hotel to a back carpark. On the street, Jacob was waiting for her in a black Ford, as he had told her on the phone. “How was the flight?” he asked.
“Like any flight. The best part is arriving.”
He snickered. “The best part is still to come, but before I present it I’d like to understand the arrangement with Ben David. When does he arrive? Where will he stay, and how long will he spend with the boy?”
“He’s supposed to arrive in ten days, live at Marin’s expense in any hotel he wants, and teach the boy the Torah reading and haftarah for two hours a day, as well as some Jewish law.”
Jacob placed a photo in Sally’s lap. Sally examined it carefully. “Do you think they’re—” she asked.
“Yes,” he replied curtly.
“Any others?”
Jacob handed her more and more photos. They all depicted a dark-skinned man frolicking in bed with a blonde woman. They were both naked, captured in various positions. “How long has this been going on?” Sally asked.
“Two days.”
“That’s what I suspected. Those are exactly the two days that passed since the postman disappeared. He was no longer needed when the real thing arrived.” She looked at the photos again. “How did he enter the house?”
“That’s a question your Swiss detectives need to answer,” Jacob smiled. “On my shift, it wouldn’t have happened.”
“My Swiss detectives froze two nights ago, and disappeared from the hospital this morning.”
“How convenient.”
“I still need to ask their office what exactly happened. At the moment, it seems like someone paid them off so that we don’t know that Ben David is already here.” She focused her gaze on the short and extremely hairy man. “I never imagined he could seduce her, such a Nordic princess.”
“I’ve realized there are two types of men,” Jacob said. “Those who look good and those who are sweet talkers. He probably belongs to the second category.”
Sally handed him the photos back. “Keep these in a safe, and meanwhile I’d like you to continue photographing anything taking place inside the house for twenty-four hours.”
Jacob shook his head. “That’s dangerous. You got what you wanted, and now I want to take the system apart. The punishment here is five years in prison and they cut you no slack.”
“I told you that I found cameras in Marin’s house too.”
“Marin films in his own place. It’s not nice, but it’s legal. We’re photographing other people, which is forbidden.”
“I have to know what’s going on in there,” Sally said. “I have no other source but your cameras. Were it not for them, I wouldn’t have known Ben David was here, and worse, I wouldn’t have known he’s having an affair with Muriel.”
Jacob shook his head decisively. “No more filming. The frozen detective business makes me suspect that someone is double-crossing you Sally, and that someone can take me down too. He knows everything you do. The immediate suspect is, of course, the detective agency you hired. Unlike me, they’re not committed to you personally, and anyone can buy them. I only hope you haven’t given them any information about me.”
Sally was grateful for her decision to compartmentalize her contacts. “They don’t know you exist. Neither does Diana.”
“Diana is the woman who installed the eavesdropping equipment at Ben D
avid’s home? The one who used to work for the Mossad?”
“Yes. Jerry has known her for many years.”
Jacob nodded, reflective, and put the photos in the glove compartment. “What do you plan to do next?”
Sally thought for a moment. “I think,” she said, “I’m going to have a painful conversation with Pierre Marin.”
37.
Natalia’s face wore an expression of amazement. “Madame Sally, why didn’t you ask to be picked up? A taxi from Geneva must have cost you a fortune.” She opened the boot and extracted Sally’s small suitcase. “You’ve only come for a day or two?” she asked.
“That’s what I thought,” Sally replied. “Now I’m not so sure any more.”
Natalia nodded with understanding. “Yes, that’s how it works, things change. There have been changes here too. Monsieur Marin will tell you. He just finished eating and went to wait for you in the lounge when you called at the gate.”
Marin was indeed waiting for her, seated tall and elegant on one of the couches. On a small table next to him stood a coffee pot and small cup. He gestured to the couch across from him. “I don’t want you to surprise me again, Sally. If I weren’t home they wouldn’t have let the taxi in, you know.”
“I know,” said Sally calmly. “If they hadn’t let me in, I would have waited in the taxi until you arrived.”
“And what if I were abroad?”
“I would have asked when you return, then gone back to Geneva and waited.”
He looked at her with amazement. “All that to save a simple phone call?”
“I don’t know who listens in on your phone lines,” she said tiredly. “The detective agency I hired in Geneva probably double-crossed me, and a few other things have happened, so at the moment I trust no one.”
“Wait, wait.” He held up his palm to stop her. “Tell me everything from the beginning.”
“Yesterday I was informed that the investigators watching the house in Gstaad froze in the cold and were evacuated to hospital at night. I was also told that the postman, who would arrive at the house every day to deliver a letter to Muriel, stopped coming. I felt something was wrong. I immediately flew to Geneva, and when I arrived I realized that as soon as the surveillance stopped, Ben David came to the house. I’m certain the detective agency colluded with him.”
Marin frowned. “He was supposed to arrive only next week to prepare Joel for his bar mitzvah.”
“Yes, and you’re probably wondering why he came early.”
“Exactly.”
“Well, there’s no pleasant way to say this.” Sally hesitated. “It’s no coincidence that he arrived early or that somehow he removed the surveillance on the house. He—he’s having an affair with Muriel.”
A nervous muscle twitched in Marin’s face. “How did you find out?”
“I can’t say.”
“Do you have proof?”
“Photos. Lots of them. I can show you one or two, but I’ll need to take them right back.”
“You don’t trust me?” he asked coldly.
“The law here forbids hidden photography, and if I leave them with you you’ll have become an accomplice.”
Suddenly, without warning, he slapped the table. “You’re lying!” His lips quivered. “You don’t want to give me the photos because there are none. You’re going to show me a blurry photo and immediately take it away, and so prove that Muriel is betraying me? Is that the plot? Finally, your true colors are revealed Madame Sally Amir. You don’t want money or any other reimbursement, but instead you want to destroy me with a lie. That’s why you arrived by surprise and this time you’re also staying in a hotel, aren’t you? You knew that if your lie was discovered I’d banish you immediately. Well, you were right. Natalia!” he shouted.
The housekeeper arrived immediately.
“Order a taxi for Madame Amir, and have her wait in the waiting room until it arrives,” Marin bellowed.
Natalia dawdled for a moment, embarrassed.
“Now!”
Natalia curtsied.
“I do have photos,” Sally said coldly, “and when you recompose yourself I may be able to show you one or two. You can find me at the Hotel d’Angleterre in Geneva.”
“Even if you show me photos I won’t believe it,” Marin said, sullen. “You’re tricking me! You’ve all conspired against me. It’s Photoshopped. Someone here is trying to deceive me. I want nothing more to do with you.”
“Why, because I ended the illusion that you control all aspects of your life? Because I didn’t tell you everything is OK like everyone else around you?”
Marin turned his back to her and didn’t answer. His shoulders shook with anger, or perhaps with tears.
“Madame Sally,” Natalia said softly. “Come with me, please.”
38.
When she arrived at the hotel, Jacob was already waiting for her on a couch in the lobby. They went up to her room, where she told him the details of her visit with Marin. “Did you bring the photos?” she asked finally.
“Yes,” he pulled the envelope out of his briefcase. “The less we wander around with these, the less likely we get into trouble,” he said. “They should be kept in a vault.”
“Soon you’ll be able to put them there. I just want to take a photo or two out of the package—it won’t be too embarrassing on the one hand, but on the other will reflect reality and can be shown to Marin.”
“That’s very dangerous. If he leaks them we’re in trouble.”
“Don’t worry,” said Sally and opened the envelope. Within half an hour, dozens of surveillance photos were spread out on her large bed. Dark- and fair-skinned limbs intermingled, and the backdrop moved from a pink sheet to dark couches and even to the wooden kitchen counter. Sally grouped them according to their level of offensiveness. She finally chose three photos that could serve as decisive proof—but not too blunt—of the sexual nature of Ben David and Muriel’s relationship. “Tomorrow I’ll pick one to show Marin,” she said.
“Your self-confidence never ceases to surprise me.” Jacob smiled. “How do you know he’ll want to see them?”
“I know people. He trusts me and secretly knows I haven’t tricked him. When he comes to his senses he’ll want to know the truth.”
She was right. The following morning at nine a.m., the phone rang in her room. “Madame Amir?” asked an official voice. “This is Marie Calderon, Pierre Marin’s office manager. He would like to speak to you.”
“Please,” replied Sally.
Marin’s apology was short and to the point. An hour after he ended the conversation with, “I really appreciate the fact you aren’t holding a grudge,” one of his cars pulled up at the hotel. This time it wasn’t Jacques who was driving, and when Sally asked about him, the new driver said he didn’t know the man.
By noon she was sitting across from Marin, who placed himself behind his large wooden desk at his hilltop palace. “I’d like to apologize again,” he began.
“There’s no need,” said Sally as she pulled the chosen photo from her handbag. Silently, she placed it on the table in front of him. He stared at it for a long while. He intertwined his fingers, his knuckles whitening, but his speech was subdued. “I gather there are more,” he said.
“Many more. A few CDs of non-stop footage.”
“Could you leave the photo with me anyway?” he asked. “I’d like Joel to see it and know the truth about his mother. She convinced him that I had banished her to find myself a younger woman.”
“You’ll have to convince him some other way,” Sally said decisively. “The photo must return with me to Geneva.”
He thought for a moment before saying, “I want Ben David eliminated.”
“You mean physically killed?”
“Yes. I want nothing to be left of him.”
Sally
swallowed with amazement. “He did sleep with your wife, but that’s no reason to murder him.”
“He hurt my honor. No one ever hurt my honor without punishment. I want him dead, and you, with your connections, can get it done.”
“No way,” she said.
To her surprise, Marin seemed disappointed. “You said you wanted to help me get rid of Ben David, and now that the moment has come you become evasive.”
“I didn’t mean to get rid of him in that sense.” She pulled the photo back to her. “You’re so used to having things your own way that you’ve lost perspective.”
“All right,” he said. “I understand. You won’t help me.”
“Pierre,” she said, looking into his blue eyes. “Even if you ask someone else to knock off Ben David, that’s murder, and it gets you sent to jail. If I hear that Ben David died and suspect that someone killed him on your orders, I will not remain silent.”
He looked at her with astonishment. “You’ll tell on me?”
“I have my red lines, Pierre, and once you kill a man you will no longer be the Pierre I appreciate so much. You’ll just be a criminal, even if you did not carry out the crime yourself.” She sent an encouraging smile in his direction. “You’re upset right now. Once you calm down, we’ll plan how to finish Ben David in our own way.”
He shook his head. “You don’t understand. He’s the real murderer. When you were away, a few things happened. A car hit my limousine on the road heading down to the village. Jacques couldn’t brake and plunged into the ravine. After the funeral, we discovered a recording device in the apartment above the garage. We followed the wires and found cameras broadcasting to there from across the mansion. You understand, Jacques, my driver—” he hit the armrest with rage “—he knew all the places I went, some of the people who traveled with me, not to mention the women…”
Married to the Mossad Page 15
