Страница 84 из 111
“As I said, I work for the Federal Attorney’s Office in Bern, which is called the Bundesanwaltschaft. I was following a suspect in an ongoing investigation who had been using a post office box in Interlaken-”
“Wait a second, are you or are you not ‘Aunt Jane’?”
“I am not.”
“Then what the hell were you doing at the Ice Palace?”
“I think I can make the situation somewhat clearer if you’ll allow me.”
“Be my guest.”
“Once a week, my suspect travels to the post office to check for mail. He is a creature of habit, typical Swiss, very methodical and always comes on the same day at normally the same time, so I have a certain window in which I know I can check the box to see if he has received anything that might help me in tying him to my case.”
“Tying him to your case? Is he a suspect or not?”
“I haven’t been able to gather enough evidence yet, but I know he is somehow involved. I have what you Americans refer to, I believe, as a hunch.”
“Yes, hunch is the correct word. But that’s legal in Switzerland? Reading someone’s mail? Please, not so tight on the bandage.”
“I know what I am doing, Agent Harvath.”
“How do you know who I am?”
“Which question should I answer first?” she said, giving Scot a little slack in his dressing before taping the gauze in place.
“Lady’s choice.”
“Pardon me?”
“It means you choose, lady.”
“I see. Like my suspect, I am also somewhat methodical and of course am Swiss, so I’ll take your questions in order. As far as the legality of investigating the suspect’s mail, it depends upon the severity of the charge and the investigator. And as for knowing who you are, Jackie told me everything.”
“Everything?”
“She cares about you a great deal and is very worried about you. Don’t be upset with her. She did the right thing in calling me. I was just as shocked to see you lying in that bed as you were to see me. I thought you had brought those two men to the Ice Palace to kill me.”
“You? Why would I do that?”
“Why does anyone commit murder? I’m sure the motivations are no different in Switzerland than they are in America. All I know is that after I picked up what I think I can correctly assume was your letter from the post box, I noticed I was being followed. I engaged in an evasive tactic-”
“Crossing to the bakery.”
“Yes, and then I secluded myself in a doorway and waited. As it turns out, I was more patient than you were.”
“In the Ice Palace, you called me by the name I had used in the post office and by my real name. How did you figure those out? Wait…the Sampras one is the easiest. You went back to the post office and asked if anyone had seen someone matching my description?”
“You are quite charming, Agent Harvath. The woman at the poste restante window remembered you perfectly. She also had your alias written down on a piece of paper to check for your envelope, which still hasn’t come, by the way.”
“I’ll have to tell her not to hold her breath.”
“I already did. She was quite disappointed she wouldn’t be seeing you again. Now, as far as getting your real name, that was a little more difficult. I had seen you on the street, but was able to get a better look at your face from the post office surveillance tape. The female clerk told me you were American, so I went back to my office and started doing some searches on the computer, starting with our watch list.
“Two names had recently been added-a German and an American. The description of the American sounded like it could fit you. I E-mailed a request to the authoring agency and not long after received a picture of you. The hair is quite different, of course, but that only made it more obvious.”
“Authoring agency? What do you mean by you E-mailed them a request?”
“They are the people who put your name on our watch list. Sometimes it’s an Interpol request; sometimes it’s a local or federal Swiss agency; sometimes it’s another country…There is often a wide array of agencies who add to a watch list for a wide variety of reasons.”
“I know about watch lists, thank you very much. What I want to know is who put me on yours? It was an American agency of course.”
“Yes. It was your State Department. The man who called me mentioned-”
“Called you? Who called you?”
“After I requested the picture, I received a phone call. A man identified himself as being from a particular division of the State Department and said that he was responding to my E-mail request for your photo. He asked me a lot of questions and was frankly not very polite.”
“What did you tell him?”
“Basically, I told him nothing. I said we had a lot of ongoing investigations involving tourist crimes, and I wondered if you might somehow be involved. I wanted your picture so I could compare it against some recent witness descriptions we had received in several resort areas.”
“And you didn’t tell them you had seen me, or thought you had seen me?”
“No. I told them exactly what I just told you. Of course he reminded me several times about informing them immediately if I even thought I had seen you, and not to try and intercept you.”
“But you had seen me. Why didn’t you say something?”
“I didn’t say anything because if the U.S. State Department wanted you that bad and you were somehow associated with the case I was investigating, then I wanted you as well. I have been waiting for a break in this case. I’m certainly not going to sit back and turn it over to the Americans. No offense.”
“None taken, but I think you did turn it over.”
“What do you mean?”
“Was the German added to your watch list at the same time?”
“It was listed in the same update, which meant they had both been added in the same time period, yes.”
“Do you remember the name of the German?”
“I think it was something like Bru
“Could it have been Brauner?”
“It could have been. Yes, it was. Hans. Hans Brauner. I knew I would remember it.”
Harvath put his head in his hands and massaged his temples. “Can you be absolutely certain you were not followed here today?”
“Followed, why?”
“Just answer me, please,” said Scot.
“After I finally evaded the two men from the Jungfraujoch, I was extremely cautious, even paranoid. I am positive no one followed me here. Why?”
“I think I finally know how the shooters in Wengen picked up my trail.”
“Picked up your trail? Who are they?”
“They’re an American hit team that tried twice to kill me in Washington several days ago.”
“How did they track you here? Have you been using your real name to travel?”
“What am I, new? Please, Ms. Mueller, I don’t know how the Swiss do things, but trust me, we Americans are a lot more thorough than that.”
“So are we Swiss, Agent Harvath, but the only way someone who doesn’t want to be found gets found is if they make some sort of mistake.”
“Or if someone tips off the people looking for you, which is what I’m afraid you did quite unknowingly.”
“Me?”
“Yes, when you sent that E-mail asking for my picture, it started a whole chain of events. When I left the U.S., I was traveling as Hans Brauner, so the people who were after me had enough pull to get both my real name and my false one put on your watch list in case I turned up. Just asking for the picture was enough to make someone suspect that you knew more than you were telling. My guess is that as soon as they had figured out I was Brauner and had come to Switzerland, they sent a hit team over here. They got both the names on the watch list, and then it was just a waiting game.
“When you sent your E-mail, it got people thinking, and they decided to tail you. Either they didn’t see me follow you from the post office, or they hadn’t begun to tail you until you went to the Jungfraujoch the next day.”