“I said I think so. I’d rather not go into details at the moment, but we already appear to have some rather strong circumstantial evidence. A man named Sammy Bechot. Know him?”
“Never heard the name.”
“Looks a little like a beatnick. Twenty-seven years old. Average height. Fairly fat. Long hair, beard. Both dark. Mother tongue is French, but he speaks German quite well, with the usual accent. He’s a professional safecracker. Ring any bells?”
“Hardly.”
“We guessed as much. Fine, let’s try another approach now. And it’s extremely important that you concentrate,” stressed Bernoulli. “Do you mind if I smoke?”
“No, go right ahead.”
“Let’s go over your trip to London step by step. I am not particularly interested in what you did. I am extremely interested in whom you saw, whether deliberately, accidentally, or incidentally. Anybody and everybody who recognized you or could have recognized you.”
Bollinger nodded.
“First, who at the bank knew, or knows, about the purpose of your trip to London?”
“No one.”
“But surely your secretary or deputy must have known that you were meeting the American secretary of the treasury?”
“No, they did not then, nor do they have any knowledge of it now.”
“But how was the appointment arranged?”
“Secretary Crosby telephoned me at home to make the arrangements. Right here is where I took the call.” Bollinger pointed at a white telephone, neatly centred on a lace doily, which covered part of the top of an exquisite little side table that must have set Bollinger back at least a couple of thousand francs.
“Who lives with you?”
“No one. I am a bachelor, and my housekeeper, whom I’ve had for almost twenty years, takes care of the house during the day. She stays and cooks dinner only if I have guests. She is completely reliable and cannot possibly be involved in this dreadful thing.”
“I’ll accept that. So no one, absolutely no one here in Basel, knows about this document, nor about the purpose of your trip to London?”
“No one.”
“But you must have had some explanation for your flight over there.”
“I did give a very good one. The chancellor of the exchequer had repeatedly asked me to drop by to discuss the arrangement for unwinding the remnants of a very complex series of currency swaps which have developed over the years. I met him after my talks with Secretary Crosby, and we agreed on a most satisfactory series of steps to resolve this issue. In fact, my staff and I have been quite busy since my return with the implementation of our agreement.”
“Right. Now let’s concentrate on London itself.”
Bernoulli continued, “As I understand it, you flew over on the one o’clock flight on October 16. That would be sixteen days ago. I think it was a Thursday.”
“That’s all perfectly correct.”
“Now you arrived at Heathrow around two-fifteen local time. Did you talk to anybody at the airport or on the plane?”
“Nobody whatsoever.”
“Who met you in London?”
“No one. I rented a chauffeur-driven car from Hertz. I always do that. It’s only slightly more expensive than a taxi and immeasurably more comfortable. I went directly to the Savoy.”
“When did you meet Secretary Crosby?”
“Shortly after my arrival at the hotel. We met in his suite, and after very long talks, ate dinner together in the Grill Room.”
“Did you continue your business talks over dinner?”
“Yes, of course. But we had a table quite to ourselves.”
“You noticed no one in your vicinity acting overly curious?”
“Of course not. Otherwise we would hardly have continued our talks.”
“And after dinner?”
“We said good-bye at the elevator. I took the dossier to my room and went to sleep very early. Quite early the next morning I met the Bank of England people, as arranged.”
“And you met no one else in the hotel?”
“No one.”
“And you recognized no one in the hotel who might have recognized you and perhaps Crosby as well?”
“No one. Well, that’s not totally correct. In fact I did recognize one man. As we were leaving the Grill Room after dinner, I had to return to the table to retrieve my pen which I had left lying there. Just by chance I noticed Dr. Walter Hofer, dining by himself of all things, on the opposite side of the room.”
“Dr. Hofer of the General Bank of Switzerland?”
“Yes.”
“You know him well, of course.”
“Certainly.”
“Did you greet each other?”
“No. I’m sure he also did not notice me.”
“And did you see each other later in the hall, or perhaps the next morning over breakfast?”
“No.”
By this time Bollinger was getting a bit peeved. He had expected that he would have to answer some questions after talking to Bern, but there were ways of going about such things and ways not to. This chap Bernoulli was getting just a touch too arrogant for his taste. But there was no sense in showing it. Just as long as Bernoulli stayed clear of his private life. And so far, he had. But if the Americans got involved, they would grab onto that first thing and never let go.
“In other words, as far as you remember, Hofer was the only acquaintance of yours who might have seen you and Secretary Crosby together?”
“Yes, if you want to put it that way.”
“That’s the way I want to put it.”
A smart ass, that’s what he is, thought Bollinger. He hoped it did not show.
Bernoulli continued. “Now I must assume that you made no mention of this whole thing at the Bank of England.”
“Yes, you’re quite safe in that assumption, my dear Doktor Bernoulli.”
Aha, thought Bernoulli. Finally getting under his skin. That’s always good.
“Right,” he said aloud. “Now let’s cover the trip home.”
“That’s quite simple. After lunch at the Bank of England, I went directly to the airport even though it was a bit early. It was the same story there. I saw no one I knew and talked to no one but the girl at the newsstand in the international lounge.”
“Fine. Now let’s take the flight home.”
“Well, that was a bit different,” replied Bollinger. “First I met Igor Melekov of the Soviet Foreign Trade Bank on the plane. We have known each other for years. In fact, we sat together for part of the trip and chatted.”
“Where did you have the dossier?”
“In my briefcase, of course.”
“Did you ever take the dossier out of your briefcase while on the plane?”
“No.”
“What were you and this Russian talking about anyway?”
“Things which cannot possibly be of any relevance.”
“Ah, so.”
“After landing in Zurich I had about a forty-five-minute stopover before catching the connecting flight to Basel.”
“And your Russian friend?”
“He went into Zurich.”
“I see. Please continue.”
“I chatted with the VIP greeter in the Swissair lounge in Zurich. He took me directly to the plane in his car. On the plane I was recognized, greeted, and spoken to by my tailor. He was just coming back from a trip to South Africa.”
“Hm. Quite a tailor. And in Basel?”
“I took a taxi directly home, deposited the documents in my wall safe which you have examined, and retired for the evening.”
“Fine. Well, I think that does it for today,” said Bernoulli, and rose abruptly. “Say, do you by any chance know a man called Rolf Lutz? He used to be with the police department here—fraud squad.”
“No.”
“Have you ever had any dealings with a company called Swiss Security Consultants?”
“The bank does, yes. They make regular security sweeps. I personally find the whole idea absurd. But some of the Anglo-Saxon participants in our regular monetary meetings at the bank insisted.”