The Zurich Conspiracy

Feet. Rub your face until it hurts. Pull the protective blanket tighter.
    Think about Tenerife. The sun. The heat. Feel that warmth?
    I’m still alive. The water hasn’t got to me yet.
    Think about Helene. I can trust Helene. After all, she’s my best friend.
    Think about Sebastian Sauter. You’re sure to go to heaven, Frau Rehmer. My name’s Josefa. I think the name “Sebastian’s” cool. We might go to the opera together, Josefa. Rigoletto. Rigoletto! I’d love to, Sebastian. As soon as I’m back from my skiing holiday.
    Don’t be sad.
    Don’t drift off. Keep your mind busy. Recite a poem. Es reitet der Vater durch Nacht und Wind. The father? Er reitet durch Nebel und Nacht und Wind …She heard a horse’s hoof beats, rattling harness . In seinen Armen hält er das Kind…Er hält das Kind…das tote Kind.
    I must blow the whistle so the rider can hear me. The whistle, where’s my whistle?
    The horse, it’s coming closer. Rattling, and now voices. Light, a glaring light! “Shosefa.”
    Somebody was forcing her to sit up straight, holding her tight. “ Buvez, Shosefa. Tout est bien. Vous êtes sauvée.”
    A man was handing her a plastic cup. It was steaming. That smells good. That’s warm.
    “ Buvez ,” the man repeated. “ Ça vous fait chaud. Ça donne de la force .”
    Hands were picking her up, arms supporting her. “Can you stand up?” a woman asked. She had very short hair. Her face was sunburned, but two rings around her eyes were all white. Her lips were white. She had an orange jacket on and yellow pants . A clown , Josefa thought to herself.
    “We’ll take it very slowly.”
    Josefa felt her legs give way. Two men held her firmly under her arms.
    “ Ça va aller ,” one of them said. It’s going to be all right.

Helene spread a nightie out on the bedcovers—it was white, with red-and-black ladybugs on it. “I couldn’t find anything more elegant in your size in this godforsaken place. But I thought the green nightgowns with the slit down the back were far worse.”
    Josefa was touched, and she laughed, trying to fight back her tears, but then gave in. She was too weak to stop them. “It’s so nice to see you,” she said in an unsteady voice.
    “You weren’t so nice to look at when they brought you out of that cave. You were the picture of misery,” she replied in a gruff voice. It was her way of keeping strong emotions under control, as Josefa knew all too well. “But Valérie and the boys did a good job. They found you in two hours.”
    “Going through the first entrance?”
    “Yes, the second passage was flooded in spots. There must have been a fast inflow of water sometime earlier.”
    “Did they find…Pius?” Josefa had to struggle to get his name out.
    “No, not yet. Kündig from Criminal Investigation will be dropping by in a minute to ask you a few questions before going back to Zurich.”
    “I’d like to go back to Zurich too.”
    “That will take a while yet. Doctor says you’re suffering from shock; you were completely dehydrated and had hypothermia.”
    Josefa took Helene’s hand. “I was so afraid they wouldn’t find me,” she cried.
    “Bull.” Helene played with her hand. “I would never let you go into a cave and not check to see if you got back in one piece. That would be the last thing I’d do. But the cops were much faster.”
    “How long was I down there?”
    “A little more than fifty hours.”
    “Where’s my suitcase?”
    “The cops confiscated everything in the car. But you’ll get your things back. They must—”
    There was a knock at the door. Franz Kündig stuck his head in. Helene withdrew discreetly, promising to come back.
    “He tried to kill me, didn’t he?” Josefa asked the investigating officer as soon as Helene closed the door.
    “That’s something we still have to clear up, Frau Rehmer. Can you tell me what happened?”
    First she told him she suspected Pius might have been involved with Schulmann’s murder. Kündig watched her closely as he made notes. Then she began to recount the events in the cave.
    “Why did he want to kill me?” she asked. “Why did he think I posed a threat?” The question was burned into her brain.
    Kündig gazed out the window onto the wintry scene before him. He resisted the temptation to tell her about the CI’s most recent discoveries, replying instead, “We still know too little. His car was found at the cave entrance. We don’t know if he really wanted to kill you.