The Zurich Conspiracy

we know all that. Heinz is looking for aunts, uncles, distant relatives as we speak. But we might get there first. What—” Kündig came to life. About time! “What, three? How are they different? Yes, the minute she’s awake. Bye now.”
    Happy to be sprung from his uncomfortable white prison, he took the elevator to the cafeteria.
    He was knocking back his third espresso when his cell phone rang.
    “I’ve got to find the note first,” he said, thumbing through his notebook. “Shoot. What? Spell that, please.” Kündig wrote down three names and put a slash after the first before adding one more word.

She looked out the window. Blue-gray snow clouds covered the sky. She lit a second oil lamp. She’d finally have time to read the newspapers she’d brought along, including the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times —she knew what she had to do for Walther in her new position. Josefa would be amazed at how far busy little Claire had gone. And would still go.
    There was a time when she looked up to Josefa, admired her, would have done anything for her. But she was wrong about Josefa—how quickly an idol can fall from its pedestal! Josefa gave up without a struggle, simply pitched everything overboard that the two women had built up over four years. She betrayed her team, hung her assistant out to dry. What a pathetic defeat!
    How spineless women are! Women like Josefa. Women like her mother, who would always lay down her arms in front of her husband. Who would never give it right back to him. Who would never defend her daughter, never offer to protect her. A mother who betrayed her daughter. But you don’t know me, my dear sweet mother. Your daughter has learned to take what’s rightfully hers. By hook or by crook, at any cost, because you don’t get anything without paying a price. That’s exactly what Josefa had never realized.
    Claire angrily wiped some crumbs from the anise-seed stick off the table. She had gotten it so wrong.
    They both were obsessed and angry and plotted revenge. But only she had enough determination. The little assistant.
    Josefa had let herself be pushed out so easily. She wasn’t made for a no-holds-barred fight. She wasn’t the right caliber for the climb to the top. No elbows and skin that was far too thin. And she couldn’t use men for her own purposes, didn’t know how a woman could deploy the art of seduction properly, could bring sex into play. Josefa had nothing to fight Schulmann with. Simply hoisted the white flag. She was too naïve and far too easily intimidated. They both had a spiteful Fury hidden within, but Josefa just turned into a sensitive plant. And so her little assistant had to implement what the boss couldn’t achieve.
    I know how to use my enemies . The thought filled Claire with great satisfaction. She put the papers on the plain wooden table and pulled up a chair. Then she thought she heard something. An odd sound. She listened intently. Nothing, only the crackling of the fire.
    She sat down and opened up the first paper. One day her name would be in these pages. Her picture. The woman who made it. Who didn’t let herself get pushed around. Who couldn’t be shoved into a corner like some old umbrella. Who was craftier than all the rest, stronger, tougher. A warm, intoxicating feeling filled her. But before she could read the first paragraph, she heard it again. That noise. Only closer this time. Menacingly close.

When Kündig came back to the ward, Josefa greeted him with a worried look. Her face was abnormally flushed. “Have you found her yet?” she asked.
    Kündig shook his head and pulled out a piece of paper. “But we’re moving ahead.”
    “Is she in danger? What could happen to her?”
    Kündig shuffled his feet, embarrassed. He hadn’t told the patient the whole truth. She’d been led to believe that the police were looking for Claire Fendi as an important witness. Apparently that meant to Josefa that her former assistant could be a threat to somebody and for that reason could be in danger herself.
    “There’s no reason to worry,” Kündig assured her. “We’re doing all we can. As far as that valley is concerned, I have here three names, and maybe you can recall something about them.” He read the names: Mattental, Glaubiger Berg, Velten-Höhe.
    Josefa shrugged. “This will be disappointing for you. Claire never told me the name, and I never asked what it was, as incredible as it may sound.”
    Kündig stuck with it.