“Dave Gifford, Hotel Vieux,” a male voice said.
As he’d left his hotel earlier McVey had slipped the concierge, an expatriate American, a two-hundred-franc tip and asked to be informed of any calls or transmissions that came for him.
“I get a fax from L.A.?”
“No, sir.”
What the hell was Hernandez doing with the Osborn information, hand-delivering it to Paris? Sitting down, McVey flipped open a notebook and picked up a pencil. He had two calls from Detective Barras, an hour apart. One from a plumber in Los Angeles confirming his automatic lawn sprinklers had been installed and were working. But wanted McVey to call back and let him know what days and length of watering time he wanted them set for.
“Jesus,” McVey said under his breath.
Lastly there was a call the concierge felt was a crank. In fact the caller had rung back three times, wanting to speak to McVey personally. Each time he’d left no message, but each time he’d sounded a little more desperate.
He’d given his name as Tommy Lasorda.
66
JOANNA FELT as if she had been drugged and lived through a nightmare.
After her marathon sexual regatta with Von Holden in the mirrored pool room, Von Holden had invited her to come with him into Zurich. Her first reaction had been to smile and beg off. She was exhausted. She’d spent seven hours earlier that day with Mr. Lybarger, working him hard, and often against his will, to make him confident enough to walk without his cane. Trying to make Salettl’s crazy Friday deadline. By 3:30 she’d seen he had done as much as he could do and had taken him to his quarters to rest. She’d expected he’d nap, have a light dinner in his room and probably go to bed very early. But, there he’d been, formally dressed at dinner, bright and alert and with enough reserve to listen to Uta Baur’s never-ending chatter and then, afterward, walk to the second floor to attend the piano recital by Eric and Edward.
If Mr. Lybarger could do it, Von Holden teased, Joanna could certainly drive into Zurich for some infamous Swiss chocolat? Besides it was barely ten o’clock.
Their first stop had been at one of James Joyce’s favorite restaurants on Ramistrasse, where they had chocolat and coffee. Then Von Holden had taken her to a crazy cafe on Munzplatz, just off the Bahnhofstrasse, to see the nightlife. After that they’d gone to the Champagne Bar at the Hotel Central Plaza and then to a pub on Pelikanstrasse. Finally they walked down to watch the moon over the Zurichsee.
“Want to see my apartment?” Von Holden smiled mischievously as he leaned on the railing and tossed a coin into the water for good luck.
“You’re kidding!” Joanna thought she could never walk again.
“Not kidding at all.” Von Holden reached out and touched her hair.
Joanna was amazed at her arousal. Even giggled out loud at it.
“What’s funny?” Von Holden said.
“Nothing—”
“Come, then.”
Joanna stared at him. “You are a bastard.”
“Can’t help it.” He smiled.
They had cognac on his terrace overlooking the Old Town and he told her stories of his boyhood and growing up on a huge cattle ranch in Argentina. After that he’d taken her to his bed and they’d made love.
How many times has it been tonight? Joanna remembered thinking. Then remembered him standing over her, his penis still enormous, even in repose, and, smiling and embarrassed, asking her if she would very much mind if he tied her wrists and ankles to the bedposts. And then he’d stumbled around in a closet until he’d come out with the soft velvet straps he wanted to use. He didn’t know why he wanted to, but always had. The thought of it excited him immensely. And when she’d looked and seen how immensely, she’d giggled and told him to go ahead if it would please him.
It was then, before he did it, that he’d told her he’d never had a woman do to him what Joanna did. And he’d dribbled cognac over her breasts and, like a Cheshire cat in heat, slowly licked them clean. In physical ecstasy, Joanna lay back as he bound her to the bedposts. By the time he lay down on the bed next to her, bright pinpoints of light were sparkling in the back of her eyes and she was beginning to feel a lightheadedness she’d never before experienced. Then she felt his weight on her, and the size of him as he slid so massively into her. And with each thrust, the pinpoints of light grew larger and brighter and behind them she saw incredible colored clouds floating in wild and grotesque formations. And somewhere, if there was a where, in the surreal kaleidoscope engulfing her—in the center of it, the center of her—she had the sensation that Von Holden had gone and that another man had taken his place. Struggling against her own dream, she tried to open her eyes to see if it was true. But that kind of consciousness wasn’t possible and instead, she fell only deeper into the erotic whirl of light and color and the sensation of her own experience.
When she woke, it was already afternoon and she realized she was in her own bed at Anlegeplatz. Getting up, she saw her clothes from the night before, neatly folded on her dresser. Had she had a dream of dreams, or had it been something else?
It was a short time later, when she was showering, that she saw the scratch marks on her thighs. Looking in the mirror, she saw there were scratches on her buttocks as well, as if she had run naked through a field of thorn- bushes. Then she had the vaguest memory of running naked and horrified from Von Holden’s apartment. Down the stairs and out the back door. And Von Holden had come after her and finally caught her in the rose garden behind his building.
Suddenly she didn’t feel well at all. A wave of nausea swept over her. She was freezing cold and unbearably hot at the same time. Gagging, she flung open the toilet and threw up what was left of the chocolat and last night’s dinner.
67
IT WAS 2:40 in the afternoon. Osborn had called McVey three times at his hotel, only to be told that Monsieur McVey was out, had left no time when he would be expected back, but would be checking in for messages. By the third call, Osborn was going through the roof, the built-up anxiety of what he had decided to do made all the worse by the fact that McVey was nowhere to be found. Rationally and emotionally he’d already put himself in the policeman’s hands and, in doing so, had prepared himself for whatever that meant: a fellow American who would understand and help, or a quick ride to a French jail. He felt like a balloon stuck to a ceiling, trapped but free at the same time. All he wanted to do was be hauled down but there was no one to pull the string.
Standing alone, showered and freshly shaved, in Philippe’s basement flat, he struggled with what to do next. Vera was on her way to her grandmother’s in Calais, transported there by the police who had been guarding her. And even though Philippe had made the call, Osborn wanted to think she had realized it was he who was telling her, that Philippe was only his beard. He hoped she understood that he was asking her to go there not only for her own safety but because he loved her.
Earlier, Philippe had looked at him and told him to use his apartment to clean up. Laying out fresh towels, he’d unwrapped a new bar of soap and given him a razor to shave. Then, saying to help himself to whatever he found in the icebox, the doorman had done up his tie and gone back to work. From his position in the front lobby he would know what the police were up to. If something happened, he would telephone Osborn immediately.
