Numbered Account

Sylvia lifted herself on an elbow and brushed the hair from her face. "Nick wants to find a Caspar Burki. Burki was a portfolio manager in our London branch who recommended a man named Allen Soufi as a client to Nick's father. Did you know him?"

"Who, Burki? Of course, I knew him. I hired the man. He was an odd type. Kept to himself, as I remember. He retired a while ago. Disappeared from sight."

"I meant Allen Soufi."

Kaiser shook his head, feigning ignorance, though his heart had jumped at the name. "Soufi? Can't recall. How do you spell it?"

Sylvia spelled the name and Kaiser denied having ever heard of it. Soufi was a ghost from the past- a man whom everyone would prefer to remain dead.

"Burki still lives in Zurich," Sylvia pointed out. "Nick has a hunch he knows who this Soufi is. He's sure that Burki can tell him if he's right or wrong."

"You didn't give him the address?"

"I did," she said defiantly.

Damn! thought Kaiser. He felt like slapping her across the face, but he was careful to control his raging emotions. His anger subsided, and he realized that his first concern had been about losing young Neumann, not about the unmasking of Allen Soufi. Strange. When Sylvia had come to him three weeks ago with news that Nicholas was interested in checking the bank's archive for clues about his father's killer, he had felt that no harm could come from letting the boy have a look at his father's moldy reports. If Nicholas were to assume a position of importance on the Fourth Floor, any questions about the bank's role in his father's death had to be put to rest.

"Alex Neumann was scared that someone was after him," Sylvia said, apparently anxious to make up for her error in judgment. "He looked into getting a bodyguard."

"A bodyguard?"

"Yes. He even called the FBI."

Good Lord, this was getting worse by the minute! Kaiser sat up in bed. "How do you know all this?"

Sylvia pushed herself away from him. "Nick told me."

"But who told him? His father died when the boy was ten years old."

"I'm not sure. I can't remember exactly what Nick said."

Kaiser grabbed her shoulder and shook her once. "Tell me the truth. It's obvious you're hiding something. If you want to help me keep the bank free from Konig, you'll tell me at once."

"You don't have to worry. You're not involved in this."

"Let me be the judge of that. Tell me this instant how Neumann found out this nonsense about Allen Soufi and about the FBI."

Sylvia lowered her head. "I can't."

"You can and you will. Or maybe you'd prefer that I follow Rudy Ott's advice and cancel your trip to the States. I'll make damn sure you spend the rest of your career where you are now- a lousy vice president. You and a hundred fifty other losers."

Sylvia stared at him hatefully. Her cheeks were flushed, and he noticed that a tear had fallen from one eye. "You've fallen in love with him, haven't you?"

"Of course not." She sniffled, blinking back a few tears, then took a deep breath and said, "Alex Neumann kept a daily agenda. Nick found two of them when he cleaned up his mother's affairs after her death. For 1978 and 1979. That's how he knew about Soufi and the FBI."

Kaiser massaged his neck in a futile attempt to lessen his growing anxiety. Why was he learning about an agenda only now?

"The FBI?" he asked. "Sounds like the man really was in trouble. What exactly did he write in this agenda of his?"

"Just the name of a special agent and the telephone number. Nick was never able to get any information out of them."

Thank God for that. "My name wasn't anywhere, was it?"

"Only on the activity reports."

"Naturally. I was head of the international division. I was copied on every report submitted by all of our representative branches. It's the agenda I'm interested in. You're sure my name was not in it?"

She wiped her cheek with the bed sheet. She was looking better now. The girl had obviously realized where her priorities lay. "Maybe a few times," she said. " 'Call Wolfgang Kaiser.' 'Dinner Wolfgang Kaiser.' That's all. Nothing to worry about. If you weren't involved with this Mr. Soufi, it doesn't matter what Nick finds out."

Kaiser gritted his teeth. "I'm only worried for the bank," he said in his most professional voice. But inside his head another voice chided young Neumann. Damn you, Nicholas! I wanted you at my side. Seeing you walk into my office that day was like seeing your father all over again. If I could have convinced you to stay at my side, then I would have known that the course I set for the bank, the actions I undertook to ensure we reached our destination, however extreme, were correct. It was your father who was mistaken, not me. The bank is bigger than one man. Bigger than a friendship. I thought surely you would have recognized that. Now, what am I going to do with you?