Siege at the Villa Lipp Read Online Free PDF Page A

insolent stare. ‘No, Mr Firman, that is not at all what I wish. I have already seen you, clearly and unmistakably, before. That was in Zürich five years ago when you were calling yourself Oberholzer.’
    ‘My name is Firman, sir.’
    He went on as if I had not spoken. ‘So, I have seen you twice. What I intend to do from now on is to talk with you.’ He patted the arm of the empty chair beside him. ‘Why don’t you sit down?’
    I remained standing. ‘I am sure that you will understand that I am a busy man, Mr Dopff. I simply came to tell you that the receptionist here gave me a strange message, from you he tells me, about two persons of whom I have never heard. It seemed proper and sensible to let you know that the message was either garbled or misdirected. That is all.’
    He showed his teeth again. ‘That garbled message brought you pretty quickly, Mr Oberholzer.’
    ‘The name, I repeat, is Firman.’
    ‘At the moment it is, yes. But it used to be Oberholzer, and I have no doubt that there have been, and still are, a great many other identities in your repertoire. How annoying it must be for you to realize that this time you can’t just run for it.’
    I gave him my little bow. ‘Except to escape the acute boredom of this conversation, Mr Dopff, why on earth should I run anywhere?’
    He was unruffled. ‘You ran in Zurich. Here, as you have obviously realized, you must try to bluff your way out. No head-start possible, no suitable cut-outs available and no inconspicuous exits handy. Agreed? So why not sit down and join me in a little whisky? In spite of your impressive outer calm, I am sure that you would find it helpful.’
    At that moment I had almost decided that he was some sort of private detective, a retired fraud-squad type. Anyway, it was time to counter-attack.
    I sighed and sat down in the chair beside him. ‘Very well, Mr Dopff. You want to talk. May I suggest a subject?’
    ‘Why not?’ He snapped his fingers for the waiter. ‘We can always change it.’
    ‘Then, since the subject of identity seems to interest you so much, why don’t we have a look at the one you’re using?’
    ‘By all means.’
    The waiter came then and took the order for more whisky. It was given in what sounded to me like Flemish.
    ‘For a start,’ I said, ‘I don’t think you’re a Luxembourger.’
    ‘Absolutely right!’ Beaming smile. He might have been playing a guessing game with a favourite grandchild.
    ‘And your name is not Dopff.’
    ‘Right again. My good friend Maurice Dopff, who lives and works in the Grand Duchy, registered for this affair and then found himself unable to attend. He kindly allowed me to come in his stead.’
    ‘Do you really expect me to believe that?’
    ‘Of course I don’t. He allowed himself to be used as cover.’ He fished out a visiting card and handed it to me. ‘Permit me to introduce myself formally. The name is Krom.’
    I knew at once exactly who he was. In the tax-avoidance game our coverage of legal and financial publications of all sorts and nationalities is as comprehensive as we can make it. The Institute and Symposia between them employed a multilingual, and very expensive, full-time research staff of eight as well as numerous part-timers. With us, good intelligence is as essential for survival as discipline and foresight. Our coverage of specialized technical journals dealing with law enforcement at policy-making levels is extremely thorough. Krom’s allusions to tax avoidance and evasion in the published version of his Berne lecture had been sufficient to ensure its being brought to my attention flagged with a red sticker. Even if he had not initiated our acquaintance by playing games with dead men’s names, I would have known enough about Krom to be wary of him.
    My first ploy, then, was to pretend that I knew nothing while working to find out more.
    I gave the card a perplexed look. ‘Well, Professor, this is all a bit surprising. As you can imagine,