The Stronger Sex

Contrary to my expectations, Hochkeppel was still at his desk. He seemed to have put off his lunch break because he wanted to know about my visit to his friend.

“I’d assume you have a pretty good idea of how it went.” I sat down in his visitor’s chair and took Klofft’s folder out of my briefcase. “But before I forget, I’m to give you Frau Klofft’s regards. She told me to say so. In fact she told me twice.”

“What kind of impression?” I shrugged my shoulders. “A very pleasant lady. Clever too, I’d say. But I don’t think she has an easy time of it with her husband.”

“You’re probably right, yes.” He suddenly sat up straight and looked at me. “Did he… I mean, I hope he didn’t treat her badly in front of you?”

“No, no, she wasn’t in on our conversation at all. She took me up to him and then went away. I only meant the man isn’t… well, he obviously isn’t well. And I wouldn’t be surprised if he sometimes takes it out on her.”

He nodded, his mouth twisting. “I wouldn’t be surprised either.” It almost looked as if he had to make an effort not to say something worse about his friend Klofft.

“Inability to respect other people!” He cleared his throat thoroughly and adopted another position in his chair. Then he said, “No, she thinks he’s getting Parkinson’s disease. Or has it already.”

I nodded. “I don’t know exactly what the symptoms are, but I did notice that his hands tremble. And he sometimes seems to lose the thread of the conversation. That was my impression, anyway.”

“Yes, shakiness is part of it. And the mind sometimes misfires too. Also – how to put it? Difficulty moving about. She’s told me he fell over a few times recently for no good reason. It upsets his balance, so to speak.” After a brief pause he said, “That’s why he doesn’t go out any more. Certainly not to his works.” He looked at me with a grim smile. “He’s afraid his people will see what’s wrong with him. He couldn’t bear that.”

He laughed. “You don’t suppose that idiotic macho man would ever let a doctor examine him properly, do you? Not him. ‘Never had a day’s illness in my life.’ You know some fools like that, I’m sure. ‘Never been off work for a day either.’” After another pause he said, bitterly, “He’d rather be a burden on his wife.”

He fell silent, staring into space. I’d seldom seen him in a mood like this, in fact I’d never seen him like it. And there was more behind his gloom than annoyance with a friend whose overbearing nature made demands on people.

I’d already had a slight suspicion, a kind of feeling when I heard Cilly Klofft talk about Hochkeppel, but now I was almost sure of it: there’d been something between the two of them, maybe just affection, or maybe something stronger that they both kept under control, or perhaps only she did. Or maybe there’d been an uncontrollable outburst of passion, an actual affair. Very risky, considering her husband; if he’d got on the trail of any lover of his wife he would presumably have dealt summarily with the other man.

It surprised me to think Hochkeppel might have been bold enough to run a risk like that. But who knew what he’d been like in his younger days? And it seemed to me perfectly possible that Cilly Klofft had been capable of it. Hadn’t I been thinking that even now she might still be ready for an adventure?

As with his friend a little while ago, it was some time before we came to the point. He kept straying into his memories of the lack of consideration that Klofft had shown all his life in carrying his own wishes through against all resistance and all opponents, not least against the wishes of his own wife.

Finally, and after I had glanced at my watch as if casually, he said, “Well, so how about the case in which we’re to represent him? All his wife told me was that he’d fired a female employee of many years’ standing without notice, and now he’s apparently afraid he’s got himself into difficulties.”

I said that was the nub of the story, although I still had to look through the file that Klofft had given me, and we didn’t have the details of the charges the woman was bringing yet. But from what he had told me, his grounds for dismissing her were very shaky. I told him the background to the incident just as Klofft had told it to me, and then said that in the entrepreneur’s opinion his employee had, first, obtained a medical certificate by devious means, and second, had taken time off when she had not been given permission to do so.

“He’s surely not seriously going to attack the doctor too, is he?” Open-mouthed, he looked at me. When I shrugged my shoulders again, he leaned forward. “I advise you very forcibly to steer clear of that argument. I’ve never yet won a case by managing to prove that a doctor made out a medical certificate for someone in defiance of the facts.”

I said, “If he accepts that the medical certificate was correctly made out for Frau Fuchs, then his second reason for firing her falls through as well.”

He nodded. “Yes, of course. Because then the lady didn’t take time off just because she wanted to, she took time off because she was sick.” He shook his head. “This is a definitely gloomy prospect.”

“I thought he was going to throw me out, but then he just chucked this file at me.” I picked up Klofft’s folder and made as if to throw it Hochkeppel’s way.

“First I’ll study this file at my leisure. And then I’ll try to think what might be dug up and exploited for our benefit. For instance, it may be possible to claim that Frau Fuchs’s conduct was injurious to her health. I know she spent that week in a de luxe hotel, she’ll have been waited on hand and foot, but the whole trip might perhaps be represented as too strenuous for her; we could say that at the very least it delayed her recovery. It might be necessary to get an expert opinion.”

He raised one finger, “Careful! An expert opinion can get you quite a long way, but the courts are rather broadminded in such cases. As I’m sure you know. If you have a medical certificate saying you must take time off work sick, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to stay in bed. Or even at home.”

He waved this aside. “Well, yes, and that’s only one of a whole series of judgements. Only one or two years ago there was one, I think it was the Hamm case, a woman, someone’s common-law spouse, who was off work sick, went to a football match and moreover put on a steward’s jacket because she’d worked for the club before as a steward now and then, so her employer thought he could fire her without notice or any previous warning, for conduct liable to aggravate her state of health. Nothing doing! He lost spectacularly in the employment tribunal. Lost the appeal in the provincial employment tribunal too.”

After a brief pause he added, “That woman had something the matter with her back too.” He smiled. “Probably another case of lumbar vertebral syndrome.”

He nodded. “Keep me in the loop. And something else.” He sat up straight in his armchair and looked intently at me. “Do everything necessary in this case, won’t you? And everything possible.” He stroked his chin. After a little hesitation he said, “Whatever happens, I’d like to avoid the impression that I… or rather we… let the case fail when it could have been won. For which I would ultimately be responsible.” Another pause, and he added, “It would look as if I’d wanted him to lose. To get my own back on him.”

“I’ll do my best.” I stood up, nodded to him, took Klofft’s folder and went to the door. As I was going out, he said, “Wait, Alexander – wait a moment longer.”

I stopped and turned back. He was sitting there in his chair, hands on its arms, rubbing his forehead. “What did you say the woman was called… Frau Fuchs?”

When I was finally sitting in front of him again, he cleared his throat, leaned over the desk and said, “He’s had a relationship with this Frau Fuchs for years. I don’t know exactly since when, but I think it began as soon as he’d given her the job.”

“Yes, he was. But you needn’t think it was some kind of last-minute panic. The randiness of old age, or whatever you like to call it. He’d always slept around. Good old Herbert, never missed a chance. And when there wasn’t a chance, he went looking for one. Usually found it, too.” He looked out of the window again, and then at me. “But this was different, this relationship with Frau Fuchs. I think he even bought her an apartment. Bought it and made a present of it to her, if I’m not mistaken.”

After a little while, when he seemed to be thinking, he said, “He didn’t talk about this liaison, unlike his other conquests. He did drop a word to me now and then, though. Maybe to make me envious.” He smiled. “Or because he couldn’t help it. Remarks about his Käthchen, as he called her. Käthchen, who was so capable at work. Who cast all the men into the shade but was still so feminine. A dream woman.” He smiled, and fell silent, looking at his hands, which he had clasped on top of his desk.

I said, “And when I think of the terms in which he spoke of her, I do very much doubt whether he ever really… really felt any deep affection for her.”

“Well… well, he doesn’t know me from Adam. But he literally talked about her bum, and that’s not all, he talked about her – er, sweet little arse. That doesn’t exactly sound as if he respects her.”

“Yes, well.” He rubbed his chin. I could hardly believe my eyes, but he was actually smiling, and he obviously had a lot of trouble in suppressing that smile. In the end, he said, “Well, you see, Alexander, maybe you don’t quite understand that. As he sees it, such expressions are a compliment. Her – the part of her body he described so coarsely…” – he shrugged his shoulders and smiled – “he loves her the way she is, in his own way. His Käthchen. And that part of the body is an important asset of hers. As he sees it.”

He sighed. “Yes.” Then he leaned forward. “Of course I’m also assuming that she’s dumped him. He himself,” he added, shaking his head, “wouldn’t have parted from her of his own accord. Wouldn’t have thrown her out of her job. But maybe she’s found someone younger. Someone who suits her better. And I can well imagine that firing her may have meant nothing but his personal reaction to that. Over the top and out of control.” He slumped back in his chair. “And if I’m right there, you will certainly have problems with this case. He’ll lie through his teeth, not just to you but to any and every tribunal. He’ll even forge evidence if he has to, just to get his own back on the woman.”

I thought about this for a while. Then I said, “Do you think it’s possible that he invented that order from a foreign customer? To give him a reason to say she couldn’t have time off? I mean the order that never materialized later because apparently…”

He interrupted me. “Yes, of course! Don’t underestimate him. He doesn’t need a legal adviser to know that he really couldn’t have forbidden her to take time off without some good reason.”

Finally he said, “I’m sorry, Alexander, but… you have to see this through! I know it’s a difficult case. And I’ll give you all the assistance I can. But this business is, well, very unpleasant for me. A very delicate matter.” He fell silent for a moment and then said, “I need your help. Do you understand?”