Clandestine (37 page)

But at the rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques, one suddenly ran and leaped onto his bike to head to the left, the other to the right, leaving her no other choice. She couldn't go back to the tannery to warn anyone, for all would have already left, and she mustn't head for the rue Vercingétorix yet either. To do so would only lead them to Arie. At the least she would have to create a diversion and be seen, and that meant riding as far from here as possible to widen the net. Only then could she head for that safe house.

But she mustn't go anywhere near
place
de l'Opéra.

A bit of sash cord, once white, revealed that the wrists had been tied, likely behind the back.

‘
Ein Spitzel
, Kohler,' said Boineburg-Lengsfeld, nudging the scrap with the toe of an immaculately polished jackboot. ‘And a mere girl has caused this—Dutch, was she?'

The
pompiers
were uncoiling the fire hoses to wash away what the ambulance crews had failed to remove. ‘An under-diver, General, but one my partner and I have come to believe has FTP connections.'

And quite obvious! ‘But she also has other connections, Kohler?'

Because of their deliberate burning of the photos and negatives to save themselves, Bolduc, Reinecke and Heiss would now definitely be planning to use what they knew. ‘Yes, General. Hector Bolduc, owner and chairman of that bank and its van.'

‘And two from Abwehr-West, General. Overseers of his bank and accomplices in both Bolduc's
schwarzer Markt
activities and in his smuggling of individuals into and out of Paris for a substantial fee with or without Abwehr-West authority or any other.'

‘Both are also buying up cars that Bolduc's garage then get ready for them to sell in the Reich.'

And with fuel in such shortages the Wehrmacht in Russia were having to destroy perfectly good vehicles. Was there no end to the duplicity and disgrace those two were shedding on the Service? ‘Their names, Kohler. Admiral Canaris
*
will have to be informed. Would a tour of duty in Russia suit?'

Had that God of Louis's finally quit throwing rocks? ‘As soon as possible, General, to prevent them and Bolduc from interfering with our investigation. They'll now be determined to find her for themselves so that they can lay hands on the black diamonds before anyone else, including Ulrich Frensel and Johannes Uhl.'

And yet another two of the Führer's infernal riffraff. ‘
Ach
, do those diamonds even exist?'

‘It's highly unlikely, General,' said St-Cyr.

‘Yet this whole investigation centres around such a fiction?'

There was no point in avoiding it, felt Kohler. ‘On Thursday, General, Reinecke and Heiss are to deliver, with Bolduc, the flying boat his bank has donated to the Luftwaffe. '

‘They'll also take in the fall pot-shoot, General, and visit a few of the properties the two of them and that bank have been investing in.'

‘The properties, Kohler?'

‘Yes, General. Promising resort areas along the Côte d'Argent and Côte Sud des Landes, and vineyards and châteaux just to the north of Bordeaux in the Haut-Médoc and Médoc.'

‘Well, we shall see about that. You will, of course, still have to find her. We can't have banditry like this going on under our very noses even if it
is
over a fictitious cache of diamonds Kaltenbrunner and others insist on claiming exists. Now go and deal with those superiors of yours and then with that Kriminalrat and his. None of them will have taken it kindly your both having first talked to myself, so be sure to tell them I have important matters to attend to and must now take my leave.'

The salute he gave was not the usual but that of the soldier he'd been in that other war.

‘We have to leave with him, Louis. We can't pass up the excuse Lebeznikov and Mérode have given us and need to keep hiding what we know.'

For as long as possible since Ludin and Kleiber were also leaving to follow those first two. ‘Then let's hope she's found another and far safer place.'

Midnight had come and gone. It was now, noticed Anna-Marie, 0022 hours, Tuesday 5 October. The headquarters of Abwehr-West was in total darkness, the Prison du Cherche-Midi also.
Bien-sûr
, this didn't mean there were no lights on in those and other such places. The interrogations and the torture would go on for hours and hours if necessary, but above her and still with their tantalizing mystery, the stars were fully out, the air so clear, there was that lovely scent of falling leaves.

Sometimes there were controls on all of the bridges across the Seine, sometimes on only one or two or even none. Somehow she had to let the Occupier know that she had crossed the river, for only then would they broaden their search for her beyond the 13th arrondissement, the Gobelins, and the 14th, the Observatoire.

There were two on guard and by their silhouettes,
Felgendarme.
They'd shoot. They wouldn't hesitate. Both were smoking cigars and that could only mean they must have had some luck and perhaps had been given or taken a bottle or two.

Walking the bike toward them, she would have to do the totally unexpected, and as the sound of her bell broke the silence, one called out,
‘Halt! Was wollen sie?'

Momentarily blinded by their flashlights, she shielded her eyes. ‘
Nicht schiessen, Herr Offizier. Nicht schiessen. Meine Name ich heisse
Annette-Mélanie Veroche.
I'm a translator, you understand. I'm late again but only because I had to work and there wasn't anything I could do about it. There never is.'

‘Eine Dolmetscherin?'

‘Jawohl, Herr Offizier.'

‘Französin, Fräulein?'

‘Aber natüralich, Herr Officier.'

‘Yet you speak Deutsch?'

‘And do what I can to help with the interrogations, but it's very late and I must get home.'

‘Ihre Papiere, Fräulein. Bitte.'

Verdammt
, a stickler. ‘
Ach, einen Moment
. I've a letter that's signed and stamped by Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Polizei Karl Albrecht Oberg and also by Gestapo Boemelburg.'

‘The
Oberbonzen
, Rolf. She won't have heard a thing of that blast and all those cars and trucks that raced to it. She'll have been indoors.'

‘In the cellars at the Santé,
meine Herren
. A difficult session. Three men, all of them
Banditen
.'

An angel, and a blonde.
‘Ach
, Rolf, so few speak our language, and here's one who helps with the arrested.
Auf Weidersehen, Fräulein.
Morning will come soon enough.'

On the pont Royal, the two were busy with others and didn't even hear or see her ride past to reach the Left Bank again and finally head for 3 rue Vercingétorix.

The rue Daru was not entirely in darkness. Next to the artists' entrance of the Salle Pleyel, their lights still blazing and engines running, were the cars of Sergei Leneznikov and Rudy de Mérode.

‘There's no sign of Ludin, Hermann.'

‘Not yet and that can only mean one thing.'

Kleiber had gone for reinforcements. ‘Then let's get this over with as quickly as possible.'

‘Those shoes, Louis. Have they come back to haunt us yet again?'

Hermann hadn't been told. ‘I left them in the armoire, but she may well have taken them if only to help us, for there was a suitcase packed in readiness under her bed, and if my guess is right, she'll have taken it, too.'

‘And that note you left?'

‘Most certainly.'

None of the Neuilly Gestapo had bothered to summon Concierge Figeard. They had simply fired shots into the locks, thrown shoulders against the door and burst in to head for the
loge.

Torn from his bed, pistol whipped into silence, Armand Figeard, in his long underwear, gloves, toque and scarf, lay propped against a wall, blood pouring from a forehead gash. ‘Me, I didn't tell them
anything
, Chief Inspector. It's an outrage what they've done! What has happened to the Paris I once knew and loved?'

‘He's going to need stitches, Hermann.'

Things like this did happen, and for all they knew there'd be a heart attack.

‘I'm fine. Go and give them a taste of what they've given me.'

Lebeznikov and Mérode hadn't waited with that room either. Smashed, overturned, dumped out, whatever, they had left only that dress hanging neatly in the armoire and had rushed up to the roof, thinking to chase after her.

‘Louis, I should have brought the Purdey.'

‘And now you've decided to tell me?'

Up on the roof, the rabbits had scattered, their cages in ruins, the chickens also. Trampling broken bell jars, Lebeznikov and Mérode urged the flashlights of others on and over the Himalayas of the adjoining roofs.

‘Call them back,' said Louis. ‘She's long gone.'

‘
Espèce de salaud
, you knew who she was!' said Lebeznikov, turning his light on them. ‘A pair of shoes whose colour wasn't the same? A monogram that was nowhere what it should have been?'

‘And the shoes, please, where are they?'

‘Not here,' said Lebeznikov.

‘But you were lying and I'm the proof positive!' shouted one of the others in a brand-new fedora and topcoat, and armed with, of all things, a Lebel Modèle d'ordonnance 1873. A little man with damned big glasses whose black Bakelite frames now made him look even more owlish, thought Kohler. ‘He didn't stay locked up for long, Louis.'

‘There's blood on that Lebel, Hermann.'

‘Don't! Not yet. How's Évangéline, my fine one?' asked Kohler, pushing the Lebel aside.

‘Working the streets where she belongs,' spat Rocheleau. ‘Ten a night. That's the minimum or it's another damned good thrashing like the one I gave her.'

‘Now it's your turn, Louis, since he threatened you with a revolver.'

Felled, blood pouring from a broken nose and opened forehead, Rocheleau lay stunned as the Lebel was pocketed and then Louis's own before that Sûreté calmly turned back to ask Lebeznikov the name that girl had been using. ‘Or is it, that you were in such a hurry, you saw only the room number?'

‘
Embrassez mon cul, salaud
. When we find her, I personally am going to tear her apart.'

‘Why? To be in such a rage you must have a reason?'

Did they not know? wondered Lebeznikov. ‘My son was fond of her.'

Louis seldom if ever backed off, even when facing a gathered mob. ‘And he is where, please?' he asked as if but the usual inquiry.

‘A subdeacon at the cathédrale.'

‘And a neighbour. This gets more interesting by the moment, Hermann. His name, Monsieur Lebeznikov?'

Louis had even hauled out the notebook and pencil, having put a foot down on Rocheleau.

‘Foutez-vous le camp, trou de cul,'
said Lebeznikov. ‘There are far too many of us and we won't hesitate, not now that we've been given permission to hunt for her and the offer of fifty-fifty of anything we find.'

Just like Dillmann, thought Kohler, and a deal when cut is always a deal.

‘When we find her,' cried out Rocheleau, ‘we'll let you watch!'

And Évangéline but a decent woman deprived of a little fun, thought Kohler, and a career she had desperately wanted. ‘
Mädchenhandler
, eh? That's another offence, Chief.'

White slave trader.

Dragged up and turned around so that Louis could slap the bracelets on, he blurted, ‘My nose. I must hold the handkerchief.'

‘Let him go,' said Mérode. ‘There are far too many of us and you know it.'

‘But I'm also a chief inspector. Stand aside so that I may exercise my duties.'

This would only get far worse, felt Kohler, though now there was the sound of hastily arriving trucks and cars in the street far below.

Reluctantly, so as not to waste them, St-Cyr unlocked the bracelets and pocketed them, even to emptying that extra Lebel before handing it over. ‘The street, Hermann. Ourselves first so that when confronted by Heinrich Ludin and his colonel we will have the answer for them.'

It wasn't just the rue Daru that was being cordoned off. It was the cul-de-sac of the avenue Beaucour, too, and a touch of the avenue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.

‘The full door-to-door and staircase by staircase,' said Kohler.

‘But she hasn't gone across the roofs, Colonel,' said St-Cyr. ‘If anyone had bothered to reasonably ask Concierge Figeard, they would have discovered that she had left yesterday. She's out there somewhere and if the avenue de l'Opéra is any indication, has no intention of letting us find her.'

‘But you will,' said Ludin, lighting a fresh fag from the butt of the last one. ‘Otherwise, Kohler, you can watch that train as it leaves from Drancy.'

The son of a bitch. ‘Are Oona and Giselle no longer at the villa?'

‘Let's just say we'll give them a few more hours. Then you can choose the cattle car.'

‘Louis …'

‘The hospital first, with Figeard, Hermann. It's necessary and we mustn't disgrace ourselves by not attending to a badly injured and totally innocent bystander.'

‘I'm warning you, Kohler.'

‘And I've listened, Kriminalrat, but we really do need time, so down another slug of that latest bottle and lay off the smokes. We'll be in touch, but if you move Oona and Giselle as threatened, everything is off.'

‘And you'll never find Annette-Mélanie Veroche,' said St-Cyr, ‘because I think this time you really do need us, Kriminalrat, if you and the colonel are to save yourselves.'

Morning had come, and with it this duty call, felt Anna-Marie. Apolline de Kerellec was smoking one of the wine-flavoured Belgian cheroots Étienne had brought her to sell and enjoy. Propped up in bed at 0950 hours, the suggestion of a cold coming on, she had done her hair and face as before, the knowing intensity of that gaze not just of the streets, but of the concierge she was.