‘And a good month and some after those first photos with Sergei Lebeznikov and son at Chez Kornilov,’ said Kohler.
Picking those up, Louis said, ‘Ah oui, mon vieux, they certainly did know of this happy gathering, she being introduced to whom, please, Monsieur Bolduc or either of you two?’
That coin could only have been taken out to remind them of what was at stake, felt Reinecke, but it wouldn’t hurt to answer since both would already know. ‘Rheal Lachance and Emile Girandoux of Munimin-Pimetex, with their secretary, Lucie Jourdan.’
Age twenty-four. ‘Who takes turns showing no favourites and sleeping with both, Louis, the husband being in a Stalag.’
‘The most dominant purchasing agency of Reichsmarschall Goring’s Ministry of Armaments and Munitions, messieurs,’ said St-Cyr. ‘Metals, industrial machinery, pumps, generators and all the rest, including food stuffs, platinum, radium, gold, of course, and diamonds most especially. This Annette-Melanie Veroche looks as if delighted to meet them, doesn’t she, Hermann?’
‘We didn’t-couldn’t-have known then that she would come to have anything whatsoever to do with the black diamonds,’ said Bolduc. ‘To us, she was simply a young and very attractive girl who wasn’t willing to cooperate with Jacqueline’s service.’
‘Or yourselves, but you did encourage Deniard and Paquette to do what they attempted.’
‘Jacqueline often embellishes.’
‘But now you do know of that girl’s connection to the “black” diamonds, and my partner and I will, of course, have to inform the others of Herr Kaltenbrunner’s secret commando. We have no choice, Monsieur Bolduc, just as we have none with that little side business of yours.’
‘Louis, I’ll get the tape and seals from the Citroen. Take over the Purdey.’
‘With pleasure.’
‘Inspectors, wait,’ said Bolduc. ‘Surely we can come to a compromise?’
‘Not if you’re about to try to buy us off,’ said Hermann. ‘It would spoil our reputation.’
Merde! ‘Stay quiet and we’ll help you extricate those two who are being held hostage, and will move them out of Paris to wherever you think safest.’
‘You do need us,’ offered Reinecke. ‘Kriminalrat Ludin can’t let them go, not now. They’re to be sent to a KZ because Kaltenbrunner shy; has demanded it. I’ve seen the telexes. Abwehr-West have been running a check on the Reichssicherheitschef ever since he was nominated last January to replace Reinhard Heydrich.’*
‘Didn’t one of your women marry a Jew, Kohler, and have two children?’ asked Heiss. ‘Kaltenbrunner was notified by Kleiber who hasn’t missed a chance to let the Reichssicherheitschef know everything.’
All of which might or might not be true, felt Kohler. Louis would, too.
‘Don’t be difficult,’ said Bolduc. ‘Be reasonable.’
‘Collaborate?’ asked Louis, pocketing the coin. Putting all of the photos and negatives back into the wastebasket, he added Jacqueline Lemaire’s file on Anna-Marie and the Hague Central’s Geheime Reichssache manila envelope, which also had the photos of Etienne Labrie and Arie Beekhuis. ‘Get the tape and the seals, Hermann, while I keep this bunch in line. Hands on the table, messieurs. That way they won’t wander to pistols that should stay where they are.’
Everything that was anything was now in that damned wastebasket, felt Bolduc. Oh for sure, underlings in the food control would rejoice at his downfall, but such a charge would never be laid. Others could take the rap if paid enough. Jacqueline would have to be forgiven to silence her, the marriage put back on the stove, but if Kleiber and Ludin were to discover that he and Kurt and Eric had been having photos taken and had known where that girl could be readily found, all would be lost. ‘At least let us have another cognac, Chief Inspector. Kurt, would you? Doubles, I think, and a cigarette, if that’s possible.’
Grace a Dieu, thought St-Cyr, Bolduc had seen the need and taken the bait but would he also find, as Heinrich Ludin had done with Oona, that an opportunity when presented often leads to temptation? ‘No trouble, please, gentlemen. Just let Hermann and myself seal that storeroom with the Gestapo and Surete’s tape and seals, and we’ll depart until necessary. Don’t leave Paris, though. Be ready to offer up answers when asked.’
It took but a moment, felt St-Cyr. Once the back was turned, at least two of them did the necessary with their cognac, the other adding the lighted match and for the moment unwittingly saving Anna-Marie and that source of the rosemary, Labrie and Beekhuis also.
* From the verb se debrouiller, to make do.
* Now the boulevard Vincent Auriol.
* A liqueur, a cognac.
* The huge wine store that, after it was torn down in the 1960s, became the location of the Sorbonne’s Faculty of Sciences.
* Charles de Gaulle but also the Special Operations Executive who dropped agents into France.
* Now Gustave Geffroy.
* Levelled in 1966 and since 1968 a school of higher education and social sciences.
* Killed by a grenade thrown by Czech partisans on 29 May 1942, Heydrich was buried on 9 June of that year, Hitler then waiting eight months before replacing him with Kaltenbrunner.
10
Wearing the mud-caked rubber waders of a sewer worker, the bleus de travail, blue jacket, cap and lamp on a bandolier across the chest, Jacques Leporatti had finally arrived. Frans shuddered at the sight of him, for there was a finality to that arrival that was understood only too well. Nearly in his sixties, Monsieur Leporatti shy; had been on the run for so long, he understood exactly what it was like. A passionate gardener, especially in the Jardin des Plantes shy;, he yearned for nothing else and immediately reached out to her, she saying softly, ‘Merci, I’m so glad you finally got here.’
Giving her arm another reassuring squeeze, he smiled and said, ‘You were worried about me and I am honoured. Aram, two things. First, in reprisal for the killing of Dr. Julius Ritter, Standartenfuhrer Helmut Knochen of the avenue Foch has selected fifty hostages to be shot at the Fort de Romainville.* Secondly, the car you requested awaits.’
Tossing him the keys, he took his place. Les egoutiers being among the very few who would have papers allowing them to be out after curfew, Monsieur Leporatti would have used his backup identity papers, even with a name change.
It was Aram who said, ‘Annette-Melanie has had a note from a Surete, Jacques, but for now we must deal with this one. Frans Oenen-Paul Klemper-is there anything further you would like to say in your defence?’
‘She really does have those diamonds, like I said, and though she will continue to deny that there are others, she has to know where fortunes more are hidden. The Boche wouldn’t otherwise have clamped such a lid of secrecy on the hunt for her.’
‘And yourself, it appears,’ said Emmi. ‘Aram, let me have a look before we put our heads together. Annette-Melanie be so good as to lift this one’s feet so that I can examine his shoes. We’ll start there.’
Frans grinned. He couldn’t resist, and as each shoe was then taken off to have its sole examined, and then the insoles removed and the leather linings scrutinized, he watched Emmi intently with amusement, only to finally say, ‘Are you now satisfied, Frau Widow?’
‘Not yet. Patience is necessary and Anna-Marie Vermeulen has to learn this, for one can never tell, can one?’
Feeling the turn-ups of his trousers between thumb and forefinger, Emmi went carefully around each, only to then take something from her topcoat and hold it up in the palm of her hand. Spring-loaded, the SS blade leaped and with it, she slit the fabric and removed the tiniest slip of tissue paper. ‘If arrested, contact Kriminalrat Heinrich Ludin. There, you see, mein Lieber, it’s a night for notes.’