‘But I’m seeing the headlines, Louis: Assassins Butcher SD Sonderkommando Informant. ’
‘Who let them know all that?’
‘You should be using the cameras of the mind that you keep preaching.’
‘Just tell me.’
‘The Kommandant von Gross-Paris.’
But Heinrich Ludin was now passing out extra copies of the two photos that the Hague Central had sent him. ‘And in case you haven’t yet noticed, Hermann, Lebeznikov is livid.’
Clouds hid the moon, but from the utter darkness of the boulevard Arago came the ever-increasing sounds of not one, felt Anna-Marie, but two of the swallows. They were just starting to pass the Sante now and had she not heard them, would have been onto her.
Huddled against that brick wall, the Sparta pulled in close, she waited. Both were smoking cigarettes and she could see those little lights above their blinkered headlamps and even gauge the height of each. The taller, by his voice alone, seemed the older and when they paused, the sound of their brakes was clear enough, the root smell of their tobacco also.
‘Sacre nom de nom, Henri, what’s it this time? Me, I just want to get home.’
‘My lamp caught a glimmer. Along this way, Jacques. A silhouette.’
Though it had hurt, Aram had been definite: ‘Sell that kilo of boart or else. The money won’t just buy everything needed. It will cause other equipes to flock to us and we can then do the necessary.’
‘Then at least sell a little at a time. Even 50 grams is still 250 carats and far too risky. At 9,000 francs a carat, that’s 2.25 million.’
‘We haven’t the time and they know it. Use the Bureau Munimin- shy;Pimetex. Goring’s bunch will go for it right away if only to lord it over the others and keep them from getting the diamonds.’
‘Mademoiselle, montrez-moi vos papiers, s’il vous plait.’
Ah non. ‘Messieurs les agents, I haven’t done anything. The cleaning wasn’t easy tonight, and I simply stayed until it was done so that I wouldn’t lose my job. I’m a student at the Sorbonne. Tomorrow I must be at the Bibliotheque Nationale first thing and then must present my dissertation to my professors. Please don’t cause me to lose a whole year and consign me to cleaning the toilets at your Commissariat de Police for a week or ten days.’
‘She even knows the usual sentence, Henri, but not that we can now consign her to the Service du Travail Obligatoire for two years. Maybe if we detain her long enough, she’ll sing another tune.’
‘Please,’ she begged. ‘I really haven’t done anything and have a good reason for being out. Why not …’
One of the flashlights was switched off, that of the older and by his accent, definitely from this district. ‘Vos papiers, mademoiselle,’ he said again, this time with a hand extended. ‘Maybe it’s your night to get lucky, Jacques. She’s young enough and pretty.’
As with Aram and the others, so, too, was there now no other choice. If they yelled, they’d bring several from the Sante. ‘Please carefully turn around and then switch off the headlamps. Unless I have to, I won’t shoot, but please don’t make me. I’ve already done enough for one night.’
Neither Aram, nor Emmi, Felix or any of the others would have hesitated to silence them, but elsewhere and far enough away if possible. Merely being in this street would give the Boche and all their friends the districts to ruthlessly comb, and it would only be a matter of time until the tannery was discovered.
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 Vercingetorix 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’Opera.
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 Fuhrer’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 Cote d’Argent and Cote Sud des Landes, and vineyards and chateaux just to the north of Bordeaux in the Haut-Medoc and Medoc.’
‘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 Merode 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-sur, 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.