As he buttoned the raincoat, Anna said, “Where are you going?”
“To find out what’s happening to Hardt,” he told her. “I’ve got a hunch they’ll be moving him tonight and I’d like to know where.”
She reached for her coat. “I’m coming with you.”
He gently took the coat from her and hung it behind the door. “No, you’re not. It only needs one of us to do a job like this.”
She shrugged. “All right, what do you want me to do?”
He smiled. “Cook me something nice for supper, if you like. I’ll only be an hour or so if I’m lucky.”
She turned away without speaking, and he went out quickly and down to the car. He drove straight back to Blankenese and, parking the Volkswagen around the corner from the clinic, went into the little bar opposite the main gates and ordered a beer.
The place was empty and the proprietor leaned on the zinc-topped bar reading a newspaper. Chavasse moved to the curtained window and stared across at the gates.
As he watched, they were opened wide by a man in uniform and peaked cap. When he had finished his task, he came across the road and entered the bar.
The proprietor smiled and laid down his paper. “Don’t tell me they’re sending you out at this time of night?”
The man in uniform nodded. “Just the sort of thing these bastards are always doing,” he said bitterly. “Give me a packet of cigarettes, will you?”
“Where to this time?” the proprietor of the bar said as he pushed the cigarettes across.
“Berndorf again.” The man snorted. “It’s bad enough on some of those country roads during the day, but at night it’s just impossible.” The door closed behind him with a crash and he moved back across the road and entered the gates.
A few moments later, a heavy ambulance came down the drive and turned into the road. A large, dark car followed close behind. They were obviously taking every precaution against being followed.
Chavasse moved out onto the pavement, considering his next move, and at that moment, Gisela came out of the main gates and crossed the street. She turned the corner into the main road and Chavasse hurried after her. He caught up with her as she drew abreast of the Volkswagen. “Can I offer you a lift?” he said.
She turned in surprise, and then recognition came to her face. “Oh, it’s you, is it?” She moved closer and there was respect in her voice. “What on earth did you do to Karl? They say he’s broken both his legs.”
He smiled and opened the door of the car. “Do you have far to go?”
She shook her head. “Not really – only to Flottbek.”
“Far enough,” he said, and handed her into the car.
He went round to the other side, climbed behind the wheel, and drove away. As they moved through the deserted streets, he said, “My friend wasn’t in room twelve, by the way. Apparently, they’ve moved him.”
She seemed genuinely surprised. “I didn’t know that.”
“Was there much of a disturbance back there after I left you?” he said.
She shrugged. “There’s always a fuss of some sort going on. You get so you don’t take any notice. Some of the women are terrible, you know.”
“Are they?” Chavasse said. “Tell me, has Dr. Kruger got another clinic anywhere?”
She shook her head. “Not that I know of.”
“The ambulance driver was in the bar a little while ago,” he told her. “He was saying something about taking a patient to a place called Berndorf.”
“Oh, they often take people to Berndorf,” she said, “but not to a clinic. They go there to convalesce. Dr. Kruger has a friend called Herr Nagel who owns a castle there. It’s supposed to be a lovely place.”
“I see,” Chavasse said casually. “And this man Nagel – does he visit the clinic often?”
“Oh, yes,” she said. “He and Dr. Kruger are great friends. He’s very wealthy. Something to do with steel, I think.”
And then it clicked into place and Chavasse remembered something he’d read in a newspaper at Anna’s apartment. Kurt Nagel was a big industrialist, a man with a lot of influence in political circles. He was one of the prime organizers of the U.N. Peace Conference, and later in the week, he was giving a ball in honor of the delegates.
If a man like Nagel was working hand in glove with the Nazi underground, then things were more serious than even the Chief had believed.
As Chavasse considered the situation, he was following Gisela’s instructions, and finally slowed to a halt outside a modest house in an unpretentious neighborhood.
“Well, it’s been nice,” he said.
She had already got the door open, and she turned and looked at him. “Aren’t you coming in for a while? It’s perfectly safe – they’ll all be in bed by this time.”
He shook his head. “I’m afraid not, Gisela. Some other time.”
She leaned across, kissed him, and sighed. “Men are such liars. I bet you anything you like, I’ll never see you again.”
He drove away quickly and left her standing there on the pavement looking wistfully after him. He had forgotten her within seconds, as his mind went back to the problem in hand.
The way things looked, they were taking Hardt to this castle of Nagel ’s at Berndorf and that meant that Muller was probably there also. There was only one thing to do – pay the place a visit, but it would be risky. As he went upstairs to the apartment, he was still thinking about it.
When he went in, he found Anna cooking in the kitchen. “I took you at your word,” she said.
He grinned. “I’ve got good news for you – I’ve managed to find out where they’ve taken Hardt. I think Muller is probably a prisoner there as well.”
She was immediately excited and demanded an explanation. When he had finished, she said, “What’s our next move then?”
He frowned, thinking about it, and then he smiled. “I think we’ll pay this place a visit in the morning. There’s bound to be some sort of inn in the village. Young honeymooners would fit the bill best.”
She blushed and started to turn away. He pulled her into his arms. “Have you any objections to spending a honeymoon with me?”
She smiled. “No, not really. After all, I suppose it’s the only one you’re likely to give me.”
He crushed her against him. “I shouldn’t count on that if I were you.”
She pulled away from him. “Then there’s still hope for me,” she said, and pushed him toward the door. “Go and sit down and I’ll bring you something to eat.”
He went and sat on the divan, and she placed the small table in front of him and brought in the food and sat in the chair opposite and watched him eating.
Afterward, as she cleared away the things and made coffee, he leaned back, content and, for the moment, happy. For the first time, it occurred to him that they might make a go of it, that after this job was over he would tell the Chief he was through.
But is anything ever that easy? he thought to himself. Even when she came and curled up beside him, her arms around his neck.
CHAPTER 9
It was a damp, misty morning when they set out, and they halted in Hamburg only for as long as it took Anna to purchase a ready-made tweed jacket for Chavasse and a cheap gold wedding ring for herself.
Berndorf was only twenty miles out of Hamburg on the road to Lubeck. Chavasse did the driving, and after forty minutes, Anna tugged at his sleeve as they approached a signpost. He swung left into a narrow lane that plunged into thickly wooded country, and three miles farther on, they came to the village.
It consisted of a single street of stone-built houses and looked completely deserted. The inn lay beyond it, an old two-storied building in heavy, weather-beaten stone, with great wooden gables that seemed almost too large for the house.
They parked the car and entered through a door that had the date 1652 carved on the lintel. The main room was long, with a low roof crossed by great beams, and had a huge fireplace in which a man might comfortably stand. There was a bright fire burning and Anna stood in front of it warming her hands, while Chavasse went to the small reception desk near the door and rang the bell.