I tried to be calm and rational. "The notebook that Jerome and his?; pals lifted from Bessette must contain information about the smuggling operation. It points to the same place in Bone-Le Bar Bleu- as the matches and receipts I found in Bessette's office. And the same password shows up on Villard's travel orders to the supply depot at Bone. Don't you get it? Le Carrefour, the crossroads!"
"Bone is the crossroads of the smuggling operation," Kaz said, "and the contact is at this bar."
"Could be," said Harding. "But how is Villard involved?"
"Remember, right after Villard shot Georgie, Jerome's brother? That German officer, Remke, was telling us that Villard had connections to the local underworld here. He's probably the connection between them and Bessette. That's why Bessette killed that French; Army captain last night. He must have been protesting the smugglings of drugs taken from the Americans."
"Hold on a minute," Harding said, as he rubbed his chin, and paced up and down the little room. "You're saying that this whole operation to raid American drug supplies, including our top secret drug, penicillin, was organized within two or three days of the invasion? The Vichy French didn't know we were coming. Even if they did, how did they learn about our medical supplies? Or that we'd store them here? It doesn't make sense."
I realized he had a point. How could they have known about any of this?
"There's always a black market when supplies are short. Maybe they guessed a lot of military supplies, German or Allied, were going to land here someday. In the meantime, they ran what they could through Bone. I'm sure supplies came in from Marseille all the time. Maybe they took a cut at the docks and sent heroin to France in return. Villard or Bessette had to have some angle."
"It's a stretch, Boyle," Harding said.
"It is a lot to assume, Billy," added Kaz. I wasn't getting any support for my theory.
"If Dunbar is willing to release Kaz, can we at least get him out of here?" I asked Harding.
"Colonel Walton wants you to investigate Caselli's murder," he answered. "You'd do more good here."
"But if the killing is linked to the smuggling operation, I ought to go to Bone."
"Boyle, the fact that Villard has probably taken Diana Seaton to Bone wouldn't be influencing your judgment, would it?"
"I gotta be honest, sir. It has absolutely nothing to do with it. I think Kaz is in danger here and that Villard is behind the killings and theft. I say Bone is our best bet."
I must've really been tired. I gave away the lie by saying I was going to be honest. But Harding hadn't sat through as many police interrogations as I had, and he didn't know that was usually the big tip-off. If you're honest, there's no need to announce the fact.
Chapter Thirteen
Hardingbought it, because half an hour later we had Kaz bundled into the jeep, with a supply of penicillin for the next five days, strict instructions for him to see a medic every day for his shot and to get his dressing changed, and a story ready for Colonel Walton about following up promising leads. Dunbar had checked Kaz out and pronounced him fit to travel. Rita had kissed Kaz goodbye and told him to come back and see her in four days to have the stitches removed. I'd seen Harding and Gloria Morgan whispering about something, maybe catching up on changes to the Army field manual since they last parted company. We were headed back to the St. George Hotel and now all I had to do was find a way to get to Bone from there. I reminded myself that Bone was still beyond our front lines, and might be defended by Vichy troops or even Germans, if they had already reached the town. Or both. I thought it might be time to inquire as to the progress of the war.
"Are we still shooting at the Vichies, Major?" I asked as I drove as carefully as I could to keep Kaz from bumping his arm. The road outside the hospital was rough hard packed gravel and sand that sent jolts through the jeep even at twenty miles an hour. A hot breeze blew dust at our backs and the sand hitting the back of my neck felt like sandpaper on soft pine.
"Not around here," Harding said, turning up his collar. "Darlan surrendered all French forces in the Algiers area; the French troops are in their barracks under orders not to resist. It's a mixed bag outside of Algiers. First, Darlan ordered all French forces in North Africa not to resist us. Then Petain overruled him, but before Darlan could countermand his orders we arrested him. Right now everything's quiet in and around Algiers. There's some fighting in Oran and we don't know what to expect when we move east toward Tunisia. Reports are in that the Germans are landing there and the French are not opposing them."
"They fired on us when we came to liberate them from the Germans, but they let the Germans in to fight us?"
Harding nodded. "It's a crazy war so far. A lot of civilian rebels were freed when the fighting in Algiers stopped, but others still haven't been released. I heard that Colonel Baril has been arrested," Harding said, his jaw clenching.
"I'm sorry, Major. He seemed like a good guy."
"The best. We need to get this mess straightened out, fast. There's no time to play politics here while the Germans are forming up against us."
"I'm afraid you may find politics are not that easy to get away from," said Kaz from the back seat. "There are the Vichy politicians, the French army, the Arabs, all wanting something. General Eisenhower will have to accommodate them if he wishes to move against the Germans rapidly." He grimaced as we hit a pothole.
"Why?" I asked, downshifting to take a corner as slowly as I could.
"He can either garrison this country with his army…" Kaz stopped and hung on as we rounded the bend.
"… or keep the Vichy structure in place to govern it for him so the army can fight," he finished.
"What about de Gaulle and the Free French? Why don't we let them take over?"
"You saw how most French officers here feel about following orders," Harding explained. "To them de Gaulle is an opportunist who disobeyed the lawful orders of his government when he kept on fighting. Darlan hates him, Giraud thinks de Gaulle should report to him… There'd be a civil war if we brought the Free French in."
"And then there are the Arabs," Kaz added, with a sharp gasp as I hit another bump.
"Sorry, Kaz. What about them?"
"You may have noticed that there are quite a few of them here," Kaz said.
"You're a funny guy. So, what, are the natives restless?"
"Some want independence, but most want stability. They are conservative, and for the most part go along with the right-wing Vichy policies. Like repression of the Jews. The Vichy government has stripped Jews in North Africa of their French citizenship. That made many friends for them among the Arabs."
"Isn't that the kind of thing we're supposed to be fighting against?" I asked, knowing that I sounded like a naive schoolkid as soon as I spoke.
"We're supposed to be fighting, and defeating, the Axis powers. That's Germany and Italy in Europe," Harding said. "If we stop along the way to make everything right in North Africa we might never get to Berlin. We may need to leave the Vichy structure in place so we can move through Algeria quickly and take Tunisia before Rommel gets there."
"Wait a minute! The Vichies are the bad guys, remember? The collaborators, the ones shooting at us. Are we going to leave a bunch of junior-league fascists like them in power?" I was almost yelling, and had to relax my grip on the steering wheel as the road curved slightly and we entered a residential area, palm trees and green bushes casting welcome lines of shade in front of us.
"It may come to that, or face a civil war in our rear areas. Or an Arab revolt, which the Germans would be only too glad to foment," Kaz said. "Welcome to the world of European politics, Billy."