The manager plucked anxiously at the braid on his right sleeve.
“The Professor left standing instructions to bring afternoon tea at four o’clock. The waiter found him, and we dispatched our doctor immediately. It happened sometime during the morning, a peaceful passing, the heart of course. I suppose at his age one could not expect…”
We left him prattling on and walked back to the street.
“Do you know that old rhyme, ‘Ten Little Niggers’?” Kohler asked quietly as the doorman brought our car around.
I nodded absently.
“Well, now there are two.”
Beck was waiting for us back at Gestapo headquarters, looking disgustingly crisp and rested. We trouped into the empty canteen and sat at a corner table over black coffee while Kohler told him the latest developments, Von Leeb’s death overshadowing our leads from Connor, such as they were. It was obvious there was no great love lost between the two of them, but as long as Beck was the only other agent involved he had a right to know. He was a target too. But when Kohler finished, Beck looked unruffled as ever.
“I think you’re worrying needlessly. With von Leeb out of the way our troubles are over.”
Kohler and I just stared at him.
“My God, man,” I sputtered, “with von Leeb gone we’ve no protection, no authorization, and we’ve already set ourselves up as clay pigeons for the Japs.”
“Hold on, Haider, don’t panic.” Beck smiled coldly, condescendingly, and I could understand why Kohler didn’t like the bastard. “Even assuming the Japs are still after us, von Leeb’s death closes the case, at least for the time being. We’ve all been working directly under his instructions, and until fresh orders arrive from Berlin I think we should just sit and wait.”
“For what, a bullet?” Kohler slammed his coffee cup down on the table. “Haven’t you understood one goddamned word of what I’ve been saying?”
Beck’s even, empty smile didn’t flicker.
“I understand that you’ve both been going at this for forty-eight hours straight and may be losing your perspective.” He held up one hand to stave off Kohler’s angry retort. “Listen, von Leeb’s death gives us all an escape hatch. We just sit tight and let the Japs have the Jew if they can find him. As long as we’re not in their way, we’re no longer a threat. We’re safe, Kohler, all of us.”
I knew in my guts that it couldn’t be that easy anymore but I couldn’t find a ready answer. I turned to Kohler for help, but he was regarding Beck appraisingly now, his anger gone.
“I think he may just have a point, Bill.” He leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers thoughtfully. “Possibly a very good point.” He turned to Beck. “Go down and check the computer findings again, I want to talk to Haider.”
Beck nodded affably and ambled off.
Kohler leaned over and spoke softly, intensely. “Look, what did we agree last night? That our only concern now was staying alive, right, not this Jew or von Leeb or Heydrich or all the political in-fighting in Berlin. Well, Beck isn’t so thick. He’s given us a way out.”
This was all going too fast for me.
“I don’t follow you. How…”
Kohler clutched my sleeve.
“Beck said we were working for von Leeb, and he was right. Well, von Leeb is dead, so we’re no longer working for him. It’ll be certified a natural death, don’t worry about that, there’s a half-dozen drugs they could’ve used, insulin o.d., massive dose of adrenalin, take your pick. So nobody’s going to raise a stink over that end of it. All we have to do now is fold our hands and sit tight and let the whole thing blow over. If the Japs or anybody else want this Jew, let them have him, they can make him Emperor for all I care, so long as he’s off our backs.”
“But Berlin, they sent von Leeb, they’ll send somebody else…”
Kohler shook his head.
“I doubt it, I doubt it very much. This was von Leeb’s baby, and he pushed it for all it was worth. Shit, he’s been killing Jews all his life and now there aren’t any more Jews left, he must have felt lost. They probably gave the assignment to him in the first place as some sort of occupational therapy. But do you think any of the big boys really care that much anymore? They’re on the verge of war with the Japanese Empire, that’s enough to keep them occupied.”
“I don’t know, maybe you’re right on that end of it. But the Japs, how can we be sure they’ll call things off when we do and not just keep on till they make a clean sweep of it? Of us.”
“They’re professionals, Bill, if we’re not a threat to them, they’re not a threat to us. Stop the investigation now and both of us are safe. Keep going and we’ll be in danger every minute of every day.”
I nodded, though reluctantly. Everything Kohler said was reasonable enough, but this whole business had very little to do with reason.
“Okay,” I said finally, “I guess we don’t have too many options. But how do we let the other side know we’re getting out of the game? Go up on the roof of Gestapo headquarters and wave a white flag?”
Kohler smiled, and some of the tension seemed to leave his face.
“That’s pretty much it.” He drained his coffee and got to his feet. “Get back to the precinct right away. Don’t worry about a tail, I’ll take you out through a special corridor we use for informers, it leads into the federal courthouse next door.” He looked at his watch. “An hour from now I’ll call you and we’ll do a little number about how relieved we are this thing is finally over with, now we can get back to normal work, you know what to say. They’ll have bugged our phones from the beginning, they’re too good not to, and we’ll give ’em an earfull. That’s our white flag.”
“What about our back-up teams?”
“I’ll have to send them back to Washington. If we’re kept under surveillance and they’re spotted, the Japs will know we’re not acting in good faith. It’s a gamble, but not a big one. The Japs won’t risk their lives nailing us unless we’re in their way. Once we quit the game they’ll forget all about us.”
It all figured, but somehow I didn’t feel any better. As I left Kohler at the courthouse entrance I wavered, and almost went back after him. But hell, what choice did either of us have? And if it didn’t work, we probably wouldn’t be around to complain.
I hailed a cab on Chambers Street and got back to the station in twenty minutes. Nygard was on the duty desk, and he called me over excitedly.
“Jeez, Lieutenant, where you been? I got a dozen messages for you, the Commissioner’s office called three times, Warren’s been trying to get hold of you, and Kearney stopped in from the lab, he says that place you wanted him to dust on Fifth, it’s no go, burned down last night. Nothin’ left, he said, the owner and a couple of guys next door went up too. And then Macri, he wants to know if you need any dupes on…”
I walked away, thinking of little dapper Leonard Pickett. No white flag for him. The bastard didn’t even know he needed one.
Kohler called dead on time, and we both did our best to convince our unseen audience that as far as we were concerned von Leeb’s death closed the investigation. They’d have missed their hit man by now, so I asked what he’d learned about the crazy Jap who’d tried to kill me, and Kohler smoothly said it must have been connected with my part in the Toronto cleanup, probably some fanatic nip Christie thirsting for revenge. So the books were closed on that one too. I ended the conversation by telling Kohler I was going to take a few days leave to recharge the batteries, and he said he’d probably do the same. Too bad about old von Leeb, but the thing had been a wild goose chase from the start anyway. And see you around. All in all, a pretty convincing act, I thought. I hoped.