J. Janes - Gypsy

‘Yes, yes, as if De Vries and Tshaya were still alive. Which of you gave the Generalmajor Wehrle the cyanide?’

He would hate her now. He would never be able to find it within himself to sleep with her for fear of … ‘I did. I know a lot of those at the Ritz, so it was no problem my going there to leave a little envelope for him when I got back to Paris. I went there first before giving my statement to the police. Wehrle …’ She shrugged. ‘He must have seen he had no other choice but … but as to his having ordered caviar and champagne for Nana, that can only have been a parting gesture, his little revenge.’

‘But he didn’t kill himself until Friday.’

‘He waited to see what would happen.’

‘Only to find he had been recalled to Berlin.’

A tiny shred of the paperbark was pulled from the tree and examined. ‘The bomb in the zebra house,’ he said, and she told him Suzanne-Cecilia had put it there. ‘Only Nana and I went to the ruins with the bodies of Tshaya and Janwillem, the loot and the explosives. We started out soon after the villa robbery. It was very dark and bitterly cold. Perhaps this is what saved us, who’s to say? And yes, I was supposed to have been at the club and I worried all the time that the Gestapo would come looking for me there or to Monseigneur for Nana, or to the Scheherazade. The car … would the engine seize up? The snow … We … we were stopped only once. I … I simply told the Feldwebel the Hauptmann and his lady friend were asleep and not feeling well, and that we were driving them to their country house. It worked. Don’t ask me why. Fear of the flu perhaps.’

‘And on the return?’

Must he have everything? ‘We each went our separate ways. I stole a bicycle but then managed a lift to Les Halles in a gazogene lorry full of rutabagas. Nana walked until able to catch a lift in a Wehrmacht lorry full of troops. They were coming into the city to help search for the Gypsy.’

The risks they had taken, the chances … ‘Suzanne-Cecilia is being transferred to Lyon, to a private zoo.’

‘But … but the Untersturmfuhrer Klaus Barbie is head of Section IV there? He’ll … he’ll have her constantly watched.’

‘It’s his little zoo. We could do nothing. She’s Boemelburg’s insurance that we behave and say nothing further of the loot. It simply had to be.’

‘Ah no …’

‘Please don’t do anything more, not for a good while. Lie low, Gabrielle. Keep out of it. Let others take up the sword.’

‘She’s in love with you. I saw it happen. It … it was quite beautiful, but … but it made me hate her for a brief moment.’

‘Love has no place in war. It can only intrude.’

They walked in silence through a frozen land where those who were in uniform enjoyed themselves on skis, sleighs or on horseback. When asked what was to become of Nana’s little boy and the daughter of Janwillem and Tshaya, she told him that she’d already asked the General von Schaumburg to allow the children laissez-passers to Vouvray and Chateau Theriault. ‘Nana’s mother agrees and so does Madame Moreel in Senlis.’

They had reached the Carrefour de Longchamp. ‘And now we must part,’ she said. ‘Please don’t hate me. What was done had to be done.’

Hermann had caught up with them in the Citroen. ‘Avignon, Louis. Something about a madrigal singer who suddenly lost his or her voice. I can’t quite make out the telex Boemelburg handed me. It’s blurred. He wants us to get out of town for a bit. Hop in.’

‘A moment, then.’ Turning to Gabrielle, St-Cyr took hold of her mittened hands, saying earnestly, ‘Give me time. Let us speak of things when I get back.’

‘Kiss her, Louis. Ah! you French. The Italians could teach you plenty!’

‘And the Boches?’ came the swift retort as Louis got into the car.

‘More again if you’d only listen. Hey, there’s a bottle of pastis and a tin of pipe tobacco on the seat.’

Kohler got out of the car to take Gabrielle in his arms, to kiss her on each cheek and draw in the faint scent of that fabulous perfume, and to tell her to stop worrying. ‘He’s just being self-righteous. He’ll be okay. I’ll straighten him out.’

‘Even though detectives make such lousy lovers?’

‘Hey, ask Oona and Giselle about that. They’ll give you an earful. Ah! would you see that they get this? I forgot.’

The roll of banknotes was bigger than needed to choke a zebra. Thousands … ten thousands … He peeled off 100,000 at least. ‘Expenses,’ he said. ‘Boemelburg will never miss it. Oh, I forgot these too.’

In the palm of his hand were the sapphire ear-rings from the jewellery she had ordered at Cartier’s. ‘Keep them out of sight until spring comes, eh? They’re from Louis but he’s just too shy to give them to you.’

Alone, she watched the car cause the snow to swirl and billow until she could see them no more and they were gone from her.

‘ Au revoir, mon cher vieux ,’ she said. ‘ Alles ist Schicksal . All is fate.