J. Janes - Clandestine

Hilda would have advised him to leave for Switzerland while he could, that all dogs piss where others have, and since he had never liked dogs, he should avoid them.

Had they met with that girl? Had she made contact, as Kohler had suggested?

Sleep wouldn’t come-how could it? wondered Anna-Marie. Photos … so many photos, but had there been others still, others that hadn’t been destroyed, and had Hector Bolduc seen some of herself with Jacques Leporatti at the Jardin des Plantes?

Jacqueline Lemaire would have looked at each of those photos and would know exactly who was in them and where they had been taken because whoever had taken them would have had to find out. But would she remember the faces, would the photographer? Emmi had had to be told in any case. To have not done, wouldn’t have been right, and Aram, though furious with her for such carelessness, would deal with it if he could, but wouldn’t wash his hands of her, not yet. Not with 45 million francs or 225,000 pounds sterling in fivers: 45,000 of those, with 15,000 in each suitcase, the numbers easy, the rest nothing but a disaster waiting to happen.

Ulyana shuddered. It was one thing for St-Cyr and Kohler to have come here unexpectedly, quite another for this sour-looking individual shy; to have followed. As if in constant pain, and endlessly shy; sucking on a cigarette, he pointed to that table and said in Deutsch, ‘How long have those two Scheissdrecken been here?’

To cross him would not be wise. Better to give him an answer but in a way that only she could. ‘Long enough for each to have polished off two heaping plates of the zakuski and a half bottle of vodka. Herr Kohler’s otbivnaya and pelmeni … oh, sorry. His veal schnitzel in sour cream, with a side order of the Siberian meat ravioli shy; shy;, and the chief inspector’s trout with walnut sauce, will not be ready for another ten-and-a half minutes unless I’m a little off.’

The Schlampe ! ‘Cancel those. Now use that telephone to call 84 avenue Foch. Tell the duty officer to find Standartenfuhrer Kleiber and have him sent here immediately. It’s urgent. Don’t and I will shut you down and put your ass and everyone else’s here on the Russian front.’

Oh la la, son cul , and he had meant it too. ‘Would you like to order something to eat, mein Herr?’

Pistol in hand, he had already turned away.

The plates had been shoved aside, noted Ludin, the whores to the other end of the table and all now pissing themselves and falling silent at the sight of himself, the others still not having realized they had a visitor.

Huddled over what could only be a British five-pound note, and with St-Cyr still holding a twist of cloth, were four of the so-called purchasing agents-the ‘slackers’ the Fuhrer had tried to get rid of last February. Spread out were about thirty or so Congo cubes, a gram, their small size, shape, colours and dimpled surfaces indicative of that very origin.

‘A kilo …’ blurted Rheal Lachance.

‘How are we to get clearance for a sum like that and in those?’ demanded Emile Girandoux.

‘ Ach , we can help, can’t we, Heinz?’ said Horst Lammers. ‘Essex shy; and SS-Rome will also want to come in and be glad of the opportunity.’

Himmler’s purchasing agencies! Merde , thought Girandoux, how could he have said such a thing? ‘Better to keep it to ourselves since that’s what she wants, isn’t it?’

‘It is,’ said Kohler.

‘But still, Emile, how are we to get clearance for that much and of those ?’ asked Lachance.

‘Easy,’ quipped Kohler. ‘Everyone knows Reichsmarschall Goring is in the Fuhrer’s bad books. This foolish offer of sale is going to guarantee him a huge comeback. Once the Standartenfuhrer Kleiber hears of it, he’ll know that we can use that kilo not only to get that girl and everyone else who is with her, but the other diamonds she still must have and the black ones too.’

Good for Hermann who was now pulling out a chair for the Kriminalrat. ‘Three medium-size suitcases, messieurs,’ said St-Cyr. ‘Each to be packed with the notes tied in bundles of one hundred.’

‘You’ve met with that girl,’ said Ludin.

‘Correction,’ said Louis. ‘She met with me and quite unexpectedly. You see, Kriminalrat, I was in the Palmhouse,* at the Jardin d’Acclimatation which is, if you will allow me to explain, the children’s zoological and amusement park. The headquarters of Rudy de Merode is quite near to its entrance.’

‘And you just happened to be there, did you?’

Somehow the assistant gardener at the Jardin des Plantes with whom Anna-Marie had been photographed had had to be protected. ‘Not happened, Kriminalrat. I was following up a lead and in search of the source of the dried rosemary this Annette-Melanie Veroche had kindly been obtaining for the son of that one.’

Lebeznikov was heading for them and far from happy.

‘Perhaps if our receptionist could find us a private room, Louis, it might be better than to broadcast the Sonderkommando ’s business any further, since Parisians the city over seem to know enough of it already, thanks to this one and his colonel.’

‘No one is going anywhere,’ said Ludin. ‘We will wait here for the Standartenfuhrer and I will let him decide.’

Kleiber would, of course, insist on using that temporary office of his at 84 avenue Foch with plenty of SS backup and holding cells in the cellar.

Lighting yet another cigarette-Pall Malls this time-Ludin laid the pistol temptingly on the table in front of himself and said to Louis, ‘How could that girl whose photo is everywhere have met you in such a place or any other?’

‘It’s a place for children and she was immersed in them and holding hands with two of them-a school-class visit, I believed, and we quickly spoke Deutsch, the children and the teacher not knowing a word of what was being said.’

‘Cut the Schmarrn or I will cut it for you.’

‘Certainly. She was with a group of schoolchildren and used them to conceal her presence, but we did stand apart under one of the palms and very quickly she told me what had been asked of her.’

‘Sell that boart and get the money to her and those other Banditen, but how?’

‘We’re working on it, but they’ve been using her, Kriminalrat, just as you and the colonel have been.’

‘She would have had no other choice but to obey,’ said Hermann, reaching for Ludin’s cigarettes and lighter only to have a hand laid on them.

‘Your weapon, Kohler, and yours.’

‘Not with what we have to do. You need us, Kriminalrat. She won’t deal with anyone else and neither will those who are telling her what to do.’

But how could that girl have gone to such a public place and not have been spotted and arrested? wondered Ludin. Blonde, blue-eyed, a little taller than most, and very Aryan, attractive too, and fluent in the language.

Of course. That had to have been it. And as for these two, they had been constantly evasive, even to lying about those damned shoes. Rocheleau-hadn’t that been the name of that rural policeman and didn’t he now work for Merode and this one to whose son she had given that dried herb?

‘Kriminalrat …’ called out Hector Bolduc, hustling that former fiancee of his toward them, she resisting, her overcoat undone and hat askew. ‘ Ach , but I’m glad to have found you. Jacqueline has something you need to know. The Jardin des Plantes …’

Scheisse! thought Kohler. Now it was all going to come out.

But Kleiber followed, and wearing a black armband to honour those who had been lost at the tannery, didn’t hesitate.