J. Janes - Tapestry

A fantastic bargain.

‘Pay him, Hermann. That way he’ll be certain to remember your name and not mine. Sign for the objects, too, of course, and tell him that they’ll be returned unless it’s discovered that they’ve been stolen, in which case, by having accepted them and not notifying the proper authorities, he’ll face a charge of compliance perhaps or even complicity.’

Out on the street, back in the Citroen, Hermann sighed as he fondly gripped the wheel of a car that wasn’t even his. ‘I enjoyed that, Louis. It was like old times. I stopped worrying about everything else.’

Newspapers littered the antique limewood desk that had been made larger by the addition of pine planks. Bien sur , Le Matin and Paris-Soir were there, but also the Berliner Zeitung and Das Schwarze Korps -that of the SS- Der Angriff as well, The Assault-Goebbels’s Berlin afternoon paper. All were splashed with the news from Paris and all were, no doubt, demanding that the crisis be settled and the streets made safe again.

‘Walter …’ hazarded St-Cyr. The Herein , the Come in, had been brutal.

‘ SCHMETTERLINGE , LOUIS. DIE KLEINE SCHLAMPE WAS CAUGHT PUTTING THEM IN METRO CARRIAGES. HAND- shy;COLOURED PAPER STICKERS THE SIZE OF MY THUMBPRINT. RAF BULL’S-EYES ON THE WINGS, THE CROSS OF LORRAINE ON THE BODIES. VERDAMMTE HURE, SHE’LL HAVE TO BE SHOT!’

Butterflies were what these little stickers were called, though not always done in the shape of such but, ‘Walter …’

‘ Putain de merde, what is wrong with you French? ORDNUNG MUSS SEIN! ’

Fucking hell … order must prevail. The big hands were thrown out in defeat, the all but shaven, blunt grey head shaken in despair.

‘Ten hostages are not enough. Twenty will have to be chosen and she’ll have to be one of them. The Hoherer SS will insist on it. I’m sorry, Louis. It can’t be helped. Not this time.’

‘Walter, who was the girl?’

A name was searched for but couldn’t be found. The Nordic eyes, bagged by overwork and worry, were ever angry. ‘It was an ATTACK!’ came the shrill response. ‘WE THOUGHT WE HAD BROKEN THE BACK OF THE FTP IN DECEMBER. INFILTRATED, BETRAYED, WE HAD THEM ALL.’

But not quite. The Francs-Tireurs et Partisans …

‘COMMUNISTS. IMMIGRANTS-ROMANIANS, ITALIANS, JEWS, POLISH UNTERMENSCHEN !’

Subhumans.

‘At ten this morning, when you two were no doubt still asleep, one of them tossed a grenade into a lorry on the boulevard Haussmann and close enough for the avenue Foch to have heard the blast. French driver killed, French assistant killed, windows shattered, blood and glass all over the street and everyone rushing in to grab what meat they could and let the bastard get away.’ A breath was caught. ‘Chickens … Alive but a moment beforehand.’

And a black-market lorry, sighed Kohler inwardly and still standing behind Louis but towering over him as the chief would too. Fifty percent of those chickens would have already been removed by the boys on the controls, and as for the FTP, unlike other reseaux if they even existed, and they did, their whole policy was one of armed resistance, hence the hostages that would have to be shot.

‘Now sit down. Kohler close the door. Louis, have a cigarette. Go on. Take one.’

‘ Merci . Hermann, would you …’

‘I didn’t offer him one, Louis.’

‘Forgive me, then, if I save it for later.’

‘All right, Kohler, you may take one, but only one.’

‘The butterflies, Walter. Let’s have that, so that we can fully comprehend what has upset you so much.’

That bit of paper was finally found. ‘A schoolgirl. Age seventeen. Genevieve Beauchamp. No previous record but juvenile delinquency has become a problem, hasn’t it?’

Oh-oh, the boys. Antoine and the others, thought Kohler. The squeeze.

‘Walter, the Fraulein Sonja Remer’s handbag was returned by me via Rudi Sturmbacher,’ said Louis.

‘And not thrown there from a passing bicycle taxi?’

‘Not thrown.’

‘But without its chocolate bar, Louis, and tin of bonbons,’ said Boemelburg.

‘That couldn’t be helped, given the shortages and the necessity of returning it as soon as possible, along with its Tokarev TT-33, which was fully loaded.’

Such sang-froid in the face of the inevitable was admirable. ‘ A beau jeu , beau retour, then, Louis.’ One good turn deserves another.

‘Kohler, you and Louis will take the Fraulein Remer fully into your confidence. You will involve her, work with her and use her to fullest advantage. Is that understood?’

Rudi had been right. Giselle was to have been the bait. ‘ Jawohl, Sturmbannfuhrer.’

‘ Gut . Now these murders, muggings and rapes. What have you got for me?’

‘They’re the work of more than one individual,’ said Kohler. Gott sei Dank, Louis had been in and had read the chief’s note, pinned to the left of the map.

‘The level of violence is escalating,’ said St-Cyr.

‘Well planned, Louis?’

‘Exceptionally so.’

‘Good sources of information?’

‘Excellent,’ interjected Hermann. ‘We have a probable source but would like to hold that for the time being.’

‘A gang?’ asked Boemelburg.

‘Most certainly,’ said Louis, ‘though they might not wish to refer to themselves as such.’

‘Terrorist links?’

‘None that are known, but …’ went on Hermann.

‘But what?’

Louis gave a nod. ‘The mothballs are a possibility,’ said Kohler. ‘One of them, or two, or more.’

‘Ex-military types, Walter. This was found at the site of the police academy killing.’

‘The ribbon of the Legion d’honneur. Some honour, eh? I want him, you two. He’s to be made an example of.’

And hadn’t the General von Schaumburg said the same to Hermann? ‘There is one thing that has yet to be clarified, Walter. Whoever wore this may not have been its owner. That is to say, he may have worn the ribbon to …’

‘Facilitate things,’ sighed Boemelburg, ‘since the very sight of it still opens doors and commands respect. Now give me the identity of the police academy victim?’

‘We’re working on it,’ managed Hermann. ‘There’s …’

‘A connection with another killing, Walter. A delicate matter we felt it best to discuss with you first.’

‘How delicate?’

‘Very,’ breathed Hermann. ‘The rue La Boetie. A dancer from the Lido, half- indochinoise and mistress of Judge Hercule Rouget, President du …’

‘ Ach, mein Gott , what is it with you two? The Hoherer SS is going to have to be informed of this but have either of you any idea of what he’ll say to me, and it is to me who will be left the task of telling him?’

Calm was necessary. ‘Walter,’ said St-Cyr, ‘her murder was quite possibly done in the judge’s flat so that her killers could hide behind his close association with the Hoherer SS.’

‘Rouget would have had to inform him of it so as to hush things up-is this what you’re saying?’

It was.

‘Two men, Sturmbannfuhrer, one of whom was familiar with the flat.’

Kohler had found her then, not Louis.

‘The girl’s killing is definitely linked to that of the police academy,’ said St-Cyr.

‘Though she was not, in so far as we yet know, present during that killing, the girl was most likely taken from the Lido after first having been forced to telephone the press and then the police.’

‘And not killed until last night, Kohler?’

‘Killed at between 0100 and 0130 hours Friday, Sturmbannfuhrer. The child she was carrying was deliberately removed and an attempt made to hide it from investigating officers.’