J. Janes - Carousel

Hermann started to take something out of a pocket but thought better of it. Boemelburg sat down heavily. A big, tall, heavy man, his bristled grey dome and broad forehead showed the creases of anger and worry. France’s top cop, the Head of SIPO-SD Section IV, the Gestapo, was not happy.

Boemelburg spoke perfect French, even to argot, the slang of the quartiers. He was a wizard of a cop when he wanted to be, which was usually always.

St-Cyr turned away to take shelter by one of the windows. The rue des Saussaies looked lonelier than ever. The merry-go-round that Paris had become had suddenly stopped. A dead corporal …

‘ Listen , Louis.’

‘Of course, Walter. You have my ears.’

‘And your asses! Don’t either of you forget it!’

He was in rare form. Hermann began again, but Walter was hardly listening. The killing of the corporal was not good. Ah no. It meant trouble, always trouble for him. There’d not been many of these killings yet. Just a scratch or two.

Before the war Boemelburg had been a much respected policeman. They’d worked together on several occasions, notably the visit of King George VI to France in July of 1938, when the government had been worried about yet another assassination and the Vienna office of the International Organization of Police, the I.K.P.K., had been all aflutter.

Now such an acquaintanceship was worth only so much. Ah merde , what was one to do? wondered St-Cyr.

‘Coins!’ shrilled Boemelburg.

‘Forged,’ murmured Hermann.

‘I want the truth! How many coins were there? Where did they come from? Why hasn’t this forger been apprehended? Who has the real coins if, Hermann, if they even exist?’

‘We’re looking into it, Herr Sturmbannfuhrer.’

‘ You’re looking into it. Gott im Himmel , is that all you have to say?’

‘We’ve only just got back. We’ve not even been to sleep.’

‘SLEEP? Who sleeps these days? Only the dead.’

Among Boemelburg’s many duties was the task of taking hostages and choosing those who would be shot.

‘Walter, perhaps we could use a little help? A few days?’

‘It’s time you don’t have, Louis. Gott im Himmel , why can’t you French behave?’

‘The corporal … Where … where was he killed?’

‘Where indeed!’

Kohler held his breath. Louis looked quite ill.

‘The rue Polonceau?’ asked the little Frog. It was a cry, a plea to that God of his for some sort of an understanding with fate. ‘I heard no shot, Walter. I was standing at the side of the street. A girl …’

‘What girl?’

‘A girl of my imagination, Walter. My dead wife. I … I was merely recalling that the two of us had once had lunch in the Bistro Demi-Matin on that street.’

Kohler was impressed. Even when crushed the Frog could still think fast and not let it show. A good sign.

Boemelburg ran an irritated hand over the bristled dome. ‘Hostages will have to be taken, Louis. I’m sorry, but that’s the way of it.’

‘Six … eight …?’

‘Thirty.’

‘But … but it’s nearly Christmas …?’

‘That can’t matter. I have my orders.’

Kohler found his voice. ‘Which end of the street, Herr Sturmbannfuhrer?’

‘The lower end, where it runs into the rue de la Goutte-d’Or. Not far from the Church of Saint Bernard. Some bastard must have dragged him into a courtyard. They’ve only just reported it. A priest. The cloth had the courage to telephone.’

St-Cyr threw himself into a chair and dragged out a handkerchief to blow his nose and hide his tears. Thirty hostages. Thirty deaths for one corporal!

Boemelburg was moved to a momentary compassion. ‘I don’t like it any more than you do, Louis.’

‘But you have your orders.’

The giant thumbed a telex at him. ‘Right from the Fuhrer. He’s in a rage.’

‘You once lived on that street, Walter. Years ago you ate and drank with those people when you were selling and servicing central-heating systems to the wealthy.’

The Gestapo’s gaze didn’t waver. ‘I know that, Louis. I don’t need to be reminded of it.’

The meaty hands gathered in the coins. There were twenty-seven of them and that was an odd number. Kohler? he wondered. How many had he stolen?

‘These are not bad imitations, Louis. Did the Italian do them?’

That dusty page had been torn from the last century, from the annals of great criminals: one Luigi Cigoi, who had worked in copper and billon alloys to produce late-Roman issues that had baffled and shattered the faith of the experts of that day.

‘Some of the dies could have been his, Louis, or the originals. The Romans minted in Gaul as they did on the Danube. They left their garbage lying around for others to use.’

All of which St-Cyr would have known, but there was still no sign of interest.

Boemelburg began to sort the coins, fingering six to one side and three to the other.

Kohler thought it best to enter into the spirit of things. ‘Not cast from old coins?’ he offered.

A cloud descended. ‘How many are missing?’

‘Three, Herr Sturmbannfuhrer.’

‘Where are they?’

‘With the concierge, in temporary payment for information.’

‘Good. See that you get them back. Now, gentlemen, take a closer look, eh? Tell me what you think.’

He thumbed two more of the coins to join the six. ‘At first the Romans used bronze dies, just as the Greeks did before them, but when struck with a ten-kilo sledge, those dies tended to give, so …’ He paused.

Kohler swallowed. ‘They’ve all been struck from iron dies but …’

‘But they could not possibly have been. ’ Boemelburg gave him a rare grin of pleasure. ‘The edges of the early ones are far too sharp, those coins far too round. The relief of the figures stands out too sharply.’ He paused. ‘The later coins, which would have been made from the much stronger iron dies, are perfect as they should be.’

‘Perhaps the forger was in too much of a hurry, Herr Sturmbannfuhrer? Perhaps he didn’t have the bronze he needed to make two sets of dies. Maybe he simply thought to improve on the earlier ones.’

‘Perhaps, but then, is that it, Hermann? Don’t be a dummkopf. ’

St-Cyr heaved a patriot’s sigh. ‘It’s the one who bought the coins that worries me, Walter. He must have been German and if so …’

‘Louis, stop wearing your allegiance on your sleeve. At least stick it in your pocket. Common sense …’

‘Is that a warning, Walter?’

‘Damn you, you know I can’t always look the other way. They’re asking questions about your loyalties over on the avenue Foch. Oberg’s not happy.’

‘No one is these days.’

‘Then perhaps you’d best tell him that. The two of you are to cart your sestertii over there later on.’

The brass ones. Four Asses each. Was the Chief losing his memory? asked Kohler of himself. Gott im Himmel , no! Yet that accusation had been made more than once in higher circles, and the word was out that Walter was to be replaced.

The old lion was having none of it.

‘Solve this thing, Louis, and I’ll see what I can do about the hostages.’

‘Take the old ones, Walter. Not the young. Let us talk to them, in case they know something we need.’

‘Then come with me. Leave Louis’ car behind, Hermann. Ride in front with my driver.’

It didn’t take long. In the span of time since they’d left the cafe, the Wehrmacht had moved in to plug the street and shake everyone out into it.

The hostages were randomly chosen. Some took it with dumb faces, still not realizing what was about to happen to them; others tried to get away or begged on their knees.