David Healey - Winter Sniper

Eva considered the two interior doors. Ty had said that the general — always working — used the suite as an office. She deduced that behind one door must be that room. Behind the other door she was likely to find Mamie Eisenhower still asleep. The general’s wife was famous for being anything but an early riser. Eva was sure that she would rather explain herself to an angry staff officer than to the general’s notoriously jealous wife.

Eva crossed the sitting room as silently as any thief. She chose the door on the right and turned the knob, half expecting to be confronted by an irate woman in hair curlers. But the sight that greeted Eva was a small room containing a desk covered in paperwork and ringed by three upholstered chairs. With a final glance over her shoulder to make certain that she was still alone, Eva entered Eisenhower’s private office. The desk was surprisingly messy. A coffee mug held freshly sharpened pencils and ballpoint pens. Piles of papers, stacked willy nilly, threatened to topple over. Eva spotted several folders and manila envelopes stamped in red with the words “Top Secret.” Even the trash can overflowed with crumpled documents. Where to begin?

Eva heard muffled voices in the hall. They seemed to pause just outside the door to the suite. She felt herself break out in a sweat. Was it Eisenhower coming back from breakfast? She half-retreated from the office, holding her breath until the voices moved down the hall.

She knew she did not have much time. Eva went to the desk and flipped through the files. Most seemed utterly useless — aircraft factory production reports and the like. Another folder seemed to contain nothing but lists of newly promoted lieutenant colonels. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears like a drum.

But then Eva came across a folder containing several maps. She recognized the coast of France. Someone had drawn Xs at various points along the coast and arrows showing, she assumed, the inward movement of troops after landing. Eva knew that with the exception of Italy there were no Allied troops in Europe. The maps must show potential invasion routes. With the Russians to the east and Americans advancing from France, Eva imagined Germany being crushed between the two vast armies like a walnut in a vise. She shuddered.

Another sheet of paper fluttered out. At first, she could not make sense of the numbers — it seemed to be some sort of timetable. But for what? And then Eva realized she was looking at a tide chart for May and June. Someone had circled the dates when the tide would be highest at particular beaches. Pas de Calais stood out.

Eva froze as she heard more voices in the hallway. She was snooping on borrowed time. Eva hadn’t any particular plan for how to smuggle out any documents she found. She only knew that she couldn’t very well walk out with a folder in hand. So she made use of the oldest hiding place in the world. She took the sheaf of maps and the tide table, folded them several times, and then stuffed the pages down her brassiere.

The voices grew louder. Eva just managed to pull the door of Eisenhower’s office shut behind her as the doorknob turned and someone entered the suite.

“Eva, what are you doing in here?” Ty Walker looked as startled as she felt, coming upon each other in General Eisenhower’s private suite. The difference was that Eva was good at playing a role. She recovered instantly and offered Ty her brightest smile.

“Darling, I have been looking all over for you.”

“You’re not supposed to be in here.” Ty looked around anxiously. “Has anyone else seen you?”

“No. I have been here only a moment.”

Ty took her firmly by the elbow and led her from the room. Out in the hallway he said, “You could get in a lot of trouble for doing that, Eva. You could get me in a lot of trouble. What were you doing in there?”

“You said that was the general’s suite. I thought you might be in there working with him. Then I started looking around the room.” She shrugged. “I was curious, darling. It’s not every day that you get to visit a four-star general’s suite. Perhaps I was looking for a souvenir.”

“Eva! You didn’t take anything, did you?”

“Of course not. But did you see how much the general smokes? That ashtray was overflowing.”

Ty just shook his head. “Do us both a favor and stay out of there.”

Eva saluted. “Yes, sir!”

That brought a smile to the captain’s face. “Look, I’ve got to take care of some things. Maybe we can get together for lunch?”

“That sounds wonderful.”

Ty hurried off. It was everything Eva could do not to sag to her knees in relief. Poor Ty! By lunchtime she intended to be far away from the Greenbrier Resort.

Eva nearly ran from the hallway in front of Eisenhower’s suite to the basement room where Petra was staying. The girl was still in bed, treating the fact that it was someone else’s job to wait on her mistress like a vacation. Eva pounded on the door until the sleepy-eyed girl answered.

“Petra, get yourself together. We are leaving.”

“But Frau Von Stahl, we only arrived yesterday. The storm —”

“Is over now. Hurry and pack your things. Then we can go upstairs and pack mine.”

Eva waited impatiently as the girl scrambled to fill her battered suitcase. Then they climbed the stairs to Eva’s room on the second floor. Petra glanced at the bed, which clearly had not been slept in, but said nothing. Packing took only a few minutes because Eva had barely spent any time in the room.

Still sleepy and clearly unhappy that her stay at the Greenbrier had been cut short, Petra grumbled, “I don’t know why you are in such a hurry.”

Eva reached into the front of her dress and took out the papers still hidden there. “Because of this, dear Petra,” she said, waving the papers triumphantly. In her excitement, Eva lapsed into German. “I paid General Eisenhower’s rooms a visit this morning and found something very important.” Eva transferred the papers to the inside pocket of her fur coat. She didn’t plan on letting them out of her sight. In her other hand she held her purse, which contained the Walther pistol she had used to shoot Fleischmann. “All done? Come now, let’s see if we can’t find a car to take us to the train station.”

The hotel was mostly still asleep at this early hour. It was easier not running into any people and having to make awkward farewells, although the only person she felt obligated to say goodbye to was Ty. She used the hotel stationery in her room to jot him a quick note, then had Petra run up and slip it under his door. It wasn’t exactly a love letter, but she needed to keep him from becoming suspicious about her sudden departure.

Darling,

Something has come up and I must return to Washington to discuss a possible film role. After all this time. As you Americans would say, “Imagine that!” I would much rather spend days here with you. We will talk again soon. Come see me when you get back.”

Love,

Eva

The lobby was nearly empty, but as they descended the sweeping staircase, an ancient porter did appear to take their bags. He grunted at the weight of the third suitcase. “We need a car to take us to the train station,” Eva announced.

“Ma’am?” he asked, the tone of his voice suggesting that the two women might as well have ordered up a space ship. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a foot of snow on the ground.”

“What is a little snow!” Exasperated, Eva marched to the massive front doors and looked out. Everything was covered in a thick blanket of white. Cars were buried so that they appeared to be lumpy masses rather than machines. It was impossible even to tell where the driveway lay under all that snow. A man was out front with a shovel, but he was stooped and old, his progress painfully slow because the depth of the snow limited him to small scoops.“That’s more than a little snow,” the porter remarked. “It ain’t snowed that much in January since the blizzard of twenty-eight. Even once we get a car dug out, it can’t get out on the main road. And the trains won’t be going anywhere until they clear the tracks.”