Rachel’s arms were released and she fell into Joanna’s embrace. Now she could not stop herself weeping.
‘She regards you as her saviour,’ Franz remarked.
‘So it would seem,’ Joanna agreed. The coat was brought, and Rachel was wrapped in it, giving another whimper as the material brushed her burned nipple. ‘We need to do something about that,’ Joanna said.
‘You have not heard the last of this,’ Roess snarled.
‘Tread carefully,’ Joanna recommended.
‘You have made an enemy for life,’ Franz said as they drove back to Wehrmacht headquarters, Rachel between them. Wrapped in the greatcoat, she still shivered, partly from cold, Joanna estimated, but also partly from delayed shock — she had spent the better part of an hour staring into the abyss. But she had kept her nerve, and said not a word to betray either of them.
‘I don’t think we were ever likely to be friends,’ Joanna pointed out.
‘So what do we do now?’ Franz asked. ‘It won’t be daylight for another four hours, and the train doesn’t leave until eight thirty.’
‘We take her to your office. We have to find clothes for her. And we have to do something about that burn and those bruises.’
‘You are very solicitous. She is a British spy. Anyway, how do we do that at three o’clock in the morning?’
‘I will fetch some cold cream from my hotel, and you will obtain some clothes from your staff.’
‘They’re all asleep.’
‘Eva isn’t, remember? I also want all of this woman’s remaining gear. Everything that was in her haversack. Oskar will wish to see it all for himself.’
‘Her gun as well?’
‘Certainly.’
He sighed. ‘I had really hoped we could go back to bed.’ ‘No you didn’t. You were planning to leave my bed when Eva called.’ She leaned across Rachel to squeeze his hand. ‘You really have been a sweetie, Franz. I am going to give Oskar the highest possible praise for your behaviour.’
‘Eh?’
‘I meant, professionally, stupid. As for the other, well … We’ll keep our little secret, shall we?’
‘Please,’ Rachel said in a small voice, ‘what is to become of me?’
‘You are going on a journey, my dear. Just sit back and enjoy it.’
Franz accompanied them to the station on a cold, damp morning. ‘I really think you should let me send a couple of my men with you,’ he said.
‘Oh, come now, Franz. Do you not suppose I can handle this waif? I could break her in two with a twist of my wrists.’ He had to agree she was right. Rachel certainly looked better than she had done in the Gestapo cell. She had been given a hot bath and breakfast, her coffee being laced with cognac, and Eva had done surprisingly well as regards clothes, which almost fitted her. What Joanna had done about her injuries he did not know, as he had not been allowed in the cell while she was treating her, but she had undoubtedly soothed the pain. Yet she was still a bruised and battered figure, more mentally than physically, he felt, although apart from her breasts there were still ugly marks on her back and thighs where she had been kicked and punched. Now she wore a topcoat and a felt hat, from which there drooped a veil, at Joanna’s insistence. He wasn’t quite sure why, because she was also handcuffed, in front, and was clearly a prisoner. He accompanied them on board the train and into their first-class compartment, anxiously followed by the conductor.
These ladies are not to be disturbed,’ Franz said.
‘Of course, Herr Colonel.’
‘Except that we will need our meals brought to us,’ Joanna said. ‘We will not be using the dining car.’
‘As you wish, madame.’
‘Mademoiselle,’ Joanna pointed out. She squeezed Franz’s gloved fingers. ‘Again, all my thanks for your help.'
‘When will I see you again? I am due for leave after Christmas. I shall come to Berlin.’
‘We would have to be very discreet. But who knows, once I have delivered this bitch, Oskar may well send me back to assist in the search for Amalie de Gruchy.’ She gave a throaty chuckle. ‘Just imagine how pleased Roess will be.’
‘I salute you. Heil Hitler!’ Franz left the compartment.
Joanna drew the blind. ‘I think you should sit down.’
Rachel sank on to the bunk. ‘Will you tell me what is going on?’ Although they had been alone in the cell for over an hour, while Joanna had tended her, she had shaken her head whenever Rachel would have spoken; she knew the cell was bugged.
Joanna sat opposite her. ‘Surely you understand what is going on? I have extricated you from the clutches of the Gestapo.’
Rachel held up her manacled wrists. ‘But I am still under arrest. And you are taking me to Berlin.’
‘Well, you don’t suppose Hoeppner would have let you go under any other circumstances, do you? As to Berlin … tell me what happened.’ The train shuddered and started to move. Rachel outlined her experiences. ‘Monterre,’ Joanna mused. ‘I never did like that bastard. But it was incredibly stupid of you to trust him.’
‘I know that now. But I was getting desperate. The de Gruchys seem to have vanished off the face of the earth.’
‘If you ever intend to be a successful agent,’ Joanna said, ‘or indeed if you intend to survive, you must never be impatient, never become desperate. And never trust anybody, unless you know them very, very well.’
‘I am trusting you.’
‘Well, in this instance, you don’t have any choice. As for the de Gruchys, I can tell you that they haven’t disappeared all that far. Where do you suppose Roess got that bump on the head?’ ‘You’re not serious.’
‘Liane.’
‘Does he know that?’
‘Good God, no. He thinks she’s some floozy he picked up in Paris and was bringing down here for a prolonged bit of nooky. Liane is very good at playing that role. She enjoys it.’ ‘Oh. Does James know this?’
‘Of course he does.’
‘Yet he is in love with her.’
‘So? When you’re in love with somebody — I mean really — it doesn’t matter who or where she fucks. Especially when you know she is doing it for the Resistance.’
This was not a point of view Rachel had ever considered before. Of course she knew that James slept with Liane whenever he had the chance, which wasn’t very often, and she had never held it against him. She supposed she was just old-fashioned, had grown up with the assumption that men had a permanent droit de seigneur. These women were out of her class.
‘And where is she now?’
‘Having laid him out, she disappeared. That’s why Roess is in such a bad mood. Apart from his headache, he would dearly like to have her where he had you.’
Rachel shuddered. ‘If she was going to split his head open, why didn’t she go the whole hog and kill him?’
‘Now that I cannot tell you. But I am sure she had a reason. Liane always has a reason.’
‘You admire her, don’t you?’
‘I love her, too,’ Joanna said simply.
‘Oh. I thought … well, I know about the schoolgirl thing … ’
‘Our love has nothing to do with sex any more. Which is not to say … Oh, forget it.’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.’ Rachel held up her arms again. ‘Do you think we could take these off? My wrists are becoming quite chafed.’ Joanna took the key from her handbag and unlocked the cuffs. Rachel rubbed the reddened flesh. ‘So what is going to happen now?’
‘If you were to get off this train at an appropriate moment, do you suppose you could find your way to Switzerland? We have all your original documents, and I have sufficient funds.’
‘I think I could do that. But when will be an appropriate moment?’
‘We have to work that out. In a couple of hours we are going to cross the border into Vichy. I am sorry, when that happens I will have to cuff you again, for the benefit of the border guards, who will inspect the train. Right?’
; ‘Ye-es. But once we are across the border ‘I know, it is tempting. The train stops at Limoges.’ ‘Brilliant! I can go back to Anatole, warn him about Monterre, and call London to get me out.’ i said it was tempting. But it’s not practical.’
‘Why not?’
‘There are three reasons. The first is that it was in Limoges station that Liane bopped Roess.’
‘Oh, my God!’
‘Good point. According to Franz, the whole area is in a state of high alert. They are looking for Liane, but they will be stopping every strange woman and interrogating her, and possibly locking her up while they investigate her further. The last thing you want with the bruises you are carrying is a strip search. The second reason is that I think you need to stay away from Anatole. There appears to be some pretty dicey stuff going on, with him in the middle, and even if he’s clean, you can bet your bottom dollar that the Vichy police have a pretty good idea what he does with his spare time, and have him staked out. Right?’
‘I hadn’t thought of that.’
‘And the third and most important reason is that / have to stay clean. You have to escape me, not be released by me. OK, so you were veiled when you came on board, but your figure and movements are not too forgettable. We reach Limoges just after lunch. If the conductor sees you leaving the train in broad daylight he may just be curious enough to alert the gendarmerie. He would certainly want to check with me to make sure it was all right, and that would ruin everything. No, what we have to do is sit it out. We should leave Vichy again mid-afternoon, and get to Dijon just about dusk.’
‘And you reckon I can get off then?’
‘Nope.’
‘For God’s sake!’
‘I told you, to succeed in this business you just have to be patient. If we don’t order dinner, again the conductor is going to be suspicious. So we have dinner, and we go to bed. We’ll be at Metz about midnight. That’s where you’ll leave the train.’
‘Metz?’ Rachel cried. ‘That far north?’
‘So you’ll have a long journey. I’m going to let you have a travel document which will see you most of the way. And you have a north French accent, so you’ll melt into the background. You are on your way to Switzerland to visit your aged mother.’
Rachel considered this for several minutes. Then she said, ‘So I get off the train in Metz. How do I do that without leaving you up the creek?’
‘I think we could possibly take a leaf from Liane’s book. Of course, we don’t want to be too literal about it. But it has to look good.’
^ >|c Roess sat in front of Franz Hoeppner’s desk. His head had been re-bandaged, but he was obviously still in considerable pain, and a consuming fury.
‘That bitch,’ he said. ‘One day … How did she come to be with you at two o’clock in the morning?’
‘I’m afraid one of my staff took exception to your decision to remove the prisoner,’ Franz said. ‘She telephoned me to tell me what had happened. Well, I knew that Jonsson was acting on orders from Heydrich, via Weber, so I felt she should be informed. I’m sure you’ll agree that it would be unwise to get on the wrong side of either of those gentlemen.’
‘One day,’ Roess said again. ‘If you knew how I felt, to be humiliated by one woman after the other, and be unable to do anything about it … ’
‘I know,’ Franz said. ‘It is a terrible situation to be in.'
Roess regarded him for several seconds, rightly suspecting sarcasm. ‘And now the doctor tells me that I cannot go on with the investigation, that I must have complete rest for several weeks.’
‘I am sure he is right.’
‘So, Amalie de Gruchy will also slip through my fingers.’
‘I will continue the investigation as best I can, until you are fit to resume.’
‘As best you are able,’ Roess said contemptuously. ‘The thought of those creatures out there, laughing at us … ’ Then he snapped his fingers. ‘Well, at least we can wipe the smiles off their faces. You are still holding the hundred hostages you took last month?’
‘They are in the town gaol. I am half-inclined to let them go. They are not serving any worthwhile purpose.'
‘I agree. We will shoot them.’
‘Eh? Don’t be ridiculous.’
Roess pointed. ‘You took those hostages on the orders of General Heydrich. Am 1 not correct?’
‘Yes,’ Franz said, a lump of lead gathering in his stomach.
‘And his orders were that they were to be shot if Amalie de Gruchy was not surrendered.’
‘He issued that order. But it was never meant to be carried out. It was intended to frighten the population into giving the woman up.’
‘And it has not worked. And you have not executed a single hostage. There is another reason for them to be laughing at you. Well, as I say, we are going to wipe that particular smile from their faces.’ He stared at Franz. ‘Or are you going to countermand General Heydrich’s express command?’ Franz gulped. Roess smiled. ‘Cheer up. It may even bring the bitch out of hiding, and you will have completed the investigation before I return from hospital.’
The conductor hummed as he walked along the corridor, carrying the breakfast tray. The other passengers had got the message that there were two very important people in compartment three, and this gave him an increased sense of his own importance. He had no idea who the two women were, but the fact that they had been escorted on to the train by the Bordeaux commandant was sufficient for him. The additional fact that one of them had boarded in handcuffs — a fact known only to him — gave them added interest. He wished he knew what she looked like. But she had worn a veil, and on the two occasions he had been allowed into the compartment, with meals, her face had again been hidden. He had even hung around in the corridor, waiting for her to go to the toilet, but they had gone together, and again she had been veiled. On the other hand, first thing in the morning, when they would both be in bed, he wondered what else he might uncover …
He drew a deep breath, and knocked. There was no sound from inside the compartment, or at least none that he could hear above the sound of the train rushing through the dawn. He tried again, but still there was no response. Did he dare open the door? The temptation was enormous, but he resisted it for the moment. Let them sleep, or do whatever it was they were doing, a while longer. They would have to wake up at the border. Two women, one at least of whom was quite beautiful and was also obviously high in the Nazi hierarchy … His imagination boggled.
He took the tray away and returned half an hour later; they were approaching Saarbrucken. Again there was no response to his knock, but now he was entitled to awaken them. Another deep breath and he released the door, cautiously sliding it along its groove just a few inches, so that he could see inside. Predictably, the compartment was in darkness, but it was also filled with the women’s scent.
‘Fraulein?’ he asked.
There was movement from one of the berths. Then there was a moan. He placed the tray on the floor of the corridor, switched on the light, and gazed in consternation at the woman lying on the bunk, on her side, facing him. She was naked, and from the position of her arms, behind her, he guessed that her wrists were bound, as were her ankles, while an additional band, like the others made from torn sheets, had been passed round her waist and secured to the bunk itself to prevent her from rolling out. She was also gagged, but her eyes were open, peering at him through the strands of heavy yellow hair that drifted across her face.
He looked left and right, ascertaining that the other woman was missing. Then he tentatively approached the woman on the bunk. He had never seen a more evocative sight. His hands scrabbled at her head, fingers sifting through her hair to find the knot for the gag. It took him several minutes to release it.
‘Fraulein?’ he said again.
‘Shut that fucking door,’ she commanded. ‘Oh, and bring the tray in.’
He obeyed her.
‘Now get me free. Where is she?’
Tremblin
g, the conductor bent over the naked body to release the strip of sheet holding her to the bed. ‘She, Fraulein?’
‘The prisoner. The woman who was with me.’
‘I do not know, Fraulein.’ The sheet came free and he released her wrists.
‘Well, she must be found. She has to be somewhere on the train.’
‘Well, there was the stop. Actually, there were two stops during the night.’ He freed her ankles, and was kicked in the thigh as she swung her legs out of bed and sat up.
‘What did you say? What stops?’
The last one was at Metz. Did you not know of it?’
‘And you say that bitch got off there? Why did you not stop her?’
‘Well … I don’t know she got off, Fraulein. Several people left the train; I did not look closely at any of them. And I had no reason to stop her. I did not know what she looked like.’
‘What are you staring at? Have you never seen a naked woman before? Give me my robe. And that orange juice.’ The conductor obeyed. Joanna wrapped herself in her dressing gown and drank greedily. ‘The train must be searched and at the same time put into reverse. How far back is the last station?’
‘It will be thirty miles behind us, at least.’
‘Well, then, don’t just stand here. Stop the train. Pull the communication cord.’
‘I cannot do that, Fraulein.’
‘Listen, that woman is a wanted criminal. A British spy. She must be re-captured.’
‘If she is still on the train, we will find her. But to stop the train and go back … it is impossible. And dangerous.’
‘How can it be dangerous?’
‘There are other trains using the track. One is behind us now. There could be an accident. And if the woman got off the train at Metz, she could be anywhere by now. If she had papers.’
‘She has papers.’
‘Well, then, I am sorry, Fraulein. But … how did it happen?’ ‘It happened,’ Joanna spat at him, ‘because I am a stupid, soft-hearted halfwit. She seemed so docile, so when she begged me to free her wrists, I did so. And then, last night, after dinner, she got hold of my gun.’
Legacy of Hate Page 12