Clandestine

by J. Robert Janes

  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 Führer 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 Émile Girandoux.

  ‘Ach, we can help, can’t we, Heinz?’ said Horst Lammers. ‘Essex­ 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, Émile, how are we to get clearance for that much and of those?’ asked Lachance.

  ‘Easy,’ quipped Kohler. ‘Everyone knows Reichsmarschall Göring is in the Führer’s bad books. This foolish offer of sale is going to guarantee him a huge comeback. Once the Standartenführer 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 Mérode 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-Mélanie 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 Standartenführer 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 Mérode and this one to whose son she had given that dried herb?

  ‘Kriminalrat …’ called out Hector Bolduc, hustling that former fiancée 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.

  ‘Kriminalrat, you’re finished. Mistake after mistake, I tell you. The Reichssicherheitshauptamtchef is furious and is demanding your immediate recall, so I’ve taken the liberty of booking you onto the early morning Lufthansa. Here are the necessary papers.’

  Out on the street, sitting in the Citroën he’d been allowed and enveloped in the darkness, Ludin said to himself, A student. The Left Bank, the Sorbonne, the boulevard Saint-Germain. Places she would know only too well, yet a uniform, a Blitz. No one would have thought to look for that, Kleiber least of all.

  The storeroom to which they were shown was yet another Ali Baba’s cave, felt Kohler, this one obviously also having had Hector Bolduc’s help, for chagrin clouded the banker’s expression, malicious delight that of the former mistress. But photos had been secretly taken of Annette-Mélanie Veroche, both when alone and not. Later they’d been deliberately burned, along with the Mademoiselle Lemaire’s file on that girl, and Louis had made a point of telling Kleiber not only why that had happened but by whom and when.

  Angrily tossing a fist, Bolduc said, ‘Sacré nom de nom, that was not how it was. Who am I to tell my bank’s overseers what they can and cannot do? It was they who had those photos taken, not myself who has never even looked at any of them, but when Jacqueline heard of it, of course she wanted prints for her file on that girl. Tell them, chérie. You must.’

  Be forceful and I’ll take you back—was that it, eh? wondered Jacqueline. Yet if Hector could be convinced, would his having ‘begged’ her to return not wipe away rejection’s shame and cause Nicole Bordeaux and the others to admit they’d been wrong to have said such hateful things? Nicole who had bought that girl the dress, the shoes and had suggested time and again that what Annette-Mélanie really needed was une sacrée bonne baise. ‘Hector is absolutely correct. I did mention the snapshots, but we were in a hurry and he said he would look at them later but never did.’

  Trust a woman scorned to have said it, thought Kohler. ‘And Hauptmann Reinecke and Leutnant Heiss have been recalled, I gather.’

  ‘And sent to Russia, I think,’ said St-Cyr, ‘but as to my not having gone to the Jardin des Plantes to look for the source of that rosemary, I had had it in mind.’

  ‘But not now, Louis. You’d only tip them off. We’ll have to leave it until after we’ve made the exchange and the dust has settled.’

  ‘What exchange?’ asked Kleiber. ‘Surely you don’t think I’m going to agree to …’

  There had been no time to talk to Louis about it, but something would have to be said. ‘The boart for the cash in fivers. Ach, don’t worry, Standartenführer. It can be done and will get you everything the Sonderkommando needs, including that girl.’

  ‘Let Rudy de Mérode and me take care of her,’ said Lebeznikov. ‘We have the men and know the city far better even than those two.’

  ‘Later,’
said Kleiber. ‘First, let’s hear what Kohler has to say.’

  ‘Yes, let’s,’ said Rheal Lachance, ‘since it is through Munimin-Pimetex that such a purchase must be made.’

  ‘Reichsmarschall Göring will okay it, mes amis,’ said Girandoux. ‘We’ll telex him tonight and by 0700 hours tomorrow will have the necessary via the early-morning Lufthansa or an ME 109.’

  The fivers, and one could have relied on Girandoux to have said it, thought Horst Lammers. ‘The Todt would still like to come in on it. Two organizations will lend weight.’

  ‘Oh for sure, we’ll be only too glad to convey your interest,’ said Lachance, ‘but will have to let the Reichsmarschall decide.’

  Göring? Was Lachance crazy? wondered Kohler. If the Fat One couldn’t get his hands on those black diamonds, no one else was going to. ‘Three medium-size suitcases, Standartenführer, each to be packed with fifteen thousand of the notes, and all with a little something else.’

  ‘What?’ demanded Kleiber.

  Now for the crunch. ‘Didn’t I hear somewhere that the Philips Works in Eindhoven had come up with a very small but powerful transmitter?’

  ‘One that’s easily concealed,’ said Kleiber, lifting a forefinger in pause. ‘Preset, I think, to something in the range of 3,000 to 4,000 kilocycles per second. Ach, I like it, Kohler. Wherever those suitcases are taken, the locations can be pinpointed by our wireless tracking vans.’

  And just like clandestine wireless sets, thought St-Cyr. To give Hermann his due, he had tried, but this … How could they possibly work for and with the enemy yet ensure that Anna-Marie and others of her équipe weren’t arrested? ‘Surely those suitcases will have to be opened and the cash payment examined before the boart is handed over, Hermann?’

  ‘Ach, don’t argue. The pitch is far too high for anyone to actually hear it. All three of the transmitters will be sounding away in unison and allowing the tracking vans to lock onto them right from the start. We do the exchange with no one else near, Colonel. Everyone to be held well back until I give the sign, since we don’t want to scare them off. Just let that girl come in to hand over the boart and take the fivers, which will then nail down whatever safe house or houses they’ve been taken to, just as you’ve stated.’

  Apart from broadcasting all of this to Lebeznikov of all people, and the others, Hermann had forgotten entirely about Heinrich Ludin who would be furious about having been so summarily dismissed. Then, too, there was the leader of that équipe and what he might think of such a scheme.

  But Hermann wasn’t quite finished.

  ‘With all that cash, Louis and me can’t be expected to carry­ it around in the Citroën. We’ll need one of your bank vans, Chairman Bolduc. You to drive it and that one—yes, you, Lebeznikov—to ride up front. That’ll see that the cash gets to where the exchange is to be made and the boart then safely taken to the avenue Foch first and later to Munimin-Pimetex.’

  Unfortunately Hermann had to be flying on those damned pills and wouldn’t have listened anyway.

  ‘We’ll do it toward the end of the day tomorrow,’ said Kohler. ‘Let’s say 1830 hours and still lots of light.’

  ‘And where?’ asked Kleiber.

  ‘The Vaugirard horse abattoir. It’s currently empty and is out of the way enough not to arouse suspicion and give lots of routes of escape if needed, which will ease her mind. She’ll arrive, Louis and me will make the exchange, and when all of that’s been done, you can then track those suitcases or move in with the troops. Better still, why not ride in the back of that bank van so as to be right near the action and judge things for yourself? You can then check the boart and either be the one who grabs or follows her.’

  Lebeznikov could shoot Kohler and St-Cyr and put an end to them, thought Kleiber, the girl to be given a reinforced interrogation and then executed. A clean slate, just as the Reichssicherheitshauptamtchef­ had demanded, including every one of those Banditen who had been associated with her. More diamonds, though, than could ever have been imagined, Herr Frensel and Herr Uhl to return to the Reich with them, the Führer not just grateful.

  A Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords for sure.

  * Now the rue Léon-Maurice Nordmann.

  * Boche coward, be cursed!

  * Victor Hugo uses the area several times in the novel.

  * The trigger element.

  * Known at war’s end as Operation Bernhard, more recently as the Bernhard Pounds.

  * The siege lasted from 8 September 1941 until 14 January 1944, though Moscow didn’t announce its relief until the 27 January.

  * Predates the Musée de l’Homme, which has since been torn down and replaced by the Musée des Arts et Traditions Populaires.

  12

  The comings and goings at that Lokal on the boulevard Saint-Michel were clearly in view, Hermann having drawn the Citroën over to the side of the boulevard Saint-Germain not far to the west of its intersection with the other. It was Wednesday, 6 October, and they’d been on this investigation since the first of the month, yet it seemed a lifetime, felt St-Cyr. It was almost 1000 hours, and in but a moment he was going to have to do what that girl had asked, yet there was still this huge uncertainty over Giselle and Oona and it clouded everything. ‘Hermann, she will at least have tried to free them.’

  ‘Or been arrested. Had you even thought of that?’

  ‘Constantly.’

  ‘Just remember that if you are met, you tell her that she has to come alone and with that bike’s trailer.’

  ‘Ah mon Dieu, but why?’

  ‘How else is she going to cart away three suitcases?’

  ‘You’ve thought of everything, have you?’

  ‘What I have in mind might just work.’

  ‘Yet you’ve not had the guts to fill me in on the details or even to discuss it! Bonne chance, mon vieux. Bonne chance!’

  Having had but another terrible night in that house of Louis’s mother’s, they were both bitchy, felt Kohler, Louis out of the car before anything further could be said and quickly losing himself among the pedestrians, the foot-traffic the usual for this time of day and midweek. Students, too, of course. Lots of those on bikes and on foot, but mostly female, the boys either dodging the forced labour or having already gone into hiding. ‘But it’s coming, isn’t it?’ he called out. ‘The end, eh, and they all look as if they can hardly wait.’

  ‘“Spring,” n’est-ce pas?’ said an urgent female voice. ‘Floor it and pull over where suitable.’

  Ach, she had ducked into the car so quickly, he hadn’t even heard her open the door. ‘Aren’t you supposed to be meeting Louis?’

  ‘This is safer.’

  Ramming the accelerator to the floor and leaning on the horn, he didn’t say another thing, just headed straight to the Halle aux Vins which wasn’t far and just off the rue de Jussieu, next to the Jardin des Plantes. The rue de Bordeaux was busy, that, too, of the Côte d’Or. Settling on the rue de Bourgonne, he found a quiet place, and turning in and out of sight of most, left the engine running and said, ‘Now tell me what the hell you meant.’

  ‘Something—I don’t honestly know what—told me not to go in there, and when I saw him hurriedly leave the car, that same instinct told me not to call out, but to speak to yourself.’

  Had Louis walked right into it? If so, how could he possibly be freed? ‘Did you manage Oona and Giselle?’

  ‘The shop Enchantement. Madame Van der Lynn said to tell you Muriel and Chantal would hide them.’

  Giving but the deepest of sighs, Herr Kohler very quickly told her where and how the exchange would be made, and how very tight the timing would have to be. And when he said, ‘You’ve a trailer for that bike of yours. Be sure to use it,’ she knew that he could only have seen it in those photos that had been destroyed.

  He didn’t ask where she
was staying, simply said, ‘I’ll drop you off at the Jussieu métro station. In that uniform you’ll ride free and the sooner you vanish from this quartier, the better. Louis may need me.’

  Fewer and fewer were in the Lokal, the increasing emptiness seeming only to focus attention on himself, felt St-Cyr. No one had come to tell him where to meet Anna-Marie. Believing they were meeting, Hermann would have gone on to the Porte de Versailles to connect with Werner Dillmann, but was that whole house of cards of his to now fall in on them?

  Emptying his pipe—making sure no little fire remained—he tucked it away, and forcing himself to do so, decided to wait another two minutes. Had she seen that their meeting here was out of the question? Had she been arrested?

  Cold, hard, heavy and well known but not his own, the muzzle of a Lebel Modèle d’ordonannce was pressed to the back of his head. ‘Hands flat on the table, Sergeant.’

  ‘Ah, Rocheleau, and here I thought you would be busy elsewhere, but if you’re intending to cause trouble again, let me remind you of the consequences.’

  The blow must be excruciating, felt Rocheleau, the suddenness of oblivion instant!

  Blood poured from the salaud’s head. ‘Was that hard enough, Inspector, or do you want another?’

  Not being able to understand more than a few words of French, Ludin impatiently said in Deutsch, ‘Remove that pistol of his and hand it to me, then use his handcuffs.’

  ‘Ah bon, the bracelets. Those will teach him another lesson.’

  Two Blitzmädchen had collected Kohler’s women last night, Ludin now knew, the one with papers that had given her name as Annette-Marie Schellenburger. She’d been blonde, blue-eyed and younger than the twenty-eight those papers had stated, but beyond that it hadn’t taken much to figure out where she might well be wearing that uniform and meeting with St-Cyr. Not only was there a Blitzmädchenheim on the rue Saint-Séverin and just off the boulevard Saint-Michel, there was a Lokal on the latter and not far from a Soldatenheim on the boulevard Saint-Germain, and with lots of students from the Sorbonne as a reminder. But he had needed help, and there really had been only one person he could have used.