Clandestine (43 page)

Instead, there was a portrait photograph of Czar Nicholas II and family, and the silver-headed eagle of the Romanovs.

‘It's like a monument to the past, Hermann.'

Picnic after picnic, palace after palace, thought Kohler, and not a reminder anywhere of the brutal murders of that family on 16 July 1918. France had opened her doors to fleeing White Russians, among them the young teenager Louis's songbird had once been.

An absolutely gorgeous hostess wore a tightly belted dress of dark blue woollen herringbone with silver threads that emphasized her figure. Brushing aside a lock of ash-blonde hair, her amber bracelets catching the lamplight, she gave them a slightly puzzled but knowing look and said, ‘Messieurs, I am Ulyana Alexandrova, but are you here to dine or make an arrest?'

‘Kohler, Kripo Paris-Central, mademoiselle or madame, and none other than my immediate boss, Chief Inspector Jean-Louis­ St-Cyr of the Sûreté. Since a meal here must cost more than 2,000 francs, please show us to that crowded table.
Ach, ja
, that's the very one with the secretary who looks as though she's being shared by both of her bosses.'

‘That would be Madame Lucie-Marie Bélanger.'

‘Do those of the Organisation Todt also share her?'

The builders of the Atlantic Wall and lots of other things, but this one needed a suitable answer. ‘
Peut-être
, but please wait here until I have asked if such as yourselves would be welcome.'

Did their curiosity extend to diamonds? wondered Ulyana. Diamonds, since everyone else was talking of them and these two were the sworn enemies of Serge de Lenz, the alias of Sergei Lebeznikov whose son, Pierre-Alexandre, had adored that student and had even hoped to marry her and been rejected.

Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of carats that no one knew of except for those two from Berlin, Herr Ulrich Frenzel and Herr Johannes Uhl who had claimed, Sergei had said, that the student was a
Halbjüdin
from the Netherlands named, not Annette-Mélanie Veroche as she had claimed, but Anna-Marie Vermeulen, the very girl, however, that Mademoiselle Jacqueline Lemaire, former fiancée of the banker Hector Bolduc, had wanted­ desperately to join her escort service so that his two friends and fellow partners, the overseers of his bank, could have the use of her.

Un mouchard
, a bomb in
place
de l'Opéra, and now … what now? she wondered.

Sergei would be more than pleased to learn of their presence, as would poor Hector whose vans would so often drop off things necessary to keep a place like this going, but would they ever find that girl and those diamonds, and if they did, would they be willing to share a few?

Arie had tucked the truck out of sight in the former stable next door and now, thought Anna-Marie, they were alone in the safe-house at the end of the courtyard at 3 rue Vercingétorix. But it wouldn't do to reach out to him in relief, though she desperately needed to. Instead, she must say it plainly.

‘I want you to leave early tomorrow morning right after the curfew has ended. You're to take the truck, and a bike, and use that same entrance we did with Étienne and Frans.'

She was in earnest, but … ‘Why not come with me while you can?'

‘Because whoever it was Frans gave that coin to will know who I am and be watching for the truck, and we mustn't leave it here. Also, I still have to do what I have to, but when I ordered those two to climb into the back and Emmi threw their suitcases in, that cook-housekeeper deliberately made sure she had a good look not only at its licence but that it was a faded red Renault 3.5-tonne with canvas tarp, so it's only a matter of time until they find it. Give whoever it was this, and make sure you tell him I'm still very much in Paris, and he'll let you go because he'll understand, I think, that something far bigger must be afoot.'

It was a beautifully cut, clear-white diamond.

‘Then as soon as you can, ditch the truck and use the bike but keep to the back roads. Try for Martine and the farm, then vanish, but know that if I could, I believe I would come to love you as much as I still do my Henki.'

Instantly she held up both hands to stop him.

‘It's neither the time nor the place and I can't for a moment forget what I have to do.'

‘And the cash from that bank van?'

Étienne had taken some. ‘Leave it beyond what you need.'

‘Apolline won't like your walking out of here in that uniform.'

‘I won't but must come and go for a little. In the morning I'll make sure she understands why you left without saying good-bye, and that she really has no other choice, but since I still have ten of those, a few will convince her. I won't tell her of the cash. Let's let her find it later.'

‘And the things in that tin you trusted me to look after when you weren't here?'

‘Will just have to take care of themselves, but with me.'

Tray after tray, plate after plate went to that table where Hermann was getting to know everyone: roast pork, grilled beef and mutton on skewers, a terrine of chicken with pork, then something called salmon­
kulyebyaka
, baked cod, too, with horseradish, and finally a glazed pike-perch in aspic under a garnish of sliced cucumber. And the wine …
Ah, mon Dieu
, the Château Lafite, Château Mouton and Château Latour and wasn't Hector Bolduc interested in châteaux and vineyards near Pouillac and Bordeaux, and was that who Ulyana Alexan­drova was now trying desperately to reach on a telephone that would most certainly be listened in to by the Gestapo's Listeners?

Accompanying everything, there were potato dumplings, omelettes, buckwheat
kasha,
beetroot casserole with sour cream, cucumber salad, beet salad, lentil soup and borscht.

Anna-Marie had eaten here not once but twice, so Ulyana would know something of her and would most definitely have found out more.

Taking out the coin, he ran a thumb over where she had scratched her initials thinking it the only way of saving herself from that informant. ‘Two and a half guilders in silver and among the last to be minted,' he said to himself and as if to her, knowing she would have looked at the hors d'oeuvres just as he was, shocked that there were so many when children were terribly underweight, undersize, and athletic classes had had to be cancelled.

Having loaded two plates to capacity, he started for that table, the girls gorgeous French and Russian
Parisiennes
, all beautifully dressed and with jewellery they had obviously been given, their petty jealousies and rivalries all too evident.

Guerlain's Shalimar, named after a Mogul's garden in Kashmir, was distinctively being worn by the secretary: sandalwood, patchouli, vanilla and musk.

‘And just a touch behind each of her ears, Louis, and on
le mont de Vénus.
But these are none other than Rheal Lachance and Émile Girandoux, and these are Horst Lammers and Heinz Springer, the number one buyers for the Todt. Carload after carload of French lumber, tonnes and tonnes of her cement, too, and steel reinforcing rods, copper pipes and electrical wiring. Diamonds also, I think.'

Had he popped more of those damned pills?

Alone in his car, Ludin wondered what the hell Kohler and St-Cyr were up to at Chez Kornilov. Was he to find Kleiber first or simply go in and confront the two of them?

Kleiber had blamed him for everything that had gone wrong, and now there were the deaths of those who had tried to defuse the bombs, also the excruciating acid burns of still others, all of which Kleiber was having to report to Kaltenbrunner
after
he had first answered why they had yet to have arrested that girl and recovered the black diamonds.

Hilda would have advised him to leave for Switzerland while he could, that all dogs piss where others have, and since he had never liked dogs, he should avoid them.

Had they met with that girl? Had she made contact, as Kohler had suggested?

Sleep wouldn't come—how could it? wondered Anna-Marie. Photos … so many photos, but had there been others still, others that hadn't been destroyed, and had Hector Bolduc seen some of herself with Jacques Leporatti at the Jardin des Plantes?

Jacqueline Lemaire would have looked at each of those photos and would know exactly who was in them and where they had been taken because whoever had taken them would have had to find out. But would she remember the faces, would the photographer? Emmi had had to be told in any case. To have not done, wouldn't have been right, and Aram, though furious with her for such carelessness, would deal with it if he could, but wouldn't wash his hands of her, not yet. Not with 45 million francs or 225,000 pounds sterling in fivers: 45,000 of those, with 15,000 in each suitcase, the numbers easy, the rest nothing but a disaster waiting to happen.

Ulyana shuddered. It was one thing for St-Cyr and Kohler to have come here unexpectedly, quite another for this sour-looking individual­ to have followed. As if in constant pain, and endlessly­ sucking on a cigarette, he pointed to that table and said in Deutsch, ‘How long have those two
Scheissdrecken
been here?'

To cross him would not be wise. Better to give him an answer but in a way that only she could. ‘Long enough for each to have polished off two heaping plates of the
zakuski
and a half bottle of vodka. Herr Kohler's
otbivnaya
and
pelmeni
… oh, sorry. His veal schnitzel in sour cream, with a side order of the Siberian meat ravioli­­, and the chief inspector's trout with walnut sauce, will not be ready for another ten-and-a half minutes unless I'm a little off.'

The
Schlampe
! ‘Cancel those. Now use that telephone to call 84 avenue Foch. Tell the duty officer to find Standartenführer Kleiber and have him sent here immediately. It's urgent. Don't and I will shut you down and put your ass and everyone else's here on the Russian front.'

Oh là là, son cul
, and he had meant it too. ‘Would you like to order something to eat, mein Herr?'

Pistol in hand, he had already turned away.

The plates had been shoved aside, noted Ludin, the whores to the other end of the table and all now pissing themselves and falling silent at the sight of himself, the others still not having realized they had a visitor.

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.'