Sandman (38 page)

‘I am and I have.'

There was a desk, ornate and gilded, but the Frenchman had already been over it. Still, the challenge was out and one had best have a look.

‘You will find it on his memo pad beside the photo of his children,' said St-Cyr drolly. ‘“Erika's birthday, 23/5/35; Johann's is 18/1/40.”'

‘Did you try it?' asked Engelmann.

Was the discovery such a surprise? ‘Alas, our Gypsy friend also used beeswax around the mechanism and blew the dial off. Only a check with the manufacturer will settle the issue if our victim remains silent on such an oversight, but I leave that to you since the safe is from Mannheim, from the firm of Leinweber
und
Friesen. They went out of business in 1908.'

‘He should have used something newer.'

‘It's the shortages,' interjected Kohler passionately as he rejoined them. ‘Everyone has to make do.'

They set to work. They fussed, they probed. Did the General-major swim or dine in his absence? Did the woman? Just what the hell had been in the safe and how had the Gypsy gained entrance and known the victim would be absent?

Everything pointed to the woman, but why had someone let Engelmann know of the job in the first place so that they would arrive after the fact?

‘Why prepare that little surprise for us and yourself, Herr Max?' asked Louis.

‘Why, indeed,' grimaced the visitor distastefully.

‘Who told you about it, and when?' asked Kohler.

Engelmann drew in a tired breath, taking the time to size them up again before saying, ‘A little bird sang like a nightingale but unfortunately forgot to get the words straight. I received a telephone call at my hotel this evening from her conductor at 10.17, telling me the time and location of the robbery. He then contacted Srurmbannführer Boemelburg, who then notified yourselves.'

‘And this little bird?' asked Louis.

‘Will now have to answer for the mistake she has made in not letting us know sooner and in not warning us.'

Oh-oh. ‘Can't you put a name to her?' bleated Kohler.

‘That's just not possible.'

‘Then who the hell is her “conductor”?'

‘That I cannot tell you either.'

Verdammt
! ‘Perhaps she didn't know the Gypsy would leave this little surprise for us, perhaps he lied to her about the timing,' muttered Kohler, lost to it.

The visitor tossed his head as if struck. ‘Lighten her punishment – is this what you are suggesting?'

Ah damn. ‘Something like that, yes.'

Engelmann thumbed dust from his glasses. ‘Then please realize that when the cage is opened, the bird tastes freedom and rejoices. It is only understandable. But soon it realizes that if it fails to return, the hand that scatters grain will set snares and pluck its feathers.'

A
mouton
, then. Not a little bird at all. A prison informer who had been told what to do by her ‘conductor'.

When the Generalmajor Hans-Albrecht Wehrle arrived in grey flannels, shirt and tennis sweater with a towel still about his neck and badminton racket in hand, they were ready for him. He took one look at the safe, let his lower jaw drop and fought for words as his dark blue eyes flicked in panic over the carnage.

At last a dry whisper was heard. ‘The diamonds … Berlin … Berlin have been expecting them.'

Wehrle fought to comprehend the future, was sickened by the thought, blanched, gripped his forehead in distress and swore at last and loudly, ‘
Mein Gott
, it's happened. I've been operating for over two years without a hitch. I wasn't careless – one can't afford to be, but …'

Louis plucked at Engelmann's trench-coat sleeve to ask if he might begin. ‘Of course. It's as we agreed,
ja
? You first
und
then myself.'

‘Generalmajor, you were expecting a guest?'

‘She has nothing to do with this.'

‘That's what they all say. Her name, please?'

Ah damn the man! ‘Nana … Mademoiselle Thélème. She's … she's having her hair done. The hairdressers all work such odd hours due to the power outages. She … she'll be along in a few minutes.'

‘We hope so,' said the Sûreté flatly. As if on cue, the lift down the corridor sounded and they waited but the wretched thing went on and up to the second floor and then to the third.

‘Look, I … I can explain about her. It's … it's
not
what you think.'

‘
Gut
.'

Herr Max had grunted this. Sourly he indicated the dust-covered chairs and sofas, the small bar – all the comforts of home away from home – even to helping himself to the cigarettes and being greedy about it.

‘Oh, sorry. I'm forgetting myself.' A bent cigarette was offered. Kohler took it, then on impulse just to drive the message of consideration for others home, broke the thing in half and gave one part to Louis. Herr Max didn't even bother to notice.

They lit up and sat waiting and watching the victim. Hans-Albrecht Wehrle was fifty-six years old, a businessman who had made himself useful and had been granted the cover of a commission. The brow was high and deeply furrowed, the greying dark hair thin, well-trimmed and receding rapidly, the expression masked now that the reality of what had happened had fully registered.

Had he already found himself a window of escape? wondered Engelmann. Such people usually did. The look became grave, the blue eyes wary. How was it they had arrived so soon? – he could see Wehrle thinking this and then, yes, had his guest betrayed him to the thief?

The cheeks and chin were cleanly shaven, the chin dimpled. Deep cleavages slanted inwards emphasizing the bridge of a distinctly Roman nose. The build was good. A not unhandsome husband for his second wife and his mistress also, or was his association with this Nana Thélème really as he had claimed?

Herr Kohler had read those troubled eyes and had found them wanting, as had his partner but both would keep their counsel until prodded.

‘So, Herr Generalmajor, the contents of the safe. Let us begin with that,' said Engelmann disregarding entirely that St-Cyr was to conduct the first interview.

‘The diamonds were both rough and finished. Some were gems but small and not very good, though all would have made cutting and bearing stones when the flaws had been removed. The industrials were for similar uses, others of them to be crushed and ground into grinding and polishing powders.'

‘And your task, your position?' asked Louis, having been prodded well enough.

Nervously Wehrle gave a brief, self-conscious smile. ‘As a special attaché to the Ministry of Production, my task is to find the diamonds without which our armaments industry would come to a halt.'

Diamonds were essential for cutting and grinding the hardest of materials but was he still worrying about his guest being involved in the robbery? ‘About how many diamonds – the weight?' asked St-Cyr, favouring the bushy, dark brown moustache he had taken to wearing long before the Führer had come to power.

‘Four kilos. In value perhaps between 35,000,000 and 50,000,000 francs. It's illegal to sell them, of course, except through the official channels. They should all have been declared long ago.'

‘Yet you could still buy them, even though “unofficially”?'

‘That's understood.'

The lift began its upward traverse again. Hermann had purposely left the door to the suite open so that they might hear it.

Again they listened and again it passed beyond the first floor. Crestfallen, Wehrle fidgeted uncomfortably, even to muttering, ‘She'll come. You'll see she will. She had nothing to do with this. I'm certain of it.'

Never one to sit still for long, Kohler got up suddenly. ‘Sure she will. Hey, that's 1,750,000 to 2,500,000
Reichskassenscheine
.' (The Occupation marks, about £175,000 to £250,000.) ‘Was there anything else?' he demanded, taking a last drag. ‘Or was that enough for her and the Gypsy to share?'

The bullet graze across Kohler's brow was fading, the scar down the left cheek from eye to chin surely not the work of duelling? wondered Wehrle. Even for a Bavarian and a detective, Herr Kohler was formidable. A Fritz-haired, greying giant with shrapnel scars about the face as well as a storm-trooper's lower jaw and build and faded blue eyes – were they always so lifeless?

The nose was pugnacious, the age perhaps fifty-five years, so a good three years older than the blocky, shorter, somewhat portly Frenchman, and perhaps the same amount younger than the grizzled one who was fresh in from the Reich and smelling of old cabbage.

Wehrle tried not to avoid their gazes. ‘There were some napoleons in my money belt. Fifteen, I think, but I can't be precise. I buy when I can, you understand.'

Kohler pulled down a lower left eyelid in mock surprise. ‘And?' he asked.

Must they all be at him? ‘Some sovereigns in a cloth bag, some American gold eagles and … and my stamps. These last are a hobby, at least they … they were unless I can get them back.'

It was time for a little sweetness. ‘Can you supply us with a list?' asked Engelmann, using a pocket-knife to ream a thumbnail.

‘Of course. It's in my desk. There was also the office postage and petty cash. Would you like a record of those as well?'

‘Where is the office?' asked St-Cyr swiftly.

‘The Hotel Majestic, naturally.'

St-Cyr tossed his head in acknowledgement. When the Germans had marched into Paris on 14 June 1940, the Wehrmacht had taken over the Majestic and other such places. Lots of them, with sentries at the entrances and
ausweise
needed to come and go, but why had the safe not been housed there?

Again the sound of the lift interrupted things but now it seemed to hesitate, putting them all on edge. But then it went away and for a moment there was silence. ‘She's not coming,' grunted Engelmann. ‘Perhaps after all, you had best tell us about her.'

‘Look, we know how it is,' said Kohler companionably. ‘Paris is a long way from home. Leave is something your superiors, if they're anything like mine, feel irrelevant. A man does need a little female company now and then.'

How utterly pious! snorted St-Cyr inwardly. Just recently divorced but long married, Hermann
lived
with two women he had rescued. Giselle was a former prostitute, a very intelligent, purposeful and beautiful girl with jet black hair and violet eyes; Oona, a Dutch alien without proper papers, was beautiful also – blonde, blue-eyed, about forty years of age and nearly
twice
the age of the first. God's little dilemma.

Nervously Wehrle got up and went over to the bar then thought better of it and sought out the champagne only to hold the bottle up to them as evidence. ‘He opened it. Neither of us were in the room. He filled the two glasses – even I can see that – but he
couldn't
have had more than a sip.'

As the Sûreté watched, Herr Max's dispassionate gaze lifted to settle on the victim. ‘And what, please, makes you so certain your mistress did not let the thief into these rooms?'

‘Nana's not my mistress, damn you! She
works
for me and I pay her well. She has an ear for things and is often in the right place at the right time. As a diamond buyer I
can't
be too obvious, can I? Discretion allows the timid to come forward without fear of arrest. No names are necessary or recorded. I pay in cash and there are no questions asked.'

Perfect, then, if one had robbery in mind.

It was Louis who said, ‘But … but if in cash, were there not also bundles of banknotes in your safe? And why, please, was the safe not housed in your office at the Majestic?'

Again there was that nervous, self-conscious little smile as if still clawing at thoughts of his Nana's having betrayed him.

‘We had just closed a deal and were to celebrate. That's why there wasn't much cash in the safe. That's why the champagne.'

‘And the caviar.' He was just too wary, too full of doubts about her, felt Kohler. Louis sensed it too, and so did Herr Max.

‘The caviar, yes. It was a promise, a little treat. Nana loves it. And as for the safe being here, I travel a lot. Mostly I work away from the office. I always have.'

Again they heard the lift, again they waited, breaths held, hearts pounding now perhaps.

The damned thing stopped. The gate came open. Every step the woman took was muffled by the carpet but they each knew when she would appear in the open doorway and then, there she was.

Kohler swallowed hard. Louis, he knew would be intrigued. Herr Max apparently took but a moment to imagine flinging her into a chair before switching on the spotlight to shine it into her eyes. Slap,
slap
! and blood on her beautiful lips …

‘Nana …'

‘Hans, what has happened? Who are these men?'

‘
Ihere Papiere. Bitte, Fräulein. Bitte
.'

‘Hans …?'

‘Fräulein, he can do nothing for you now. Just give me your papers,' grunted Engelmann impatiently snapping his fingers.

Reluctantly Louis translated, and as he watched her, Kohler thought he detected an all but imperceptible wince. A handsome woman. Tall, proud – haughty even. Andalusian? he wondered. Spanish certainly. Part Moor? She was making him think of hot sun, lolling cattle nearby and midday silence. An abandoned hacienda among ancient olive groves. Two horses, no blanket on the ground. Just the sun high above and seen through the dusty grey of the leaves.

Her hair was jet black and thick, worn loose and long beneath the stylish hat of Arctic fox. Her eyebrows were dark and wide and served only to enhance eyes that did not flash in anger but could, though now they remained as if looking well into the distance to something other than themselves. They were large, dark olive eyes with deep touches of the Moor, the Carthaginian perhaps, or Phoenician – Louis would have run back through the gamut of her ancestry and perhaps this was what she was seeing in the distance.