Carnival (27 page)

They were at the door of the wagon and St-Cyr knew there was no stopping them. Torch in hand, Rasche entered in what would have been a shower of glass had the mirror not been caught. ‘KOHLER … WHERE IS KOHLER?' he demanded. Oberfeldwebel Lutze was right behind him, a Schmeisser crooked in his good arm.

‘Taken.'

‘SCHRIJEN?'

‘Apparently.'

‘Werner, those two must have come for him.'

‘Your detectives,' said St-Cyr. ‘I had no chance to stop them. Neither of us were armed.'

‘Why was Eugène Thomas sentenced to death by the others? Come, come, don't waste my time!'

‘We're not certain. Hermann and I really haven't had much of a chance to …'

‘Do you think I'm a fool? What did Kohler find in that cage of theirs? Did Dorsche miss something?'

‘This, I think, and these.'

A carving and a wad of wet newspaper. ‘Anything else?'

‘Are they not enough, Colonel?'

‘That bead of solder?'

‘When and if Hermann and I are able to …'

‘Kaysersberg,' muttered Rasche, but would Kohler have been forced to tell Diess and Paulus everything? ‘What's all the rest of this rubbish?'

The bits and pieces were indicated. ‘Evidence, Colonel. My pockets always seem to carry a bankroll of it just as did those of your second victim.'

‘Werner, close the door. Let's hear what this one has to say.'

Rasche nudged the glossy peak of his cap up and let his dark blue eyes flick over everything, missing nothing now. ‘Renée Ekkehard, Colonel. You lied to us. You knew she was coming out here on that Saturday because you had telephoned the Fräulein Schrijen to arrange a ride for the girl.'

Mirrors tossed her reflection back and forth, distorting her even more hideously, thought Rasche. They made the eagle and swastika on his cap expand only to quickly contract and fold in on itself as he set the torch down on the coffin lid and took out his pipe and tobacco pouch, then found his matches.

‘That telephone call, Colonel …'

‘I was detained. Something had come up.'

‘What, exactly?'

‘We had learned that Alain Schrijen was to arrive unexpectedly on the early afternoon train. As Kommandant, I'm not without my sources. Stationmaster Krencker and I often go fishing.'

‘And?'

‘As I had some business to discuss with the boy but had said I would drive his fiancée out to the
Karneval
, I then had to find her a lift. The Fräulein Schrijen said it would be no problem, that the firm had a lorry in the garage. She then apologized for any inconvenience she might have caused by her not being able to go there herself as planned.'

And what would Renée have whispered had she been alive? wondered St-Cyr: You see not only how he gets around things, Inspector, but how he has emphasized who really was responsible. Aren't
boy
,
fiancée
,
lorry
and
planned
all well chosen? ‘And this business you had with the Untersturmführer-SS Schrijen, Colonel?'

‘The Gauleiter Wagner, myself and the Generaldirektor Schrijen are to officiate at the opening ceremonies of the
Winterhilfswerk
fund-raiser on Saturday, 6 March, at 1000 hours. Kommandant Zill and Schutzhaftlagerführer Kramer were also to have been included but through some oversight on the Fräulein Ekkehard's part, the pressures of work perhaps, an invitation had not been sent. Wanting to correct the matter, I was going to ask the Untersturmführer-SS Schrijen to personally carry my formal invitation and apology to the quarry camp on his return the following day, Sunday, that is, 31 January.'

Clearly the colonel is no ordinary adversary, is he, Inspector? she would have whispered. ‘Wanting to correct the matter,' and avoid any unpleasantness? ‘
Boy
,' now becomes Untersturmführer-­SS but the colonel doesn't blink an eye at your having corrected him? He even reminds you of the date of leaving so that you will think what you must. Werner is watching everything too, isn't he? Ready at a moment's notice and ever loyal but would he do things to protect his colonel that even that one hadn't sanctioned? Isn't
this
what you are now wondering?

St-Cyr was still waiting for more, thought Rasche, and had let a hand come to rest on the edge of the
verdammt
box, forcing him to look at her again; therefore it would have to be said plainly. ‘Unfortunately I was detained and when I got to the station, the Untersturmführer-SS had already left in his car. The Fräulein Schrijen was, however, still waiting for a bus and only too glad to take the invitation to her brother. I was able to offer her a lift back to the Works but she declined. A matter of some errands in town, I think. I then returned to my office at the
Polizeikommandantur
.'

Step by step, Inspector, the Mademoiselle Ekkehard would have said, thought St-Cyr, but notice, please, how he has deliberately left out any mention of Sophie's being greatly distressed and nearly in tears. Alain suddenly arrives and there has to be a change of plan? She has to give up the use of his car, must drive it to the station when it's badly needed, has to then send me to the carnival instead and has to wait for a
bus
not knowing what must happen?

And now a hand-delivered message to Natzweiler-Struthof when of course the
Polizeikommandantur
's telex or telephone would have done just as well. ‘Colonel, by your own admission, you didn't bother to search for the Fräulein Ekkehard until the following Tuesday. Forgive the persistence, but I find that hard to believe.'

There must be no hesitation. ‘I sent Werner out to look for her.'

‘When?'

‘At about 1600 hours on that Saturday, the thirtieth of last month.'

And again he's taking care to give you the times, Inspector, and emphasize the date, but didn't Sophie tell you that the lorry from the Works returned here at about 5.00 and waited a good half-hour, its driver repeatedly honking the horn?
Bien sûr
, Herr Lutze could have left by then, but please don't forget that a man like the colonel is inevitably one step ahead. ‘And yet you told us that Herr Lutze and his wife were quietly asking around town if anyone had seen her?'

Momentary shadows from the lantern kept flickering over Renée's reflection, St-Cyr knowing only too well that this could not be missed. ‘I had my reasons. I knew Werner hadn't been able to find her. Instead …
Ach
, Oberfeldwebel Lutze, be so good as to enlighten him.'

You see how he'll play it every way he can, Inspector, the girl would have whispered. He'll bounce it off his sergeant, off the mirrors, too, that you've forced him to watch. Now a hard, if distorted glance at them, now a deep frown as some further thought comes, but notice, please, that he has completely forgotten to pack and light that pipe of his. And Werner? you ask. Werner feels his colonel is taking care of things but wonders why you made a point of saying neither yourself nor Herr Kohler had been armed. Were your weapons still at the house, in that grip of yours? he wonders. One that Frau Lutze must surely have gone through.

‘
Ach
, come, come, Werner, tell him.'

‘
Jawhol
, Oberst. The Untersturmführer's tourer had been parked well up among the ruins here and next to this wagon's House of Mirrors. I felt that he might have trouble getting the car out, as the snow then was quite deep, and that he must have been in a hurry, since he is usually very careful with such things.'

Careful with that car, Inspector, she seemed to ask, or with murder?

‘He had gone into the woods after her,' said Lutze, watching him closely. ‘On foot, Inspector, the girl on skis.'

It has to be asked, she seemed to whisper. Please don't avoid it, Inspector. ‘And how, precisely, did you get here yourself?'

‘Our police van was the only spare vehicle,' sighed Rasche. ‘From the woods Renée would have heard and most probably seen it, Alain Schrijen also.'

‘And what was she to have thought, Colonel.
Die Grüne Minna
*****
and immediate arrest?'

‘
Ach
, I admit, in retrospect, that I should have been more circumspect and given Werner the use of my own vehicle, one that girl would easily have recognized and come to without being alarmed.'

‘Of arrest, Colonel, but for what, please?'

‘For what I have since been forced to believe they might well have been up to.'

‘They?'

‘Those three girls to whom I had granted so much.'

‘And is that why you removed her toque and replaced it with her beret?'

‘Which the little fool had in her pocket.'

Sophie Schrijen, those grey-blue eyes of hers wary, had braided her hair as in the photo of herself at the age of ten. There had been recent tears—Kohler was certain of this—and just as certainly she was still extremely upset and terrified, probably, of what was to come and of what this father of hers could well do. After all, it wasn't every day that two detectives were hired to beat another into submission, not every day a man you had worked with and trusted to fix up
Karneval
things deliberately climbed the wire to end his life.

Resilient she might normally have to be, but now she was like the proverbial eggs in a
résistante's
carrier-basket as her bicycle was stopped at a control and her papers demanded.

The dress and full white linen apron were much like those of Yvonne Lutze,
the neck-chain with its cross the same as when he had first encountered her. Even Miata sensed that she was far from self-assured and sorrowfully watched her as slices of oven-warm
Kugelhupf
gave off their aroma.

Stopping her from leaving, Kohler noticed the bandaged cut the broken wine glass had caused, then the shock the nearness of him brought, and as it passed through her, the instant of panic and revulsion.

‘What is it?' she demanded.

‘
Ach
, forgive me, but I want to get something clear. What was so important at the Works that you had to send Renée Ekkehard out to the
Karneval
instead of yourself?'

‘Eugène was experiencing difficulties with one of the dye batches. One can't shut down a Works like ours. It stops for nothing.'

‘And the problem?'

‘The strike-offs—swatches of coloured cloth Eugène had done. He couldn't get any of them to match the shade Raymond had recommended. Dress fabrics are sometimes not easy.'

‘Printed patterns, Kohler, for summer wear.'

‘For next year's season in Berlin,
Vati
. Why not tell him that?'

‘
Liebling
…'

‘The depth of colour wasn't clean, Inspector, nor bright enough. Sharp outlines are necessary, otherwise the pattern becomes blurred. You can't have a dye that bleeds. Consistency across larger areas—the blotches we call them—is also critical.'

Realizing that her cheeks had reddened under his scrutiny, she caught a breath. ‘We use synthetic dyes. Ciba-Geigy, Durand and Huguenin. They're in Basel—others, too, when we can get them. I did go to the railway station to pick up some we were having sent from a supplier, but that didn't take more than an hour. Eugène and I then worked on things until well after 5.00 that afternoon. 6.00 probably.'

‘While Renée …'

She winced, could not have avoided it. ‘Look, I don't know who killed her or why. How could I?'

But still feel you could have been the victim yourself. Herr Kohler didn't say this. Instead, he asked, ‘Would Victoria Bödicker?'

‘Have killed her?
Ach
, I meant to say,
have known
who did? I can't see how. I telephoned the shop to ask if she would go out there but Victoria said that she couldn't. Frau Oberkircher, her neighbour, was away and couldn't fill in for her. A customer was coming to collect a book. An SS major.'

It had sounded so futile, felt Sophie. Herr Kohler would demand the name of the major and the title of the book.

‘Her brother-in-law's funeral,' she heard him saying of Frau Oberkircher.

‘I … I had to ask Renée to go. There wasn't anyone else I could turn to.'

‘Couldn't it have waited until the following day?'

That Sunday. She must force herself not to glance at
Vati
, must try to be calm and self-assured. ‘We had a deadline to meet with the
Karneval
, and still have, Inspector. As it is, not everything we need will be ready.'

‘The
Jeu de massacre
?'

Why had he chosen it? ‘That and the shooting galleries, the Hall of Mirrors also, and Wheel of Fortune.'

‘The Bottle Fish?'

The look she gave was swift. ‘That too, and … and the Ring Toss.'

‘
Liebling
, I know this is all very unsettling for you,' interjected Schrijen, ‘but could Colonel Rasche's secretary have been involved in something?'

‘Something illegal, Father? What, please?'

He'd say it gently, thought Schrijen, would go on as if Sophie hadn't known a thing and would use gestures to soften the impact. ‘She took things into the
Arbeitslager
, Sophie. Only little things, of course. Bits of string, carpenter's nails, buttons, bread from time to time and cigarettes. It was foolish of her, but …'

‘Of this I know nothing,
Vati
. Is Lagerfeldwebel Dorsche trying to blame me for something I could not possibly have had any connection with?'

‘Not at all, dearest.'

‘Then did Victoria give her things to take in there for her, since she didn't have a pass to the Works? Well, did she?'

‘Your friends, Sophie …'