Clandestine (31 page)

She was looking positively ill, thought Kohler, but Yvonne Rouget immediately went into damage control by yanking out the chair next to Louis. Indicating that Mademoiselle Lemaire should take it to avoid having to directly face detectives but her lover instead, she then took her own place with Bolduc and Grégoire on the other side of the table. To proceed wasn't stated, but felt.

‘Only eight bundles of the 5,000-franc notes, Hermann.'

Two being from the poor box at Corbeny, five from Rocheleau's sachel and one as grease money for Dillmann, thought Kohler, but now was not the time to mention this.

‘But forty-six of the bundles of hundreds, Hermann, eighty-two of those of the twenties, fifty-five of the tens and two hundred and three of the fives, for a total of 4,780,500 francs. The thieves must just have quickly grabbed whatever they could.'

‘Inspectors,' blurted Jacqueline, ‘I must use the lavabo!'

‘Run!' said Hermann. ‘And the insurance claim, Chief?'

Hand to mouth, she rushed off, alarm all too evident in the others. ‘Slightly more, of course,' said St-Cyr.

These two, they'd strip away everything, felt Grégoire, interjecting quickly, ‘To balance things out, Inspectors, we always add a little. It's accepted.'

‘Is it?' demanded Hermann.

‘Thirty percent,
mon vieux
. We've yet to go over the rest, but there are olives from Provence that we missed, and this too. It brings tears. It's the greatest of the blue cheeses. My Agnès had a terrible passion for it.
Ah, excusez-moi
, the first wife. I seem to keep thinking of her of late. There's also some Picodon. This one's either from Département of the Drôme or the Ardèche, the name itself taken from the
langue d'oc
. It means spicy.'

‘But indicates travel from much farther afield, eh,' said Hermann, ‘and why is that, Monsieur Grégoire, given that those vans of yours have definite limits to their travel?'

Yvonne, as usual, had been absolutely correct, felt Grégoire, and now this madness of Hector's was going to bring all of them down if not careful. ‘Deniard had relatives from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence who are now living in Paris. Perhaps if you were to ask them after the reception, they could tell you …'

‘Inspectors, can this not wait?' demanded Bolduc.

‘Murders never do,' said Louis, ‘but if I must, let me remind you all that this is most definitely a murder inquiry.'

With the Abwehr all but gone and worrying about its last days, the Höherer SS and Polizeiführer Oberg would have to deal with these two, felt Bolduc. Yes, Oberg and his deputy. The full force of the avenue Foch, even if he himself had to go down on the knees! ‘Then begin by telling us what happened at those ruins. Deniard hit squarely on the forehead
before
being shot?'

Hector
would
demand the obvious, felt Yvonne, therefore she would have to get him the answer he needed. ‘But hit by whom, Inspectors?'

‘And isn't that the one Herr Kaltenbrunner's
Sonderkommando
are after?' asked Grégoire. ‘Well, isn't it, and if so, who was it?'

‘Louis, I think I'd better visit the toilets.'

Clearly Bolduc was to be left out on a limb, felt St-Cyr, but care must be taken not to rush things. ‘Mademoiselle, messieurs, Hermann and me were able to pick up the trail of that van prior to its arrival at the ruins.'

‘Where?' demanded Bolduc, his fists clenched.

‘Berru lookout where it was joined by the
gazogène
-powered truck in which rode the killer, and since both were carrying goods bound for the
marché noir
, perhaps you'd be good enough to tell us what had been arranged.'

‘Since the one, slow as it must have been, chased after the other only to find those two trusted employees of yours chasing after someone else,' said Hermann, having hustled Jacqueline Lemaire back to the table.

‘Did they have a disagreement with that someone?' asked St-Cyr.

‘A severe one,' said Kohler. ‘It must have been. Mischief certainly. Rape, probably, so start talking.'

Had Jacqueline said something she shouldn't, wondered Bolduc­. ‘Me, I have no idea of what you're saying. How could any of us? Deniard and Paquette wanting to fool around with whom?'

‘Tell them, Mademoiselle Lemaire,' said Kohler. ‘If you don't, I will.'

With but that look of his, Hector would destroy her if he could, felt Jacqueline, but she would have to answer, have to endure Yvonne's faint and knowing smile, Georges-Arthur having unclasped his hands to place them flat on the table in judgement. ‘Annette-Mélanie Veroche.'

The stupid
chatte
would say it! thought Bolduc. ‘What the hell was that girl doing in one of my vans, Jacqueline? Come, come, let us have the proof of it.'

It was all over for her. Everything! Hector would kill her now if he could.

‘Well?' demanded Bolduc.

‘Hitching a ride,' said Louis, ‘but now that we have a name, mademoiselle, could we not also have an address and a little more?'

One must grin and throw out the hands in a gesture of goodwill, felt Bolduc. ‘Look, Inspectors, it's really a very simple matter. Annette-Mélanie had to go home to Rethel last December to visit her mother who was desperately ill in hospital with pneumonia. You both must know how things are at the Kommandantur during the pre-Christmas rush. A day, two days, three probably in the line-ups and then the quotas, the turn-down. Me, I …'

‘Let her hitch a ride in one of your vans,' said Louis, ‘so as not to have to bother getting the necessary
ausweis
: the
laissez-passer
and
sauf-conduit
.'

‘Was it the same van, Monsieur Bolduc?' asked Hermann.

‘It was,' said Yvonne, having laid a hand gently over those of Georges-Arthur which again had been clasped.

‘Then, I take it, that girl knew of both Deniard and Pacquet,' said St-Cyr.

Somehow Yvonne and himself had to save the bank, felt Grégoire. ‘They would have recognized her, but neither Mademoiselle Rouget nor myself were aware of what was going on behind our backs.'

‘You …' began Bolduc.

‘Monsieur, must I caution you?' said Louis.

‘And is she the person that
Sonderkommando
are after?' asked Hermann.

It would have to be admitted so as to gain time, felt Bolduc. ‘We have been led to believe so, yes, but have not yet said anything of it to others. Like yourselves, we have been trying to put two and two together.'

‘Good,' said Kohler. ‘First by asking questions of those two overseers and friends of yours who are swimming in the know because they have to be even though the Abwehr is on the skids, and now by the two most recent clients of this one's escort service.'

But did it go even deeper than that? wondered St-Cyr. There was only one way to find out, though not here. ‘Show them the letter from Kaltenbrunner, Hermann. Let them see that if they say anything of this matter to anyone but ourselves, the Reichssicherheitschef­ will hear of it.'

‘Inspectors …' said Yvonne, taking the letter.

‘Save it,' said Hermann, taking it back. ‘Mademoiselle Lemaire, the address of this person who must have witnessed the murders?'

Hector would be only too glad to see her body dragged naked from the Seine, she having been beaten, violated, all those things so as to but increase the gossip, felt Jacqueline. Georges-Arthur, he simply looked at and through her as though saying, You fool, and Yvonne as if,
Salope
, now you've really done it to that future ‘husband' of yours, haven't you? But there was her pride, most certainly. ‘Inspectors, let me show you since she lives in the very building where I have my office and have a file on each of my escorts, as well as every client that one has sent to me.'

Both Yvonne Rouget and Grégoire seemed relieved, felt St-Cyr, as they looked questioningly at their chairman who gave them but the cruelest of nods. ‘Then for now, we will break off this discussion. Be prepared to answer fully and truthfully when time—our time—allows.'

‘Jacqueline is far too upset,' said Bolduc. ‘Perhaps if Yvonne were to …'

‘She can't come with her, can she?' said Kohler. ‘Since everything we do has to be kept a secret none of you had better reveal.'

It was Arie who took the stitches out and gave her a pair of light grey gloves from which he had cut each of the first joints and re-knitted them perfectly; Aire who said he was glad to see her back safely and that she was to keep the bike and leave it here if needed; Aire who asked if she had found things okay at her place.

There was no sign of Étienne.

‘He's gone to move his wife and children. I told him he had to, that I'd stay to help you if needed.'

‘He's not coming back, is he.'

‘We were going to split up anyways, but after what you said of Frans, we both knew he should get out of Paris while he could. This war, this Occupation is going to end, Anna-Marie. It's months now, not years. It has to be, and when they're kicked out, the
Moffen
will be far from friendly, and the locals, the
collabos
or not, every bit as bad. Stay clear of those who have been helping you. Go to ground as soon as you can. Don't get mixed up in anything more. The SD, SS and Gestapo want you, and unless you're awfully careful, they'll get you.'

‘Is that really why you stayed?'

‘It is, and I still have the truck to take care of. I don't know where Étienne's keeping his family. I never did, not since the defeat. We had met before the war and had got to know one another, and then, having escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp in the autumn of 1940, he found his way to Rotterdam and we decided to do what we could. You're the last of several and now if I could, I'd say let's take in a film, but we both know what that could mean.'

Since the Occupier, the Paris Police and others regularly raided­ the film theaters to grab anyone they could for the Service du Travail Obligatoire and the wanted ones especially.

‘There is one thing I'd like to know. When we met up with that van at the Berru lookout, did those two know of you? Me, I ask only because I heard you suck in a breath and softly gasp, “Ah, no.”'

‘I recognized them, they myself, but I couldn't say a thing because Frans had that pistol.'

‘You must have been terrified.'

‘I was. I had used that van before, but please don't ask when or how. There isn't time.'

‘Then tell me about Frans. Tell me where he is and what's to happen to him.'

‘Obviously I can't answer but I can tell you those who have helped me are good people. Frans will be questioned, and I know I will have to be there. They've not insisted, you understand. They will simply expect it of me and I mustn't do otherwise because that's the way they are. “
Tous pour un, un pour tous.
”
*
It'll be dark—it always is—and I'll be using my own bike because I still have to get it, but could I come back here afterward?'

Since her concierge would question things when awakened. ‘Of course. Apoline will hear of it and think what she will and be delighted, but you'll have to go and see her first thing in the morning. It wouldn't be right not to. I can come with you, though.'

To back up whatever was said and Madame de Kerellec might think. ‘Then we'll do that. Now I must head for the
métro
on foot and try to figure out what to tell my own concierge since I've only just arrived and he'll not be expecting me to leave again.'

The
métro
… ‘And if they have posted photos of you?'

Impulsively he had reached out to gently take her by the hands causing her to feel what? wondered Anna-Marie, only to answer, In another place and at another time perhaps, but not now. ‘Just don't wait up. Just leave the lock off and when I've brought the bike in, I'll take care of it.'

Beekhuis knew he might never see her again and that if taken, she would try to keep the rue Vercingétorix from them for as long as possible.

Twelve hours was the wish, but few could hold out that long.

The file was easily located, the office tastefully finished, felt St-Cyr, even to having a more private room behind it: a home away from home or of the spur of the moment with a day bed, a settee, drinks' cabinet and such just in case needed.

And this one? he asked himself of Jacqueline Lemaire.
Bien sûr
, she was ambitious but was she vindictive enough to save herself and sink Bolduc?

Having irritably lit a cigarette as soon as they had arrived, she sat pensively where her secretary had been, he having told the girl to come back in an hour, but he couldn't have Anna-Marie finding him here. Concierge Figeard had been difficult and could well warn her he was not just in the building but in this office.

‘“Annette-Mélanie Veroche, age twenty-two years, eight months,” mademoiselle?'

This one would know only too well what such a file should contain. ‘I don't need it
read
to me.'

‘“Blonde, blue-eyed and a little above average height? Figure, perfect, if a bit thin? Father, deceased, German; mother, of French Huguenot extraction? Home address:
bis
thirty-two (a)
place
de la République, Rethel, Ardennes?” Did she give permission for you to record any of this?'

‘Of course not! Why would she?'

‘She refused when asked, did she?'

Ah merde
! ‘I … I never asked, not beyond seeing if she'd like to join Les Amies.'

‘So you went after the information elsewhere, having been prompted to do so by your lover?'

Must he? ‘Yes!'

The Paris address was given, also a student, her dissertation being primarily on those early Cistercian monasteries, but he must hurry, thought St-Cyr. All too soon Hermann would be confronting Oberfeldwebel Dillmann and then what? Dillmann to Heinrich Ludin to tell him this half of the
Sonderkommando
must be onto something big.