Oeufs durs mayonnaise were among the hors d’oeuvres. Tempting, oh for sure, felt St-Cyr, but because of the Occupation’s shortages some of the younger children had never seen an egg before. Terse explanations were being given. Bolduc had already said his piece to the assembled, as had Gregoire. Both were solicitously going from table to table offering condolences before rejoining Yvonne Rouget and himself.
‘While I have you at my elbow, mademoiselle, be so good as to tell me why, if the illegal contents of that van were to have been sent over to the Hopital des Quinze-Vingts, is there not only some of the champagne here, but the vin rouge, vin blanc de blanc, ham, cheese, eggs, flour for the canapes and croquettes, the smoked sausage, sardines, too, and even the truffles? And please don’t tell me Rene Deniard was doing such an illegal thing simply to please his mother. We’ve already had that from your boss, and even Deniard’s younger children knew what an egg was before they got here.’
Must this Surete be so impossible? ‘Since a reception was called for, where else was I to have found such things? There’s little enough as it is.’
‘For the hospice of the blind, as suggested by your employer.’
‘He didn’t tell me that!’
‘Ah bon, perhaps he forgot, as he did that van’s being so overdue, but where, please, is Madame Bolduc and your two nieces: Didi, wasn’t it, and Yvonne?’
Did he forget nothing? ‘The girls are at school, my sister at home.’
‘Hence Mademoiselle Jacqueline Lemaire. A beauty, n’est-ce pas? Trouble, too?’
‘And to what are you referring without any possible evidence?’
Damage control having momentarily lapsed, she was all too aware of this but still distracted probably because of the absence of that very one. ‘Me? I’m only searching for answers as to why she had to find him a priest.’
‘The Church … The Bishop, he is …’ Ah merde alors!
He would say it as if from the pulpit. ‘Being difficult since Madame Bolduc consistently gives plenty and refuses absolutely to allow the divorce to go through uncontested.’
She would toss the hand of inconsequence at such a thing. ‘Divorce has never been easy.’
He would give her a moment, then tell her how it was, since it had been done to stop the disgruntled and/or unfaithful wives of prisoners of war, or those prisoners themselves, from seeking such. ‘And under our Government in Vichy, forbidden as of 21 September 1940 unless, of course, the Marechal Petain, his advisors in Vichy, and the Bishop agree.’
Must he? ‘Oh for sure the Surete, they have never been pleasant, but with yourself, you compound it!’
‘Fortunately you didn’t need to worry about such a formality, since your husband “sleeps in his coffin.”’
Touche, the salaud! ‘Excusez-moi. I must find Jacqueline.’
Before she says something she shouldn’t.
To Yvonne who was now standing at the end of the dock, there was but dismay, felt Jacqueline, to Herr Kohler at the oars, the grin of the urchin he must once have been.
‘Wave,’ he said, ‘then she’ll know we’ll be heading back in a few minutes or an hour if necessary.’
‘You wouldn’t!’
Anger made her even more attractive. ‘I will, so start by telling me why that lover of yours felt those two Diamantenbonzen from Berlin needed to be escorted around the sights and probably free of charge?’
For whatever information could be pried out of them, but had it been a lucky guess? ‘I’ve no idea who you mean. How could I?’
‘That’s precisely my thought, but if your escorts are, why that would indicate you know far more than you want to let on.’
‘I don’t. Hector never tells me anything, nor does that one!’
Yvonne Rouget. ‘Aren’t Hauptmann Reineck and Leutnant Heiss overseeing that bank of his?’
And flying with him early on Thursday to the Cote d’Argent and Cote Sud des Landes for a little pot-shooting and to deliver the bank’s gift of a brand-new flying boat. ‘They are, but what have they to do with the other two?’
‘Since buying and fixing up cars at that garage of his to sell in the Reich shouldn’t matter? If one is in the know, isn’t the other, and since when would those overseers and the owner of a bank not be interested in diamonds?’
And that Sonderkommando whose roadblock to the east of Reims had led to the murders. ‘All right, I did offer to see that Ulrich Frensel and Johannes Uhl were shown the sights, but that really only started yesterday. It’s to be for a few days.’
‘Since they’re waiting around for those diamonds to be found.’
The black ones that Josef Meyerhof and others must have hidden in Paris, but Herr Kohler wouldn’t tell her who it was that Kommando were after. Indeed, though he might now have a name, not an alias, and even a photo, he might still be just rowing about in his own little lake, searching for answers.
Kohler knew he couldn’t jeopardize Anna-Marie by asking, but as sure as this one was facing him, she’d had an eye on that girl if only as a potential hostess. Nor could he ask about those vans of Bolduc’s ferrying PPF and Miliciens and others past the controls while smuggling stuff into Paris.
He’s at a loss for words, felt Jacqueline, and letting a hand trail in the water, playfully flicked some at him, since it was her turn to smile.
‘Maybe I should tell you what those two were up to before they were shot.’
Turning the boat, deliberately taking his time, he began to slowly head for the dock, she to finally say, ‘Well, tell me. Don’t just keep me waiting.’
Still he didn’t say a thing. He just looked and looked at her in that way of his as he rested the oars until, in anger, she heard herself blurting, ‘Damn you, were they chasing that girl? Is that why Deniard was hit on the forehead with a rock?’
It was Yvonne who caught the painter and tied the boat up, Yvonne who said, ‘We mustn’t keep Chairman Bolduc waiting.’
Notebook open, pen to its side, Louis was sitting at that table on the porch, having tucked into the hors d’oeuvres and facing Bolduc and Georges-Arthur Gregoire who was looking far from calm. Thin, greying, wise no doubt in keeping track of the bank’s vans and what they were up to, this operations manager waited for more questions, hands clasped, elbows on the table, a sure sign that he expected nothing but trouble.
‘Ah, Hermann, things are not as bad as thought. Mademoiselle, did you enjoy your little voyage?’
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 Gregoire 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 Gregoire, interjecting quickly, ‘To balance things out, Inspectors, we always add a little. It’s accepted.’