‘But took a chance.’
‘Yes.’
‘And were you once an apprentice borderline sorter for the Diamant Meyerhof in Amsterdam?’
Frans must have told them. ‘Yes.’
‘And do you know where these so-called black diamonds are hidden?’
‘Definitely not.’
‘But you do have some to deliver?’
‘Simply to an address I must keep to myself. They’re not the black diamonds, not really. Those are something else entirely, and I really know nothing of them.’
‘Chosen, were you?’
‘When one is very desperate, one seeks help that can be trusted shy; absolutely.’
Hence Felix. ‘But that is not the answer I want.’
‘Then by a very dear man who, for all I know, may no longer be alive.’
‘And is this Meyerhof to cause us all to lose our lives as well?’
Though she didn’t know him well, Aram had on two occasions left her with the impression that he tended to go around things to come at them indirectly, thus throwing a person off, so as to find out as much as he could. ‘I was given some to use if necessary but was told to sell them a little at a time so as not to attract undue attention.’
‘Yet already you have attracted far too much.’
Only then did he pause to quicky light a cigarette, hiding the flame in cupped hands but giving the briefest glimpse of that high and narrow brow, the jet-black hair, darkest of eyes and close-cropped beard. Having lived through not one but two horrible genocides, those of 1906 and 1915-1918, Aram Bedikian did everything he could to stop another. Nothing, though, could have disguised the accent.
Unlocking the gate, he let her in, then put the lock back on.
‘Some couldn’t make it, but there are enough for you to face a quorum.’
‘And Frans?’
‘Will answer your accusations. We’re not uncivilized. We try to do things correctly.’
The Cadillac was a honey, felt Kohler, but this investigation, where was it all to end? Oona and Giselle held hostage, Louis’s Gabrielle shy; threatened with the same and now these two from Abwehr-West who not only had thought they’d the right to do what they wanted shy; with Anna-Marie but would presently strip her of the diamonds if they could in order to save their own miserable asses.
Reinecke and Heiss had tried to lay it in on in the car: Gleich shy;schalten, ja? Himmler’s bringing everything and everyone into line, the Abwehr vanishing into the Sicherheitsdienst, so of course, they were, they had tried to claim, working secretly for the SD, having jumped ship before it was too late.
Russia deserved them, but as sure as that God of Louis’s had made mice to get caught in traps, he’d have to show them and Bolduc that the partnership didn’t piss about.
Ah nom de Dieu, felt St-Cyr, what the hell had happened en route? Hermann hadn’t hesitated. He had gone straight for the Purdey in the Citroen’s boot as Reinecke and Heiss, looking smug and self-satisfied, had got out of the Cadillac.
Side by side under the dim blue wash of the garage’s light at 2010 hours on this Monday, five of the bank’s vans were in. Beside these, its back door open, was the one from the robbery, and next to it, two gasoline-powered trucks with engines still running.
The dogs were nowhere to be seen or heard. Instead, heavily laden with wine, champagne, hams, cheeses, sacks of potatoes and tins of cooking oil, et cetera, et cetera, two dealers and four helpers had been caught red-handed. Bien sur, it was definitely a moment of decision.
‘BOFs emptying that storeroom ahead of us, Louis.’
‘And in a hurry, mon vieux, but for now we had better stick to priorities. Messieurs,’ he called out, ‘Surete and Kripo at your pleasure. Leave while you can if you wish, since we have bigger fish to fry.’
Bolduc wasn’t in that office away from the office. He was distant from it in a veritable Ali Baba’s cave and clutching two magnificent hams by the bone. Seeing them, he angrily shouted, ‘Inspectors, what the hell is the meaning of this? Another invasion of my privacy without a warrant? I demand an explanation.’
‘Which we will be only too glad to give. Hermann, please ask his overseers to find us a little pate, some cheese and biscuits to go with those pills you must have taken and what this one has yet to set aside.’
‘You can’t arrest those two,’ said Bolduc. ‘They’re Abwehr-West and are working on a top-secret investigation.’
‘To which you were a party, monsieur-is that how it was, and you not even supposed to know they were even Abwehr?’
‘They’re not budging anyway, Louis, not with this in my hands, but will be trying to figure out how to make life a little more difficult for us.’
‘Good, but grab something to eat. Messieurs, that office immediatement.’
Tough to the last, Bolduc set the hams aside and said, ‘Kohler, there’s really no need for that upland twelve. I know perfectly well what it can do since it happens to be one of those that I, like everyone else, had to turn in.’
Yet had, in a way, managed to keep. ‘Don’t argue. Just do as you’ve been told. We’re the ones who ask the questions. You and the others are supposed to give the answers.’
Louis had them sit across the table from him, he with the darkroom’s wastebasket on a chair and that Secret-Reich-Business envelope Oona had looked into, directly in front of him with the file from Jacqueline Lemaire’s escort service.
Cigarettes were reluctantly offered, cognac poured, for Hermann, being Hermann, hadn’t hesitated to give each of them and themselves a goodly double.
Setting the two twenty by twenty prints from Hague Central of Anna-Marie facing them as a reminder, St-Cyr said, ‘Geheime Reichssache, meine Lieben. Ein Diamantensonderkommando, yet you have failed entirely to tell us of the photos you had someone take.’
‘We were getting those together to take to Kleiber and Ludin,’ said Reinecke.
‘And even the negatives, but bringing them here?’
‘It was en route.’
‘Then let’s all have a look at them, shall we?’
Digging into the basket, St-Cyr selected a few to hold up for Kohler, but which ones, wondered Bolduc, for that Surete then set them face down on the table beside himself. Hated now more than ever by the PPF, who would have immediately formed another hit squad, they were now also the sworn enemies of Rudy de Merode and Serge de Lenz. Four hundred thousand francs might do it, a million if necessary, but somehow they would have to be silenced and quickly. Most wouldn’t give a damn anyway beyond sighs of relief. Jacqueline could entice them to meet somewhere with the offer of yet more information, and would gladly go down on her knees to beg forgiveness from him and prove it.
One of the photos had been placed between the two from Hague Central.
‘The reading room of the Bibliotheque Nationale, messieurs,’ said St-Cyr. ‘A student diligently at her studies, the manuscript centuries old. That alone should have caused you to pause.’
‘Why?’ demanded Bolduc, tossing off the last of his cognac and wiping his lips with the back of a hand. ‘So what if she’s good at languages? French, Dutch, German, even English. The little chatte has a gift for them.’
‘And the English, monsieur, where, please, did you overhear her speaking it?’
‘Must you try to suck up evidence like a carp?’
‘A noble fish upon which the Cistercians who did not eat meat depended.’
‘Give him the answer,’ said Kohler, helping himself to the rest of the chairman’s cigarettes and lighter.
‘I heard her speaking it to Florence Gould at one of Nicole Bordeaux’s cultural gatherings.’
‘And this photo, monsieur, when would it have been taken in this girl’s room?’ asked St-Cyr.
Sacre nom de nom! ‘I have absolutely no idea. Why should I have?’
‘Hauptmann Reinecke, I gather Jacqueline Lemaire informed you, or the lieutenant, of when it would be appropriate to illegally enter that room.’