‘Now sit down. Kohler close the door. Louis, have a cigarette. Go on. Take one.’
‘Merci. Hermann, would you …’
‘I didn’t offer him one, Louis.’
‘Forgive me, then, if I save it for later.’
‘All right, Kohler, you may take one, but only one.’
‘The butterflies, Walter. Let’s have that, so that we can fully comprehend what has upset you so much.’
That bit of paper was finally found. ‘A schoolgirl. Age seventeen. Genevieve Beauchamp. No previous record but juvenile delinquency has become a problem, hasn’t it?’
Oh-oh, the boys. Antoine and the others, thought Kohler. The squeeze.
‘Walter, the Fraulein Sonja Remer’s handbag was returned by me via Rudi Sturmbacher,’ said Louis.
‘And not thrown there from a passing bicycle taxi?’
‘Not thrown.’
‘But without its chocolate bar, Louis, and tin of bonbons,’ said Boemelburg.
‘That couldn’t be helped, given the shortages and the necessity of returning it as soon as possible, along with its Tokarev TT-33, which was fully loaded.’
Such sang-froid in the face of the inevitable was admirable. ‘A beau jeu, beau retour, then, Louis.’ One good turn deserves another.
‘Kohler, you and Louis will take the Fraulein Remer fully into your confidence. You will involve her, work with her and use her to fullest advantage. Is that understood?’
Rudi had been right. Giselle was to have been the bait. ‘Jawohl, Sturmbannfuhrer.’
‘Gut. Now these murders, muggings and rapes. What have you got for me?’
‘They’re the work of more than one individual,’ said Kohler. Gott sei Dank, Louis had been in and had read the chief’s note, pinned to the left of the map.
‘The level of violence is escalating,’ said St-Cyr.
‘Well planned, Louis?’
‘Exceptionally so.’
‘Good sources of information?’
‘Excellent,’ interjected Hermann. ‘We have a probable source but would like to hold that for the time being.’
‘A gang?’ asked Boemelburg.
‘Most certainly,’ said Louis, ‘though they might not wish to refer to themselves as such.’
‘Terrorist links?’
‘None that are known, but …’ went on Hermann.
‘But what?’
Louis gave a nod. ‘The mothballs are a possibility,’ said Kohler. ‘One of them, or two, or more.’
‘Ex-military types, Walter. This was found at the site of the police academy killing.’
‘The ribbon of the Legion d’honneur. Some honour, eh? I want him, you two. He’s to be made an example of.’
And hadn’t the General von Schaumburg said the same to Hermann? ‘There is one thing that has yet to be clarified, Walter. Whoever wore this may not have been its owner. That is to say, he may have worn the ribbon to …’
‘Facilitate things,’ sighed Boemelburg, ‘since the very sight of it still opens doors and commands respect. Now give me the identity of the police academy victim?’
‘We’re working on it,’ managed Hermann. ‘There’s …’
‘A connection with another killing, Walter. A delicate matter we felt it best to discuss with you first.’
‘How delicate?’
‘Very,’ breathed Hermann. ‘The rue La Boetie. A dancer from the Lido, half-indochinoise and mistress of Judge Hercule Rouget, President du …’
‘Ach, mein Gott, what is it with you two? The Hoherer SS is going to have to be informed of this but have either of you any idea of what he’ll say to me, and it is to me who will be left the task of telling him?’
Calm was necessary. ‘Walter,’ said St-Cyr, ‘her murder was quite possibly done in the judge’s flat so that her killers could hide behind his close association with the Hoherer SS.’
‘Rouget would have had to inform him of it so as to hush things up-is this what you’re saying?’
It was.
‘Two men, Sturmbannfuhrer, one of whom was familiar with the flat.’
Kohler had found her then, not Louis.
‘The girl’s killing is definitely linked to that of the police academy,’ said St-Cyr.
‘Though she was not, in so far as we yet know, present during that killing, the girl was most likely taken from the Lido after first having been forced to telephone the press and then the police.’
‘And not killed until last night, Kohler?’
‘Killed at between 0100 and 0130 hours Friday, Sturmbannfuhrer. The child she was carrying was deliberately removed and an attempt made to hide it from investigating officers.’
‘Uncontrolled rage, Walter, was evident also in the earlier killing at the academy and …’ Louis paused. ‘In that of the passage de l’Hirondelle of yesterday afternoon, a girl who was wearing the overcoat and hat of Giselle le Roy.’
‘Who must have discovered she was being followed, Sturmbannfuhrer.’
‘Oberg’s choice of bait, Louis?’ blurted Boemelburg.
‘We don’t yet know where Mademoiselle le Roy is, but are working on it.’
‘There’s something else,’ apologized Hermann. ‘The Trinite victim, and both of the Drouant victims, were being investigated by the Agence Vidocq, a M. Flavien Garnier.’
‘You two … Are you both so blind? The avenue Foch and ourselves use them from time to time. Garnier is one of ours, as is his employer.’
‘The Intervention-Referat?’ managed Louis. It had had to be asked.
‘That I can’t, of course, answer, but I didn’t know the agence was keeping an eye on unlicenced horizontales. You watch yourselves with this. Don’t, and see what happens. Now get out. You have twenty-four hours and, Kohler …’
Boemelburg stubbed out his half-finished cigarette. ‘Don’t steal any more cars. It doesn’t look good for me in Berlin. It can’t, can it, especially when the Kommandant von Gross-Paris has to telephone me about it?’
‘That girl, Walter? Genevieve Beauchamp … That misguided teenager?’ tried Louis, a patriot to the last.
‘I’ll see what I can do but is it that you want me to have the boys in your neighbourhood arrested and their families?’
Instead of executing the girl? ‘Walter, we’ll solve this matter for you. We’re almost there and only need a little more time.’
‘Good. See that you do but don’t forget what I said about the Agence Vidocq.’
Again they shared a cigarette. Consulting others who must be working on blackout crime would be useless. There was simply too much hatred, too much jealousy. ‘Blitzkrieg is the only thing Walter understands at the moment, Hermann, what with Himmler and the rest of Berlin breathing fire down his back and Oberg no doubt fanning the flames.’
Oberg. ‘I’m waiting.’
‘Ah, bon. While we were on the train home, Oberg sent Walter a note advising him to assign us to the Trinite and Drouant should attacks be committed there.’
As they damned well had been. ‘And when was that written and sent over?’
‘Time 1610 hours Thursday, but there’s something else. Gabrielle was taken to dinner last night by the Standartenfuhrer Langbehn. I think now, that in addition to wanting us to look out for her son should anything happen to her, Gabi may have been trying to warn us, but we didn’t have a chance to discuss anything.’
‘And now you tell me! We’re to take this Sonja Remer fully into our confidence so that she can report everything to this SS colonel?’
‘Who then …’
‘Uses Giselle, if found, in Oberg’s little souriciere?’
‘Ostensibly to trap the very ones we’re after.’
‘And us, Louis. Us. Admit it. Oberg hates our guts and would like nothing better than to be rid of us but he can’t do that without Boemelburg’s help, and that one still needs us, so that one doesn’t quite know what’s up and has to go along with things anyway.’