Angel From Hell, page 24
part #1 of Anna Fehrbach Series Series
‘Balderdash!’
‘Mr Bordman?’ Baxter puffed smoke.
‘They were lovers. They are lovers. They have been lovers for God knows how long. Perhaps from that first meeting, when he was so anxious to put me off marrying her.’
‘Oh, come now, sir. That really is going over the top. I happen to know that Bartley has a long-standing lady friend.’
‘So maybe he runs a ménage a trois. I can tell you that last night I saw them together, and they are in love with each other. I am not a fool, you know.’
‘Ahh . .’ Baxter decided against following that line of reasoning. ‘You say you saw them together? Were they . . . ah . . .?’
‘Of course they weren’t. I was present. It was the way they looked at each other.’
‘I see. You really have nothing more than suspicions. I’m not sure what you wish me to do about it.’
‘Suspicions! I know what’s going on, and let me tell you, Mr Baxter, I do not intend to put up with it any longer. Last night when I asked her about the matter, Mrs Bordman all but attacked me.’
‘But she didn’t,’ Baxter said, peering over his desk, as if expecting to see an arm in a sling, or a pair of crutches.
‘No, she didn’t. But I do not wish her in my home any longer. I don’t care how valuable she is to you people, I am filing for a divorce.’
‘On what grounds, Mr Bordman?’
‘Adultery.’
‘I’m afraid the publicity would be unacceptable.’
‘I don’t give a damn.’
‘Well . . .’ Baxter looked up as Amy appeared in the doorway. ‘I don’t want to be disturbed, Amy.’ He frowned at her expression. ‘Is something the matter?’
Amy drew a deep breath. ‘It’s Mrs Bordman, sir.’
‘Here?’ Both men spoke together, in mutual alarm.
‘No, sir,’ Amy replied. ‘She’s at Scotland Yard. She’s under arrest.’
*
‘Come in, Bartley.’ Grattan did not rise from behind his desk, but he gestured Clive to a seat. ‘Bit of a snafu, what?’
‘That, sir, is the understatement of the year,’ Clive said. ‘When my man telephoned to say he had seen Mrs Bordman being taken off by your people, I damn near had a heart attack.’
‘They have assured me they were very discreet,’ Grattan protested.
‘If my man could see them and understand what they were doing, so could anyone else. Including the man Schmidt.’
‘He wasn’t there.’
‘With respect, sir, it’s his store. And he lives above it. How do you know that he, or an associate of his, was not watching? Her position could be irretrievably compromised. I was under the impression that we had an agreement that no move was to be made against either Mrs Bordman or Schmidt until and unless we gave the go-ahead.’
‘Yes. I know. But she is on our list, and my people were, shall I say, overzealous. I do apologize.’
‘They should not have been following her in the first place.’
‘I simply cannot have MI6 telling my people how to run their business.’
Clive stood up. ‘Well, sir, you may have to. Where is Mrs Bordman now?’
‘Waiting for you.’
*
A plain-clothed woman unlocked the door of an interrogation room, opened it and stood aside. She looked vaguely apprehensive, but Clive nodded pleasantly enough as he went in. Anna sat at the table, her elbows resting on the wood. She looked composed enough, but stood up as he entered. He closed the door behind him.
‘Are you all right?’
‘That depends on what you mean by “all right”.’
He went up to her, took her in his arms. ‘They didn’t, well . . .’
‘They have not harmed me. I did not expect them to, really. But they made me very aware that they considered me an enemy. The man who was interviewing me until he was suddenly called away felt it necessary to remind me that if I had been engaged in espionage for Germany, I would be hanged.’
He kissed her. ‘They’re all a bit paranoid right now. Do you have anything to collect?’
She took a deep breath. ‘Only myself. They searched me, you know.’
‘Damn! Someone will get a reprimand.’
‘Oh, it was nothing like it would have been in Germany.’ She smiled. ‘Or as you once searched me, remember? It was done by two women and they were very polite.’ She freed herself and picked up her handbag. ‘And they virtually took this apart.’ She opened it to show him the torn lining.
‘They’ll replace this.’
She shrugged. ‘It’s not important.’ She closed the handbag. ‘They also photographed me and took my fingerprints.’
‘We’ll have those back.’
‘It wasn’t bad, Clive.’ She gave a little shiver. ‘It was the memories they stirred. Having to go to the toilet with a woman standing at the door. Not knowing what was going to happen next.’ She glanced at him. ‘I don’t suppose anything like that has ever happened to you.’
Clive held her arm. ‘Let’s get you out of here.’
The waiting woman escorted them down a side corridor to a door leading on to the street where the car was parked. She did not speak, and did not look the least apologetic.
‘They think I’m guilty,’ Anna commented as she sank on to the cushions.
‘It’s their habit. They are assuming that you have been set free because you have friends in high places.’ He smiled at her. ‘Which you have.’
‘Where do you wish to go, Mr Bartley?’ the MI6 driver asked. ‘Mrs Bordman’s residence?’
Clive glanced at Anna, who gave another little shiver. ‘I cannot possibly face Bally right now.’
‘My flat, Harry.’
The car moved away.
‘But how did it happen?’ Anna asked. ‘You said I would be fully protected.’
‘A balls-up. My man was watching you, but he knew they were Special Branch men butting in, and he wasn’t sure he had the right to interfere. So he telephoned Baxter. As for the police, they were just being bloody minded. But there are some loose ends which need to be addressed. Were you using your own car?’
‘Yes. They brought me here in it.’
‘Is it waiting for you?’
‘I have no idea. I think they sent it away.’
‘Is your chauffeur a gossip?’
‘In the kitchen, maybe.’
‘Mm.’
‘I really wouldn’t like anything to happen to him. He’s by way of being a friend.’
‘We’ll sort it out. Now there’s the million-dollar question. I take it you managed to deliver the message?’
‘Yes. He was shaken rigid.’
‘But he’s sending it off?’
‘Oh, yes. He said it should be there in under a week.’
‘Mm. Did you manage to find out how he handles this stuff, gets it out of the country?’
‘He wouldn’t tell me.’
‘Right. Now do you think anyone in the shop saw what happened on the street?’
‘I doubt it. Apart from half a dozen students, there was only a woman on the desk and that was at the back of the main store. Schmidt himself was in an office beyond that.’
‘Then we’ll keep our fingers crossed. We won’t know for certain until the next time your religious friend calls.’
‘Do I have to go back home?’
‘I’m afraid it is necessary. Quite apart from maintaining the façade of your marriage, it’s where Celestina will come looking for you.’
Another shiver. ‘The façade of my marriage. Last night, after you had left, Bally tried to rape me.’
‘Jesus! Is he all right?’
‘I’m very good at resisting temptation. But he was livid.’
They had reached his flat. ‘That’ll be all for now, Harry,’ Clive said. ‘I’ll call you when Mrs Bordman is ready to leave.’
He escorted her upstairs. ‘I feel like a drink,’ she said. ‘And please don’t tell me it’s only four o’clock in the afternoon. This day has been going on a very long time.’
He poured two whiskies, gave her one, and sipped his own. ‘But you still look marvellous.’
She drank deeply, and colour filled her cheeks. ‘I’d like a bath. I feel filthy. I always feel filthy when I have been pawed by people I don’t like.’
‘You know where it is.’ He refilled her glass and followed her. She stood, naked, watching the tub fill. ‘Do I come under the heading of people by whom you do not wish to be touched?’ he asked.
‘You are the only person who I wish to touch me, ever again.’ She tested the water, turned off the taps and sank into it with a sigh. ‘Hostility. For the last two years, I have been surrounded by nothing but hostility, except from Bally for those first few months, and, more recently, from you. But you were pretty hostile to begin with, remember?’
He sat on the toilet lid to watch her soap herself. ‘I regret that.’
She extended an arm to pick up her second drink. ‘Where is it going to end, Clive? Where can it end for me?’
‘Right this minute, like soldiers advancing into battle, we can do nothing more than march forward looking straight ahead. But at least we can do this shoulder to shoulder.’
‘And when Germany wins the war?’
‘Germany isn’t going to win the war.’
She turned her head to look at him. ‘That’s a remarkably optimistic statement.’
‘It’s a statement based on fact. In the last nine hundred years Britain has only ever lost one war, and that was to the British.’
‘I’ll believe you, because I must. So tell me what happens after Britain wins the war.’
‘Your erstwhile employers will all be locked up, at the very least; your family will be rescued, and, if you like the idea, you will marry me.’
She squeezed his fingers. ‘Clive, I have killed three people.’ And I am consistently lying to you, she thought. She wondered what his reaction would be if he ever found out about Friedemann. ‘Do you really think I am housewife material?’
‘I’ll teach you.’
‘And Belinda?’
‘I know.’ He sighed. ‘I am being an absolute cad. But, as my grandfather used to say, you can’t fart against thunder.’
The telephone rang.
*
Clive sat down with the phone in his hand. ‘Now there’s a problem.’
‘It mustn’t be a problem,’ Baxter insisted. ‘I’ve tried to talk to him and I’ll go all the way up to the top if I have to. However, after what seems to have happened last night . . .’
‘He tried to rape her,’ Clive pointed out. ‘He’s damned lucky to be alive.’
‘Absolutely. What I was saying was, you can’t really blame him for not wanting to find himself alone with her. I have made it clear that she must have the use of the maisonette, so I understand that he’s taking himself off to his club until things can be sorted out. He made it perfectly clear that it’s we who have to do the sorting. Where is the lady now?’
‘Ah . . .’
‘I assume that means between the sheets. I also assume they are your sheets.’
‘Actually, she’s in my bath. Correction,’ he added, looking through the door, ‘she’s out of the bath.’
‘Well, you put the rocks to her, and I’m not talking about yours.’
‘She’s fairly upset about both last night and today.’
‘I’m sure you’ll be able to soothe her. But she must go home.’
‘Message understood.’ Clive replaced the telephone.
‘Is he offering some kind of an explanation?’ Anna enquired, going into her awakening lioness mode.
‘Well, he’s very sorry, but it was about Bally, really. He’s raising a stink.’
‘He’s raising a stink!’
‘About you and me. He’s moved out and is muttering about divorces. Billy reckons he can keep him under control, but you have to go home to be there when next Celestina pops up.’
‘And when Bally comes home?’
‘I have an idea he’s not going to do that, at least for a while.’
‘Oh, very well.’ She picked up her cami-knickers. ‘I’d like another drink before I go.’
‘There’s no rush.’ Clive took the garment from her hand.
*
The maisonette felt strange. It was not that she was unused to being alone in it, nor was she alone. Aline, her new maid, was there, as well as the cook, Bowen having accompanied his employer to the club. But Aline was still very much a fish out of water, and the cook had always regarded her with suspicion. She smiled at them and let them get on with it.
The strangest aspect of her situation was the knowledge that Bally was not coming home, compounded by the uncertainty as to when he might next decide to. Even if they had virtually lived separate lives for the past eight months, she had always been aware of his presence.
But she could do nothing more than wait. She kept hoping that Clive would appear, but it was several days before he did so, and then he merely telephoned.
‘Your message certainly got through to Berlin, but it didn’t quite produce the result we had hoped. Have you seen the news?’
‘I don’t watch the news.’
‘Well, do so tonight. Hitler didn’t send his ships to fight us off; he’s invaded Norway instead.’
‘My God! Isn’t that a catastrophe?’
‘There are two opinions on that. It’s a catastrophe for the Norwegians, and it has rather caught us on the hop. On the other hand, we had expected him to make his move against France. This side show is a distraction which should keep him occupied for the summer, and it gives us the opportunity to engage him on the ground.’
‘I’m happy you’re so upbeat,’ she said. ‘When can I see you?’
‘It’ll have to wait a day or two. As you can imagine, there’s an almighty flap on. No trouble from Bally, I hope?’
‘I haven’t seen or heard anything of him. Thank God! But, Clive, I am so lonely.’
‘I’ll be there, just as soon as I can. I love you.’
She went to bed in a happier frame of mind than she had for some time, awoke in the same mood, and spent the morning listening to the radio that was full of the apparently huge Anglo-French army being escorted to Norway by the Royal Navy.
It was nearly noon when Aline entered the drawing room in her usual anxious manner. ‘The nun is here, ma’am.’
‘Oh!’ Anna felt her heart pounding: she had almost forgotten about Celestina. ‘Show her in.’
Celestina entered the room and the door was closed. ‘I believe my message got through to Berlin,’ Anna said.
‘Yes it did. They are very pleased with you. But the Fuehrer is furious.’
‘With me?’ Anna’s voice rose.
‘No, no. He thinks you are the best. He is furious with the British effrontery. And particularly this man Churchill. He has long regarded Chamberlain as a ninny, and he recognized that Churchill is the mainspring of British antagonism. He has determined that he must be eliminated.’
‘My God!’ Anna gasped. ‘How is he going to do that?’
‘You are going to do it, Anna.’
Chapter Ten – Assassins
Anna stared at Celestina. ‘Are you mad? Are they mad? How am I supposed to do that?’
‘It will be the simplest thing in the world. Do you not go to many a reception at which leading government ministers are present? I am told that you have a weapon.’
‘Yes,’ Anna muttered. Her brain was spinning.
‘And you are not searched when you attend one of these functions?’
‘No.’
‘Very well then. The gun will be in your handbag. You simply walk up to Mr Churchill . . . You have met him before?’
‘Yes.’
‘When you are up to him, you speak with him, you open your handbag, you draw the pistol, and you shoot him. As it is a small gun, you may have to fire more than once. We think everyone around you will be so surprised by what is happening that you will have time to do this. The important thing is that he must be dead before anyone takes the gun away from you.’
Anna felt as if she had been engulfed by a roaring furnace. She could hardly believe it was her own voice she was hearing, speaking so calmly. ‘But I will be arrested.’
‘Well, of course. There may even be a little rough handling; we understand that he is a popular figure. But the English are basically not into ill treating women.’
You don’t know the English very well, Anna thought; certainly when pushed. ‘They will hang me.’
‘Well, that does seem probable. But again, in England these things are always done with great politeness and as little discomfort as possible.’
‘I do think that you have lost your senses,’ Anna said. ‘You are asking me to commit suicide?’
Celestina shrugged. ‘My dear Anna, you are in a position of a storm trooper commanded to attack and take an enemy strongpoint. You know this will almost certainly cost your life, but as a servant of the Reich you also know that you must carry out your orders. In your case, as I have said, death will be as dignified as possible. The English will even allow you to employ the best lawyer in the land. Who knows?’ She gave a reassuring smile. ‘He may even be able to get you off on the grounds of diminished responsibility.’
‘Then I will be locked up for life in a madhouse.’
‘Well, that might be preferable to being dead. But the job must be carried out. By the way, I have something for you, sent specially by General Heydrich.’ She felt in the pocket of her habit, and took out a square of cardboard. ‘He thought you would appreciate having this.’
Anna took the photograph. It was of both her mother and father, and Katerina. The women wore summer dresses, and Papa’s shirt neck was open. At their feet lay an obviously contented Alsatian dog. She raised her head. ‘When was this taken?’
‘I believe about a month ago.’
Anna studied the photograph again. It indicated that the trio were in some kind of wood; there were no guards or restraints anywhere in sight. And Katerina was certainly older than when last she had seen her, two years before.
‘Where is this?’
‘I have no idea. It is a secret location. But I’m sure you will agree that they are looking well.’
