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His suitcase was on the top bunk and he took it down and opened it. It was still neatly packed, just as he had left it except for one thing. His handkerchiefs had originally been at the bottom of the case. Now they were on top. It was the sort of mistake anyone might make, even an expert, especially when he was in a hurry.
He closed the case, put it back on the top bunk and checked his watch. The train would be in Osnabruck in fifteen minutes. It was impossible for him to do anything about the American until after he had seen Muller.
There was a discreet tap on the door and the attendant entered, a tray balanced on one hand. “Coffee, mein Herr?”
Chavasse nodded. “Yes, I think I will.” The man quickly filled a cup and handed it to him. Chavasse helped himself to sugar and said, “Are we on time?”
The attendant shook his head. “About five minutes late. Can I get you anything else?” Chavasse said no, the man bade him goodnight and went out, closing the door behind him.
The coffee wasn’t as hot as it could have been and Chavasse drained the cup quickly and sat on the edge of his bunk. It was warm in the compartment, too warm, and his throat had gone curiously dry. Beads of perspiration oozed from his forehead and trickled down into his eyes. He tried to get up, but his limbs seemed to be nailed to the bunk. Something was wrong—something was very wrong, but then the light bulb seemed to explode into a thousand fragments that whirled around the room in a glowing nebula, and as he fell back across the bunk, darkness flooded over him.
After a while the light seemed to come back again, to rush to meet him from the vortex of the darkness and then it became the light bulb swaying rhythmically from side to side. He blinked his eyes several times and it became stationary.
He was lying on his back on the floor of the compartment and he frowned and tried to remember what had happened, but his head ached and his brain refused to function. What am I doing here, he thought? What the hell am I doing here? He reached for the edge of the bunk and pulled himself up into a sitting position.
A man was sitting on the floor in the far corner of the room by the washbasin. Chavasse closed his eyes and breathed deeply. When he opened them again, the man was still there. There was only one thing wrong. His eyes were fixed and staring into eternity. Where his jacket had fallen open, a ragged, smoke-blackened hole was visible on the left-hand side of the white shirt. He had been shot through the heart at close quarters.
Chavasse got to his feet and stood looking down at the body, his mind working sluggishly and then something seemed to surge up from his stomach and he leaned over the basin quickly and vomited. He poured water into a glass and drank it slowly and after a moment or two he felt better.
There was a bruise on his right cheek and a streak of blood where the skin had been torn. He examined it in the mirror with a frown and then glanced at his watch. It was twelve-fifteen. That meant the train had already passed through Osnabruck and was speeding through the night towards Bremen.
Even before he examined the body, Chavasse knew in his heart what he was going to find. The man was small and dark with thinning hair and his cheeks were cold and waxlike to the touch. The fingers of his right hand were curved like hooks reaching out towards a wad of banknotes which lay scattered under the washbasin.
It was in the inside pocket that Chavasse found what he was looking for. There was a membership card for a club on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg in the name of Hans Muller, a faded snapshot of him in Luftwaffe uniform with his arm round a girl and several letters from someone called Lilli addressed to a hotel in Gluckstrasse, Hamburg.
Chavasse got slowly to his feet, his mind working rapidly. As he turned away from the body, his eyes fell upon the Mauser automatic pistol lying in the corner. As he bent to pick it up, there was a thunderous knocking on the door and it was flung open.
Inspector Steiner was standing there, the attendant peering anxiously over his shoulder. “Herr Chavasse?” Steiner said politely. “I regret to trouble you, but the attendant reports hearing a shot from this compartment. Have you any explanation?”
At the same moment he saw the Mauser lying on the floor and picked it up. The attendant gasped in horror and Sterner pushed Chavasse back into the compartment and followed him in.
Chavasse sat on the edge of the bunk and Steiner examined the body quickly. After a moment he called the attendant in. “What is your name?” he said.
“Schmidt, Herr Steiner,” the attendant said. “Otto Schmidt.” His face had turned a sickly yellow colour and he looked as if he might vomit at any moment.
“Pull yourself together, man,” Steiner snapped. “Have you ever seen this man before?”
Schmidt nodded. “He boarded the train at Osnabruck, Herr Steiner.”
“And then?” Steiner asked.
Schmidt glanced furtively at Chavasse. “I saw him enter this compartment.”
Steiner nodded. “I see. Ask Dr Kruger to step in here.”
Schmidt went out into the corridor and Steiner turned and held out his hand. Chavasse realized that he was still holding the things he had taken from Muller’s pocket and handed them over. Steiner examined the letters quickly and grunted. “This man, Hans Muller, who was he? Why did you kill him?”
Chavasse shrugged. “You tell me.”
Steiner bent down and picked up the wad of banknotes from beneath the washbasin. He held them up in one hand. “I don’t think we have to look very far, my friend, unless you are going to try to tell me this money is yours?”
Chavasse shook his head, “No, it isn’t mine.”
Steiner nodded in satisfaction. “Good, then we are getting somewhere. There was a quarrel, perhaps over this money. He struck you. There is the mark of the blow on your cheek and a cut caused by the rather ornate ring worn on the middle finger of his right hand.”
“And then I shot him?” Chavasse said helpfully.
Steiner shrugged. “You must admit it looks that way.”
At that moment Kruger came into the compartment. He glanced enquiringly at Steiner who nodded towards the body. Kruger frowned and dropped down on to one knee. After a brief examination he stood up. “A clean shot through the heart. Death must have been instantaneous.”
Steiner put the money into one of his pockets and became suddenly businesslike. “Have you anything further to tell me before I take you into custody, Herr Chavasse?”
Chavasse shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. There’s just one thing I’d like to ask Schmidt, if I may.” He turned to the attendant before Steiner could reply. “Tell me, Schmidt. Is there an American army sergeant travelling on the train?”
Schmidt looked genuinely bewildered. “An American army sergeant, mein Herr? No, you must be mistaken.”
Chavasse smiled gently. “Somehow I thought I was.” He got to his feet and turned to Steiner. “Well, where do we go, Inspector?”
Steiner looked enquiringly at Schmidt. “Have you an empty compartment?”
“Yes, Herr Steiner,” Schmidt said. “In one of the other coaches.”
Kruger, who had been listening in silence, stood to one side and Steiner pushed Chavasse into the corridor. The noise of the voices had brought several people to the doors of their compartments and as Chavasse followed Schmidt along the corridor, people stared curiously at him.
Sir George Harvey was standing outside his compartment, a bewildered expression on his face. As they approached he seemed about to raise a hand, but Chavasse frowned and shook his head slightly. Sir George stepped back into his compartment and closed the door.
Chavasse had decided a good ten minutes earlier that there was little point in sitting in a Hamburg gaol for six months while the lawyers argued over his ultimate fate. As they passed through the second coach a plan had already started to form in his mind.
The empty compartment was at the far end of the third coach and by the time they reached it he was ready. Schmidt bent down to unlock the door and Chavasse waited, Steiner close behind him. As the door started to open Chavasse pushed his hand into Schmidt’s back, sending him staggering into the compartment. At the same moment he whirled on the ball of one foot and rammed the stiffened fingers of his left hand into Steiner’s throat.
The policeman collapsed on to the floor of the corridor, hands tearing at his throat as his face turned purple. Chavasse quickly closed the compartment door, cutting off Schmidt’s cry of alarm and turned the key in the lock. Then he stepped over Steiner’s writhing body and ran back the way they had come.
His intention was to reach the sanctuary of Sir George Harvey’s compartment. There he would be safe, at least until they reached Hamburg. But first it was necessary to make Steiner believe he had left the train.
He turned the corner at the end of the corridor and reached for the handle of the emergency stop lever above the door. As the train started to slow, he opened the door and the cold night air sucked it outwards, sending it smashing back against the side of the coach.
He moved on quickly into the next coach. He was almost at the end of the corridor and within a few yards of Sir George’s compartment, when he heard voices coming towards him. For a moment he hesitated and then, as he turned to run, the door of the compartment behind him opened silently. A hand reached out and pulled him backwards through the doorway.
He lost his balance and fell to the floor. Behind him the door clicked firmly into place. He started to move, ready to come up like a steel spring uncoiling with explosive force, but he paused, one knee still on the floor.
Lying on the bunk in front of him was an American army uniform with the sergeant’s stripes showing on the neatly folded tunic. On top of the tunic rested a military cap and on top of the cap, a pair of thick-lensed, steel-rimmed spectacles.
3
The man who leaned against the door held an Italian Biretta automatic negligently in his right hand. He was of medium build and his eyes seemed very blue in the tawny face. An amused smile twisted the corners of his mouth. “You do seem to have stirred things up, old man,” he said in impeccable English.
The train had finally come to a stop and there was shouting in the corridor outside. Chavasse listened keenly and managed to distinguish Steiner’s voice. He scrambled to his feet and the man said, “Steiner doesn’t sound very pleased. What did you do to him?”
Chavasse shrugged. “Judo throat jab. A nasty trick, but I didn’t have time to observe the niceties.” He nodded towards the automatic. “You can put that thing away. No rough stuff, I promise you.”
The man smiled and slipped the gun into his pocket. “I wasn’t sure how you’d react when I dragged you in here.” He extracted a leather and gold cigarette case from his inside pocket and flicked it open. Chavasse took one and leaned across for the proffered light.
He hadn’t been working for the Chief for five years without being able to tell a professional when he saw one. People in his line of business carried a special aura around with them, indefinable and yet sensed at once by the trained agent: One could even work out the nationality by attitude, methods employed and other trademarks; but in this case he was puzzled.
“Who are you?” he said.
“Hardt’s the name, Mr Chavasse,” the man told him. “Mark Hardt.”
Chavasse frowned. “A German name and yet you’re not a German.”
“Israeli.” Hardt grinned. “A slightly bastardized form by Winchester out of Emmanuel College.”
The picture was beginning to take shape. “Israeli Intelligence?” Chavasse asked.
Hardt shook his head. “Once upon a time, but now nothing so official. Let’s say I’m a member of an organization which by the very nature of its ends is compelled to work underground.”
“I see,” Chavasse said softly. “And what exactly are your aims at the moment?”
“The same as yours,” Hardt said calmly. “I want that manuscript, but even more than that I want Caspar Schultz.” Before Chavasse could reply, he got to his feet and moved to the door. “I think I’d better go into the corridor and see what’s going on.”
The door closed softly behind him and Chavasse sat on the edge of the bunk, a slight frown on his face, as he considered the implications of what Hardt had said. It was well known that there was at least one strong Jewish underground unit which had been working ceaselessly since the end of the war in all parts of the world, tracking down Nazi war criminals who had evaded the Allied net in 1945. He had heard that its members were fanatically devoted to their task, brave people who had dedicated their lives to bringing some of the inhuman monsters responsible for Belsen, Auschwitz and other hell-holes, to justice.
On several occasions during his career with the Bureau he had found himself competing with the agents of other Powers towards the same end, but this was different—this was very different.
The train started to move, the door opened and Hardt slipped in. He grinned. “I just saw Steiner. He’s been raging like a lion up and down the track. It was finally pointed out to him that you were probably several miles away by now and he was persuaded to come back on board. I don’t fancy your chances if he ever manages to get his hands on you.”
“I’ll try to see that he doesn’t.” Chavasse nodded towards the American uniform. “A neat touch, your disguise. After the crime, the criminal simply ceases to exist, eh?”
Hardt nodded. “It’s proved its worth on several occasions, although the spectacles can be a bit of a nuisance. I can’t see a damned thing in them.”
He locked the door, pulled a stool from beneath the bunk and sat on it, his shoulders resting comfortably against the wall. “Don’t you think it’s time we got down to business?”
Chavasse nodded. “All right, but you first. How much do you know about this affair?”
“Before I start just tell me one thing,” Hardt said. “It is Muller who is dead, isn’t it? I heard one of the other passengers say something about a shooting and then Steiner marched you along the corridor.”
Chavasse nodded. “I had a cup of coffee just before Osnabruck. Whatever was in it put me out for a good half hour. When I came round, Muller was lying in the corner, shot through the heart.”
“A neat frame on somebody’s part.”
“As a matter of fact I thought it was your handiwork,” Chavasse told him. “What exactly were you looking for in my compartment?”
“Anything I could find,” Hardt said. “I knew Muller was supposed to meet you at Osnabruck. I didn’t expect him to be carrying the manuscript, but I thought he might take you to it, even to Schultz.”
“And you intended to follow us?” Chavasse said.
“Naturally,” Hardt told him.
Chavasse lit another cigarette. “Just tell me one thing. How the hell do you know so much?”
Hardt smiled. “We first came across Muller a fortnight ago when he approached a certain German publisher and offered him Schultz’s manuscript.”
“How did you manage to find out about that?”
“This particular publisher is a man we’ve been after for three years now. We had a girl planted in his office. She tipped us off about Muller.”
“Did you actually meet him?”
Hardt shook his head. “Unfortunately the publisher got some of his Nazi friends on the job. Muller was living in Bremen at the time. He left one jump ahead of them and us.”
“And you lost track of him, I presume?”
Hardt nodded. “Until we heard about you.”
“I’d like to hear how you managed that,” Chavasse said. “It should be most interesting.”
Hardt grinned. “An organization like ours has friends everywhere. When Muller approached the firm of publishers you’re supposed to be representing, the directors had a word with Sir George Harvey, one of their biggest shareholders. He got in touch with the Foreign Secretary who put the matter in the hands of the Bureau.”
Chavasse frowned. “What do you know about the Bureau?”
“I know it’s a special organization formed to handle the dirtier and more complicated jobs,” Hardt said. “The sort of things M.I.5 and the Secret Service don’t want to touch.”
“But how did you know I was travelling on this train to meet Muller?” Chavasse said.
“Remember that the arrangement with Muller, by which he was supposed to contact you at Osnabruck, was made through the managing director of the publishing firm. He was naturally supposed to keep the details to himself.”
“Presumably he didn’t?”
Hardt nodded. “I suppose it was too good a tale to keep from his fellow directors and he told them everything over dinner that same evening. Luckily one of them happens to be sympathetic to our work and thought we might be interested. He got in touch with our man in London who passed the information over to me at once. As I was in Hamburg, it was rather short notice, but I managed to get on a mid-morning flight to Rotterdam and joined the train there.”
“That still doesn’t explain how the people who killed Muller knew we were supposed to meet on this train,” Chavasse said. “I can’t see how there could possibly have been another leak from the London end. I don’t think it’s very probable that there’s also a Nazi sympathizer on the board of directors of the firm I’m supposed to be representing.”
Hardt shook his head. “As a matter of fact I’ve got a theory about that. Muller was living in Bremen with a woman called Lilli Pahl. She was pulled out of the Elbe this morning, apparently a suicide case.”
“And you think she was murdered?”
Hardt nodded. “She disappeared from Bremen when Muller did so they’ve probably been living together. My theory is that the other side knew where he was all along, that they were leaving him alone hoping he’d lead them to Caspar Schultz. I think Muller gave them the slip and left Hamburg for Osnabruck last night. That left them with only one person who probably knew where he had gone and why—Lilli Pahl.”
“I’ll go along with that,” Chavasse said. “It sounds reasonable enough. But it still doesn’t explain why they shot him.”
Hardt shrugged. “Muller could have been carrying the manuscript, but I don’t think that’s very likely. I should imagine the shooting was an accident. Muller probably jumped the person who was waiting for him in your compartment and was killed in the struggle.”
Chavasse frowned, considering everything Hardt had told him. After a while he said, “There’s still one thing which puzzles me. Muller is dead and that means I’ve come to a full-stop as regards finding Schultz. I can’t be of any possible use to you, so what made you go to the trouble of saving my skin?”
“You could say I’m sentimental,” Hardt told him. “I have a soft spot for people who are Israeli sympathizers and I happen to know that you are.”
“And how would you know that?”
