“The previous visits to the café were to meet with a man. Today, it was a woman. Even if the previous meetings were with his contact, this one was not. Contacts do not change. They remain the same.”
Herr Maurer’s eyebrows knit together into a frown. “Go on.”
“If Fräulein Richardson was telling the truth, she stole another reporter’s source for a newspaper column. Perhaps the other reporter was the contact? If that is so, then Herr Gerst knew he was not meeting with his contact.”
“Yet he brought the information across the border anyway,” Herr Maurer said slowly, trying to follow Hans’ theory.
“Why would he do that?”
Hans waited patiently while his companion frowned in concentration.
“Because he was going to meet him before the café?” he finally ventured a full a two minutes later.
“And he begins to understand,” Hans muttered dryly.
“Then…why follow the woman?”
“I can see I will have to offer another scenario. Perhaps she is a reporter and goes to the library to write her story. Or, perhaps she has arranged to go to the library to meet someone. Perhaps the reporter she stole the informant from?”
“The man Gerst was meeting with before! His contact!”
“So you see why I told you to follow and observe, and not approach. She may have led us to his contact, which would have told us who he is giving information to. Instead, you confronted her and she fled. We now have no information and no leads other than Karl Gerst, which is exactly how we started the day.”
“Or she was his contact and she had just retrieved the information when I intercepted her,” Herr Maurer said stubbornly.
“In which case we still have neither the information nor her, so our situation has not changed,” Hans said brusquely.
“We still have Karl Gerst,” Herr Maurer pointed out after a moment.
“Herr Gerst is on a train going back to Munich as we speak. I had no reason to detain him. Whatever he brought out of Germany is no longer with him.”
“What do we do now?”
“We watch him. If he does anything out of his normal routine, we will arrest him.”
“Why don’t we just arrest him now?”
“Because I want to see where he goes when he gets back. I want to see who he speaks to. But if he suddenly changes his routine, we bring him in. I can’t risk losing the only lead we have.”
Evelyn looked up as Josephine came out of the small shop, joining her on the pavement. She handed Evelyn a folded up map.
“Here. I’ve marked the streets around the section of Petite France where you left your car,” she said. “I’ll accompany you as far as the bus stop and make sure you get on the correct bus. It will drop you near the Café de Toussier.”
“Thank you.”
Josephine nodded and they turned to walk down the street.
“Avoid the Rue du Bain aux Plantes. If the young Himmlers are still looking for you, they will be there.”
“Do you think they are?” Evelyn asked, glancing at her. “After all, it’s been over an hour now. I would think they would go back to the train station and follow Karl.”
“That’s probably what they’ve done, but it’s best to get into the habit of being cautious, especially if you think you might make a habit of this kind of adventure.” Josephine looked at her, her eyes twinkling. “Will you?”
Evelyn shrugged. “I’ve no idea.”
“I hope you consider it. I don’t need to tell you how important it is that we gather as much intelligence as we can and use it to our advantage,” Josephine said slowly. “And you’re in a very unique position to do that.”
“How do you mean?” Evelyn asked, shooting the other woman a curious look. “I’ve no idea what I’m doing. I don’t have any contacts, nor do I even know how to make them!”
Josephine smiled. “Oh, but you do. You’ve made three today alone in just a few short hours.”
“What?”
“From what you told me about your lunch at the Café de Toussier, Karl will remember you and be willing to work with you again because you took a great risk on his behalf today. Not only that, but you succeeded. It goes without saying that I would most definitely be pleased to work with you, having seen how you keep your head and function under dangerous conditions without any training or warning whatsoever. So you see, you’ve already made two solid connections, one in France and one in Germany.”
“And the third?”
Josephine looked at her in surprise. “Why, Herr Voss, of course!”
Evelyn gaped at her.
“Voss! But he’s the enemy!”
“Even the enemy can be a powerful contact, or so they say,” Josephine replied. “After all, you now know him. You know first-hand how he works and something of how he thinks. You approached him and walked away, having made an impression.”
“What sort of impression is somewhat in doubt,” Evelyn said ruefully. “Clearly he didn’t believe a word of the story I gave him.”
“You don’t know that. Just because he showed up at the library doesn’t mean he didn’t believe you. He knew Karl had been to the library. That’s all. Don’t underestimate the fact that he allowed you to return to your lunch with Karl. He could just as well have arrested Karl then and there.”
“In France?” Evelyn looked at her, startled. “But he has no authority here!”
“Karl is a German citizen. My country would not have got involved, and the SD and Gestapo both know that.” Josephine looked at her. “You may think you didn’t do well today, but I assure you, you did. We need more people like you. You have a natural ability, Evelyn, and that is something rare.”
The two women
