Churchill's Secret Spy by Raymond Buckland

Author:Raymond Buckland [Buckland, Raymond]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780979456022
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2014-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

17: BACK ON THE TRAIL

VICTOIRE LEYCURAS complemented her husband in that she too wore expensive clothes, was very conscious of her appearance, and had a great familiarity with antiques and their potential owners. In lieu of the heavy gold watch-chain of her husband's she wore a double strand of gleaming pearls; gold bracelets and rings adorned her skinny wrists and fingers. Her hair was the same charcoal gray as Godefrois's. It must have been long, thought Kirsteen, for it was plaited and coiled up about her head in the Austrian style. She had a high voice that could begin to grate after a while and she seemed to have a Gauloise cigarette permanently attached to her lower lip with at least an inch of ash hanging perilously from it at all times.

She welcomed Kirsteen and led her through to the back room, which was the Leycuras's dining room. Going to the far wall she pushed against a section of wainscoting and a hidden door swung open.

“You'll be staying in here, child,” she said. Kirsteen resented being called “child” but bit her tongue and said nothing. “It's a private chamber left over from a century ago. We don't know what it was originally for but it's certainly come in handy recently. There is everything you need: bed, table, chairs, toilet, food cupboard.”

“This is where you keep the people you help pass through?” Kirsteen asked, ducking her head slightly to pass through the undersize door.

“Yes, child. It's amazing; we've had as many as ten people living in here for a full fortnight.”

“That was unusual,” put in Godefrois. “There was an intense crack-down by the Germans going on at the time. Normally we only handle one or two at once.”

“Make yourself at home, child,” Victoire said. “Godefrois and I have to go out this evening--some dreary reception at the home of General Karl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel. He only arrived in Paris at the end of February.”

“He took over from his cousin, as German Military Commander, when Otto was relieved of his command,” added Godefrois.

“Relieved?” Kirsteen said. “What happened?”

“They said that Otto had lost his nerve because he expressed his distate at executing Jewish hostages,” Godefrois explained. “But I understand there had been some political powerplay going on for some time, between the Abwehr and the SD--the Sicherheitsdienst. Himmler's and Heydrich's people battling again.”

“This Heinrich von Stülpnagel is actually quite nice,” Victoire said. “Compared to Otto anyway. The man is something of an intellectual, which is refreshing in a German!”

THERE WAS a curfew effective at midnight; the last métro running at eleven o'clock. It did not pay to be caught out after curfew or the rest of the night would be spent in a prison cell, put to work polishing German army boots. Kirsteen let herself out of the back door of the Leycuras shop at fifteen minutes after ten. She moved quietly but quickly along rue Bièvre, heading for avenue de Villars. She had to retrieve her gun and code book.

Kirsteen's plan was to

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.