Conspiracy of Lies by Kathryn Gauci

Author:Kathryn Gauci
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780648123507
Publisher: Ebony Publishing
Published: 2017-07-12T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

The moment Claire’s head hit the pillow she fell into a deep sleep. When she woke several hours later, it was almost nine in the evening and she was aware of someone moving about in the apartment. She threw on her robe, grabbed her pistol from the drawer of the bedside table and quietly opened the door to see who it was. Someone moved in the small kitchen and she carefully took aim. A man stepped out carrying two mugs of steaming hot ersatz coffee.

‘Mon Dieu! Careful with that thing. It could do a lot of damage.’

‘Yves!’ Claire exclaimed, lowering the gun. ‘What on earth are you doing here?’

Yves walked straight past her and put the mugs on the table.

‘How did you get in?’ she asked, shocked and annoyed to find him there.

‘Gaspard let me in. We were worried about you.’

Claire belted the robe tightly around her and sat down at the table.

‘Antoine alerted us when you didn’t turn up for school. Both he and Mireille were worried and when no one answered the phone and Gaston said he’d not seen you at all, they called us.’

‘Us?’ Claire queried.

‘Didier to be exact, and he called me. I came over straight away. Mireille said you left their house later than usual and as it was dark, she watched you from her bedroom window until you disappeared from view. She also said that a car passed by soon after. She didn’t think anything more about it until you failed to show up today.’

Claire put her elbows on the table and propped her head on her folded hands, staring out at the elm tree shimmering in the lamplight. ‘Who else knows?’ she asked after a while.

‘No one.’

She looked him squarely in the face. ‘Are you sure?’

Yves didn’t take too kindly to being interrogated like this. ‘What happened?’ he asked. ‘Did the Gestapo take you in for questioning? If that is so – and I suspect, judging by your reaction, that it is – we have a right to know, wouldn’t you agree?’

Once more, Claire felt trapped. She couldn’t lie and she couldn’t tell the truth, but she did owe them an explanation as they had obviously been extremely worried about her. In the end, she decided a half-truth would be the safer option.

‘You are right. It was the Gestapo who pulled me up. I was blindfolded and driven to some place…I have no idea where, but it wasn’t Gestapo headquarters in Rennes. This was a château or a mansion, judging by the little I saw.’

She deliberately omitted to tell him it was near the sea. For the moment, she would keep that to herself.

His face showed concern. ‘What did they want from you?’

When she didn’t answer, he tried to help her along. ‘Did it have anything to do with your friendship with Frau Hoffmann?’

Claire corrected him. ‘Acquaintance…she is not exactly a friend.’ He shrugged his shoulders, took out his cigarettes and offered her one. ‘Call it what you will,’ he said, leaning across the table to light her cigarette.

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