‘Is everything all right, monsieur?’ I asked, noting the bundle of three towels in his arms.
‘I need you to do something,’ said Tache.
‘Of course.’
‘Kranz is down in the dining room, having dinner with another officer,’ explained Tache. ‘I need you to go to his room with some clean towels.’
I frowned. I knew Kranz’s room was serviced by Collette but it wasn’t for me to ask questions. ‘Do you need me to do that now?’
‘Yes, but while you’re there, I need you to look inside Kranz’s briefcase for a document. It’s an agenda for an important meeting that he is attending on Friday with some very high-ranking German officers. We need to know where they are meeting, what time and what they will be discussing.’
I nodded. ‘How long do I have?’
‘About thirty minutes. No more. I’ve only just received this instruction myself.’ He placed the key to Kranz’s room on the sewing table.
I got to my feet, pocketed the key and then took a sheet of paper from my sketchbook. ‘Write on here,’ I said. ‘As if it’s a note telling me what I need to do. I’ll take it with me so if I’m caught in his room, I have proof but I’ll use the paper to write down everything I can find out about the meeting. I’ll use the invisible ink.’
Tache nodded his approval and wrote on the paper:Clean towels to Kranz’s roomand followed that with his signature before handing it back to me. ‘If anyone asks I’ll tell them I had carried out a spot check on the room,’ he said.
I folded the note and pushed it into my pocket, along with the pen filled with invisible ink.
I waited only a few moments after Tache had left before picking up the towels and heading down to Kranz’s room.
As soon as I was safely inside, I scanned the room and located the briefcase at the side of the desk. Before I did anything else, I went into the bathroom, and taking one of the towels I opened the window and ran the towel along the outside window ledge, leaving a dirty streak across it. Then I folded it back up and placed it on the side of the bath, before going back into the main room.
Kneeling, I opened the case and started carefully flicking through the contents. I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for and also didn’t want to miss any other information that might be useful to Marcel.
There were three folders, the first of which contained several pages of timetables and schedules for troop movements between Brittany, Paris, and the south of France. If I had time, I’d copy the information down. I moved on to the second folder. This looked to be internal reports on several interviews with Parisians. I didn’t recognise any of the names and from what I could tell, as it was all written in German, no significant information had been gained from the interviews. Mostly, the interviews appeared to be based on suspicions rather than any hard proof.
I opened the final folder and there was the agenda for the meeting. Perfect. Without wasting any time, I copied down the names of the six other officers who were attending. As the ink was invisible I had to keep my left finger on the piece of paper to track where I had written the information so I didn’t write over it. This made the process a lot slower but finally I had copied the names and the agenda down.
I checked the clock on the desk. I’d been in the room for twenty-five minutes already. I didn’t dare try to copy any of the other information down and, with shaking hands, placed the folders back in the case, leaving it at the side of the desk as I’d found it.
I’d just got to my feet when I heard voices outside the door. German voices. It was Kranz and another man. I scooped up the towels as the door opened.
Kranz stopped in his tracks as he saw me. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Towels,’ I said, trying not to stutter as my breath laboured. ‘Monsieur Tache asked me to bring new towels.’
Kranz’s eyes narrowed. ‘Is that so?’
‘Yes. I have instructions from him.’ Holding the bundle of towels with one hand, I took the note from my pocket and handed it over.
Kranz inspected it.
The other officer looked over his shoulder and then spoke in German, suggesting Kranz inspect the towels in the bathroom to see if they really did need changing. Kranz smiled and said he thought it was a good idea.
Of course, I had to pretend I didn’t understand them. Kranz shoved the note back in my hands and strode into the bathroom, emerging a few moments later with the dirty towel in his hand. He spoke in German again to the officer, saying that indeed the towel was dirty. Then he threw it at me.
‘Get on with it,’ he said.
I hurried past him into the bathroom and set about changing over the towels. I could hear them speaking again.
‘Yes, as I was saying,’ said Kranz, ‘I have my own currency I use to buy the locals here. The head housekeeper is rather fond of jewellery. Look at this.’
I heard Kranz open a drawer in the desk. ‘A nice gold ring. Belonged to a Jewish bookkeeper. Let’s just say, he won’t be doing any more accounting these days. And he certainly doesn’t need this. I’ve swapped several items with Bochette for information. She’s very good at supplying names of interest. She had an angel statue the other day as payment. The time before, a gold bracelet. I like to keep her sweet.’
‘Erm, Kranz, the maid,’ said the other officer in an uncertain voice.
