Siege at the Villa Lipp Read Online Free PDF Page B

far too high. If you had never heard of Oberholzer and Kramer why would the possibility of a practical joke occur to you? No, you failed to ask yourself why I had gone to the receptionist because the questions uppermost in your mind just then were - who is this joker, what does he want and how dangerous is he?’
    I drank some whisky. I had begun to need it. As if to humour him, I put the question: ‘Well, why did you use the receptionist to send me your message?’
    He gave me a nod for good behaviour, but no immediate answer to his question.
    ‘In spite of his being one of the more active members of your private espionage organization,’ he said, ‘I think I may know more about that receptionist than you do. Naturally, all your known associates have interested me for some time. Where possible J have built up dossiers on them. However, once I had decided that the birthplace of our collaboration would be here in Brussels, work on all your local contacts was intensified.’ A peculiar twitching of his facial muscles began as he added: ‘The possibility of an abortion occurring was, to this fond parent, a totally unacceptable risk.’
    As his face went on twitching and he gazed at me expectantly, I realized that he thought he had said something funny and was waiting for a laugh.
    When all he got was a blank stare, the twitching ceased and he said tolerantly: ‘Perhaps you would find a military analogue more to your taste.’
    ‘Perhaps.’
    ‘Well then, this was the kind of operation in which success can only be won by immaculate preparation leading to the achievement of tactical surprise. A note delivered to your room, or left in your mail-box downstairs here, would not have worked. You would have had time to think, time to investigate and prepare defences, possibly time to make arrangements for my discomfiture. Or even,’ he added coyly, ‘not knowing of the precautions I had taken to safeguard myself, time to organize my removal from the scene.’
    I looked suitably offended by the insinuation. ‘For a criminologist you have a somewhat lurid imagination, Professor.’
    ‘I was not, of course, being entirely serious, Mr Firman.’ The teeth made a jovial showing, but the wariness in the pale-blue eyes told a different story. He believed not only that I was an able criminal but also a person capable of murder. I made a note of the fact. That sort of belief, senseless though it may be, can sometimes be quite useful.
    ‘But,’ he was saying, ‘you are right about one thing.’
    ‘Good.’
    ‘The concierge might, as you say, have found the verbal message strange. There could have been several possible consequences of his doing so. You might, as we have seen, have been in some way forewarned and thus forearmed. Even more important, he might, without thinking, have talked, gossiped, and so compromised the entire operation. I had long perceived, you see, that if our collaboration was to be fruitful, absolute secrecy, in the early stages especially, was essential. That is why I chose the receptionist to deliver my message. He will not, I assure you, repeat a word of it, or of your subsequent questioning of him, to any third party. The poor fellow is far too frightened to disobey me.’
    ‘I noticed that he had been frightened. What did you threaten him with?’
    ‘Threaten him, Mr Firman? It wasn’t necessary to threaten him.’ He found the accusation quite astounding. ‘As I told you, I have done, and had done for me, much intensive work on your people. This man spied on you, so it occurred to me to wonder if, perhaps, he spied, or had once spied, for someone else. I was simply looking in a routine fashion, you understand, for parallel associations. Well, Ihave friends in Bonn who are interested in my work and they have access to the BND and its archive of Nazi SD files. And what do you think? During the Nazi occupation here our receptionist avoided forced labour recruitment by becoming an SD informer.