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able to obtain a meeting with Konteradmiral Karl Hoffmann at the OKM – Oberkommando der Kriegsmarine headquarters at the Place de la Concorde.  His enquiries to the navy command through the remainder of Sunday and then Monday morning had yielded only dead ends.  As with his phone call of the previous day, the few personnel at OKM who had heard of Captain Schull were either unable or unauthorised to give him any details, suggesting only that Marner should contact Schull’s department in Berlin. 
    Therefore, Marner had been obliged to play the rank game.  This had entailed going through Sturmbahnfuhrer Odewald to convince him to go at least one level further up the command chain and then reach across to Kriegsmarine to make the required demand for cooperation.  Odewald would normally have taken little interest in Marner, preferring to spend the minimum time in his office working, the maximum keeping up with the politics and gossip of the other branches of the RHSA.  In this instance however, the murder of a senior navy officer in Paris titillated him sufficiently that Marner was granted ten minutes of his attention. 
    After listening to Marner’s explanation of the basic facts, Odewald was of the opinion that it seemed like a closed case with two bodies on ice, both of whom had killed one another; why spend more time on the subject? Marner did not feel inclined to proffer his theory; he was aware that it was tenuous at best.  Instead, he evoked the possibility that this could be the beginning of something larger, a series of attacks and assassinations by the Resistance or communists.  Odewald himself liked to quote that these “terrorists” were growing daily in boldness and support, all the more reason to sustain the efforts and manpower of the RHSA.  Ever the political animal, Odewald took the bait that Marner cast; he would avoid any possibility of being found liable of having ignored or failed to recognise a potential threat.  Odewald therefore agreed to escalate the matter through to Kriegsmarine, to obtain for Marner the assistance that he required. 
    It was late afternoon when Marner finally received the call to report to Hoffman at Concorde.  The building had been requisitioned from the Ministère de la Marine – the French navy.  It was now the main hub controlling the German naval assets around France and Italy, including those remnants of the Italian surface and submarine fleets that had fallen under German control when Italy had ceased hostilities and signed the armistice with the Allies in 1943. 
    Hoffman struck Marner as a relic of the old world navy, from his weather beaten and lined face to his barrel chest, the uniform’s breast almost entirely obliterated by scrolling braid and ribbons.  Marner knew that Hoffman was actually an aide to the real Admiral; the Konteradmiral’s role was primarily as a stand-in and administrator for less critical and non-military activities. 
    Marner opened the meeting by explaining that this was definitely a murder, by someone as yet unidentified but most likely a French national who, in turn, had been shot and killed by Schull in self-defence.  Assuring Hoffman that the evidence clearly indicated that Schull had been fired upon first from behind, Marner omitted his speculation regarding the improbability that Schull could have fired his weapon. 
    Hoffman pondered this news for a moment.  “So this seems to be neatly resolved then?”
    “Not at all, Herr Konteradmiral.  I have no motive for the attack.  We might conclude that Schull was targeted at random, simply because of his nationality and uniform.  But that would mean that I have to alert my command to the potential for hostile activity and risk for all Reich personnel.  That could create a lot of panic.  Or I have to conclude that Schull himself was specifically targeted.  To determine if the latter is a real possibility, I need to know what his mission was here in Paris.  I presume that