Oh, God, Harry, she thought, fly away. Just fly away. And then the door opened and Martineau walked into the office.
There were tears in her eyes and she had never known such emotion as Greiser stood back and Harry put an arm around her gently.
The emotion she felt was so overwhelming that she committed the greatest blunder of all then. “Oh, you bloody fool,” she said in English. “Why didn’t you go?”
Muller smiled gently and picked up the Mauser that lay on his desk. “So, you speak English also, mademoiselle. This whole business becomes even more intriguing. I think you’d better relieve the Standartenfuhrer of his Walther, Ernst.”
Greiser did as he was told, and Martineau said in German, “Do you know what you’re doing, Muller? There’s a perfectly good reason for Mademoiselle Latour to speak English. Her mother was English. The facts are on file at SD headquarters in Paris. You can check.”
“You have an answer for everything,” Muller said. “What if I told you that a postmortem has indicated that Willi Kleist was murdered last night? The medical examiner indicates the time of death as being between midnight and two o’clock. I need hardly remind you that it was two o’clock when you were stopped on Route du Sud, no more than a mile from where the body was discovered. What do you have to say to that?”
“I can only imagine youVe been grossly overworking. Your career’s on the line here, Muller, you realize that. When the Reichsfuhrer hears the full facts he’ll..”
For the first time Muller almost lost his temper. “Enough of this. IVe been a policeman all my life-a good policeman and I detest violence. However, there are those with a different attitude. Greiser here, for instance. A strange thing about Greiser. He doesn’t like women. He would actually find it pleasurable to discuss this whole affair in private with Mademoiselle Latour, but I doubt that she would.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Greiser put an arm around Sarah and slipped a hand inside her dress, fondling a breast. “I think she might get to like it after I’ve taught her her manners.”
Sarah’s left hand clawed down his face, drawing blood, only feeling rage now, more powerful than she had ever known. As Greiser staggered back, her hand went up her skirt, pulling the tiny automatic from her stocking. Her arm swung up and she fired at point-blank range, shooting Muller between the eyes. The Mauser dropped from his nerveless hand to the desk; he staggered back against the wall and fell to the floor. Greiser tried to get his own gun from his pocket, too late as Martineau picked up the Mauser from the desk.
Gallagher and Guido were sitting in the Morris on the other side of the road from the Silvertide when they heard the sound of approaching vehicles. They turned to see a military column approaching. The lead vehicle was a Ku-belwagen with the top down and Field Marshal Erwin Rommel standing in the passenger seat for the whole world to see. The Kubelwagen braked to a halt, he got out as the soldiers, carried by the other vehicles in the column, jumped down and ran forward in obedience to Heider’s shouted orders.
“Right, follow me!” Baum called and marched straight in through the entrance of the Silvertide. A moment after Sarah fired the shot that killed Muller, the door crashed open and Baum appeared. He advanced into the room, Heider and a dozen armed men behind him. He peered over the desk at Muller’s body.
Greiser said, “Herr Field Marshal, this woman has murdered Captain Muller.”
Baum ignored him and said to Heider, “Put this man in a cell.”
“Yes, Herr Field Marshal.” Heider nodded and three of his men grabbed the protesting Greiser. Heider followed them out.
“Back in your vehicles,” Baum shouted to the others and held Sarah’s coat for her. “Can we go now?”
Gallagher and Guido saw them come out of the entrance to the hotel and get into the Kubelwagen, Martineau and Sarah in the back, Baum standing up in front. He waved his arm, the Kubelwagen led off, the whole column following.