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“Presumably, he didn’t.”
Hardt nodded. “I suppose it was too good a tale to keep from his fellow directors and he told them everything over di
“That still doesn’t explain how the people who killed Muller knew we were supposed to meet on this train,” Chavasse said. “I can’t see how there could possibly have been another leak from the London end. I don’t think it’s very probable that there’s also a Nazi sympathizer on the board of directors of the firm I’m supposed to be representing.”
Hardt shook his head. “As a matter of fact, I’ve got a theory about that. Muller was living in Bremen with a woman called Lilli Pahl. She was pulled out of the Elbe this morning, apparently a suicide case.”
“And you think she was murdered?”
Hardt nodded. “She disappeared from Bremen when Muller did, so they’ve probably been living together. My theory is that the other side knew where he was all along, that they were leaving him alone, hoping he’d lead them to Borma
“I’ll go along with that,” Chavasse said. “It sounds reasonable enough. But it still doesn’t explain why they shot him.”
Hardt shrugged. “Muller could have been carrying the manuscript, but I don’t think that’s very likely. I should imagine the shooting was an accident. Muller probably jumped the person who was waiting for him in your compartment and was killed in the struggle.”
Chavasse frowned, considering everything Hardt had told him. After a while, he said, “There’s still one thing which puzzles me. Muller is dead and that means I’ve come to a dead end as far as finding Borma
“You could say I’m sentimental,” Hardt told him. “I have a soft spot for Israeli sympathizers.”
“And how would you know that is what I am?”
“Do you recall a man named Joel ben David?” Hardt asked. “He was an Israeli intelligence agent in Cairo in 1956. You saved his life and enabled him to return to Israel with information which was of great service to our Army during the Sinai campaign.”
“I remember,” Chavasse said. “But I wish you’d forget about it. It could get me into hot water in certain quarters. I wasn’t supposed to be quite so violently partisan at the time.”
“But we Jews do not forget our friends,” Hardt said quietly.
Chavasse was suddenly uncomfortable. “Why are you so keen to get hold of Borma
Hardt shook his head. “I don’t think so. In any case, we aren’t too happy about the idea of leaving him in Germany for trial, for this reason. There’s a statute of limitations in force under German law. Cases of manslaughter must be tried within fifteen years of the crime – murder, within twenty years.”
Chavasse frowned. “You mean Borma
Hardt shrugged. “Who knows? Anything might happen.” He got to his feet and paced restlessly across the compartment. “We are not butchers, Chavasse. We don’t intend to lead Borma
His eyes sparkled with fire. He was held in the grip of a fervor that seemed almost religious, something that possessed his heart and soul so that all other things were of no importance to him.
“A dedicated man,” Chavasse said softly. “I thought they’d gone out of fashion.”
Hardt paused, one hand raised in the air, and stared at him, and then he laughed and color flooded his face. “I’m sorry, at times I get carried away. But there are worse things for a man to do than something he believes in.”
“How did you come to get mixed up in this sort of thing?” Chavasse asked.
Hardt sat down on the bunk. “My people were German Jews. Luckily, my father had the foresight in 1933 to see what was coming. He moved to England with my mother and me, and he prospered. I was never particularly religious – I don’t think I am now. It was a wild, adolescent impulse which made me leave Cambridge in 1947 and journey to Palestine by way of an illegal immigrants’ boat from Marseilles. I joined Haganah and fought in the first Arab war.”
“And that turned you into a Zionist?”
Hardt smiled and shook his head. “It turned me into an Israeli – there’s a difference, you know. I saw young men dying for a belief; I saw girls who should have been in school, sitting behind machine guns. Until that time, my life hadn’t meant a great deal. After that, it had a sense of purpose.”
Chavasse sighed and offered him a cigarette. “You know, in some ways I think I envy you.”
Hardt looked surprised. “But surely you believe in what you are doing? In your work, your country, its political aims?”
“Do I?” Chavasse shook his head. “I’m not so sure. There are men like me working for every Great Power in the world. I’ve got more in common with my opposite number in the KGB than I have with any normal citizen of my own country. If I’m told to do a thing, I get it done. I don’t ask questions. Men like me live by one code only – the job must come before anything else.” He laughed harshly. “If I’d been born a few years earlier and a German, I’d probably have worked for the Gestapo.”
“Then why did you help Joel ben David in Cairo?” Hardt said. “It hardly fits into the pattern you describe.”
Chavasse shrugged and said carelessly, “That’s my one weakness. I get to like people and sometimes it makes me act unwisely.” Before Hardt could reply, he went on. “By the way, I searched Muller before Steiner arrived on the scene. There were some letters in his inside pocket from this Lilli Pahl you mentioned. The address was a hotel in Gluckstrasse, Hamburg.”
Hardt frowned. “That’s strange. I should have thought he’d have used another name. Did you find anything else?”
“An old photo,” Chavasse said. “Must have been taken during the war. He was wearing a Luftwaffe uniform and standing with his arm around a young girl.”
Hardt look up sharply. “Are you sure about that – that it was a Luftwaffe uniform he was wearing?”
Chavasse nodded. “Quite sure. Why do you ask?”
Hardt shrugged. “It probably isn’t important. I understood he was in the Army, that’s all. My information must have been incorrect.” After a moment of silence, he went on. “This hotel in Gluckstrasse might be worth investigating.”
Chavasse shook his head. “Too dangerous. Don’t forget Steiner knows about the place. I should imagine he’ll have it checked.”
“But not straightaway,” Hardt said. “If I go there as soon as we reach Hamburg, I should be well ahead of the police. After all, there’s no particular urgency from their point of view.”
Chavasse nodded. “I think you’ve got something there.”
“Then there remains only one thing to decide,” Hardt said, “and that is what you are going to do.”
“I know what I’d like to do,” Chavasse said. “Have five minutes alone with Schmidt – the sleeping-car attendant who served me that coffee. I’d like to know who he’s working for.”
“I think you’d better leave me to handle that for the moment,” Hardt said. “I can get his address and we’ll visit him later. It wouldn’t do for you to hang about the Hauptbahnhof too long when we reach Hamburg.”