The Lady from Zagreb

by Philip Kerr

  “Would you care to tell me exactly what happened, sir?”

  “My God, Gunther,” complained Schellenberg, “you sound exactly like the village policeman.”

  “I don’t think I’m going to tell you exactly what you sound like, General. It might tempt me to reach for that gun. This is a neutral country, after all.”

  “No, no, Schelli, Gunther’s quite right. He was first on the scene of the crime, after all. Heckholz was threatening to expose a business deal between the Swiss Wood Syndicate and a subsidiary of Nordhav—Export Drives GMBH—in the Swiss newspapers.”

  “You mean the deal to supply wooden barracks to the SS and the German Army?”

  “How do you know about that?” asked Schellenberg.

  “Precisely,” said Meyer. “Two thousand of them. The first five hundred were shipped last year. The whole deal is worth a lot of money to Switzerland’s rather beleaguered economy. About twelve million Swiss francs, to be honest. Not that it would be the first time our two countries have done business together. Back in 1939, Major Eggen’s department bought a large quantity of machine guns from us. Of course, not all Swiss are happy that their country is making business deals with yours. Especially when it’s military equipment. But those who are opposed to such deals don’t tell us how this country is supposed to survive economically while remaining a neutral country that’s surrounded by Germany and its allies. The fact is, we have to export to survive. We need German money, and to stay neutral, we need to do business with Germany. But this is a very sensitive subject and it would not have been helpful for someone to write about it in the Swiss newspapers. It’s that simple. Schelli here has been very helpful in making such deals happen. He believes very strongly in Swiss neutrality. In fact, that’s why he’s here, right now.”

  “You’re telling him much more than he really needs to know,” said Schellenberg. “He’s really not that important.”

  “Get to Leuthard’s role in all this,” I told Meyer.

  “Soon after we checked into the Adlon I received a message from Heckholz asking for a meeting. So while you and I were chatting in the sunshine outside the hotel, I sent Leuthard round to Heckholz’s office to set something up. He wasn’t there. So he went back again during the opera, and this time he was. All that he was supposed to do was arrange a meeting. I certainly didn’t expect him to bash the man’s brains in. I was horrified when he told me what had happened. As soon as I got back to Switzerland, I arranged for Leuthard to be transferred from my section.”

  “So you’re saying that Heckholz wasn’t killed to save Switzerland from any embarrassment about the end users of those wooden barracks,” I said.

  Meyer looked puzzled. “Aside from the fact that a wooden barracks is going to be occupied by German soldiers,” he said, “I really don’t see that anyone can complain very much about a bloody hut. It’s not like we’re selling your country machine guns. That’s why we’re doing it. A hut is just a hut. Much less emotive than guns, I can assure you.”

  “That’s fair,” I said. “All the same, I wonder what the Swiss people might say if they knew exactly what the SS is using some of those huts for.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “They’re being sent to concentration camps. You’ve heard about those, I suppose.”

  “You don’t know that for sure, Gunther,” said Schellenberg. “You’re just guessing.”

  “Two thousand of them? I should think it’s a fair guess that quite a few of them have ended up in one KZ or another.”

  “Do shut up, Gunther,” said Schellenberg, “you’re in way over your head.”

  “I’m used to that, oddly enough.”

  “You haven’t the first idea of what we’re trying to accomplish here.”

  “Of course they’re not for soldiers, Captain Meyer. They’re for Jewish slave labor. Jews and anyone else the Third Reich has deemed subhuman and therefore expendable. I should like to tell you more about those but I’m afraid I don’t know much about what happens in these places, though I can guess.”

  “I see.” Meyer looked grimly at Schellenberg. “Did you know about this, Schelli?”

  “If he didn’t know, he certainly suspected as much. And if a man as intelligent and well connected as the general here suspects something, then you can bet it isn’t very long before he makes it his business to know everything about it. That’s Schelli’s job, after all. To find out where others have hidden the truth.”

  “Damn it all, Gunther, how dare you walk in here in your size forty-fives and trample all of the months of good work that Major Eggen and I have done.”

  “But sometimes he also makes it his business not to know what he suspects,” I said. “Just as he’s managed very carefully to avoid the murderous work that most of his unfortunate subordinates have been obliged to carry out. Is that right, General? Your small white hands are quite clean, aren’t they?”

  Schellenberg looked fit to burst with anger. Like a lot of small men, it turned out that he had quite a bark.

  “Do you honestly think you’re any different?” he said through gritted teeth. “If I’ve avoided getting blood on my small white hands then that’s only because I’ve been hiding myself away in the same lavatory as you, Gunther. We’ve both been crouched in the end stall, living in fear that we’ll have to do something to stay alive that makes staying alive seem like a high price to pay for what we’ve had to do. Haven’t we? So what the hell gives you the right to judge me? Do you think that the captains are any less culpable than the generals, is that it? Or is it that you think that my soul has already paid a higher price by reason of who and what I am? Well, you’re wrong. If I’ve got where I am with a shred of self-respect left to me then that’s because I’m rather better at walking the high wire than you are. Did you ever consider that? And you can’t look inside my heart and know me any more than I can look inside yours. The way I see things, it’s my duty to try and save this country and, as a corollary, my country from total destruction. So let me explain it very simply in a way that even you can understand, Gunther. Only if Switzerland remains neutral will anywhere exist that Germany can conduct peace negotiations with the Allies. It’s as simple as that. The Americans are here. The English are here. Even the Russians are here. All we have to do is find somewhere quiet with a nice round table and then sit down and talk. It’s taken me months to persuade Reichsführer Himmler that this is the only way forward for Germany. Do you understand? It’s our duty to end this war. And to do that we need this country.”

  “That’s a nice speech, General. If it wasn’t for all the other stupid generals who screw things up for the ordinary Fritz, I might start to think I’d misjudged you entirely. The generals at Verdun and Arras and Amiens. Not to mention all those incompetent generals who’ve tried and failed on many occasions to kill Adolf Hitler. You’ll pardon me if I don’t kiss you on the cheek and give you the Knight’s Cross with oak leaves.”

  Despite what I said I was feeling a little sick that I’d perhaps set back important negotiations that might have put a swift end to the war.

  “Is it true, Schelli?” asked Meyer. “Are these barracks we’re exporting to Germany being used to house Jewish slave labor?”

  “Probably, yes. But that shouldn’t be your concern, Paul. I really thought it best you didn’t know on the principle that what you don’t know can’t hurt you. Look, everything you said remains fundamentally true. If Switzerland is going to survive as a neutral it needs German money to pay its way. Listen to me, Paul. There is a greater good here. That’s what you have to remember. Trust me. What we have planned can still be achieved.”

  “After what Captain Gunther just told me, how can I go on trusting you now?” asked Meyer.

  “Because I can prove my loyalty to you as a friend,” insisted Schellenberg, “and as a friend to this country. Hidden inside Gunther’s Mercedes is quite a lot
of gold. As a sign of the Reichsführer’s good faith. And not only that. Inside the exhaust pipe is something that should put you in very good odor with General Masson—for that matter with everyone in the Swiss intelligence community. Even Reichsführer Himmler doesn’t know anything about this. I’ve brought you the crown jewels, so to speak, Paul. Or rather more accurately, Gunther has. That car he just drove here from the factory in Germany contains secret plans that were drawn up by the Army High Command on Hitler’s orders, for the possible invasion of Switzerland. I’ve betrayed my country, in order to save it. That’s what I’ve done, Gunther. Can you honestly say the same?”

  Thirty-six

  I had to admit Schellenberg had me there. To the best of my knowledge I’d never committed treason. But there’s a first time for everything.

  “For Germany and for you, General Schellenberg, I volunteer,” I said. “How can I help?”

  “You can start by telling me what the fuck’s been going on?” He shook his neatly combed head with exasperation. “Clearly something’s been going on. Your attitude. That gun. Your cryptic remarks about the car. Tell me the gold is still there.”

  “It’s still there. I told you. The car is fine.”

  “But?”

  Feeling slightly ashamed of having misjudged Schellenberg so profoundly, I told him everything while he and I and Meyer walked back to the car.

  “Can’t be helped,” said Schellenberg. “Their three will cancel out our three. That’s the way these diplomatic things usually work. With any luck this whole thing will blow over and we can start the tricky business of negotiating the negotiations. The plans? They’re still there, too?”

  “The Gestapo found the gold, but nothing else. But it’s all there. Everything. Don’t worry.”

  “And you’re sure they didn’t have time to send a message to Berlin telling them what they’d found?”

  “Quite sure.”

  “Because that would be just the evidence Kaltenbrunner needs to bring down Himmler. And by extension, me. But he’d certainly settle for me if he couldn’t nail Himmler.”

  “Somehow I just don’t see the Reichsführer as a peacemaker,” I said.

  “Did you ever hear of an American gangster called Arnold Rothstein?” he asked.

  “Vaguely, I think.”

  “In 1919, Rothstein made a huge bet that the Chicago White Sox, who were the overwhelming favorites, would lose the World Series. And he won that bet because he’d bribed some White Sox players to lose. A couple of years later, Rothstein bet a huge sum on a well-fancied racehorse called Sporting Blood after he made sure that the other favorite was scratched from the race at the very last minute. What I’m saying is that there was nothing sporting about Mr. Rothstein. Like any high-stakes gambler, he much preferred a sure thing. Himmler’s no different. Only in this case he’s betting on both horses. If Hitler wins, Himmler wins. And if Hitler loses, Himmler wins again.” Schellenberg shrugged. “Of course, if Hitler does win then the Reichsführer will need to prove his loyalty to the leader. Which means I’m dead. You see? Not only am I a useful emissary in this whole affair, I’m a useful scapegoat if things go wrong. Me. Eggen. And you, Gunther, if we’re ever found out.”

  “Point taken, sir.”

  “Drive the Mercedes into the garage,” said Schellenberg.

  Meyer didn’t have an inspection pit, but he did have a garage ramp, and as soon as we’d retrieved the gold bars from underneath the rocker plates, I drove the Mercedes up the ramp. Meyer handed Schellenberg a hacksaw and he started to cut through a section of the car’s exhaust pipe.

  “By the way, Captain Gunther,” said Meyer. “Call it professional curiosity, but before I forget, you said it was only yesterday you realized who killed Dr. Heckholz. How did you work out that it was Leuthard who killed Heckholz and not Schelli’s men?”

  I described how the dying Heckholz had made a Swiss flag out of a pool of his own blood on a white floor.

  “That was clever of you,” he said.

  “Not really. You see, it took me a whole year to think of that. Which doesn’t say much for my powers of detection. Sometimes a stupid man is only a couple of good guesses away from looking clever. The same is true in reverse, of course. But there’s that mark against me and now this. I mean, the way I’d figured, the general here was in this whole thing for himself. I’m used to that, you see. The fact is, everyone in Germany is looking after himself these days. Me included. It’s become a national pastime. Anyway, the truth is, Paul, I’m feeling about as clever as a man with the brains of a potato. So the next time you’re writing a detective story, see if you can work out a way of making your hero look stupid. It’ll be much more realistic that way.”

  “A stupid detective? That could never work. Readers wouldn’t like it. That’s much too like real life for the readers of detective stories. The writers, too. No one wants realism, Bernie. They get enough of that at home and when they read the newspapers. They read books to escape from real life, not to be reminded of it. Take my word for it, realism plays very badly in modern fiction.”

  I grinned. “I guess you know your business. But I know mine, too.”

  “Do you read much, Bernie?”

  “Some. There’s not much else to do at night in Germany, these days. Provided the electricity is working.”

  “What do you enjoy reading?”

  “History, mostly. But not as much as I enjoy watching a general getting his hands dirty.”

  A few minutes later Schellenberg removed a section of the exhaust pipe from which he then extracted a carefully wrapped tube of papers that was about a meter in length.

  We took the tube of papers into the house. On the desk in Meyer’s study, and under the eyes of a rather severe and Flemish-looking family group portrait, we tried spreading the plans out on his narrow desk; but we soon moved them onto the floor where it was easier to keep them flat and see what was what. From time to time I glanced around at our surroundings. The house was full of rough timber ceilings, nut wood floors, Gothic cupboards, old tapestries, tiled ceramic stoves, and expensive works of fine art. Thanks to Bernard Berenson’s last book on old masters, I knew they were expensive because they had gold frames that were even bigger than the paintings. That’s what’s called connoisseurship. But you didn’t need to be a connoisseur to see that the most beautiful thing in the house was Patrizia herself. Quite possibly she was Meyer-Schwertenbach’s second wife—she was certainly young enough. And that’s what’s called cynicism. Although I can’t imagine there was a man there—myself included—who’d seen the dogs with their muzzles on her lap having their ears folded who didn’t envy them just a little. She and Eggen came and found us in her husband’s study and listened carefully as Schellenberg described what was in the German plans.

  “I had these plans stolen to order from the Bendlerblock’s Strategic Planning Section,” said Schellenberg. “On the day after the building was hit by an RAF bomb. That way I didn’t think they would be missed. Or at least not for long.”

  “So that was you, was it?” I said. “Clever. You know they asked me to investigate the theft of some plans. To avoid involving the Gestapo.”

  “What did you conclude?”

  “That they’d been destroyed in the fire.”

  Schellenberg nodded. “Good.”

  “I was told not to worry too much because it turned out there were copies of the plans kept at the Wolf’s Lair, in Rastenburg. So I dropped it.”

  “This plan was code-named Operation Christmas Tree,” he explained, “and is dated October 1940. This was submitted for consideration by General Ritter von Leeb of Army Group C in response to a directive from General Halder of the General Staff’s Operations Section. German forces—the blue arrows—would attack from occupied France in the west, from Germany in the north, and from Austria in the east. The black arrows represent Italian forces, who
would attack from the south. The number of German divisions—twenty-one—is a strong indication of the expected level of resistance. Von Leeb estimated as many as four hundred and seventy thousand Swiss troops would oppose ours. But the real reason the plan was set aside was because Hitler made the decision to attack Russia in the spring of the following year. Perhaps even earlier, as a memo attached here shows Christmas Tree was canceled as early as November eleventh, 1940.”

  “And so,” said Meyer, “but for the Russian invasion we might now be living under the Nazis.”

  “A Swiss invasion could still happen,” said Schellenberg. “As this later plan proves. Operation Province-in-Waiting was prepared in the summer of 1941, by Colonel Adolf Heusinger, chief of the Operations Division of the Army General Staff. It was Heusinger who planned Operation Barbarossa for the invasion of the Soviet Union.”

  “He was a busy man in 1941,” I said. “Wasn’t he?”

  “You can see here how Province-in-Waiting differs from Christmas Tree. For one thing, there will be a Rhine crossing, in twilight or fog. With seaplanes carrying lightly armed troops landing on the main Swiss lakes, including Zurich, Lucerne, and Geneva. The idea being that these troops would attack Swiss border defenses from the rear, rendering fortifications worthless. Himmler calls this plan the Swiss Project, and until recently it remained the one most likely to be implemented in the event that Hitler decided he needed a quick victory to restore the faith of the German people in his leadership. Himmler even named the man who will head up the Nazi police state that Switzerland will become: an SS major-general called Gottlob Berger. He’s always been a very vigorous Nazi, with all that such an appellation entails.”

  “The man’s an absolute swine,” I said. “He runs the main SS office in Berlin.”

  “You said ‘until recently,’” observed Patrizia. “Are we finally safe?”

  “I regret to say no,” said Schellenberg. “Recent events in Italy have made Switzerland strategically important as never before. With the collapse of Mussolini and the Italian fascists now imminent, the responsibility for defending Italy now rests with the German Army. That means Italian supply routes are critical. Which means that new plans are being formulated even as we speak. I happen to know that another SS general, Hermann Böhme, who is also the chief of the Austrian military intelligence service, has been charged by Himmler with devising a new invasion plan by the end of the year, for implementation in the summer of 1944.”