Operation Blue Sapphire

by David B. Gilmore

Emma saw Jacques, his hands handcuffed behind him, trying to run into the kitchen. She met his advance with a swift blow to his abdomen. As he doubled over, she landed an uppercut to his chin. She turned him around and sat him down on one of the kitchen chairs. “He isn’t going to be helping anybody. Jimmy, take her out of here!”

  Simone did not go peacefully and Bunnel had to struggle to get her through the door. Once they were gone, Emma quietly closed the door behind them and sat down at the table. Before speaking to him, she let Jacques regain his composure. She realized the du Mauriers’ lives had been turned upside down in less than an hour and she knew, if she played her cards right, she would be able to get the information she wanted and complete the mission for which she and the others had been sent to Calcutta.

  When Jacques settled down enough to speak, he frantically demanded, “What is he doing to her?”

  “That depends a lot on you.”

  Jacques was momentarily taken aback. “On me?”

  “You hold the keys to her well-being. Should you cooperate, it can end now. If you choose to keep lying to me, then it’s only the beginning. I guess what it really comes down to is how much you love your wife. If not too much, then you’ll let her suffer.”

  “And if I cooperate, it stops?”

  “It stops, but first you have to give me something useful.”

  “Like what?”

  “Let’s start again with Blaine Phillips. What was your relationship with him?”

  “He was a friend, we played tennis together.”

  “Is that why you shot him? He was killed with a thirty-two and you carry a thirty-two. So don’t deny it any further.”

  Jacques had a worried look on his face, “Yes. It was unavoidable, but I shot him. What about Simone? I don’t want Ferguson laying his filthy hands on her anymore!”

  Emma smiled inside. She knew she had hit the right nerve. If he knew his precious Simone had spent the afternoon rolling in the hay with his business partner, I wonder if he’d be so willing to come to her rescue now, thought Emma. “Don’t get up,” she said aloud as she stood up. “Stay right where you are. I’ll be right back.”

  “I’m going to need an assurance that she’s okay.”

  “Jacques, for now you’re going to have to trust me. But believe me, she won’t be harmed any further than she has been.”

  Emma lit a cigarette and walked outside. Bunnel heard the door close and joined her in the yard.

  “How’s it going out here?” asked Emma.

  Bunnel laughed. “She’s fit to be tied, and I don’t think she likes me too much, but other than that, everything’s fine. What’s going on in there?”

  Emma laughed. “He’s admitted to shooting Preston, and he wants you to quit hurting his wife. I think he wants me to bring her in, but we won’t do that yet. We still have to build a better rapport. For now, he’s just …” She paused, smiled, and nodded. “He’s just going to have to trust me.”

  “That could be asking a lot, Emma.”

  “I know, but so far, the threat has been enough.”

  “See what happens. We’ll be out here in the garage.”

  Emma flicked the remainder of her cigarette into the yard and went back into the house. “She’s fine,” she said as she sat down opposite du Maurier.

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure. You tell me what I want to know and you can see her. Let’s start again with Blaine Phillips.”

  Over an hour later, Emma closed her notebook, screwed the cap back on her fountain pen, and gently placed it on top of her notebook. Then she got up from the table and went outside to talk to Bunnel.

  Bunnel joined her in the yard, making sure they were far enough away from the garage that Simone couldn’t overhear their conversation. Bunnel reached into his pocket, produced a package of Pall Malls, and offered one to Emma. “You’ve been in there a long time. Did you find out anything? Is it medical supplies?” asked Bunnel.

  “You’re not going to believe this,” said Emma, shaking her head. “They approached Preston to buy guns.”

  “Guns? What the hell for?” asked Bunnel, startled.

  “According to Jacques, they feel France has abandoned them. They want to start a second front in Indochina. A guerrilla war against the Japanese. He approached Preston to buy all kinds of weapons. Preston said no. They wanted to keep their operation secret and were afraid of it being compromised. So, they shot him.”

  “That sounds pretty farfetched.”

  “I have to admit, on the face of it, at first it sounded ridiculous, but he laid out the structure of the operation. Hanoi is the base. They have what he referred to as the Council. Collectively, they make the decisions. In turn, each member has a network of others throughout the country who are willing to take up arms against the Japanese. The du Mauriers and Chevaliers were sent here to buy the necessary weapons and supplies.”

  “Calcutta makes sense. It’s the supply depot for the entire Asian theater of operations.”

  “Precisely,” agreed Emma. “The man Vern and I saw them with last night, a local gangster named Conrad Kruger, is their new supplier. They’re scheduled to take delivery of two hundred rifles on Monday.”

  “That explains the trucks. I guess the most important question is, did Preston compromise the OSS?” asked Bunnel.

  “They think that’s who we are.”

  “How did they find out?”

  “Preston used O House as his address for the tennis club he belonged to.”

  “Bad decision!”

  “When you showed up at du Maurier’s office, they got scared.”

  “And set off the bomb. Did the Russian make it? Does he know we’re OSS?” asked Bunnel.

  “They wanted it to look random. The tax collector being killed was just the icing on the cake for them. The Russian is where things get interesting. He did build the bomb, but he’s also their business partner. To finance the weapons, they’re selling opium and cocaine. Jacques and Chevalier import it through Hamilton’s business and the Russian sells it. According to Jacques, the only people who suspect anything about the OSS are the four of them. They didn’t tell the Russian, because he’s paranoid about getting caught with the narcotics and deported back to the Soviet Union. They didn’t tell anyone on the Council, because they wanted to keep them from worrying. Basically, I don’t think they wanted to look incompetent to their peers back home.”

  “That makes sense,” said Bunnel. “Especially, if there are powerful people on the Council. After the war, they’re all going to have to live and work together again.”

  “That said,” Emma continued, “the Russian isn’t too happy with him about the bomb. It was way bigger than necessary and he feared it would bring unwanted attention to him. The Russian worries me.”

  “How so?” asked Bunnel.

  “If the du Mauriers and Chevaliers go missing, his supply of opium and cocaine’s going to dry up. When that happens, he’s going to get suspicious and start putting the pieces together.”

  “A loose end we can’t afford to leave dangling,” said Bunnel.

  “So far we’ve covered our tracks well, but now the police are questioning Lalana again and trying to solve the case. It won’t be too long before they go to Immigration and find out who the French nationals or colonials living in Calcutta are. When that happens, the Russian’s going to become a loose cannon.”

  “There’s no doubt about that. Do you believe du Maurier about this Council business, or do you think he’s just a black market racketeer like his local gangster friend?” asked Bunnel.

  “He’s offered up proof. He’ll turn over the radio, code books, and contact times for the people back in Hanoi. Everything’s at his house. But, Jimmy, there’s a catch. He claims to want our help with getting him the weapons.”

  “I figured that. Why not? If the U.S. government supplies them, he won’t have to pay for them. Hell, we’ll even take care of the shipping. Drop them out of an airplane for him.
” Bunnel thought for a moment. “Then why not approach us, rather than try to kill us? He’s leaving out a few key ingredients of the recipe.”

  “Believe me, that’s been going through my mind,” agreed Emma.

  “Do you think he’s mixed up in the local politics and the weapons are going to go to one of the independence movements?”

  “I doubt that, but he could be mixed up with some politics back home, something Preston didn’t agree with. If he wants to shoot some collaborators, I understand that, and I probably don’t have an issue with it. On the other hand, he and his Russian friend may have more than just the illegal narcotics trade going.”

  “And now, to save his skin, he thinks he can work an angle with us. He can use us to get the weapons, go back to Indochina a hero, and use them any way he wants.”

  “Okay, bring her in. Put them in the living room and let them get reacquainted for a few minutes. Make sure he sees she wasn’t harmed. In a few minutes, we’ll go to Monsieur du Maurier’s house and see what he gives us.”

  “And after?” asked Bunnel.

  “Then we all pay a visit to our Russian bombmaker.”

  Zacharie Chevalier reluctantly set down the telephone receiver at his desk in his study and yelled for Margaux to come in. He was standing, putting on his sport coat, as she walked into the room. “I’m getting worried,” he said. “Jacques and Simone left here over three hours ago. He said he’d call when it was finished. I just called again and no one’s home.”

  “That’s not good. Either way, they should have called,” agreed Margaux.

  “I don’t like it, let’s take a drive.”

  “I’ll get my purse.”

  “See you at the car.”

  Zacharie looked at a piece of paper with an address written on it. Then he found the street on a map of Calcutta and circled the area with a pencil. When he was finished, he folded the paper and placed it in his shirt pocket, picked up the map, and walked outside to the car.

  The Saturday evening traffic had begun to dissipate. As he drove, he made several unnecessary turns to make sure he wasn’t being followed. Checking his rearview mirror, finally confident he wasn’t being tailed, he headed for the dock area. Margaux helped him with the directions and they soon found themselves on the street where the girl’s apartment was located. There was no traffic behind him when they turned onto the street. Zacharie slowed the car to a crawl, retrieved the piece of paper with the street number written on it, and gave it to Margaux.

  “There, Zacharie, on the left. It should be that building,” she said.

  Zacharie drove by slowly, went a couple of blocks down the street, and turned around. When he came back to the apartment building, he stopped. “The apartment should on the second floor. There are lights on in all the rooms.” Looking up at the apartment, he could see the silhouette of a person behind drawn curtains. “People are moving around up there.”

  “Do you think Jacques and Simone came by here?” asked Margaux.

  “If they did, apparently they didn’t go in.”

  “Do you think they got scared off? Maybe the police were here.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Should we finish the job?”

  “Not until we know what happened to Jacques and Simone. If the police are there, we could be walking into a trap.” Zacharie put the car in gear and began to head out. “Let’s go by Jacques’ and see if he and Simone are there. Maybe we missed them driving over here.”

  Parking in front of the du Mauriers’ house, Zacharie reached into the glove box and took out a 9 mm Browning Hi-Power handgun. After sliding the action back to make sure the gun was loaded, he reached into his pocket and handed Margaux a set of keys. “When we get to the gate, find the one for the lock.”

  To their surprise, the gate was unlocked.

  “I don’t like this. It’s not like either one of them to leave the gate unlocked,” said Margaux.

  Walking into the yard, everything was still. The front door was closed, but they could see lights on in the house. Zacharie motioned for Margaux to follow him. Jacques and Simone did not have a garage and the Chevaliers didn’t see Jacques’s car where he normally parked it.

  “Their car isn’t here. Let’s check the house,” whispered Zacharie.

  Slowly and quietly they walked to the front door. Zacharie held the pistol ready. Margaux turned the doorknob. “It’s unlocked. Zacharie, I don’t like this.”

  “Open it,” he ordered.

  When Margaux opened the door, Zacharie motioned for her to stand behind him as he cautiously entered the house. The lights were on in the living room. Turning into the kitchen, he found the light switch and turned it on. No one was there. Down a hallway they could see a light on in the room Jacques used as a library and study. They checked the bedrooms as they went down the hall, but they were all empty. Zacharie, pistol at the ready, turned the corner into the study. He was astonished at what he saw.

  “What in the hell!” Stacked beside Jacques’ desk were several boards from the hardwood flooring. Zacharie immediately knelt down and looked into a large hole in the floor. “Everything’s gone!” he exclaimed.

  “What’s gone?” asked Margaux.

  “Everything, the money, the radio, the codebook. All of it’s gone!”

  They stood silently for a moment, looking at the floor before Zacharie rushed into the du Mauriers’ bedroom. “Their clothes are still here. Nothing else seems to be missing.”

  “What do we do now?” asked Margaux. She tossed her head impatiently.

  “I don’t know, we have to sort this out. If we don’t show up Monday with the money, Kruger’s going to kill me.” There was a definite tone of urgency in his voice.

  “Kruger won’t be a problem, unless he’s the one who took it.”

  “I doubt he’s behind this. If anything, he’d try something Monday when we go to pick up the guns. We can probably also rule out the police, they would have torn up the whole house. This is really bad. If I show up Monday without the money, I’m a dead man.”

  Margaux thought for a moment. “Not necessarily.”

  “Margaux, the man is going to be expecting his money!”

  “I know that, but there are other ways.”

  “What other ways? This is Saturday night, almost Sunday morning. I meet with him Monday.”

  “Monday morning we go to the bank. Hamilton’s in Bombay playing golf for a couple of weeks. We get the money out of the company account. It shouldn’t take too long for Rurik to sell the cocaine and then you can simply replace the money. If Hamilton questions it, just tell him it was a deal you had to act on fast but it didn’t work out. He trusts you, he won’t question it.”

  “That may work. But who’s going to drive the other truck?”

  “I will,” said Margaux.

  “That’s absurd, you don’t know how to drive a truck.”

  “If you want the guns, and don’t want to be killed by Kruger, you’ll teach me how.”

  “Alright, we’ll talk about that. The most important question is what the hell happened here? Where are Jacques, Simone, and the money? The radio can be replaced, but I need the codebook. Jacques had all the frequencies written down. Without it, even if we get the guns, I can’t communicate with the Council.”

  “Are you blind? You know what happened. Jacques and Simone took off with the money. How much did he have here?”

  “Over a million rupees.”

  “That’s about a hundred thousand Pounds or over three hundred thousand U.S. Dollars.”

  “But they didn’t pack anything,” Zacharie protested.

  “Why should they? With that kind of money, they can afford to buy another toothbrush.”

  “I just can’t believe it. I’ve known Jacques a long time. I can’t believe he’d do such a thing.”

  “Well, start believing it. That American was killed in the café. He hasn’t been back nor have any other Americans come by inquiring about him. And like
you said, if Kruger’s going to do something, it’ll be when we go to pick up the guns. So, who else could have done it? I know you’re real smitten with Simone, but I don’t trust her as far as I can spit. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if this whole thing wasn’t her idea.”

  “I still don’t know,” said Zacharie.

  “You still don’t know about what? They not only took the money, but the radio, too. There’s no way to get ahold of the Council. It buys them a lot of time, and by now they’re probably halfway to Pondichery in French India. I bet they came straight here from our house. What are we going to do, call the police and tell them your business partner and his wife ran off with the money you were going to use to buy illegal weapons? We can still figure out a way to get the guns and get in contact with the Council. When we do, we wait for instructions from them. They’ll tell us what to do about Jacques and Simone.”

  Zacharie didn’t like the idea that he could be betrayed, not only by Jacques but, especially, by Simone. However, Margaux had planted a seed of doubt in his mind. He wondered if the only reason Simone had carried on an affair with him was to put him off guard. Had she been planning to take the money all along? The more he thought about it, and thought about the many afternoons they had spent together in the Great Eastern Hotel, the more he started to believe Margaux might be correct. When he realized he had, on Simone’s insistence, booked the room for them the day he met Kruger, any serious doubts he had about Margaux’s theory seemed to vanish. He hated to admit it to himself, but he began thinking he had been used.

  “Zacharie!”

  “I’m sorry, Margaux, I was thinking about something. Do you think Rurik is in on this? Maybe we should go pay him a visit.”

  “If he is in on this, then he either left with Jacques and Simone, or he’ll be waiting for us. Give it a couple of days. If he’s in on it, we’ll never hear from him again. If he isn’t, he’ll contact you in the usual way. Going out there tonight isn’t a good idea. It’s an act of desperation, and that can get us in more trouble. Best we go home, lay low, and wait for Monday morning.”