Chapter 47 Chapter Forty-Six

Dieter's migraine struck shortly after midnight, and he stood in his Frankfurt hotel room, looking at the bed he could no longer share with Stephanie.He thought the pain might go away if he cried aloud, but the tears didn't flow, and he gave himself a shot of morphine and collapsed on the coverlet. He was woken up by the phone before dawn.The caller was Walter Model, Rommel's assistant.Dieter asked in a daze, "Has the attack started?" "Not today," replied Model, "the weather in the English Channel is bad." Dieter sat up straight, shook his head, and cleared his mind. "When will that be?"

"The resistance organization is obviously expecting something to happen. Overnight, there was a major explosion of sabotage activities throughout northern France." Model's voice has always been cold, and now it has fallen below the Arctic ice. "It should be your job to guard against this kind of activity, what else are you doing in bed?" Dieter was caught off guard by the question, and he tried his best to restore his usual composure. "I'm on the trail of one of the most important resistance leaders," he said, trying not to sound like an excuse for failure. "I almost caught her last night. I'll arrest her today. Don't worry. We'll be there tomorrow morning." It can round up hundreds of terrorists. I promise you." The last sentence was a bit pleading, and he regretted saying it.

Mordel was unmoved."After tomorrow, I'm afraid it will be too late," he said. "I know—" Dieter had just said this, and there was no voice on the phone.Model has already hung up. Dieter put down the phone and looked at his watch.It is four o'clock.He got up and got out of bed. The migraine passed, but he felt sick, either from the morphine or the unpleasant phone call.He drank a glass of water, swallowed three aspirins, and started shaving.He lathered his face and nervously sorted through everything that had happened the night before, asking himself if he had done all he needed to do.

Leaving Lieutenant Hesse to stay outside Regis House, he followed Michel Claret to Philippe Molier, a fresh meat dealer for restaurants and army kitchens.This is a street shop, the upper floor is where people live, and there is a yard on the side of the shop.Dieter watched for an hour, but no one came out. It appears that Michelle intends to spend the night inside.Dieter found a bar and called Hans Hesse from there.Hans rode his motorcycle and met him outside Molier's shop at ten o'clock.Lieutenant Hesse told him that it was incredible to find only one empty room when searching above the Regis House. "There must be an early warning system," Dieter deduced. "If there is a search, the bartender downstairs will sound the alarm at any time."

"You think the Resistance is using this place?" "Possibly. I think the Communists used to hold meetings there, and then the resistance took over." "But how did they escape last night?" "There's a trap door or something under the floor. The Communists have their way. Did you catch the bartender?" "I captured everyone there. They're locked up in the castle now." Dieter asked Hans to monitor Molier's place, and drove to Saint-Cecile by himself.He interrogated the terrified shopkeeper, Alexander Regis.After a few minutes he figured things out.He guessed correctly that this place was neither a hideout for resistance groups nor a gathering place for communists, but an illegal gambling club.Alexander, however, confirmed that Michel Claret had been there the night before, adding that Michel had met his wife there.

It drove Dieter mad with rage to let her escape under her nose once again.He captured members of the resistance organization one after another, but Flick always avoided his pursuit. After he shaved and washed his face, he called the castle and asked for a car, and asked the driver to come and pick him up with two Gestapo.He dressed and went to the hotel kitchen to order half a dozen warm croissants, which he wrapped in a linen napkin.Then he walked out of the hotel.The early morning air is very cool.The twilight of dawn casts a silvery gleam on the steeples of the cathedral.A fast Citroen, favored by the Gestapo, was already waiting outside.

He gave the driver Molier's address, and found Hans hiding there at the door of a warehouse fifty meters away.Hans said that no one came out here all night, and Michelle must still be inside.Dieter asked the driver to wait on the next corner, and stood with Hans, sharing the croissant and watching the sun rise over the city's rooftops. They have to wait here all the time.Dieter tried his best to control his impatience. Minutes and hours passed in vain.The pain of losing Stephanie weighed heavily on his mind, but he had recovered from the immediate blow and returned to concern about the war situation.He imagined Allied forces massing somewhere in the south or east of England, shiploads of fighters and armor rushing to turn the quiet seaside towns of northern France into battlegrounds.He also thought of the French saboteurs—armed to the teeth with air-dropped guns, ammunition, and explosives, who were about to attack the Germans from behind, stab them in the back, and seriously thwart Rommel's mobility.Now, standing outside someone else's house in Reims, waiting for an amateur terrorist to finish his breakfast, made him feel stupid and incompetent.Perhaps, today, this man will bring him to the heart of the Resistance -- but it's all just hope.

After nine o'clock, the door opened. "Finally out." Dieter sighed.He moved away from the sidewalk so as not to be noticed.Hans stubbed out his cigarette. Michel was accompanied out of the house by a boy of about seventeen, who Dieter estimated might be Molier's son.The boy took a key and opened the padlock on the yard door.In the yard was a clean-washed black pickup truck with the words "Molier & Sons Butcher's" written in white on the side.Michelle got into the car. Dieter came alive.Michelle had borrowed the meat truck, and it must have been to pick up Jackdaw. "Let's go!" he said.

Hans hurried over to his parked motorcycle and stood with his back to the road, pretending to be fiddling with the engine.Dieter ran to the corner, signaled to the Gestapo driver to start the car, and looked at Michel. Michelle drove the car out of the yard and drove away. Hans started the motorcycle and followed closely behind.Dieter jumped into the car and ordered the driver to follow Hans. They headed east.Sitting in the front passenger seat of the Gestapo black Citroen, Dieter stared anxiously ahead.Molier's van was easy to track, with a high roof and a chimney-like vent at the top.This little vent will let me find Flick, Dieter thought optimistically.

The van drove up the Avenue des Occupations and into a champagne house called La Perrier.Hans drove past there and turned around at the next bend.Dieter's driver followed, and they all stopped.Dieter jumped out of the car. "I think that's where the jackdaws hide at night," Dieter said. "Shall we search it?" Hans said eagerly. Dieter thought about it.This was the same situation as yesterday outside the cafe, leaving him in a dilemma.Flick might be in there.But if she was already out of here, a search would take him away from this very useful bait too soon. "Not yet," he said.Michelle is the only hope he has left.Taking risks will quickly lose this weapon. "Let's wait first."

Dieter and Hans walked to the top of the street and watched La Perrier's house at a corner.The house was tall and beautiful, with many empty barrels in the yard, and a low flat-roofed house inside. Dieter guessed that the champagne cellar was under the flat roof.Molier's truck was parked in the yard. Dieter's pulse beat fast.Soon, he thought, Michelle would show up with Flick and the other Jackdaws.They'd get in the pickup truck and drive to their target—and then Dieter and the Gestapo would arrest them all in one fell swoop. They saw Michel come out of the low house.He frowned, standing in the yard hesitantly, looking around, looking at a loss.Hans asked, "What is he doing?" Dieter's heart sank. "Something happened that surprised him." Had Flick thrown him off again? A minute later Michel climbed a flight of steps and knocked on the door.A maid in a white hat let him in. After a few minutes he came out again.He was still puzzled, but no longer indecisive.He walked over to the van, got in, turned it around and drove it out. Dieter cursed.It seems that "Jackdaw" is not here.It was a small consolation that Michel was as surprised as Dieter. Dieter had to figure out what the hell was going on here.He said to Hans, "Just like last night, but this time you follow Michelle, and I'll search the place." Hans hit his motorcycle. Dieter watched Michel drive Molier's truck away, and Hans Hesse rode a motorcycle, pulling away a distance, and followed carefully.When they were out of sight, he beckoned the three Gestapo over and hurried to La Perrier's house. He pointed to two of them and said, "Search the house and don't let anyone leave." He nodded to the third and said, "You come with me to search the winery." He led the way into the low house. On the first floor there is a large grape press and three vats.The presses were clean and the grapes had been harvested for three or four months.It was empty except for an old man sweeping the floor.Dieter found a flight of stairs and went down it.It was busier in the cool basement, where a few men in blue overalls were flipping through the rows of bottles on the shelves.They stopped and stared at the two intruders. Dieter and the Gestapo went from room to room full of champagne bottles, thousands of them stacked against the walls, others bottled up on a special A-frame shelf.But there is no woman here either. In an alcove at the end of the last passage, Dieter found cigarette butts and bread crumbs, and a hairpin.His fears were unfortunately confirmed. "Jackdaw" spent the night here.But they escaped. He was looking for targets for himself to vent his anger on.These workers probably didn't know about the "Jackdaw", but they must have been allowed by the factory owner to hide here.He will suffer for it.Dieter went back to the ground floor and walked across the courtyard to the house.A Gestapo opened the door for Dieter. "They're all in the front room," he said. Dieter walked into this large room, which was elegantly furnished but very shabby.The heavy curtains on the windows hadn't been washed in years, and there was an old carpet on the floor, and a long dining table with a dozen matching chairs.Frightened domestic employees stood on this side of the room, among them the maid who answered the door, an elderly man who looked like a housekeeper in a battered black coat, and a woman in an apron, presumably a cook.A Gestapo pointed a pistol at them.At the other end of the table sat a thin woman of about fifty, with silver ornaments in her red hair.She was wearing a pale yellow silk top.She was calm and proud. Dieter turned to the Gestapo and asked in a low voice, "Where is her husband?" "He left home at eight o'clock. They don't know where he's gone. He'll be home for lunch." Dieter looked at the woman carefully and asked, "Are you Madame La Perrier?" She nodded solemnly, but did not condescend to speak.Dieter decides to trample on her dignified posture.Some officers had great respect for upper-class Frenchmen, and Dieter thought they were all brainless.There was no way he would cater to her, go over and talk to her. "Bring her to me," he said. A man said a few words to her.She slowly got up from her chair and approached Dieter. "What do you want?" she said. "A group of terrorists from England escaped from me yesterday, and they killed two German officers and a French woman." "I am sorry to hear the news," said Madame La Perrier. "They tied up the female citizen and shot her in the back of the head at close range," he continued. "Her brains splattered on her clothes." She closed her eyes and turned her head to the side.Dieter went on: "Last night your husband sheltered these terrorists in your cellar. Can you think of any reason why he should not be hanged?" The maid standing behind him began to cry. Madame La Perrier was shaken.She turned pale and sat down suddenly. "No, please don't," she whispered. "Tell me what you know so you can help your husband," Dieter said. "I don't know anything," she whispered. "They came after supper and left before daylight. I didn't see them at all." "How did they go? Did your husband provide them with a vehicle?" She shook her head and said, "We don't have gasoline." "So how did you give away the champagne?" "Our customers pick it up themselves." Dieter didn't believe her.He believed that Flick would definitely need transport.That's why Michel borrowed the van from Philippe Molier.However, when Michelle arrived here, Flick and the "Jackdaws" had already left.They must have found other means of transportation and decided to leave early.No doubt Flick would have left a message explaining the situation and telling Michele to catch up with her. Dieter asked, "Are you trying to convince me that they walked away from here?" "No," she replied, "I tell you I don't know. They were gone when I woke up." Dieter still thinks she's lying, but getting the truth out of her mouth takes time and patience, and he's running out of both. "Arrest them all," he said, his voice becoming exasperated by the frustration. The phone in the living room rang.Dieter walked out of the dining room and picked up the phone.One said in French with a German accent: "I'm going to speak to Major Frank." "I am." "I'm Lieutenant Hesse, Major." "Hans, what's the matter?" "I'm at the station now. Michel has parked his van and bought a ticket to Mars. The train is about to leave." That's exactly what Dieter thought. "Jackdaw" had already left early, leaving instructions for Michelle to join them.They are also planning to blow up the railway tunnel.He was discouraged, and Flick was still one step ahead.However, she has never been able to fully escape his grasp.He is still following her.He will catch up with her soon. "Get in the car quickly," he said to Hans, "stay with him, and I'll meet you at Mars." "Okay." Hans finished and hung up the phone. Dieter returned to the dining room. "Call the castle and tell them to send a car," he said to several Gestapo, "and turn all the prisoners over for interrogation by Sergeant Becker. Tell him to start with the lady." Finally, pointing to the driver, he said, "You drive Take me to Mars."