KLAGENFURT, THURSDAY

BARTHOLOMEW, GENEVA ONLY

ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT OF COMMUNICATION WEDNESDAY RE CARTER/HAMILTON. AWAIT ADVICE RE ONWARD MOVEMENTS. CAN BE CONTACTED THROUGH FIELD SECURITY SECTION VILLACH. STOP.

PRINCE

It was, in Prince’s opinion, a classic case of overkill.

As a non-military man, he’d not voiced his opinion at the time, but it seemed clear there’d been far too many men involved in the raid on the house just north of Sattendorf. Major Stewart was in charge, and he’d brought half a dozen of his Field Security Section along from Klagenfurt. They joined the dozen men from the FSS base in Villach plus a company of ninety New Zealanders from one of their infantry battalions. When you added in the Slovenian partisans who’d insisted on coming along, as well as Hanne and Prince, it was well over one hundred people.

And they found nothing.

The house was empty.

Major Stewart stomped around it muttering, ‘I see the birds have flown,’ and Prince had to explain the historical reference to Hanne.

‘May I make a suggestion, Major?’

Stewart glared at him, giving the impression he’d very much rather he didn’t. ‘If you must, Prince.’

‘I am a police officer, as is Hanne. We ought to treat this place like a crime scene. Now that we’ve established no one is here, having so many people tramping around the house will get in the way of our investigation.’

‘So what do you suggest?’

Prince suggested that a platoon of New Zealanders remain to guard the property and its perimeter, while he and Hanne would examine the house with the help of half a dozen men from the FSS. The others should search the grounds of the house and the woods and fields beyond it.

They spent the rest of that day and most of the following one combing through the house. It was evident that at least two people had been staying there and had probably left the day before the raid. There were no other clues.

Frau Egger was questioned, insisting she’d been hired as a cleaner and had never met anyone at the house. It was something she’d made up. She’d been trying to impress people, she said.

‘I wanted people to see me as more than a cleaner. Now the war’s over and I’m no longer a Blockleiter, I feel… humiliated.’

‘What about being approached by a man from Vienna, and your story that very important people stayed at the house?’

Frau Egger shrugged. ‘Who told you that?’

‘You seem to have been telling half the town. You also said there was an armed guard at the house.’

‘That’s nonsense, of course there wasn’t.’

‘I saw armed guards there.’ Hanne had moved closer to Frau Eggers, who looked nervous and picked up her handbag as if preparing to leave. Hanne made it clear she wasn’t going anywhere. ‘Either you start telling the truth or you’ll be charged with aiding a fugitive, and the only place you’ll be cleaning then is your prison cell!’