But Gray again ignored him. "I've also made some notes about von Kalle. The fact is, Spangler never sent a telegram to Von Kalle, and von Kalle never sent one to Spangler. There may have been a few routine inquiries between Berlin and von Kalle, but Spangler wasn't involved."

Southerland took a deep breath. He was bent over, elbows resting on his knees. "I suppose you realize that the second-hand testimony of Rudolph Spangler, German spy, is hardly admissible evidence."

"He wasn't lying, Martin. He may have used Margaretha against us at one time, but he wasn't lying to me."

"Even if so, how can you possibly expect a court to believe—"

"There's also the matter of von Kalle's status. Spangler said he doesn't even deal with the man unless it's unavoidable."

"Nicky, listen to me. Spangler has made a career of lying, and those telegrams are—"

"Fakes, Martin. The telegrams are fakes. "

Gray turned to the last of those thirty pages. The page had been divided into two columns—days of the week recorded on the left, notations on Zelle's movements recorded on the right. There were also supplementary notations about the departure of trains from Vigo.

"I was baffled at first,” Gray said. "True, the text seemed a little obvious, but there it was just the same . . . agent H-21 and all the rest of it. . . they'd even gotten the name of the bloody ship right, and the five thousand she'd collected in Paris—"

“Which is an incontestable fact,” Southerland put in. "You realize that, don't you? She definitely picked up a check for five thousand."

"Right. It was from her Amsterdam baron." Gray quickly turned to an earlier page. "She also borrowed a few pesetas in Madrid, but none of that matters. What matters are the dates."

Southerland pressed his palms to his eyes. "It's a long road now, Nicky. What happens if you don't reach the end?"

"Already reached it, Martin. That's why we're sitting here." Then, suddenly shutting the notebook again . . . "Listen to me very carefully. It's the end of the first week in December. Zelle and I have just landed in Vigo. Without warning Cazeaux turns up and gives her some story about how she has to turn von Kalle inside out in order to clear her name. The next day she's on her way to Madrid, and arrives on a Friday—Friday morning to be exact. That afternoon she sends a note to von Kalle, and by Saturday they're actually meeting. Now, of course—"

"Nicky, I realize that you've been—"

"Saturday was the sixteenth, Martin. December sixteenth. Even if she had seen von Kalle on a Friday, that's still only the fifteenth."

Southerland shook his head. "I fail to see how—"

"Martin, the first telegram is dated December thirteenth. Wednesday, December thirteenth. Von Kalle supposedly informed Spangler of her arrival in Madrid on December thirteenth, but she didn't actually arrive until the fifteenth, and von Kalle didn't know it until the sixteenth."