86
“MY BEST GUESS,” I tell Monica, “is that the sixth envelope contained an incriminating film.”
“Video?” Monica nearly swerves into a different lane of traffic.
“Okay, I’m following.”
“Okay, okay, okay.” Monica raises her hand. “So this is what you’re saying. Peter finds a reel of film in the sixth envelope. He plays it, he watches it. And it’s really bad, really incriminating to Hitler. He keeps it, like we said, for insurance or to reveal later.”
I nod.
“Then he substitutes a different reel of film, but it’s ripped or overexposed or something. Something that renders it useless.”
“Exactly,” I say. “So when he returns it to Müller, to Hitler ultimately—the reel of film is unwatchable. Hitler can’t ‘use’ it. He can’t ‘view’ it. Thomas was probably blamed for treating it carelessly or something and inadvertently destroying it. That would be totally believable.”
“But Thomas never actually knew about it. He never knew there was a sixth envelope.”
“Correct,” I say. “No one knew but Peter Helldorff. My guess is that Peter replaced the actual reel of film in the sixth envelope with something else. Hitler would be expecting film, right? Only what Helldorff returns is a reel of destroyed film.”
“And he keeps the original.” Monica gives a decisive shake of the head. “Wow. So it might still be out there?”
“Possibly,” I say. “If so, that film reel surely contains something highly incriminating. And I’ll bet that Francis Linderman’s grandfather has it.”
“That’s the proof,” Monica says. “That must be the proof he wants to give you.”
“Right,” I say. “So you have to put me back in touch with him. You have to get me face-to-face with Peter Helldorff’s son.”