Chapter 43
Hannah arrived back at the boarding house just in time for dinner, so there was no chance to tell Lizzie in private about the developments with the new intelligence. They ate their meal quickly and avoided eye contact with Herr Vogel, who was watching them as usual.
Tonight was to be their last at the boarding house. They didn’t have much to pack, but they had to make sure they left nothing behind that would incriminate war widows Else and Anna Weber.
No matter how smoothly they handled their departure, when Hannah’s supervisor realised she wasn’t returning to work, they might send someone to investigate.
Up in the attic, to complicate matters, Frau Fischer knocked at their door just as Hannah unrolled the paper Ingrid had passed her that day.
They were both dying to know what it contained and whether they could decipher it.
One option was to commit the information to memory and then destroy it so that even if they were searched on the journey, nothing could mark them as spies.
When Hildegard acted as courier, they had no choice but to risk her delivering the documents by hand.
And some of them contained complex formulas, so it had been the better course of action, anyway.
But now they must consider what they should do in their current circumstances.
Hannah hid the paper under the bedcover as Lizzie crossed the room to open the door.
‘Frau Fischer! We are just rushing to finish packing. It’s quite a trip to Alsace as you know, and we’re anxious not to miss the night train.’
‘I won’t delay you. I just wanted to wish you a safe trip and offer my condolences to both of you once again. Also, I need to let you know that if you wish me to hold your room for you, I’ll need full payment in advance to cover it.’
Lizzie was cross with herself that she hadn’t expected this and paid the landlady downstairs.
‘Of course, yes, we definitely want you to hold our lovely room for when we return. We will pay you for two weeks just in case of any delays with family events or travel. The snow looks like it might set in and disrupt the routes.’
The landlady looked cheerful at the promise of two weeks' payment in advance, and Lizzie counted the notes on her bed and placed them in her hand.
‘Thank you so much for your hospitality. You made what was a difficult transition after losing our dear men bearable. We shall be back as soon as possible.’
‘It’s a pleasure to have two such dedicated and hardworking women in my home. You shall be missed, but we will see you again soon.’ She kissed them on the cheek and walked toward the door.
Lizzie and Hannah were impatient for her to leave, but at the door she hesitated and then turned. ‘I should warn you that Herr Vogel, although a fine man, in his role as block warden can be rather overprotective.’
‘Yes, I noticed when he followed me,’ Lizzie said, her tone clipped. ‘It was quite disturbing, to be frank. Is there anything more we can do to allay his fears? We don’t want him jumping out on us this evening.’
‘When he told me what happened, I cautioned him not to follow you again. It was inappropriate, even though his intentions were good, and I wish to apologise on behalf of my establishment.’
Lizzie released her pent-up breath. She had feared Frau Fischer suspected them too, but it seemed she disapproved of the block warden’s behaviour, despite them being close.
‘Thank you, Frau Fischer. Your support means a lot.’
After the landlady left the room, they huddled over the latest crumpled piece of paper, which didn’t contain a formula this time. Ingrid had written it by hand, and it said there had been a successful test of the new rockets in October.
This was shocking news that they really must get into the hands of the SOE as soon as possible. It confirmed that the weapon development was advancing at an alarming rate and would soon no longer be merely in test mode but would be an imminent threat.
Lizzie burnt the paper until it was reduced to a pile of ashes in the ashtray. They would smuggle out the other piece of intelligence in its original form because it contained the exact location coordinates for the weapons facility. That was something they couldn’t risk committing to memory.
‘I’ll put this one back in my heel. That’ll be the safest place for it,’ Hannah said.
Lizzie checked her knitting needles were in her raincoat pocket and added a small ball of wool so she could knit on the train and be prepared for anything. It would be a long, dangerous journey with many stops along the way.
Soon, their cases were packed, and they entered the stairwell just as Herr Vogel appeared on the stairs.
‘Ladies,’ he said, his voice low and threatening.
‘We really must leave for the station now, Herr Vogel,’ Lizzie said, trying to brush past him and forgo the niceties. He had pushed things too far, and she was tired of his constant surveillance.
Hannah stood behind her as he blocked the way and refused to take the hint. She said, ‘Is there something you need?’
‘Yes, I’m sorry to say there is. I must detain you and take you in for questioning tonight.’
Lizzie couldn’t believe his audacity, and anger bubbled within her.
This abominable little Nazi bureaucrat had been a thorn in her side since the day they arrived.
He clearly expected them to follow him to their slaughter like lambs just because he said so.
To stall him, she said, ‘Why would that be necessary?’
‘The Gestapo has instructed us to bring all young foreign women in. We must obey their orders immediately.’
‘We’re not foreign,’ Hannah said. ‘Your superior checked our papers and said they were fine.’
‘The orders have changed,’ Herr Vogel said, taking a step closer.
Lizzie exchanged a look with Hannah, who nodded ever so slightly. Their escape plan was unravelling, and if they wasted time trying to convince him not to turn them over to the Gestapo, they would miss their train.
Lizzie said, ‘It is inconvenient, Herr Vogel, but you are in charge, so we must do as you say. Are they aware you are bringing us in?’
The little man visibly preened. ‘No, it is me doing my duty, so I will escort you. I’m sure there is nothing to worry about; it’s routine but important, nonetheless.’
Lizzie rested her small case on the floor as if she were reconciled to not travelling that evening. ‘Very well, we will have to miss tonight’s train and travel tomorrow instead, once they complete their checks.’
Hannah laid her case down too, and it toppled against the wall. The upper floor hallway was narrow and barely lit, and Lizzie caught Hannah’s eye as she reached her hand into her raincoat pocket.
Without hesitation, Lizzie plunged a steel knitting needle into the side of his neck as Herr Vogel stood, still preening, preparing to deliver his catch to the Gestapo.
He made a choking sound, and she struck again, then a third time, desperate to hit the right spot.
She did it just as she had practiced repeatedly on a dummy in her silent killing training.
Hannah sprang into action, pressing her body weight against him to push him against the wall. His hands reached for his throat in a hopeless movement, and his eyes stared back at them as he slowly slumped down the wall, and a sickening gurgle escaped his punctured throat.
The blows were fatal, but he was taking too long to die. They both feared the nosy landlady could pop up at any time, asking why they were delayed or looking for Herr Vogel.
Hannah moved closer and wrapped her arm around his throat in a vice-like grip as she cut off his air supply and blood flow to the brain.
Lizzie watched the life drain from him in horror until, after one final jerk of his legs, he stopped moving and his head fell to one side. It was over in a matter of seconds but seemed like an eternity as between them they ended his life.
Vogel lay dead on the floor, his eyes bulging, his face frozen in a final expression of disbelief.
Hannah disentangled herself, and Lizzie assessed the scene. There were blood splatters on the floorboards and on the front of Hannah’s dress. Luckily, Hannah hadn’t worn her coat yet. Lizzie was breathing hard and saw there was blood on her shaking hands.
Hannah’s voice was barely more than a whisper. ‘Let’s pull him into our room. It will be obvious there was foul play, and we did it, so there’s no point trying to get him to his room.’
Together they dragged his dead weight into their attic room, panting as they pulled and poked his body until he was hidden under Hannah’s bed.
Lizzie bent down by his corpse. ‘One more thing. I need my knitting needle.’
The steel needle didn’t come out easily, and more blood oozed from the wound when she pulled it. Gripping his shoulder, she tugged hard and almost wretched when it finally slid out, coated in his slimy blood.
Panting again, she sat back on her heels to catch her breath, but every second could mean the difference between their survival or capture.
Hannah checked outside the door and signalled that it was all clear. The sounds in the room seemed loud to them, but luckily, they were at the top of the house, away from the other lodgers.
‘You change your dress, and I’ll wipe up the blood outside as best I can,’ Lizzie said, her voice sounding strange to her own ears.
They both clicked into action as if they killed a man every day and knew the protocol. The truth was, they had both killed more men than they could have ever imagined before the war, and in some ways, it had become routine, despite the unplanned nature of Herr Vogel’s demise.
It was them or him. They both knew there was no time for regrets.
Lizzie dipped a cloth into the water basin on the dresser and hurried out again to wipe the mess from the floor.
Hannah washed her blood-splattered hands before searching for another dress and standing on a chair to shove the ruined one onto the top shelf of the cupboard as far back as she could reach.
The less obvious they made what happened, the more confusing it would be for the police and the Gestapo, who would swarm around the attic as soon as the mysterious death was reported.
Two young war widows who had only recently arrived in Berlin.
It wouldn’t take them long to figure out they were the female spies they had been hunting.
Lizzie almost felt sorry for the overzealous block warden.
He had been right to be suspicious of them all along, and his moment of victory was within his grasp, but he would never get to claim it.
She stuffed the bloody cloth under the mattress and looked at Herr Vogel one last time.
‘They won’t see him from the door. If we can just get over the border before they find him, we have a good chance of making it out alive. ’
Back in the hallway, ready to leave for the second time, Lizzie’s hand shook, and she dropped the key.
Hannah retrieved it and turned it in the lock.
There were no words to describe how Lizzie felt at that moment, and she knew from experience that the murder would haunt her through the coming days and months.
No matter how nasty and dangerous to their mission he had been, the almost inevitable killing part of being a Secret Operations Executive agent never got easier.
She switched her mind to practical matters and looked at her watch. ‘We’re running really late for the train now!’ she said. ‘It’s the last one tonight.’
They rushed down the stairs with their cases, and Hannah pulled her coat on by the front door. There was no one around, but the distant drone of the radio filtered beneath the closed door, and Lizzie guessed Frau Fischer was in her parlour catching up on the latest war news.
Had they planned for Herr Vogel to join her that evening, like he sometimes did?
Lizzie didn’t know, but it occurred to her it was just as well they hadn’t dragged him to his room.
If Frau Fischer went to find him, that would be the first place she would look.
Hopefully, when she saw his room neat and tidy as usual, she would presume he had been called out on business, which was quite routine for him in his capacity as the officious block warden.
If he’d had his way, they would be in the hands of the Gestapo by now.
Lizzie shivered as her eyes swept around the entrance hall, and she mentally checked off everything they had to do. Then she closed the door behind her and pocketed the key as Hannah walked tentatively down the snowy steps, and she followed.