Sandman Read Online Free Page A

attacked, you treasured it and perhaps had received it only moments before. Therefore, unless I am very mistaken, your friend the heiress wore her school coat and uniform on this outing while you wore perhaps a brightly coloured coat and beret or toque—not your school ones. All else was the same so that at a distance, especially from behind, one could not tell the two of you apart except for the coats, the scarves and the hats—yes, yes, that’s it, isn’t it, but why was the switch made?’
    He paused. He looked at her. He silently pleaded for answers, then breathed, ‘You must have known you would be followed, but by whom? You had both planned it all well beforehand, hadn’t you, but had not thought either of you would be killed once the mistake was discovered.
    â€˜Then was it the Sandman?’ he asked and had to answer sadly, ‘How could it have been?’
    It was not good, ah no, it most certainly wasn’t. The city was up in arms and demanding they put a stop to the killer. In this, Parisians were united with the Occupier, and God help His two detectives if the assailant turned out to be anything but French. Ah yes. There were perhaps one hundred and fifty or even two hundred thousand of the Occupier in Paris and its environs. Who really knew how many of them there were? The Germans coveted the city and used it for rest and recuperation, so the traffic in and out was constant. Soldatenheime— hotels and guesthouses—were scattered throughout to billet the common soldiers. The Ritz was for generals and very special people; the Claridge, at 74 Champs-Élysées, was for still more generals and holders of the Knight’s Cross. Of the one hundred and twenty licenced brothels, forty were for the troops, four for their immediate officers, one for their generals, two for the SS and no less than five for the Gestapo, to say nothing of the countless ‘trade’ commissioners and buyers, et cetera.
    Even some of the cinemas were reserved for their soldiers, while all the clubs, bars, restaurants and cafés were wide open and could not shut them out, though, by some tacit, unwritten rule, they did not go to certain places.
    Even the lead cars of each train in the métro and on the railroads were reserved for them, even the first six rows of seats on the city’s much reduced fleet of buses.
    They had everything, including many of the women, and the trouble was, most of the Occupier believed it their just due.
    They also had their garrisoned troops, and those that patrolled the streets, especially after curfew, or manned the checkpoints at each and every entry.
    â€˜So,’ he said to her, ‘I silently give a little prayer that we will solve this matter soon but that your killer will indeed be French. Otherwise General von Schaumburg, who despises us far more than he does Bavarian N.C.O.s from that other war, will give his two detectives a very hard time, and so will the SS over on the avenue Foch, the Gestapo of the rue des Saussaies, the French Gestapo of the rue Lauriston and others too many to list but including Talbotte, the préfet of Paris, and his men. Ah yes, my dear child, the life of a detective in these troubled times is not easy. Please be at peace. We will do everything we can.’
    Gently he took a dove from its perch to warm and stroke it. Suddenly he had to make contact with things he knew and loved in this world of continual crisis. ‘She did a brave but very foolish thing, this child,’ he said, indicating the victim. ‘They were being followed, and she deliberately drew the follower away from her friend. The switch in coats must have been made soon after leaving the Villa Vernet, but why switch identity photographs? Why not simply keep their own papers?
    â€˜Perhaps they did not think there would be time to hand them over to each other. Perhaps, then, too, they might have feared being caught up in a rafle , a