An Officer and a Spy

‘In what form was this delivery?’

‘The material always arrived in small, cone-shaped brown paper sacks. This particular cone was bulkier than usual, because Henry had missed a meeting with our agent due to his mother’s illness.’

‘Did you examine the contents with him?’

‘No, as I mentioned earlier, he had a train to catch. I put it straight in my safe and gave it to Captain Lauth the following morning.’

‘Is it possible that someone could have interfered with the cone between your being handed it by Henry and you giving it to Lauth?’

‘No, it was locked up.’

‘But you could have interfered with it. In fact you could have added to it the fragments of the petit bleu.’

I feel my face turning red. ‘That is an outrageous accusation.’

‘Your outrage is irrelevant. Answer the question.’

‘Very well, the answer is yes. Yes, I could, theoretically, have added the petit bleu to the consignment. But I did not.’

‘Is this the petit bleu?’ Pellieux holds it up. ‘Do you recognise it?’

The light in the chamber is dim. I have to lean forward and half rise from my seat to make it out. It looks more worn than I remember it: I assume it must have been handled many times over the past year. ‘Yes. That looks like it.’

‘Do you realise that under a microscope it is possible to see that the original address has been scratched out and that of Major Esterhazy written over it? And also that chemical analysis has revealed that the ink on the back of the telegram card is different to that on the front? One is iron gall ink while the other contains an ingredient found in the trees of Campeche.’

I jerk my head back slightly in surprise. ‘Then it’s been tampered with.’

‘Indeed it has. It is a forgery.’

‘No, General — it has been tampered with since I left Paris. When I was still in the section I swear that was a genuine document — I must have held it in my hands a hundred times. May I examine it more closely? Perhaps it is slightly different. .’

‘No, you have already identified it. I don’t want it damaged any further. The petit bleu is a fake. And I suggest that the individual most likely to have perpetrated the forgery is you.’

‘With respect, General, that is a preposterous allegation.’

‘Is it? Then why did you ask Captain Lauth for his assistance in making the petit bleu look more genuine?’

‘I did not.’

‘You did. You ordered him to have it franked by the postal authorities, so that it would look as if it had actually been delivered — deny it if you dare!’

The lies and accusations are flying at me so fast I am finding it difficult to keep track. I grip the armrests of my chair and reply as calmly as I can, ‘I asked Lauth if he could photograph the petit bleu in such a way that it would appear to be a whole document rather than one that had been torn up — exactly the technique he used earlier with the bordereau. And my motive was the same: to have a version that could be circulated within the ministry without compromising our source. Lauth pointed out, correctly, that the address side had not been franked, therefore anyone looking at it would deduce that it must have been intercepted before it was posted. That was when I mused on the possibility of getting it franked. But it was no more than that and the idea was dropped.’

‘Captain Lauth gives a different version.’

‘Perhaps he does. But why would I go to such lengths to falsely implicate a man I had never even met?’

‘That is for you to tell us.’

‘The notion is absurd. I had no need to forge any evidence. The bordereau alone is proof of Esterhazy’s guilt — and no one can suggest I altered that!’

‘Ah yes, the bordereau,’ says Pellieux, sorting through his papers. ‘Thank you for bringing that up. Did you, either directly or indirectly, pass a facsimile of the bordereau to Le Matin in November last year?’

‘No, General.’

‘Did you, directly or indirectly, pass details of the so-called “secret dossier” to L’Éclair that same September?’

‘I did not.’

‘Have you passed information, directly or indirectly, to Senator Scheurer-Kestner?’

The question is inevitable; so is my answer. ‘Yes, I have, indirectly.’

‘And the intermediary was your lawyer, Maître Leblois?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you knew when you gave this information to Leblois that it would be passed to the senator?’

‘I wanted the facts placed in the hands of a responsible person who could raise the matter confidentially with the government. I never intended the details to reach the press.’

‘Never mind what you intended, Colonel. The fact is, you went behind the backs of your superior officers.’

‘Only when it became clear that I had no alternative — that my superiors would not fully investigate this whole affair.’

‘You showed Maître Leblois various letters sent to you by General Gonse?’

‘Yes.’

‘Just as last year you showed Maître Leblois the secret dossier, the existence of which he then leaked to L’Éclair?’

‘No.’

‘But there is a witness who saw you showing the secret file to Leblois.’