Winter Sniper: A World War II Novel

Chapter 29

“Eva, what are you doing in here?” Ty Walker looked as startled as she felt, coming upon each other in General Eisenhower’s private suite. The difference was that Eva was good at playing a role. She recovered instantly and offered Ty her brightest smile.

“Darling, I have been looking all over for you.”

“You’re not supposed to be in here.” Ty looked around anxiously. “Has anyone else seen you?”

“No. I have been here only a moment.”

Ty took her firmly by the elbow and led her from the room. Out in the hallway he said, “You could get in a lot of trouble for doing that, Eva. You could get me in a lot of trouble. What were you doing in there?”

“You said that was the general’s suite. I thought you might be in there working with him. Then I started looking around the room.” She shrugged. “I was curious, darling. It’s not every day that you get to visit a four-star general’s suite. Perhaps I was looking for a souvenir.”

“Eva! You didn’t take anything, did you?”

“Of course not. But did you see how much the general smokes? That ashtray was overflowing.”

Ty just shook his head. “Do us both a favor and stay out of there.”

Eva saluted. “Yes, sir!”

That brought a smile to the captain’s face. “Look, I’ve got to take care of some things. Maybe we can get together for lunch?”

“That sounds wonderful.”

Ty hurried off. It was everything Eva could do not to sag to her knees in relief. Poor Ty! By lunchtime she intended to be far away from the Greenbrier Resort.

Eva nearly ran from the hallway in front of Eisenhower’s suite to the basement room where Petra was staying. The girl was still in bed, treating the fact that it was someone else’s job to wait on her mistress like a vacation. Eva pounded on the door until the sleepy-eyed girl answered.

“Petra, get yourself together. We are leaving.”

“But Frau Von Stahl, we only arrived yesterday. The storm —”

“Is over now. Hurry and pack your things. Then we can go upstairs and pack mine.”

Eva waited impatiently as the girl scrambled to fill her battered suitcase. Then they climbed the stairs to Eva’s room on the second floor. Petra glanced at the bed, which clearly had not been slept in, but said nothing. Packing took only a few minutes because Eva had barely spent any time in the room.

Still sleepy and clearly unhappy that her stay at the Greenbrier had been cut short, Petra grumbled, “I don’t know why you are in such a hurry.”

Eva reached into the front of her dress and took out the papers still hidden there. “Because of this, dear Petra,” she said, waving the papers triumphantly. In her excitement, Eva lapsed into German. “I paid General Eisenhower’s rooms a visit this morning and found something very important.” Eva transferred the papers to the inside pocket of her fur coat. She didn’t plan on letting them out of her sight. In her other hand she held her purse, which contained the Walther pistol she had used to shoot Fleischmann. “All done? Come now, let’s see if we can’t find a car to take us to the train station.”

The hotel was mostly still asleep at this early hour. It was easier not running into any people and having to make awkward farewells, although the only person she felt obligated to say goodbye to was Ty. She used the hotel stationery in her room to jot him a quick note, then had Petra run up and slip it under his door. It wasn’t exactly a love letter, but she needed to keep him from becoming suspicious about her sudden departure.

The lobby was nearly empty, but as they descended the sweeping staircase, an ancient porter did appear to take their bags. He grunted at the weight of the third suitcase. “We need a car to take us to the train station,” Eva announced.

“Ma’am?” he asked, the tone of his voice suggesting that the two women might as well have ordered up a space ship. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a foot of snow on the ground.”

“What is a little snow!” Exasperated, Eva marched to the massive front doors and looked out. Everything was covered in a thick blanket of white. Cars were buried so that they appeared to be lumpy masses rather than machines. It was impossible even to tell where the driveway lay under all that snow. A man was out front with a shovel, but he was stooped and old, his progress painfully slow because the depth of the snow limited him to small scoops.“That’s more than a little snow,” the porter remarked. “It ain’t snowed that much in January since the blizzard of twenty-eight. Even once we get a car dug out, it can’t get out on the main road. And the trains won’t be going anywhere until they clear the tracks.”

“How long will that take?”

“Maybe tomorrow or the next day.”

Eva knew she didn’t have that long. It might be hours before someone discovered that the maps were missing from Eisenhower’s desk, or it might be minutes. “We need a shovel and a broom,” she told the porter. “Petra, see if you can help him find something like that. We are going to dig out one of the hotel’s cars.”

Petra stood there staring out at the snow as if transfixed. “But Frau Von Stahl—”

“What are you waiting for? Do as I say!”

Petra and the porter hurried off to begin searching the closets.

If the sniper was out there, this was the morning Ty would set a trap for him. He found Sergeant Crandall and Kit Henderson at the hotel bar, where they had agreed to meet because a side door gave easy access to the cross-country ski trails surrounding the hotel. The two were getting an early start at the bar. Ike’s driver was drinking coffee, but Kit lifted a glass containing what looked suspiciously like bourbon. Ty carried a camel’s hair overcoat and an officer’s dress hat with all the insignia removed. He had managed to borrow a leather bomber jacket with sheepskin lining for himself, along with a ski cap.

“Hair of the dog?” Kit asked, offering him a drink. “I can’t wait to get back to work so my liver can go on vacation.”

“It’s too early for a drink,” Ty said.

“You’re always so damn righteous,” Kit muttered as he drained the glass. “What are you so wound up about?”

“Where the hell is Yancey?” Ty demanded. “I’ve been looking for him all morning.”

Kit just shrugged, but Crandall gave him a proper answer. “Last time I saw him was yesterday afternoon.”

“Damn. Does everybody in this army just do whatever the hell they want? Look, we’ve got to get moving. If we’re ever going to catch that sniper, today is the day.”

“You’re sure he’s out there?” Kit asked.

“We’re going to find out.” Ty shoved the coat and hat at Crandall. “Put these on.”

“But Captain —”

“That’s an order, Sergeant. I just hope that goddamn Yancey is out there with his rifle. Maybe he slipped out early this morning once the snow stopped.”

Crandall shrugged into the coat and put on the hat. The transformation was not altogether convincing — up close Crandall looked like an unshaven, mildly hung-over distant cousin of Ike’s — but from a distance it might just work. Ty flipped up the coat collar, which helped.

“Captain, it must be twelve degrees out there. I’ll freeze my ears off in this hat.”

“Toughen up, Crandall. You’re a general now.”

Kit reached for his own olive-drab overcoat, draped across the bar. Ty was surprised to discover that it had been concealing an M-1 rifle and a .45 automatic. “Insurance policy,” Kit explained. “One for each of us. Take your pick.”

“Can you hit anything with that?” Ty wondered, nodding at the rifle.

“Hey, I used to hunt rabbits when I was a kid.”

“That settles it.” Ty reached for the .45. “I shot a pistol once or twice in basic.”

Crandall was watching them, looking a little pale in the morning light. “I hope to hell Yancey is out there like he’s supposed to be.”

They started for the door; Ty was startled to see Petra hurrying toward them. She was wearing her coat, as if planning to venture outside with them. Petra had a look on her face that was somewhere between frightened and determined. Ty’s first thought was that something had happened to Eva.

“Captain Walker, wait please!”

“Petra. What’s the matter?”

“I must speak with you.” The girl glanced nervously at Ty’s two companions. “In private, if you please.”

Ty nodded at Crandall. “Go on ahead, Sergeant. I’ll catch up.” As the two men moved off, Ty turned back to Petra. “What is it?”

The girl dabbed at her eyes, and for a moment Ty was afraid that she was going to cry. Like most men, Ty would rather face a nest of machine guns than a tearful woman. Then Petra seemed to fight back the tears and a steely kind of resolve stole over her face. “Frau Von Stahl is a spy.”

“Petra, what in the world are you saying?”

“She has a radio in the attic that she uses to talk to submarines. She killed Colonel Fleischmann when he found out! She is trying to get information about the invasion you are planning.”

Ty felt himself turning cold. How in the world could this girl know about the invasion? “Who the hell is Colonel Fleischmann?”

“There is more,” Petra went on. “You know that man who tried to shoot General Eisenhower —”

Maybe he had told Eva too much. “But Petra, how can you possibly know about that?”

“He came to stay at our house. His name is Bruno Hess. Frau Von Stahl helped him.”

Now Ty felt as if he were being stabbed with an ice pick. Hess. He had read that name among the paperwork his friend had sent with Yancey. One of the best German snipers. Ty glanced anxiously toward the door that Crandall and Kit had just walked through. They stood just on the other side of the window, lighting cigarettes. Such easy targets. Beyond them he could see the snow-covered woods. The thought that the sniper might be watching them at that very moment made the flesh at the back of his neck crawl.

“Petra, what you are telling me is very serious. I know that Eva is not always kind to you —”

The girl’s eyes flashed. “You think that I am lying? If you do not believe me I will go to someone else. Frau Von Stahl is ruining everything for me! When she is caught they will think I am a spy too if I do not say something now.”

“I didn’t mean —”

“Look in her coat pocket,” Petra said. “She stole papers from General Eisenhower’s desk this morning. Search her for those papers and you will know I am telling the truth.”

Ty did not want to believe what he was hearing. But he had indeed found Eva in Ike’s suite that very morning. He sagged back onto one of the bar stools. “Where is she now?”

“She has used you like all the others, Captain,” the girl said. “She made you love her so that she could get close to the general. Don’t you see?”

“Petra, tell me where I can find Eva.”

“Out in front of the hotel, trying to dig out a car so we can get away from here.”

Ty forced himself to his feet. He felt dizzy. He walked to the door leading outside and jerked it open, then waved Crandall and Kit back inside. Quickly, he explained that something had come up and he needed a few minutes. Kit shrugged and went to pour himself another drink while Crandall had more coffee. Ty noticed that the driver’s hand was shaking as he brought the cup to his lips.

“Come with me,” he said to Petra and started toward the lobby. He walked so quickly that the girl practically had to run to keep up. The lobby was still almost empty at this hour and the snowfall had mired everything down so that no one was coming and going. The desk clerk was absent from his usual post. The porter saw the expression on Ty’s face and retreated behind the hotel counter. The single guard on duty gave him a quizzical look. Ty spotted Eva out front, almost knee-deep in drifted snow. She held a broom in both hands, struggling to sweep the snow off a Ford sedan. He ordered Petra to stay put and waded through the snow toward Eva.

“Ty. Darling,” she said as he approached. Her smile seemed strained. He couldn’t help but note that the intense cold had turned her cheeks an appealing apple red. “Have you come to help me?”

“Eva, where do you think you’re going? This is practically a blizzard. All the roads are buried under a foot of snow.”

“Something came up and I must get back to Washington. If I can just get to the train station —”

“Come inside, Eva.” His voice was sad, resigned.

“If you will help me get the snow off —”

“You’re not going anywhere. Let’s go inside.”

Eva ignored him and kept swiping furiously at the snow until Ty reached out and took hold of the broom. She struggled for a moment, not letting go. Ty put a second hand on the broom and took it away from her. He nodded for Eva to go ahead of him and they slogged through the snow to the narrow cleared path that led to the lobby doors.

Inside, the corporal on guard duty lurched to his feet. He seemed to sense that something was wrong and snapped to attention. Petra stood watching wide-eyed by the fireplace, where a roaring blaze kept the winter cold at bay.

Ty said quietly “Give me the papers, Eva.”

“Darling, I don’t know what you are talking about.” She smiled again, then went to stand beside the fireplace, brushing snow from her fur coat. Petra moved away from her. “Does anyone have a cigarette?”

“Corporal, come over here a minute,” Ty said to the sentry. “I want you to search this woman’s coat pockets.”

“Sir?”

“You heard me, Corporal.”

The smile faded from Eva’s face and she tried to stare them down. Wrapped in fur, her cheeks tinged with blood from the cold, she looked both regal and beautiful. When no one moved, Eva laughed mockingly and reached into her pocket. She pulled out a packet of papers and tossed them into the crackling fireplace. Stunned, Ty could only watch as flames licked over the papers. Then he rushed toward the fireplace and reached into the flames to pull the papers to safety, stepping on them with his snowy boots to snuff them out. Another instant and the papers would have turned to ash. As Ty wrapped his singed fingers in a handkerchief, Eva reached into her pocket again.

This time the corporal was ready. He caught Eva by the wrist and pulled out her hand. She was gripping a small pistol. The corporal wrestled it away. “Jesus,” he said, stepping back to stare at the black, deadly looking automatic in his palm. He put his right hand on the holster of his .45 but Eva made no move to escape.

Ty unfolded the packet. He glimpsed maps covered in Ike’s familiar scrawl and also what looked like a tide table.

“I don’t know where that came from,” Eva said. “Petra must have planted it there. She must be a spy.”

“No!” Petra cried. “Frau Von Stahl, you are lying!”

“Be quiet, both of you,” Ty said. He would have liked to believe Eva, but Petra wasn’t the one he had found in Ike’s suite that morning.

“This is a German pistol, Captain,” the corporal said. “It says Walther PPK right on it. That’s what German officers use.”

“Hold onto it for me, Corporal,” he said. He nodded at Petra. “And keep an eye on this girl here. Don’t let her go anywhere. Eva, you come with me.”

He led her through the hotel. Ty found it disturbing that Eva was quiet, not even bothering to deny anything or explain herself. It occurred to him that Eva Von Stahl might be too proud for that.

“What are you going to do with me?” she finally asked.

“If we were on a battlefield, I suspect that you would be taken out and shot,” he said. Ty didn’t know if that was true or not, but the threat had a satisfying ring. At the moment, he would have been happy to pull the trigger himself. Then he had a sudden inspiration as they reached the hotel bar, where Crandall and Kit were still waiting. “Since we’re not in the middle of a battle, we can’t shoot you. But there is someone who might do the job for us. His name is Bruno Hess. He’s a German sniper and he’s watching the hotel from the woods. By any chance, do you know him?”

In Eva’s eyes, Ty thought he saw a flicker of fear.