The Other Side of Midnight

"No," she said slowly.

He nodded, satisfied. "I did not think so. I believe I could make you very happy."

"As happy as you make your wife?"

General Scheider stiffened for a moment as though he had been struck and then turned to look at Noelle.

"I can be a good friend," he said quietly. "Let us hope that you and I are never enemies."

When Noelle returned to the apartment, it was almost 3:00 A.M., and Armand Gautier was waiting for her in a state of agitation.

"Where the hell have you been?" he demanded, as she walked in the door.

"I had an engagement." Noelle's eyes moved past him into the room. It looked as though a cyclone had struck. Desk drawers were open and the contents strewn around the room. The closets had been ransacked, a lamp had been overturned and a small table lay on its side, one leg broken.

"What happened?" Noelle asked.

"The Gestapo was here! My God, Noelle, what have you been up to?"

"Nothing."

"Then why would they do this?"

Noelle began to move around the room, straightening the furniture, thinking hard. Gautier grabbed her shoulders and turned her around. "I want to know what's happening."

She took a deep breath. "All right."

She told him of the meeting with Israel Katz, leaving out his name and the conversation later with Colonel Mueller. "I don't know that my friend is Le Cafard, but it is possible."

Gautier sank into a chair, stunned. "My God!" he exclaimed. "I don't care who he is! I don't want you to have anything more to do with him. We could both be destroyed because of this. I hate the Germans as much as you do..." He stopped, not sure whether Noelle hated the Germans or not. He began again, "Cherie, as long as the Germans are making the rules, we must live under them. Neither of us can afford to get involved with the Gestapo. This Jew--what did you say his name was?"

"I didn't say."

He looked at her a moment. "Was he your lover?"

"No, Armand."

"Does he mean anything to you?"

"No."

"Well, then." Gautier sounded relieved. "I don't think we have anything to worry about. They can't blame you if you had one accidental meeting with him. If you don't see him again, they'll forget the whole thing."

"Of course they will," Noelle said.

On the way to the theater the next evening, Noelle was followed by two Gestapo men.

From that day on Noelle was followed everywhere she went. It first began as a feeling, a premonition that she was being stared at. Noelle would turn and see in a crowd a young Teutonic-looking man in civilian clothes who seemed to be paying no attention to her. Later, the feeling would return, and this time it would be another young Teutonic-looking man. It was always someone different and though they were in plain clothes, they wore a uniform that was distinctively theirs: an attitude of contempt, superiority and cruelty, and the emanations were unmistakable.

Noelle said nothing to Gautier about what was happening for she saw no point in alarming him any further. The incident with the Gestapo in the apartment had made him very nervous. He could talk of nothing but what the Germans could do to both his and Noelle's career if they wished to, and Noelle was aware that he was right. One had only to look at the daily newspapers to know that the Nazis showed no mercy to their enemies. There had been several telephone messages from General Scheider, but Noelle had ignored them. If she did not want the Nazis as an enemy, neither did she want them as a friend. She decided that she would remain like Switzerland: neutral. The Israel Katzes of the world would have to take care of themselves. Noelle was mildly curious about what he had wanted from her, but she had no intention of getting involved.

Two weeks after Noelle had seen Israel Katz, the newspapers carried a front-page story that the Gestapo had caught a group of saboteurs headed by Le Cafard. Noelle read all

the stories carefully, but nothing was mentioned about whether Le Cafard himself had been captured. She remembered Israel Katz's face when the Germans had started to close in on him, and she knew that he would never let them take him alive. Of course, Noelle told herself, it could be my fantasy. He is probably a harmless carpenter, as he said. But if he was harmless, why was the Gestapo so interested in him? Was he Le Cafard? And had he been captured, or had he escaped? Noelle walked over to the window of her apartment that faced on the Avenue Martigny. Two black raincoated figures stood under a streetlamp, waiting. For what? Noelle began to feel the sense of alarm that Gautier felt, but with it came a feeling of anger. She remembered Colonel Mueller's words: You have me to be afraid of. It was a challenge. Noelle had the feeling she was going to hear from Israel Katz again.

The message came the next morning from--of all the unlikely people--her concierge. He was a small, rheumy-eyed man in his seventies, with a wizened, leathery face and no lower teeth, so that it was difficult to understand him when he spoke. When Noelle rang for the elevator he was waiting inside. They rode down together, and as they neared the lobby, he mumbled, "The birthday cake you ordered is ready at the bakery at rue de Passy."

Noelle stared at him a moment, not sure whether she had heard him correctly, then said, "I didn't order any cake."