Bernie rode his bike down the lane toward the back of the Kramer residence. It was the kind of neighbourhood where tradesmen and domestic servants were a common sight and his straw hat and dungarees allowed him to pass himself off as just another working man. He got off the bike and leaned it against the fence before stepping through the gate to the garden itself. He quickly crossed the grass to the side of the Kramer house.
Moments later he returned to his bicycle and put the cloth bag in the wicker basket before he cycled away. Sticking to the back lanes, Bernie soon pulled up at a wooden shed behind a large house where Peter and Bernie’s assistant Allan were waiting for him. The house and shed belonged to a Legation employee who was away on sick leave for several months.
The men entered the shed and pulled the door closed. Allan turned on the light of the Minox copy stand as Bernie started to lay the documents out carefully on the table in the order they were received. Allan picked up two passports and put the glass platen over them. He started to click away, turning the pages as he went.
Peter flipped through the documents and noticed an original memorandum from the PM’s office.
“Christ almighty, we’ve hit the bloody mother lode!”
“Everything all right, guv?” Bernie asked with concern.
“Yes, Bernie. Keep at it.”
Peter put the memorandum back on the table and sat down on a chair in stunned amazement. Bernie continued feeding documents to Allan.
Shortly before one o’clock, Bernie returned to the lane behind the Kramer house with the cloth bag. He left his bicycle leaning against the fence and stepped into the garden, quickly crossing to the side of the house. Moments later, he returned and cycled away.
Hanne was finishing up on the second floor when she heard a sound in the garden coming from the open window. It was time for Heidi’s nap in the room off from the kitchen and lunch for Wilhelma. She could hear Wilhelma listening to a German radio program in the kitchen.
Hanne went to the window and looked down at the cloth bag attached to the wire. She pulled on the wire which started to come up, followed by the cloth bag. Halfway up, the cloth bag hung in empty space and wouldn’t come any further. It looked like the wire might have gotten caught on the drainpipe. She tried to move the wire sideways to get around the pipe but nothing seemed to work. She was afraid to use too much force - if the wire became too entangled with the pipe, the bag might get stuck where it was, hanging in plain view. She couldn’t take the chance, so she said a silent prayer and let go of the wire. The bag dropped back down to the garden and Hanne breathed a sigh of relief. She shut the window and hurried downstairs to the kitchen.
Wilhelma was eating her lunch and didn’t look like she had heard anything with the German radio program going full blast.
“Everything good, Wilhelma?” Hanne asked.
“Ja, ja.”
Hanne collected the bucket from the back door and stepped outside briefly. She went into the garden to fetch the cloth bag. She unhooked it from the wire and put it into the bucket throwing a damp cloth over it. She gave a tug to the wire which was caught on the drainpipe before she returned to the kitchen. She smiled at Wilhelma who had served herself a generous portion of chocolate cake.
She crossed the kitchen and headed for the stairs with the bucket. She entered the study, opened the drawer with her key and slid the documents out of the cloth bag into the drawer. She checked the order of the documents and locked the drawer tucking the empty shoe bag into her pocket. Then she left the room as fast as she could and got on with her cleaning.