Page 68 of The Secret Librarian
It seemed that he was an even better actor than she had thought. His eyes widened, and a look passed over his face that seemed like pure disbelief. Camille could see why Avery had been so easily fooled by him.
‘You’re the man responsible for my husband’s death, for betraying us, for the deaths of countless Jewish families,’ she hissed. ‘Don’t even try to deny it.’
James used his head to indicate the drink he was holding, a short glass still a quarter full of liquor. ‘May I?’
She nodded, but she didn’t look at the glass, keeping her gaze on him. It would be too easy for him to knock the gun from her hand or even turn it on her with one swift movement.
James downed the drink and gently placed it on the bar, his movements slow.
‘Camille, I’m not your double agent,’ he said. ‘You have the wrong man.’
She just stared at him.
‘You’re lying. I know where you’ve been, I’ve been tracking you.’
‘Camille, please,’ he said, grunting when she pushed the pistol into his stomach, moving closer to him, making it look to anyone else like she was about to press a kiss to his jaw.
‘I’m telling you, you have the wrong man.’
‘Shut up,’ she muttered. ‘You’re going to turn when I tell you to, and we’re going to walk towards the lobby and out on to the street. You’re not going to call for help or try to be your own hero. You’re going to do as I say.’
‘Camille,’ he said. ‘I can prove I’m not your double agent, but I know who is. I can explain where I’ve been, I—’
‘You’ve been in France, James. I know exactly where you’ve been and what you’ve done. I have proof.’
‘I had to pretend I was in France to convince the real double agent that he could trust me. I fed him false information, to plant a trap before having him arrested. I can walk you through every step of it if you want, but you have to believe me.’ He paused. ‘Just lower the gun and we can go somewhere quiet and talk.’
Her instincts were to soften her hold on the gun, but she ignored them, clenching her fingers even tighter. He was trying to sow doubt in her mind, and it was working.
‘You’re lying.’
‘I’m here at this bar tonight waiting for him. My instructions are to keep a close eye, not let him know that we’re on to him, and then my station head will have him arrested, but I haven’t been able to find him yet,’ James said. ‘You have to believe me, Camille.’
‘I’ve spent so long trying to understand what happened the night my husband died, who betrayed us, how someone could have infiltrated our network and used information against us,’ she said, blinking away tears now, ‘and I’m determined to understand why no one saw this coming.’
‘Camille, I don’t know how your husband died, but I do know that this man is responsible for selling classified information to the Nazis for personal gain. He is paid predominantly in jewellery stolen from wealthy Jewish families, which he sends home to London, and we’ve just intercepted one such parcel. The evidence I have is irrefutable, and if you’d give me the chance to explain myself without that gun trained on me, I will explain everything.I promise.’
Camille took a step back then, her hand starting to shake as James’s words ran through her mind. She closed her eyes for a split second, saw the family standing before her, the family whose faces had haunted her ever since that night, coming to her in her dreams, leaving her wondering if they were already dead. Imagining their fates and making her more determined than ever to find out who was responsible. Benoit had told her to focus on staying alive, and to do everything in her power to get what he was covertly sending her from France to their Allied friends, which she’d been doing through Avery.
The pocket watch.The diamond and platinum pocket watch.She pressed the gun against James again even as her thoughts jumbled. What he’d said about being paid in jewellery had set off a light bulb in her mind.
‘The watch,’ she gasped. ‘He had the watch.’
‘Who had what watch?’ James asked, looking confused.
‘William was wearing the watch,’ she whispered. ‘On the night my husband was killed, when we were ambushed, we were meeting a Jewish family to help them escape France to safety. The man had a watch, he’d shown it to us when we’d agreed to help him. He’d tried to give it to us as payment, to ensure their safety, but we told him that he’d need all his valuables to secure safe passage to America when he reached Portugal.’
James was intently staring at her, listening.
‘He was pouring champagne and he checked the time, the diamonds were glittering under the lights, and I recognised it but I couldn’t put my finger on it.’
‘Who, Camille? Who had this watch? When?’
‘William,’ she murmured. ‘William had the watch.’
‘Williamis the double agent, Camille, not me. He’s the man I’m after. I can show you all the evidence I have. You can have whatever you need for me to prove this to you, but you have to believe me that the person you’re hunting is the very same person I’m following. He’s our mutual enemy here.’
William had played her like a fool! He’d even flaunted the stolen watch, not realising that she’d seen it before, not knowing what it meant to her.
