Читать книгу An Ordinary Guy, Operation Saponify - Andrew Gilbrook - Страница 11

The Honeys and the trap

Timeline - June 1976

During this time, one thing that continued to worry me was Jenny, and who she said she was. There was something about finding the folder that started all this that just didn’t seem right to me. It was time to find out. Since February when I had passed Jenny’s personnel file to a specialist team to deep investigate. Unknown to Jenny and Karen, they had re-checked her background, followed her every move, in and out of Century House, tapped phone lines, intercepted letters, read and returned them looking perfectly normal at the post office. The result of all this work, nothing. Nothing could be found that she was anything but a hard-working secretary, working honestly and diligently, apart from the one folder she had removed to my possession, but now returned to its correct place, hidden from requests under the 30 years Act back at Hanslope Park. I hadn’t told the investigation team about the folder. I had checked that it had arrived as it should have done and not spirited away as suspiciously as it had arrived.

I have no idea why, but I couldn’t take the result of the deep check team as I should have. It was just something about the folder, its contents and lack of any routing record. Something in my mind wasn’t right with that part of her story. So I decided there should a test, a test for Jenny. A bait was needed to draw her out if she was anything but what she appeared.

Early June, now almost five months into this project, I phoned to ask Karen to arrange for me to see Jenny.

“Come over to my home for dinner Friday evening, we’ll make a night of it,” Karen suggested. This was perfect, I would have the chance to “loosen Jenny up” with drinks and some fun. Best of all I’d stay the night and be with the love of my life. Karen wanted me to stay, but she had no idea I was going to set up Jenny with a bait trap.

“Karen, do you trust me?” I asked on the phone to her.

“Of course I do, I couldn’t work with you if I didn’t. I trust you completely,” she replied.

“Whatever happens I need you to trust me and that there is a reason for everything I do. I may flirt a bit with Jenny” I told Karen.

“Oh, you still don’t trust her,” Karen got it right away, there was no pulling the wool over her eyes. It was almost that she could read my mind.

“OK, do what you have to do, flirt all you like, but trust me, she is my best friend, I know her better than anyone, you’ll see,”

“I ask nothing but your trust, I love you, but I have to do something to allay my feelings that she is more than she seems, these are strong feelings, you know me and when I get this feeling there’s always a reason,” we weren’t arguing, we never did. Karen was just torn between loyalty to her best friend and me. I understood that and couldn’t get cross with her for standing up for her friend.

The following Friday evening, I arrived at Karen’s flat loaded with bottles of wine, chocolates and flowers for both girls. Jenny answered the door intercom and buzzed me in, I went by the lift to the fourth floor and Jenny was already waiting at the open door to Karen’s flat. She looked very attractive, really cute in a black tight-fitting top and mini skirt, she had the sexiest tanned legs, shapely and fit looking. I kissed a greeting on Jenny’s cheek, she smelt very nice too, she was wearing an expensive perfume her whole image was sexy and irresistible. As I kissed her, I said how nice she looked and passed her the flowers and some chocolates. June 1976 was a hot and dry summer, swelteringly hot, entering the flat it felt nice and cool as there was air conditioning, it was comfortable after the heat of the London streets outside. Karen’s flat always had a comfortable feel, the colour scheme was relaxing, she knew what she was doing when she decorated the place and I learnt a lot from her about how colours can set your mood.

Karen was in the kitchen, if Jenny looked sexy this girl outshone her ten times over. Everything about her was perfect, her hair was down today, which I didn’t get to see very often, shiny and healthy, her makeup couldn’t be faulted and her face as pretty as any Hollywood star. Her figure was just pure sex, she wore a white loose shirt like a men’s shirt, with almost too many buttons undone, so that a little too much boob could be seen, but what the hell it’s her home, she can dress as she likes. She also wore a short dark purple mini skirt, and her legs as sexy as any, tanned and perfect in every way. She was barefooted and looking busy but not stressed as she cooked, in control as always. I moved into the kitchen stood behind her and kissed her on the neck, she tilted her head to the side to allow me to kiss longer than just a greeting, I could see her smile, her perfect white teeth the kind only celebrities have and her perfume was working its charm on me. Karen greeted me

“Hi Andy, good to see you, perfect timing food is almost ready, five minutes and I’ll join you. Want to pour some wine? There’s cold white in the fridge or red in the rack in the lounge. We both have glasses already,” I knew to make myself at home, Karen liked me to feel at ease and treat the place like it was mine. I wished so much I could be a permanent part of her life. Jenny was stood smiling at the kitchen door and walked with me through to the lounge, where she handed me her glass for a top-up of red wine. We chatted about nothing special as I, with my back to her, poured three red wines but into Jenny’s, I added half a tot of vodka, I hoped she wouldn’t taste it too much. Jenny moved the conversation onto Nazis.

“Have you found anything yet Andy?” she sat down on the sofa, folding her suntanned legs under her, revealing very sexy thighs and her short skirt high up on her legs revealing a hint of a white pantie beneath.

“Well, yes but the information isn’t complete enough to give to you. I have to confirm what I have” I said

“Oh, who is it, Hitler?” she enquired

“No, I do have information on Hitler, that is still a bit sketchy at the moment. I have another Nazi, but you are only interested in Hitler I thought?” I knew what I was telling her, I wanted to draw her into my trap

“Well if you have found any Nazi’s then I’m interested of course,” she continued.

“No, I’ll tell you when I am sure and have the address confirmed,” I teased

“You have an address, oh come on you have to tell me,”

I had every intention of telling Jenny the address, but I wanted to see how far she would go to get the information. For now, I’d pretend to be investigating even though my investigations were complete on this particular Nazi.

“Andy,” she said in one of those female ‘promise of something more if you give me what I want’ voices.

“Don’t be such a tease, who is it?”

At that Karen entered the room with perfect timing though she had no idea how perfect.

“If you two would like to come to the table dinner is served,” she said putting several dishes onto the laid table in the corner of the lounge room. The room was plenty big enough for the 4 seat round dining table in one corner under an overhead light.

I got up and moved to the table to end the line of talk leaving Jenny looking forgotten, but I was certain she had plans to get the information from me, and I wanted to see how she would do that, how desperate she would be to get anything I had on Nazis.

Karen announced the menu,

“Osso buco veal shanks braised with vegetables, white wine and broth, with risotto alla Milanese,” wow, Karen could cook too, there was no end to her talents, what an incredible lady. We sat at the table to one side so we all had a view outside through the full-length floor to ceiling window. Me between the two ladies, I was a lucky man today. During the meal, Jenny tried hard to find out how my project to find Hitler was proceeding. I wasn’t going to tell her anything, so she changed tack and tried to work on Karen.

“How hard has Andy been working on this, it sounds like he’s done so much?”

“He hasn’t allowed it to interrupt his normal work, but I think the progress is good,” I knew she had done more than I on this project, I think it intrigued her more than me, or maybe she just wanted to help her friend, I don’t know.

The main course was followed by lemon meringue pie, my favourite, and Karen knew it. I loved this woman.

I kept the wine coming, each time I topped up the glasses, I secretly dropped half a tot of vodka into Jenny’s drink and it was beginning to take effect.

After the meal, we all helped to clear the table and tidy the kitchen, it didn’t take long as Karen had cleared up as she cooked, so it was just the serving dishes and plates to sort out. The talk was becoming more amusing and Jenny was asking more questions about Germans but also being quite amusing in her manner, definitely becoming more flirtier with me. I don’t know how Karen was feeling but I was a little uncomfortable with it, but during a moment while Jenny went off to the bathroom I spoke with Karen about it.

“Are you ok if I return some of the flirting, I need to try to prise out of her who she maybe?” I asked her quietly

“Do what you have to do, I know what you need to do, I get it,” Karen wasn’t cross or angry, this was me at work now, but also having fun.

“I want you to know, whatever happens, I love you, only you,” I told Karen

“Likewise,” and Karen kissed me on the lips to confirm her love just as Jenny returned.

“Oh, you two what are you like, as soon as I leave the room you are at it. I hope you haven’t been discussing my boobs again, you know what happened last time”

“Well, your boobs are a big subject, takes a lot of talking about,” I said jokingly

Karen joined in the thread, “Andy, between us two who has the best boobs, in your opinion?”

“That’s a tough question, one I’m sitting next to the girl I love and two I’ve only ever seen your boobs,” I replied a little shocked

“Come on Jenny show Andy your tits,” Karen laughing now

“Nooo,” I cried, “Don’t, I’ll be embarrassed. I have a better idea, let’s play ‘Did you ever’,” I thought I needed to get Jenny relaxed and talking freely.

Everyone agreed it would be fun to play and now we were on our third bottle of wine and Jenny with about three tots of vodka extra. So we played and as always with games like this the ‘Did you ever’ questions got dirtier and ruder. Karen and Jenny were so funny, I couldn’t begin to describe to you, you had to be there with more than a bottle of wine inside you. We laughed so much Jenny’s questions were always the dirtiest and I noticed Jenny placed the occasional hand on my leg as I sat with Karen laying on my shoulder, Jenny’s touches were becoming more brazen and Karen didn’t flinch at all, she must have noticed too. After an hour or so playing the game, I think we knew just about everything about each other, especially our sex lives. Mine was simple, I’d only ever been with Karen. Karen, on the other hand, had surprised me with her answers. I now knew she had seen both her parents naked, had never kissed a girl before, had sex once in a public place, had a wee in a public place, had watched porn and masturbated while doing so. As for Jenny, I found out she had seen her mum naked but not her dad, she had kissed a girl and at university had sex with her female roommate more than once, to this answer Karen had asked Jenny if she had any thoughts about having sex with her, and Jenny had replied

“Yes of course, why not, you are so perfect, so sexy,” to which Karen replied,

“I had no idea you thought like that,” in the ’70s being openly gay was still frowned upon and ridiculed and men were still being imprisoned for “unnatural offences,” but women were less prone to prosecution. Jenny continued to explain

“I’m not lesbian, I enjoy both, I’d call myself bi-sexual,” I’d not heard this term before I hadn’t even thought about it. I was 21 and still very green on the subject of sex. Karen had been my only partner and sex teacher.

I got up from the sofa to get yet more drinks, I didn’t spike Jenny’s now, she’d had enough and I didn’t want her to collapse or something, I still needed her to be capable of knowing what she was talking about. There was dance music on Karen’s Bang & Olufsen music system and as I walked to the drinks cabinet, I kind of danced to the music across the room. I don’t normally dance at all, but I was relaxed, a little drunk and this evening I was in fantastic company. As I poured the drinks, prompted by my display, the girls got up and started to dance themselves. They danced in a kind of arms up style with plenty of loud whooping and noise, they were having so much fun. I returned with the drinks, trying hard not to spill them shuffling around the dancing girls, placed them on the table and made an attempt at my no-dad style of dance with them. 1976 was a very hot year and even with the air conditioning, it was feeling quite warm now. The two girls decided it was time to take off their tops. They danced as they stripped to their bras and miniskirts, it was a very sexy sight I have to say. As one song ended they embraced each other laughing and Karen reached around and removed Jenny’s bra, hugging each other so her boobs were not visible. Jenny repeated the action on Karen and in a moment they were both topless, dancing close in each other’s arms. I stood for a moment to take in the scene, and what a sexy scene it was. Karen reached out for me to join the huddle, slow dancing in the middle of the room the three of us slowly circling laughing and enjoying the dance. When the song ended our little group broke up to take a sip of drinks, Jenny asked the question

“OK, Andy, now you see me, who has the best tits?”

“Wow that’s a difficult question, how can I answer that you are asking me to judge the love of my life, but Jenny I love you too,” I studied the boobs of the two girls who were dancing slowly in a kind of slow stripper style rolling their hips around.

“Hmmm, I’m going to have to announce the winner is . . . drum roll . . . for the reason that Jenny’s boobs are firm and completely defying gravity . . . yet Karen’s are in my opinion slightly larger and the perfect shape, with the best perfect nipples and areola . . . oh this is so difficult,”

“Come on Andy, don’t be shy, I won’t take offence if you pick Jenny, she is so beautiful and cute and look at those double D’s,” Karen was trying to help me, she knew I was playing Jenny this evening.

I took hold of the two girl’s hands like a boxing referee announcing the result.

“I have to announce, the winner is . . . a draw,” and I raised both girl’s arms as winners.

“Ohhhh,” both girls cried out together, “Coward” and other remarks aimed at my cowardice.

“No, really both of you are fantastic, a man couldn’t ask for better,” I tried badly to disguise my cowardly competition result. Everyone laughed and the music machine continued to play dance music, so we danced, with the girls remaining topless.

We had a great evening with Jenny non-stop pestering me to give her the information I had on the German. She had found out by now that I had a piece of paper in my back pocket with the details of the Nazi. But I wouldn’t let her grab hold of it. Why was she so desperate to get it I wondered? I thought she wanted to know about Hitler. We had so many laughs that evening, eventually, at about 1am, as Jenny went to the bathroom, Karen took me by the hand and led me to her bedroom. It didn’t take us long to get undressed and lay on the bed. As I undressed, I removed the notepaper from my back pocket and hid it in Karen’s knicker drawer. We kissed naked and Karen whispered,

“Did you get what you wanted from Jenny?”

“Not yet,” I replied,” I’m still playing her, I have to push her hard to expose her if there is something to expose,” we laughed at the irony of my statement. Given the girl's state of undress most of the evening.

With that Jenny burst into the bedroom pouting,

“Hey, you two, you left me, Andy hasn’t given me the name yet, and now I’m just a lonely gooseberry,” she was still topless and her slight anger didn’t fit the way she was dressed. It looked slightly comical. Karen and I didn’t flinch in our nakedness, Jenny had seen us like this before in the office anyway, drink and at ease with each other as friends it was just natural to remain where we were on the bed uncovered.

“Oh come on Jenny,” Karen spoke sympathetically, “sorry, to leave you unannounced, come and give us a kiss goodnight,” Jenny knelt on the bed leaned down to kiss me, I turned to accept the kiss which caused the kiss to hit my lips rather than the left cheek that she was aiming for, she was a nice kisser. Karen put her hand on Jenny’s back and Jenny moved across to her to kiss her too. My goodness her boobs looked sexy, as she crawled over me they hung down and dragged over my body. Their kiss became a little extended, became less of a kiss goodnight, more a kiss of passion, of lust. Karen naked and Jenny topless, it was such a sexy scene, the kiss became a full-on snog, to use a term of the time. I lay on the bed taking in the two girls becoming more and more passionate in their kisses and embrace, hands beginning to wander over each other’s bodies. After a while, it was my turn to exclaim,

“Hey, now I’m the gooseberry here,” now the girls, hot in their lust for sex, turned to me and the three of us became one mass of bodies, arms and legs. Jenny somehow in the writhing became naked with us, and over the next few hours we took part in the most sex-filled, no holds barred threesome one could ever imagine. No one was jealous, no one was shy about their sex, we all enjoyed the night to the full.

In the morning I woke, still naked, next to me Karen was starting to stir too, Jenny was gone. I kissed Karen good morning and we both smiled at the memory of the night.

“Hmmm,” I said

“What?” Karen asked

“Your lips taste of Jenny’s vagina,”

“Oh you disgust me,” Karen laughed as she slapped me on the upper arm “get out and go make coffee, anyway I don’t think I can walk after all that sex,” I got up forgetting I was still naked and wandered out of the room, as I went Karen called after me,

“Don’t go kissing Jenny good morning,”

“Why? Are you jealous?” I enquired “No, her lips will taste of your cum,” she retorted giggling loudly.

“Ohhh, now who’s being disgusting,” as I left the room into the corridor and the kitchen a few paces away. I found Jenny in the kitchen also naked.

“Oh good morning Andy, you’re awake then. I’ve made coffee help yourself,” she moved to kiss me a greeting. For some reason, I backed away.

“Are you ok? She enquired “no regrets? Thank you for a lovely night,” she talked as I poured three coffees,

“Yes, thank you for an evening I’m never going to forget, I’ll take these to the bedroom are you coming back?”

“Shortly. Andy, can I ask you to stop messing with me, can you give me that name please,”

“Why are you not being patient? You said you’d be patient until I had all the information checked,” the truth was I had the information on the notepaper in Karen’s knicker draw, it was double-checked and confirmed, I was always going to give it to Jenny, but I needed to see how desperate she wanted it . . . so to speak.

We walked back to Karen in the bedroom together. I placed the coffee cups beside the bed and climbed in next to Karen. As I turned to face the room, Jenny was looking in my back pocket for the note.

“Jesus Jenny!” I moaned at her “You can’t wait can you,” now Jenny was showing signs of impatience, I had pushed her enough. “It’s in that drawer,”, pointing toward where the paper was hidden. Jenny now moving fast still naked to take the paper out of the drawer, read the contents regarding the Nazi Joachim Peiper, I’m not sure if she knew who he was but it didn’t matter. She shouted a thank you and left the room.

“Wow,” Karen said, “She was desperate for that,” I should have replied, “What the sex or the piece of paper?” but I didn’t.

We slowly drank our coffee and wondered why Jenny needed that information so badly. “So did you accomplish what you needed to with Jenny? Karen asked

“Now we wait,” I said

“Wait for what?” Karen came back

“Well it's simple, I’m either right or wrong about Jenny, if I’m right then I expect something will happen, and if I’m wrong well I suspect life will go on as normal,” “What do you think will happen?” Karen was unsure what game I was playing now.

“We wait that’s all we do, say nothing to her out of the ordinary and wait,”

“How long do we wait?” asked Karen

“Well, could be a while but my hunch says soon,”

“I don’t know how you are so sure about my best friend, so we will see, and if you are wrong there will be a penance to pay,” she giggled.

“And what will the penance be?” I enquired. With that, she pushed my head below the sheets down passed her breasts, over her belly to the sweet spot between her legs. After at least four hours of sex during the night, it wasn’t a pleasant place to be, but I managed to satisfy the imposed penance. After Karen finished, it was announced to me that it would be my job to make brunch with more coffee.

Jenny in the meantime had showered dressed and shouted goodbye as she left the apartment. She didn’t say where she was going but I had an idea. Ideally, I should have had her followed, but this was an unofficial job, and it was all just a hunch for now anyway.

Karen and I spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday together, it was the only time in all my years working at MI6 we spent a weekend as lovers do, I wished it could be more often. Sunday afternoon I went home ready to go back to work Monday morning.

The following Wednesday Karen was at Century House and I was at my Dad’s business, I received a call from Karen again.

“Andy, you’ve been summoned to a meeting, you are to talk to HR (Human Resources) and it sounds like trouble,”

“What kind of trouble?” I enquired

“I have no idea, they wouldn’t tell me. Tomorrow at 11am at the In and Out Club, Piccadilly,” this was an ironic location, a private members club properly named the Naval and Military Club, The club came to be known as the "In and Out", from the prominent traffic-directing signs on its entrance and exit gates. Members included T. E. Lawrence and Ian Fleming. Not only was it a recruiting venue for MI5 and MI6, but this address was also used in correspondence found on a dead British officer who was deliberately dropped into seas off Spain by MI6 during the Second World War. This deception operation, Operation Mincemeat, tricked the Nazis into believing the Normandy invasion force would land elsewhere. I wondered for a moment if someone knew what I was working on in my spare time.

The next day I arrived in Piccadilly and found the club on the eastern side of Saint James’s Square. At the front door, feeling a little out of place, as this club was mostly for the military. I was redirected to the rear entrance in Babmaes Street, just off Jermyn Street. It is less formal this side of the building and is the entrance to the business centre. On entering I was ushered to a private room where I found a lady sitting at a table looking very stern indeed. A notetaker was to one side of the table, this was going to be some kind of disciplinary meeting I realised. As I entered she stood and introduced herself as Barbara Busch-Rash, head of HR. I barely stifled my laughter, poor woman. She only introduced the other lady as the note-taker, which I thought a bit rude. I asked if she was ok to sit, it seemed this was a sense of humour deficit area, and a cold wind was blowing from the north, it may have been better blowing south, it may have eased her discomfort. She didn’t get the joke, I struggled to see how I was going to take this as seriously as her face and her rash suggested I should. I guessed she was in her sixties and if she wasn’t in this job she would have to be a headmistress from an old fifties film, dowdily dressed, with rimless glasses clinging to the end of her nose she peered over the top whenever she looked at me.

She had my file and under it, I assume Karen’s too. She began

“It has come to our attention that a rule is being broken, you are aware that relationships are not permitted between staff within the service,” I guessed right away what this was going to be about, but my sense of humour refused to take this seriously.

“Well, that’s why I’m not dating you,” I replied, I was no longer a schoolchild and took umbrage at being talked at as if I was. I was supposed to be an adult.

“No need to be flippant, this is serious,” she tried to take charge but I was having none of it.

“As serious as the rash?” I tested flippancy to the max.

“What rash?” she asked as she rubbed a hand over her arm as if to search for one. Where did this woman come from for goodness sake?

“Strange,” I replied

“What is?” she questioned

“Your name, Barbara means strange, it’s Greek for strange,” I knew this fact as my mother’s given name is Barbara and suits her well too.

“Could you not say anything for a moment while I explain why we are here today,” she continued to headmistress me. I drew a zip across my mouth signifying I would now remain quiet. She explained the procedure of the disciplinary and began,

“It has come to our attention that you and your secretary Miss Middleton have been having, well . . . relations. Do you not understand the security implications?” and she just droned on for what seemed ages about policy, security and morals. I finally got a chance to speak, when she asked if I had anything to say.

“I am well aware of the security aspect of everything I do, and if I had the slightest inkling that Miss Middleton was anything but trustworthy I’d refuse to work with her. I take your accusation seriously Miss Nappy-Rash,”

“Busch-Rash,” she corrected me still not showing any sign of a sense of humour.

“Miss Busch-Fire, I have a very good working relationship with my secretary, the work she does for me is exemplary and professional, and is, quite possibly, the most hard-working person in the building,”

“None the more for that,” she continued “you are being formally warned in a written letter to cease your, your” she stumbled her words trying to think of the correct phrase to apply to my relationship with Karen, “your perverse sexual desires”

“Perverse? What are you on about? Have you lost your hydrocortisone?”

“Hydrocortisone?” she came back totally lost in the joke that was endless in its possibilities. She continued,

“We are aware that you, Miss Middleton and Miss Avraham spent a night together last weekend,”

Now it dawned on me, oh shit, I exclaimed to myself, I’d ordered a deep check on Jenny and they have bugged Karen’s apartment. They must have installed secret cameras too.

“Research!” I grabbed the first word that came into my head.

“What?” the strange woman replied

“We were working on Miss Avraham, it’s official business and in this business, we use all means to find out what we need. I suggest you don’t interfere and remove whatever you have bugged Miss Middleton’s apartment with and allow us to do our important work,” I guessed the word important wasn’t going to go down too well in this room but it was out now, “plus I demand a list of all those that have viewed or listened to any conversations between the three of us. There are higher-level security implications in what we are doing and I’m not having you and your friends rub your BV at my expense,”

“BV?” she queried, now well and truly lost in my stream of Busch-Rash jokes

“You will have to look that one up yourself I’m not here to complete your education,” I continued to rant. I don’t know why I continued to try to get out of the admonishment, but I was angry at myself for being so stupid and this woman was ripe for targeting my anger at.

“Well, I think we can wrap this meeting up then,” I think she had had enough of me by now, I can wind up the best of them.

“Your written instruction is here, and if you can sign the notes of the meeting on each page please,” she had clearly had enough of me.

“I’m not signing anything,”

“You have to sign the foot of each page to say you agree that it’s a correct record of our conversation today,”

“You’ll get a swift foot to your gash-mash before I sign anything you have,” I’d be in further trouble now for the rudeness and insubordination, but I stopped caring now, I was embarrassed I forgot the place would be bugged, I was sick of being talked to like a child by Miss double-barrelled Haughty-Taughty. I forgot the poor note-taker was sat to one side, I looked at her and saw she was stifling a smile herself at my barrage of abuse, clearly she didn’t like Miss Burning-Britches either. It spurred me on to continue the abuse.

“This meeting is over Miss Red-Rash-Rump,” with that, I stormed out of the room and the building, angry at myself for being so stupid in so many ways. But, I did get the second irony, that I had been scolded for my sex life and the meeting was held in the In and Out Club. MI6 does have a sense of humour after all. But I hated the fact that I had been treated like a school kid, talked down to. I am an adult doing a job with high risk and responsibilities, I wasn’t going to be talked at in that way and let anyone get away with it. None the more for that I did understand the issue, and I felt a little embarrassed at my behaviour toward Busch-Rash.

Picture 3. The In and Out Club, London.

The morning of Saturday 19th June 1976, I remember the day well. I was at my home, Karen phoned in distress.

“Andy, its Jenny, she is leaving,”

“How do you mean leaving?” I enquired

“She’s quit her job, she’s paid me a month’s rent and now she is packing her stuff and going,” Karen spoke, clearly crying. Her best friend was going, so suddenly.

“Christ, where is she going?” I asked

“She says home, I was trying to talk to her to ask why, but I saw a ticket in her passport as she was packing”

“Did you manage to catch where she is going from her ticket?”

“No, Andy, what’s happening, she won’t tell me why, or anything, she will be gone within the hour,” Karen spoke through her sobs

“OK, I won’t have time to get to you, this is what we were waiting for, it’s happening,” I said

“What’s happening?”

“Jenny, she is an agent for an organisation, I don’t know which yet. I’ll jump in my car and start driving, in twenty minutes I’ll stop and give you a call,” mobile phones in 1976 were not a thing that everyone had, how we managed without I don’t know.

“Find out from the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) what flight she is on, for now, I’ll assume it’s Heathrow. When I call if it’s any different I’ll divert. Once you find out the airport call the Border Agency at that airport and have her picked up and to hold her in an interview room and tell them I’m on my way. No way are they to let her fly. Can you do that without her knowing?” I gave my instructions grabbing my car keys

“I will have to go into the office I don’t have those phone numbers here,” Karen replied.

“Ok, don’t give her any idea what you are doing, is she still at your place?”

“Well, she is now waiting for a taxi. I’ll take my car to the office, I will be a couple of minutes,” Karen now switching into her efficient work mode.

“Say goodbye to her as you would normally, make some excuse like you can’t bear to watch her leave or something, I’ll call you in twenty minutes,” with that, I flew out of my flat in Leavesden and jumped in my car. I had a white Triumph Dolomite 1850, it was the car of the day, it was the car the boy racers wanted. It would take me forty minutes to get to Heathrow if I was lucky, I’d have to stop and make sure Jenny was going to Heathrow by calling Karen for the information shortly. I broke every speed limit, if the police stopped me for speeding I’d possibly miss Jenny, maybe I’d ask them to escort me or even take me to the airport, but I didn’t want to give away my identity to anyone. Luckily, that didn’t happen. I guessed Jenny was leaving from Heathrow because any other airport is further and would be very expensive by taxi. I was sure she’d take some other means of transport to get to there if she were leaving from any other airport. I was good at these hunches and I trusted my intuition. After 20 minutes, I stopped by a phone box, luckily it was working. The call to Karen at the office confirmed Heathrow was indeed the airport and that Jenny on her way to France would be nabbed by border police after clearing check-in and security.

I arrived at the airport, Karen had already warned them I was coming and I needed no introduction, I was led to an interview room with Jenny inside waiting with a female Border Agent.

“What time is her flight?” I asked the staff as I arrived outside the room

“You have forty minutes if you want her on the flight,” one officer informed me.

“I do,” I told him as I entered alone. A female Border Control Officer remained in the room, female prisoner protocol I assume, but that was ok by me.

When Jenny saw me enter her face changed from worried to a half-smile. She knew my friendly face meant things should be easier for her. I sat opposite her with the door and the Border Control Officer guarding the door behind me.

“So, Jenny, you are disappearing rather quickly, what’s happened? You know you are breaking Karen’s heart leaving her,” I began trying to make her believe this was personal rather than official.

“Am I under arrest, what are you doing with me? What’s the charge?” she asked quite coldly

“I could have you arrested for spying, I don’t want to do that, so, it depends on the next few minutes, you decide your fate. It’s a stupid move leaving, you’ve exposed yourself as being a spy, for what organisation, Israeli?” I asked her.

“No, not Israeli, I have no choice but to leave. I’ve been four years in MI6, I’ve given them almost nothing of any use. I asked you to find Hitler, but you gave me Peiper instead,” she spoke looking down at the table, I was a little surprised she talked so much, our friendship must have made some difference.

“Who’s them? You are exactly, right, and if you had waited, as I asked you to, you would have been given information on Hitler, a doubly stupid move to leave, but to leave after getting Peiper’s information, that’s so stupid, such a small player in the Nazi world,” I said

“They don’t think so, they say he’s a big player in HIAG,” Jenny continued. HIAG (German: Hilfsgemeinschaft auf Gegenseitigkeit der Angehörigen der ehemaligen Waffen-SS, literally ‘Mutual aid association of former Waffen-SS members’ a far-right neo-Nazi group).

“I had no choice, they were going to pull me out as I had gotten so little from MI6, four years was enough for them. Now, I am to go because of Peiper,” Jenny realised she had said too much and stopped short of telling me more.

“What’s going to happen to Peiper, something unhealthy I assume?” I asked her

“I can’t say. Are you going to try to stop them?” she asked me

“No, I’m not in the business of interfering in the business of other people’s business,” I said, a weak attempt to relax her with a half-joke line.

“Do you have something on Hitler? You know where he is?” she asked me, I knew a little about him, I was on a track that was proving to be interesting, but I wanted her to believe I had more.

“You will never know what I know about Hitler. So tell me, that folder you originally gave me, did you create that?”

“No, the folder was genuine, it crossed my desk as I said,” this answer left me with a further quandary, who had compiled it and why? Was there another spy inside MI6?

“How did you pass the information out? Give me something I can use to take the heat off you,” I asked her further.

“Ok, I’ll give you this, the ice-cream van at the Imperial War Museum is a conduit,” she knew she had to give me something.

“Good God, I’ve bought ice-cream from that van,” I remembered my first interview at Century House in 1971, I had arrived early and walked down to the museum to pass some time away. I had bought an ice-cream while looking at the two huge guns in the front garden of the museum. It was just a short walk from Century House.

“So why this?” she said looking around the room with her eyes

“Personal, you are breaking Karen’s heart. Personal, you used me,” I knew all along Jenny was using me for something, I gave her the information, if I had her arrested, it would implicate me. I wasn’t sure if Jenny realised this. But I had discovered that the fortress walls of the Intelligence Service had yet again been breached and somehow I’d have to report this without implicating Karen or myself. I reached across the table and held Jenny’s hand with both of my hands to try to convey friendship and to some extent the love there might be between us.

“If I let you get on your plane today, can you promise me that you stay in touch with Karen, she is crying her eyes out at home. She loves you, you are, were, her best friend, you don’t have to leave her behind. Please promise,”

“I can’t it was all an act, I’m working for a dangerous organisation,” she said looking down again

“We had sex, I saw how you were such close friends, how you acted, and that wasn’t an act,” I said to her. Jenny’s eyes looked toward the female security guard by the door, she must have reacted to my statement about sex. Jenny didn’t reply.

“Keep in touch, it doesn’t matter that you are in whatever organisation, you are a lovely girl, you have a heart I know. Don’t break Karen’s heart,”

“Ok,” Jenny spoke the one word half-heartedly, I wasn’t sure if she meant it. There wasn’t much I could do right now, but I’d end this on a happy note.

“Both of us will miss you, we will both miss your sex, that threesome was the best thing that has happened to us,” I said deliberately, nodding my head back and rolling my eyes toward the woman behind me at the door, I heard the guard choke slightly on hearing my words. Jenny realised what I was doing, trying to embarrass the poor woman. She was smart enough to go along with the joke being played on the poor girl.

“Yeh, I supposed our sex was good, I won’t forget the taste of both of you too quickly,” we both half-smiled at the joke and the discomfort of the female guard.

There was little I could do here, I could have Jenny followed but it would mean exposing myself and Karen to all kinds of scrutiny, maybe we’d even lose our jobs if I wasn’t careful. I had to let this spy go. I didn’t feel any guilt. None of the Cambridge five or others had been prosecuted for being double agents in the Intelligence Service. Why should this small pawn get arrested, and she hadn’t taken any British Secrets, only information on a Nazi that I had given her. Still holding Jenny’s hand I stood up

“Ok, let’s, get you on your plane,” I asked the female guard, now flushed red, to lead us to the flight gate. I walked with Jenny, I was sad she was going to leave, I hate losing friends because I find it so hard to make them. She couldn’t help having a heritage that needed her to find Nazi’s that had been the cause of her family deaths. I understood her motive. We reached the flight gate without saying much, the three of us sat and waited for boarding onto the plane to begin. I watched her onto the plane and stood at the window and watched the flight take off to make sure she’d left the country.

I found Karen still in the office, waiting, should need her to do anything more for me.

“Has she gone?” she asked me.

“I’m afraid so,” Karen cried at losing her best friend of four years. “She said she will stay in touch, I understand now why she has to go,”

“She was a spy?” asked Karen

“Yes, amazing how she beat the whole system,” I answered

Karen had also received a reprimand for getting too close to me.

“But, how did they know we were seeing each other, how did they know we had sex together, the three of us?” Damn this was going to be awkward to explain to this lovely lady.

“I think that may have been my fault,” I said

“Why, how, what?” she asked

“Well,” I had no choice but to be honest with Karen “I had Jenny deep checked, a deep investigation,” I saw the anger rise in Karen, we had never argued before and this was going to be the first time.

“You had my home bugged,” she screamed

“No, not me the team do that,” I said in a vain attempt to lessen the accusation, it wouldn’t help me.

“You arsehole, you knew and you did that with me, sex, you knew there would be cameras hidden and you let me have sex with you, and, and, and Jenny. I tell you now, find those tapes and destroy them or we will fall out big time,” all I could do was apologise to Karen, it did no good, she shouted and screamed at me, I couldn’t stop her and I deserved it. I took my punishment. I hated seeing her angry with me. I promised I would do everything I could to find the tapes, it was all I could do to defend my actions. The fact is that the Intelligence Service is bigger than us, that Jenny needed to be rooted out didn’t stand much stead at this moment. I left with my tail between my legs, heartbroken that I had upset Karen so much.

From that day onward Karen and I became more, I’ll use the term professional, less intimate. We still spoke and talked professionally, but we no longer met outside of work. I’m sure HR and Miss Busch-Rash were happy about that. I couldn’t stand the idea of being alone, I hated never being cuddled or loved, so it was the next year that I met Janine. I’ve talked about Janine in my first book “An Ordinary Guy, An Unknown Spy”, I won’t repeat that story here. Karen was ok with that, she wanted me to be happy. She never met anyone, always stayed single, devoting her life to her work until her cancer and death in 2014.

As for Jenny, we never heard from her again. I never found her or knew what she was doing. She infiltrated MI6 for four years, passed on almost no information, I believe she was only looking for Nazi’s.

The morning of 14th July, a month later Joachim Peiper was murdered.

Joachim Peiper (30th January 1915 – 14th July 1976), also known as Jochen Peiper, was a member of the German SS and a war criminal who was responsible for the 1944 Malmedy massacre against American prisoners of war. During World War II in Europe, he served as personal adjutant to Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, between September 1939 and September/October 1941, and thereafter as a Waffen-SS commander.

During his career with Himmler, Peiper became witness to the SS policies of ethnic cleansing and genocide in Eastern Europe. Peiper persistently denied this fact following the war. Transferred to a combat role, Peiper served in the SS Division Leibstandarte on both the Eastern Front and the Western Front, commanding a battalion and then a regiment. He fought in the Third Battle of Kharkov and the Battle of the Bulge. Peiper's command became known for atrocities against civilians and prisoners of war. Peiper was convicted in the Malmedy massacre trial and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted, with Peiper serving 12 years in prison. He was accused of committing the Boves massacre in Italy. The investigation was closed due to insufficient evidence that the order to kill civilians was issued directly by Peiper.

After his release from prison, Peiper worked for both Porsche and Volkswagen, before moving to France, where he worked as a freelance translator.

Picture 4. Joachim Peiper (30th January 1915 – 14th July 1976) Assassinated by the "Avengers"

Throughout, Peiper maintained frequent, albeit discreet, contact with his SS network, including HIAG, a Waffen-SS lobby group. Peiper was murdered in France on the 14th July 1976, after his identity as an SS man and war criminal had been handed over to Jenny.

Peiper was the easiest Nazi to find using my access to secret files in MI6 in London and Hanslope Park and there are plenty of records on file. He had continued to live and work under his real name.

During the early morning hours of 14th July 1976, Peiper's home was attacked and set on fire. In the ruins, Peiper's charred corpse was found together with a rifle and a pistol. Investigators determined that he died of smoke inhalation apparently while trying to salvage documents, papers, and his wife's clothing. A group calling itself "The Avengers" claimed responsibility.