Free Unholy Ghost by James Green

Swiss vaults.’
    â€˜Exactly. But when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and America entered the war on the side of the Allies the arrangement became considerably more dangerous. A certain type of mind might even have seen their business arrangement with Germany, if continued, as treasonous.’
    Jimmy didn’t hide his surprise.
    â€˜Bloody hell. They kept it going?’ McBride nodded. ‘But they were at war. You mean they actually kept doing business with Germany even though they were at war with them?’
    â€˜Big business, Mr Costello, is never at war with anyone. Countries and governments have wars. Big business, really big business, has no frontiers and admits to no loyalty except profits. Big business has no friends and no enemies and works with whoever will help it to those profits.’
    â€˜How did they get away with it?’
    â€˜Through neutral countries and dummy companies. They knew what they were doing and how to do it, despite the war, business, like life, went on. They supplied both sides and made handsome profits.’
    â€˜Christ. And when Germany lost?’
    â€˜The guarantees were invoked and the deposits withdrawn.’
    Jimmy tried to let it all sink in.
    â€˜But they knew it was loot.’
    â€˜Not to them. They didn’t steal it.’
    â€˜OK, but wasn’t it all still very risky? A lot of the stuff must have been identifiable as loot, stolen from Jews and God knows who else. Weren’t they worried questions would get asked?’
    â€˜Good heavens, no. These were men of huge power and influence. Some of them were at the heart of rebuilding Europe. They were above suspicion and had access to every possible resource. If questions did get asked, they would be the ones doing the asking. It was quite simple for them to realise their guarantees so long as they took their time and decent precautions. Europe was such a mess after the war they could have stolen a couple of small countries and probably got away with it. Stalin stole the whole of Eastern Europe and Britain and the US congratulated themselves on a job well done. As Europe healed and things settled down the Cold War set in. America forgot about Nazis and began looking for Reds under beds. The people who were involved quietly got on with liquidating their guarantees and saving the world for freedom and democracy.’
    â€˜So they got away with it?’
    â€˜Yes. They always do, don’t they?’
    Jimmy thought about it for a moment.
    â€˜I suppose they do. It must go on all the time. Every so often the whole crappy machine overheats and blows a gasket and there’s some bloodletting, but I suppose the really big fish see it coming and make sure it’s never their blood that finishes up on the floor.’
    â€˜No, Mr Costello, never their blood.’

Chapter Thirteen
    They both sat in silence for a moment. Then Jimmy put any thought of right and wrong away from him. This wasn’t about right and wrong. McBride hadn’t sent him to Paris on any moral crusade. There was something in this Colmar business that she wanted and he was the one who was going to get it for her.
    â€˜So how is the convent mixed up in it? The nuns didn’t get the place until after the war, they couldn’t have been involved. What’s the problem there?’
    â€˜There is the possibility, an outside one, but still a possibility, that there may still be something compromising hidden away in the convent. We need to be sure the building is swept, thoroughly swept, and anything that shouldn’t be there is removed before any new owner takes over. It is entirely possible that Mme Colmar, being the sort of entrepreneur she was, decided to appropriate for herself some of what should have gone into the Swiss vaults. When the Allied invasion made it time to close things down she had to leave Paris quickly and after the Normandy landings things became somewhat dislocated among the German