Mr. Monday and other tales of Jewish Amsterdam

GENERAL EISENHOWER CALLED HIM 14 7

׳THE GREATEST LIVING EXPERT ON SECURITY׳

After our conversation in my club, Oreste kept me informed about further developments in the case. Bronkema had been released from the old school building in the country because he was considered safe. He rented a flat near Paddington Station in London, got a small job and lived very quietly. At 9 a.m. on the dot he was at his desk. He never entered a pub or visited a cinema. He didn't appear to have friends and never had any visitors. A decent, quiet man, he seemed. "Too quiet for me," commented Oreste. "Such people simply don't exist."

But even after Bronkema had been in England for four whole months, there was still no proof that he wasn't what he pretended to be.

"If I were you," I told Oreste, "I would admit that I was wrong."

"I know for certain he's a spy," Oreste shouted angrily.

I grinned. "All right," I said, "then arrest him! But if you've made a mistake you will be in deep trouble. He'll sure raise hell."

"Are you telling me that I haven't the guts to have him arrested?" asked Oreste and had Bronkema thrown into jail that same afternoon.

The next day he phoned to tell me about what happened next. "I've interrogated him for four hours this morning ," he reported. "He denies everything, of course. He continues to say that he's a true patriot. Claims that he is the defender of the House of Orange. Says that he is renowned in the province of Utrecht for his heroic deeds against the Nazis. At one point he cried,'Mr Pinto, if my old father who is in heaven, knew that you suspected me of being a spy for those criminals, he would turn in his