Winfred

76

Official Report

British Intelligence

Code: 3986

Kathleen Winfred

Von Steubon’s Birthday

Matthew was right, though.

I was completely smitten.

I sat at my desk in the little outer office, and it drove me almost crazy that Von Steubon was just a wall away and I couldn’t go in and talk to him. For one thing, I couldn’t bother him when he was in the middle of working. For another…

Even if Von Steubon and I were now friends…Even if there was the possibility of us being something more…And no matter how much of his personal story he had just told me…

Something about him still seemed distant. He was still a mystery, although he was now less of an enigma than he had been before. Certainly, I had some pieces of the puzzle, but there were so many that were missing.

Little things.

I had learned how old he was when he told me how old his sister was, as they were twins. But I didn’t know when his birthday was. I didn’t know what he liked to do when he had time off from his officer duties. I didn’t know how it had been growing up without parents.

I hadn’t known he was good with children until just the other day.

I wanted to know more. It was that indescribable feeling of discovering someone…discovering that you care about them…and wanting to learn anything you can about that person. What makes them happy…What makes them sad…What makes them laugh…

I decided that I would start by figuring out when his birthday was. It had to be soon, judging by the few things he had told me about the age of him and his sister.

One day, when he was in his office with the door closed as usual, Pirot came to visit me. She said that she had some spare time between her duties that day.

She dragged one of the chairs from across the room over and set it before my desk, sitting down.

“Pirot,” I asked her, lowering my voice and glancing over at Freidrich’s office door. “When is Von Steubon’s birthday?”

She shrugged, saying that she didn’t know.

“However,” she told me. “I know how we can find out.”

That night, the two of us put Pirot’s plan into action. Technically, we would have gotten in trouble for what we were doing.

However, the night was quiet and we were uninterrupted.

I used my key to gain entrance to the outer office. I then opened the door to Von Steubon’s office and flipped the light switch.

Pirot led me over to the filing cabinets along the wall.

“Every prison has to have records on all personnel in the compound. This prison is a bit different than most but…I think it should still comply with that rule.”

She pulled at the handle, but let out an exclamation of frustration. “Locked,” she said. “Von Steubon must take the keys with him.” She paused. “Unless…” she glanced at the desk.

I waited as she began to search the drawers. After looking in the bottom one, she pulled out a ring of keys.

“Success!” she said, holding them aloft as she came back over.

We began to search the filing cabinets, slowly and methodically.

I was searching in a lower cabinet when I found a folder labeled “bestellen”, German for “commander”.

“I think I’ve got it,” I said, holding it out for her to see.

“Great,” she said. “Let’s find out when our fearless leader’s birthday is.”

I opened the folder, pulling out the papers within and scanning them quickly.

Twenty-second, July.

“I found it,” I told Pirot.

“Good,” she said. “Write it down.”

“Don’t worry,” I said, hurriedly putting the paper back in its folder and returning the file to its drawer. “I’ll remember it.”

Pirot shrugged, but helped to return everything to its place and to lock the cabinets once more.

At the very end, we replaced the keys in the bottom drawer of Freidrich’s desk.