She Wrote Her Name in Black Lipstick

Frieda has certain anatomical possibilities, all of them obvious. She mixes with the crowd in the Cabaret of the Roaring Mouse in Berlin, 1942, then steps into the ladies room where she writes the secret names in black lipstick in code on the mirror. As soon as Frieda leaves the French secret agent Odette Laurent enters, memorizes the names, then wipes the mirror clean. “Tonight there will be blood on my knife,” Odette says to herself, “and I will lick it off.”