He found work with the lawyer Jan de Pont, whose firm, in The Hague and Amsterdam, defended Jewish families and members of the Dutch resistance.
In that capacity he met a number of high-ranking resistance members, including Wim van Norden, then publisher of the illegal newspaper Het Parool.
De Pont declined because he wanted at all costs to avoid being associated with illegaliteit [nl] (illegal activity), directing him instead to van Lom, an idealistic and newly married young man.
According to this theory, van Lom gave up information that led to the arrest of a number of resistance members in exchange for the freedom of the young woman.
Either he refused to drink the poison or it did not have the desired effect and he was finally despatched with a shot to the neck, his body dumped in the Keizersgracht.