by Hylton Smith
‘That’s a start. Their names?’
‘As I said, the first contact who came to the camp was only known by a code. He spoke the first part of a message and we replied with the counterpart. We were told that the second man would take off his gold ring before flicking any cigarettes through the fence, so that we would know they were the ones we had to pick up. This was necessary because there were some villagers who threw the odd cigarette to us, just for a smoke. The man would also whistle a certain tune when he took off the ring, but stop before he put it back on. It was a German tune, and then he was to speak only two words which would reflect his initials. The expression - Maximum Vorhang, as you will know, because you speak German, means Maximum Curtain, in this case denoting absolutely top security. He was then to take off the ring once more and roll it under the fence, as proof that he was indeed the proper contact. He never spoke to us again’
‘That’s a very interesting story Karl. Is there proof of any of these events you describe?’
‘The ring is proof. I doubted some of the methods myself, but when I saw the ring, I couldn’t believe it. Millions of Germans know of this ring. It’s famous in our folklore, made in our country, but then there were allegations that it was stolen. It was thought that it ended up in Czechoslovakia, but it was never recovered, even after more than a century.
‘It was then claimed that a German General had found it when the army marched into Czechoslovakia, and ransacked some of the homes of rich families. The original is apparently now in the hands of the Fuhrer’s surviving staff. He had held it with great pride, saying it was symbolic of the justness of our cause. The ring was copied many times and ‘individualised’ with appropriate inscriptions. In this way, it attempted to connect ordinary soldiers directly to the importance of the mission, their mission, as part of that of the Fuhrer. It was reserved for intelligence work. I’m certain you’ll hear more of these rings now that the war is over. I say that because they were held in great respect, like a royal seal, except we didn’t have a king, just Adolf Hitler. And as we all know, now he was more than a king.’
‘So where is it?’
‘I hid it while I was on the run in the woods near High Spen. A friend, whose name was Michael, helped to hide me in his cave and he knows where the ring is. I asked him to take care of it as I was supposed to return it to the man whose initials were M.V. But he never came back. I panicked, thinking his cover was compromised. I thought I would be next, and that’s why I escaped from the camp, deciding it would be better for me to simply disappear. Michael can help you to recover the ring.’
‘Fair enough Karl, I’ll investigate this and speak with you again. You’ll be given a more comfortable room until I return.’
*
It took several phone calls before Devlin eventually managed to speak with the village constable of High Spen. He asked about the man Karl claimed was a friend.
“I’m trying to trace a vagrant who apparently sleeps most of the time in some woods near the village. Can you help me?”
“Do you have a name, sir?”
“Unfortunately not a full name, just Michael. Nor do I have a very clear description.”
“The only person called Michael who comes to mind is a man who has sadly passed away.”
“Oh, when was that?”
“Quite recently, sir, it was a hanging. We suspected that an escaped German prisoner may have been responsible. He was apprehended trying to leave the country at Newcastle docks. We told the Newcastle police, who were holding him, that our hanged man was wearing a German watch. This fellow has been on the loose for a while, and we think this tramp may have stolen the watch. This could have caused Fritz to string him up.
“However we weren’t allowed to question him as he was to be deported as quickly as possible. But he escaped again, serves the buggers right for not listening to us. Just as well in the end though, because a lot of people up here would have tried to lynch him. Not that they cared much for this Michael, but he was considered to be pretty harmless.”
“Thank you constable, that doesn’t sound like the man I’m after. I’ll just have to keep looking.”
*
“Ok Karl, we’re now going to speak in English. Tell me again, what was the name of this friend of yours?”
“Michael.”
“And his family name?”
“I do not know.”
“Then I think we must go and look for this ring ourselves.”
“Why is this? Has he sold it?”
“No, he’s dead.”
Karl looked at Devlin, searching for something to say. The shock eventually caused him to throw up, after which he turned on Devlin.
“This cannot be true, how it was happening?”
“The police aren’t sure, but he was hanged with a rope.”
Karl’s eyes filled up and he banged the desk.
“Did the police have the idea that he helped me and punished him for it?”
“This isn’t Germany Karl. But he was apparently wearing a German watch. That may have got him killed.”
“Oh no, not the watch, I let him keep my watch for all he did to help me. If it has been the reason he was killed I am very angry about it.”
“Well, there’s nothing to be done about it now except find the ring. We have to go back there and retrieve it. You will need a disguise because apparently the local mob want to string you up now.”
“Why can we not leave it there, where nobody will look?”
“I can’t tell you that, but your freedom depends on its recovery, and tracing the man who originally gave it to you, with the initials M.V. I need to know who he is, even if he’s dead, as you suspected. Tell me Karl, exactly what do you expect to happen to you if we send you back to Bonn?”
“I will die, unless I have this ring and I can give an explaining why M.V. never returned to claim it. You see, the ring arriving back to the person who first sent it to M.V. completes the project. But it had to be the right one. There were always two rings for each project. One to say it was completed successfully, and another if something went wrong. I was sure something went wrong with M.V. The two rings were to look the same, but they had a slightly different style of initials, drucken in German, I think the English meaning is ‘print type’ or no, maybe it is ‘font’. Even if I had the ring in Bonn, I can’t know if the information in the cigarettes I gave the visitor to our camp really went back to Germany as it should. I would like to go back to my country but not in Bonn. I could get to my family from the border with Holland, they are living in Oberhausen.”
“Right, well then, first things first, we need to get you ready to go back to High Spen. I’ll get someone to visit you and start to alter your appearance. From now we’ll speak only English, otherwise the locals up in the northeast will immediately suspect something. They’ll already know that Karl escaped from the car which was taking him to the airport, but they probably think he’d be crazy to return to that small village. They must not think you are Karl.”
Chapter 22
Newcastle C.I.D.
Black informed Sophie Redwood of his impending arrival in the Capital.
“You were absolutely right about the test of Marion Wentworth, and she has arranged for someone to ‘guide’ me through the war records. I’m therefore convinced that we should give this cooperation you suggested a bit of a workout.”
“Good, then what I suggest we do is to take a few things which you extract, together with information you think is missing, and compare it to what my source has provided. If there seems to be censorship we discuss how you approach Marion for an explanation. I’ll let the story lay fallow in terms of printing it, at least for now.”
“Where should we meet?”
“Give me the name of your hotel and I’ll suggest a café or something close by. We need to be sure about whether you’re being followed.”
“Fine, see you soon.”
*
Moss summoned Black
to his office.
“Inspector, before you disappear off to the smoke, I see there are a few items we need to progress. This case of the ‘man who never was’ is taking up too much of your time. I said that some time ago, and I need some of your other investigations to move forward. Your overall clear-up rate is simply not acceptable.”
“I know, sir, I w…”
“No, don’t talk, just listen. I have a dilemma, and I want you to go with my suggestion otherwise we will be forced to downgrade the coke works case. Now, D.I. Horton is still weltering under the ecstasy caseload, and I need to help him out. It just so happens that Maggie Reichert is cleared to start as a detective constable. I could assign her to Horton, or transfer Freda Collins to him and you take on D.C. Reichert as her replacement. He gets an extra body and you get a rookie to work with.
“Before you open your mouth, you need to know I’ve had Freda Collins in my office a few times over the last year or so, requesting this move, and I told her that I couldn’t see you being agreeable to it. She said that was part of why she wanted to switch, that she was stuck career-wise, and did not feel as if she was appreciated. This could be a neat solution. Now you can comment.”
Black thought over the teasing Freda had put him through about being owed a favour, and that she’d recently decided what she would like.
“Well, sir, I think you’re right, Freda likes to be in her comfort zone, not working odd hours, but doing simple legwork, and she doesn’t tend to think outside the box. Maggie is the opposite, and I would welcome the switch. Could I ask you a favour?”
“Maybe.”
“Could you tell Freda that the move depends on her convincing me it’s the right thing for the department? I’d like her to feel she’s extracting something from me, and that I would normally have resisted it.”
“That would also make her feel more valued, good idea. I’ll speak to her soon and then she’ll make her pitch to you.”
*
Moss’s next conversation was with Marion, whose stoicism was becoming an acquired taste.
“I did some more checks after you told me Max Vogt was deceased.”
“Oh yes, and what did you find?”
“Well he was apparently employed at the coke works, isn’t that a hell of a coincidence?”
He’d never breached her well-oiled façade of ‘handling’ every contentious remark as if it was about the long term weather forecast. She always got the balance right between taking the subject seriously and appearing completely untroubled in steering it to a cul-de-sac. This one hit a nerve.
“Yes, what could that mean?” she drawled, marshalling the barricades, “do you think he knew who was buried there?”
“If that person is German it would be the first thing I’d be considering, if I was in his position. It just shows how much we need to identify our skeleton Marion.”
“I agree, maybe Inspector Black will find something in the war records which will give us a lead on that. Have you been able to find out in what capacity Vogt worked at the plant?”
“Yes I have,” lied Moss, “but I need to confirm the information, I can’t just take the word of one person, even though I’m sure he’s right.”
“So are you going to tell me?”
“Or you could tell me. Either would work, and it would give me a warm feeling if it was your turn.”
“Let me check my old files, I might have missed something.”
It took a convincingly long time for her to find the appropriate section. Thumbing through the pages, she eventually crowned her performance by ‘discovering’ an item in the appendix, rather than the main document. She even showed it to him, as she made a pencil mark in the margin.
“Would you believe it? The complier of this report mustn’t have made the connection. I’ll be asking exactly why, very shortly, you can be sure of that. Mr Vogt worked out of what was to become the National Coal Board head office, and travelled to many installations around the country, but was paid out of the Derwenthaugh coffers.
“That should have raised a flag to all but a blind person. Look, he was an expert in fuel research and inter-conversion of various types. Jesus Christ, this has been right before our eyes for years.” Marion had given an award-winning performance.
Moss perused the entry, but she didn’t let go of the report. Appearing to run things through his mind, he suddenly produced a rapier-like request.
“Let’s call him Herr Vogt shall we? There is more and more evidence of a German connection about this case, Marion. I think it would be helpful if you tell me all you know about the man who was buried. I fail to see why you declined to share the fact that Vogt is dead. It would have saved me a lot of time, and I thought you’d like this case tidied up to your satisfaction as soon as possible.
“Marion, unless our relationship changes, I’d rather just work without your help. You may continue to interfere, even via my boss. That’s your job, but you really should consider at least telling me as much as you know about the identity of the skeleton man. We will find out. And if that is achieved in spite of your suppression of information, it may be you facing the sack, not just me.
“Inspector Black is being monitored by your lot, isn’t he? He’ll be guided around the maze, which has more than one exit. Think about this please. You probably knew that Max Vogt previously worked at a paint company in Crawley, and maybe you know some of his associates. Perhaps you can tell me how he got a job in the British energy sector, and who pulled the strings. I’m not interested in anything but identifying our corpse, deciding whether he died as a result of foul play, and who might have done such a deed.
“The grander scheme of things such as gunpowder, plot and treason are your concern. You’d like to wrap up the bones, pat us on the shoulder and disappear back into your caverns of mystery. But even your organisation can’t be so overtly covert can you? I’m just a policeman Marion, I can get away with a few mistakes, but you don’t have such luxury. You would be making a serious error in underestimating Inspector Black. And then there’s the media, we both realise that the press report was so accurate it could only have come from your organisation or ours. I’ll be quietly looking into our team, and tightening the circle of those who need to know what I know.”
They parted after a protracted silence, staring deeply into one another’s eyes. Moss detected discernible discomfort in Marion Wentworth for the very first time.
*
Meanwhile, Black was frantically gathering his stuff in preparation for the trip to London. The car was already waiting to take him to the airport.
Freda entered the office looking a little nervous.
“Sit down,” grumbled Black, putting on a credible act of being let down, “I hear you have spoken to Moss about switching to D.I. Horton’s team. I’m going to keep this brief Freda, I obviously would have liked you to talk to me first, but then I remembered you saying you’d decided what favour you were going to call in from me. It was in that roadside restaurant, and I cut you off, saying we had to get back to see why Moss hadn’t signed the letter prepared by Frank Reichert.
“I realise now that I should have listened to you. Look, I don’t want to lose you, but at the same time it’s wrong to hold someone back in their ambitions. I’ve listened to Moss, and he made me see that the kind of work in Horton’s section will bring the best out in you. So, you have my support. This isn’t the proper time to say thanks for everything you’ve done, Freda, as I have to leave in the next few minutes. Can we have a bit of a knees-up when I get back?”
“No hard feelings then?”
“Of course not. Que sera, sera! Can you put all your notes on the coke works case in one file and let me have it now, I have to dash.”
“Yes, sir, and thank you.”
*
Maggie couldn’t wait to get started. That’s why Black had asked her to drive him to the airport. The switching of her and Freda would only become official in a few days, but Black didn’t w
ant to waste that time.
“Ok Maggie, in here you’ll find the stuff Freda has just given me, and the other envelope covers the rest of what we know. Familiarise yourself with all of it, particularly the sequence of events. I know it will take a lot of time but I want you to transcribe a new timeline on to one chart. Don’t let it out of your sight and don’t do it in the open office. This is going to become our bible, no one else’s. I’m sorry to drop this on you, and I don’t want to be more specific. I want your input, your analysis, and your conclusions, all free from outside influence, even mine. Got it?”
“Absolutely, sir. It’ll be ready when you get back.”
“On another subject, how’s your dad?”
“Not so good really. He sent his letter off to Germany, but I’m not sure if I told you he’d got a reply. Anyway, they stonewalled him. They sent his father’s disc back but basically showed no further interest in updating their records. He was hoping that by offering to fill in some of granddad’s life in the UK, he would learn more of his service record in Germany. They don’t seem interested, for whatever reason. It’s affected him more than he’ll admit.”
“I think we should speak with him again when I get back, if he’ll go along with that. Does he think it’s simply disinterest from the Abwehr, or that they may have certain policies regarding servicemen who don’t return to the mother country?”
“All I know is that he has always tried to find out what his father was unwilling to tell him. And it’s the Fatherland, not the Motherland, sir, which was a very different place back when the Reich ran the country. I get the feeling you think our case may be connected to this in some way.”
“Not necessarily directly connected, but it is the same time period we’re now investigating, and I’m going to London to look at war records, which should cover people like your grandfather, as well as whoever was dumped in the coke works. That could be one example of a connection, unless stuff like that has been removed because it still isn’t in the public interest to know about it. This isn’t your usual Professor Plum in the library with a candlestick, Maggie. I’ll keep an eye out for Ernst Reichert.”
