Jack Higgins - The Bormann Testament (The Testament of Caspar Schultz)

For a moment there was silence, and then Hardt said calmly, “I think you’d better go down to your cabin, Paul. It wouldn’t do to be seen on deck now. You might be questioned later on.”

“How did you know?” Chavasse said.

Hardt shrugged. “After you’d gone last night, I was clearing up some of Anna’s things. Apparently, she’d been reading Bormann’s manuscript and made notes in Hebrew as she was going along. It seems there was a chapter on Harvey.”

Chavasse turned and looked over the rail, down into the swirling fog. He shivered. “It’s a hell of a way to go, but I can’t say I’m sorry for him. He was directly responsible for Anna’s death.”

Hardt nodded. “This way is better all round. Famous British politician has tragic accident and the country avoids a scandal of world dimensions.”

Chavasse looked at him closely for a moment and then shook his head. “You’re a strange one, Mark. I don’t think I’ve ever really understood you.”

Hardt smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You loved her, didn’t you, Paul?”

Chavasse nodded slowly and sighed. “Not that it did her a great deal of good.”

“I loved her too,” Hardt said. “We’ll always have that bond between us.”

They walked along the deck and paused at the entrance to the lounge. Hardt held out his hand and said gravely, “I don’t think we’ll be meeting again, Paul.”

Chavasse took the hand and held it for a moment. He tried to think of something to say, but Hardt turned and melted into the fog before anything suitable came to mind.

The ship seemed to poise high on a wave, and Chavasse held his breath and for some reason thought of Anna. And then the vessel dipped smoothly down into the next hollow again and he pulled open the door and went inside.

Jean Frazer was typing busily when Chavasse went into her office. He sat on the edge of the desk and helped himself to a cigarette, and waited for her to finish what she was doing.

After a while, she removed her spectacles, leaned back in the chair, and gazed up at him critically. “You don’t look too good,” she said. “Was it rough?”

“Rough enough,” he told her. “Has he read my report?”

She nodded. “First thing this morning. Why didn’t you bring it in personally?”

He shrugged. “I needed some sleep. I don’t seem to have had much time for it during the last few days.”

“What you need is a holiday,” she said.

“That’s exactly what I intend to have,” he told her. “Is he in?”

She nodded. “He’s waiting for you.”

She replaced her spectacles and returned to her typing, and Chavasse moved across to the other door and opened it.

As he closed it behind him, the Chief looked up quickly and a smile appeared on his face. “I’ve been waiting for you to call, Paul. From your report, you seem to have had a hectic time of it.”

Chavasse slumped into a chair. “It was certainly one hell of an assignment. Didn’t you ever have even the slightest suspicion about Harvey?”

The Chief shook his head. “Plenty of prominent people were favorably disposed toward the Nazis in the years before the war. Don’t forget that for a long time Hitler seemed to be doing a good job. There were several politicians who thought like Harvey at the time.”

“He certainly managed to sabotage the operation,” Chavasse said, “and he was directly responsible for the destruction of Bormann’s manuscript.”

“He was nobody’s fool,” the Chief said. “On the whole, I’m glad you handled him the way you did. Saves a lot of unpleasantness all round.”

“You can thank Hardt for that, not me,” Chavasse told him. “If he hadn’t stepped in when he did, I’d have been the one to take a dive over the side.”

“For an amateur, he sounds a pretty useful type to have around,” the Chief said. “You don’t suppose he’d like a job, do you?”

Chavasse shook his head. “You’re wasting your time. He’s a dedicated man.”

The Chief smiled wryly. “Just a thought.”

He picked up the report and quickly skimmed through it.

After a moment, he went on. “So we can definitely say that Nagel and Steiner won’t trouble anybody again.”

“And you can count the guard at the castle, the man called Hans,” Chavasse said. “I think I broke his neck.”

“What about Kruger?” the Chief asked. “He sounds as if he could still be a thorn in somebody’s flesh.”

Chavasse pulled a newspaper out of his pocket and pushed it across the desk.

“That’s the afternoon edition. I got it on the way over. If you look at the bottom of page two, you’ll see a small item about the untimely death of Dr. Otto Kruger, well-known Hamburg physician. He was taking off in his own plane from a private airfield just outside Hamburg – destination unknown. Apparently, there was an accident. He nose-dived from three hundred feet.”

“Where do you think he was going?” the Chief said. “The United Arab Republic?”

Chavasse shrugged. “Probably. It seems a popular choice.”

“Wherever it was, he didn’t make it.” The Chief grinned. “That’s one thing about von Kraul. He doesn’t let the grass grow under his feet.”

“I must admit I like the way he works,” Chavasse said. “And he doesn’t look like what he is, which is certainly an asset in this game.”

“Yes, he’s quite a man.” The Chief sighed. “It’s a point worth remembering, that all Germans weren’t members of the Nazi Party, any more than all Hamburg police inspectors in any way resemble Steiner.”

Chavasse nodded slightly without replying. He had never felt so tired in his life, and he closed his eyes for a moment and tried to relax. He was like a hairspring that had been wound up too tightly and was taking its time in running down.

He fought against the feeling of fatigue, and as he opened his eyes, the Chief looked up from the report and closed it. “Taking it all in all, I think things might have been a lot worse.”

“I’m glad you see it that way,” Chavasse said. “After all, we didn’t get the manuscript and Bormann was dead anyway.”

“But you did save Heinrich Hauptmann’s life,” the Chief pointed out, “and you cleaned out a pretty nasty nest of rats. I wouldn’t be too depressed about things.”

He selected a cigarette from the silver box on his desk and went on. “It was a damned shame about the girl – this Anna Hartmann, I mean. She must have had all the guts in the world.”

Chavasse shook his head slowly. “There was more to it than that – much more. She suffered from a virtue few people are cursed with – complete integrity. On top of that… she was in love with me.”

Now that he had said it, he found that his hands were shaking slightly. He got to his feet, crossed to the window, and looked out into the garden. A light wind tapped against the glass and a single leaf spiraled down into the damp grass, leaving the plane tree in front of the window bare.

Behind him, the Chief said softly, “So it was like that, was it?”

Chavasse turned slowly. “When I entered this office, I intended to hand you my resignation.”

“And now?” the Chief said.

Chavasse smiled, and that slight, rather boyish smile illuminated his entire face. “Now, I think I’d like that holiday you promised me.”

When the Chief spoke, he sounded relieved. “That’s more like it. For a moment there, you had me worried.” He chuckled. “You’re overtired, that’s what it is. I know it hasn’t been much fun handling two tough assignments one after the other, but now you can get away from everything for six weeks or so and relax. Soak up a little sun. They say Bermuda is nice at this time of year.”