The Man Who Never Was Read online

  Vogt’s mental processing of this draconian behaviour spelled the need for urgent action. He knew what he had to do, but at present he had no idea how to accomplish such a task. Perhaps the solitary confinement would become an ally, rather than a restriction, in terms of how to plot his course.

  *

  High Spen

  The funeral was dignified in its simplicity. Cappy had always been an atheist, not to the point of trying to convert others to his view, just a passive non-believer. The service reflected this, the humanist thread wasn’t eclipsed by the obligatory church minister detailing the glorious afterlife. The gathering of friends back at the house produced the relief of having had to watch the coffin disappear, cutting the emotional cord of the here and now. It also produced a pivotal moment in the life of Harry, who hadn’t been allowed to attend the service, because he ‘wouldn’t understand’.

  When the last dregs of the mourners drifted away, Harry hugged Bella and said he was going to look after her now. Jack and Hilda experienced a compulsion to laugh at the same time their tears formed.

  “That’s nice Harry,” said his mother, “and you can pop down any time you want.”

  Jack tousled his son’s curly blond hair. Bella said nothing but realised that wasn’t how Harry saw the situation though his eyes, mature well beyond his years. She could see that the boy had lived for the vast majority of his life with her and Cappy. This was his home, and number six was where his father and mother lived. He could always visit them, which was much better than it used to be, as they were usually in places he had never heard of. He had just lost his granddad, and he knew it was forever. He wasn’t about to live somewhere else in case he lost the one constant presence during his five tender years, Bella.

  “No, I want to live here, with grandma. You and dad will be at work in other villages. I can help grandma when I’m not at school.”

  Bella could not intervene. It was Jack who relented first.

  “Hilda, he’s right in a way. Neither of us will be here when he comes home from school, so he knows where he can find Bella, either here or at the Co-op hall. It makes sense, at least for the time being.”

  Hilda nodded reluctantly, and apart from the practical arrangement, she confessed that her mother would be impacted by losing Harry so soon after the sorrow of Cappy’s departure.

  “Yes, you’re right, it will help to keep the family together, rather than splintering it.”

  There was another aspect which was of great importance to Bella, she had to continue to feel needed, to be an important cog in the family life. Of course she still had her paid job, but the chance to make the evening meal for Jack, Hilda, and Harry gave her purpose and self-esteem. It also helped her to fill the great void which was Cappy, only to be preserved now by memories. Harry was a ready conduit to those days. She hardly slept that night, but the horizon was punctuated with handholds and new dreams.

  A spin-off benefit for Jack was his clear path to modify the parts of number six without having to worry about Harry suffering further disruption to his life. There was considerable demolition and rebuilding to accomplish, and not having to be concerned about working around a child’s needs would shorten the period of pain for Hilda and himself. He would start in three days’ time, even though the planning approval was lying on the sideboard. It would be more respectful to Bella.

  *

  Winlaton Mill

  Vogt waited patiently for his chaperone to need the toilet. He grabbed the telephone and rang the number. He spoke in German.

  ‘Meet me at the coke works, tonight after midnight. You can slip in when the shift changeover is in operation. I am being guarded in the boardroom on the third floor of the main office block. There is an external fire staircase. You can prise open the door to the third floor with a chisel or something. It is not alarmed. The boardroom door has that name on it. If you burst in suddenly, you can overcome the guard before he can contact anyone. He isn’t carrying a weapon, and he is pretty fragile, just a security man who is a heavy smoker. Once you have disabled him, I can then pay you the rest of what I owe you, and we can take off. We have to get to a man in London to sort out a mess, otherwise we will both be arrested. I have to go now, he’s coming back.’

  The response was what Vogt wanted to hear.

  ‘Got it. Midnight it is then.’

  *

  Rotterdam, Holland

  Verdel didn’t answer the intercom alert with either a statement or a query. Years of experience guided him down to look through the small lens in the external door.

  “Theo, what the hell are you doing here?”

  “Can we come in, Cees? I’ll explain in a minute.”

  Inside the apartment the Dutchman repeated his question and Devlin replied.

  “I’m in a bit of a spot with my boss. It’s one of those situations in which you can’t win. He’s up to something but I can’t go over his head in case the deception goes further up the line, and I think it does, but I can’t tell you any more.”

  “Ok, I know the scenario. In that case who is your friend?”

  “That is a really long story, Cees. He is a German airman who helped me to expose this entire deception. You can trust him.”

  “Maybe I can trust him, on your say so, but any German in Holland at the moment is in extreme danger, and I am afraid I cannot get involved with him. Don’t tell me his name or anything else. He has to leave now. I can help you, but if that is not enough you will have to go with him. Sorry.”

  Karl smiled wistfully and patted Devlin on the shoulder.

  “He is right, sir. I will take my risk upon myself.” Turning to Verdel he asked, “Can I get to Oberhausen by train?”

  “You are mad to even think about that. Relations are not normal, and any trains which are allowed to cross the border will be crawling with security, it would ensure your capture. Your safest way is to make your way to the outskirts of Rotterdam on foot. Steal a bicycle, and then take a few days to reach the eastern border. You must then take extreme care, keep off the roads and proceed by a rural path at night, until you are certain that you are well into Germany. You must avoid any kind of checkpoint. I can give you a map to follow. Don’t worry, bikes are stolen all the time now, because nobody has any money for anything but food. The police cannot handle so many reports of petty crime.”

  Despite Devlin’s protests Karl was unmoved, he embraced the Englishman, who was quite shaken by such a gesture of familiarity. Devlin put his hand into his pocket and gathered a pile of guilder coins of multiple denominations. He gave them to Karl, and surprised him with another gift. The dog tag which had caused so much fuss in the camp and beyond, was dangled and then reunited with its Luftwaffe owner. There was an unspoken sadness at the parting of their ways for a full minute. Karl then surprised Devlin once more.

  “I must leave now to get out of the city before it is dark.” He scribbled the last known address of his family on a piece of paper and gave it to Devlin.

  “Maybe it is not goodbye forever.”

  Chapter 36

  London

  Both Moss and Black had travelled to London, leaving Maggie to action any tasks in the northeast which may arise from their session with Sophie Redwood. They were pretty sure they would learn something new, but had no idea of the import of what she was able to reveal.

  The hotel room allocated to Moss was only a marginal upgrade from scruffy, and he felt a little bit like a market trader trying to sell an image of sophistication. The carpets were tired and the plumbing was pre-war. Grotesquely flowered shades blocked most of the light from the flickering bulb, casting pockets of shadow, even before dusk.

  The seating options, or lack of them, meant one person would be obliged to sprawl on the bed. Black’s room was even less comfortable. Sophie looked them in the eye, first Moss, then Black.

  “You both remind me of Cheshire cats. A worrisome, choreographed smile. Let’s have it then.”

  Black was given the h
onour.

  “The Luftwaffe disc buried with the skeleton is that of Karl Heinz Buchwald, of that there is little doubt. We also have a full list of the prisoners who were kept in the High Spen camp, and documented evidence that the same man was detained in the Newcastle nick after having tried to leave the country on a Danish freighter.”

  “Yes.”

  “We believe that it means that he is our man. There is too much converging evidence, which can’t be ignored.”

  “Well Marion will be happy.”

  Moss made his first comment.

  “Why would that make her happy, Sophie?”

  “Because they aren’t his remains, you’re just supposed to conclude that they are.”

  Moss had his teeth around the bone now and wasn’t going to let go.

  “So, explain how you know this, and not just by telling us that your source says so.”

  “I will, but I’m glad you have drawn this conclusion, because we can print it at the right time. It is useful that you have put a name to the disc. Do you mind if we eat early? I’m finding this room very oppressive, and not appropriate for celebrating with a glass of champagne.”

  Now they were totally confused.

  They followed her to a bistro in which she was patently well-known. They settled down and the bubbly was delivered. Sophie asked the owner for privacy for fifteen minutes before they’d be ready to place their order.

  “Very well done, gentlemen. I will now, however, attempt to put your hard work into a wider context. Marion will endorse your conclusion and won’t express dismay that we printed it. When you find new evidence that Karl Heinz Buchwald lived long after the concrete covered the body at the coke works, she will be furious, but hopefully we will be ready for her. I need to sketch in more background detail for you.

  “Karl Heinz and Theo Devlin got out of the country and then split up. Devlin never came back from Holland. Why? Because he was buried there. He had no family and his wish was for his body to remain there; it had become his adopted home. His gravestone is still there, and here is a photograph of it.

  “Karl Heinz, on the other hand, made it over the German border and lived with his surviving family for a number of years, waiting for certain regulations to be relaxed, before finally contacting the Abwehr. He was treated with suspicion, and the British authorities were asked once more if they could trace this man after his escape from the camp.

  “MI6 stonewalled the question and the man was told he would be charged with some strange law on their statute which dealt with obstruction of post-war reconciliation of lost servicemen. Karl Heinz insisted that he was who he said he was, and produced his birth certificate. They then took him a little more seriously and asked him to come back in a few days.

  “Now, the bigger picture. If you recall, I said at our last meeting that there was a major deception programme at play. My source claims that the Germans already had blueprints for a concept, which will eventually be realised, even though today’s state of the art technology still comes up short. Please reserve judgement for a moment, and think of men like Einstein who visualised the theory of General Relativity, but died before inventions were developed to test it out by observable evidence. The V series rockets were but a crude stepping stone in the path to something much more sinister. What do you understand by the term ‘drone’?”

  Black’s sarcastic reflex response was, ‘a bee whose purpose is defined at birth, and solely but unconsciously providing balance, ultimately helping to ensure the queen flourishes, yet distinct from the workers, which have an inborn, direct drive to do so.”

  “Right, and if I continue to use your analogy, a dumb, pilotless projectile can be used as a platform for a huge range of weapons. The very large can deliver unprecedented carnage anywhere on the planet, and a very small one can seek out and kill an individual. Anonymous assassination of power brokers, or hell beyond anything we have ever seen.

  “The problems back in 1945 were considered to be microelectronics and efficient, safe fuels. The main drawback today is the lack of something which has been labelled as GPS, or a Global Positioning System.

  “Now, back to the immediate post-war period. The list of items to be taken, shared, destroyed, or hidden was almost endless, as I said last time we met. This Drone concept was high on that list, especially as the American-Russian brinkmanship was predicted, and verified by the Cuban missile crisis. The contributors to the Drone research, whether or not they had been allies or on opposing sides during the war, had to be identified and either harmonised to the cause, or made to disappear.

  “One small facet of this ‘restructuring of trust’ involved the various espionage programmes, which had to percolate through the revolving door of the intelligence organisations. There were potential loose ends which needed to go away - either by manipulation or by being guillotined without remorse. Successive generations of MI5, MI6 and their German equivalents, have become complicit by inheritance, the latest being Marion and Stone.

  “My source, you should have guessed by now, preceded them by some years. He will know when we reach the point of no return for either of them to save their careers, bringing an end to his own in the process. Being a whistle-blower is a dangerous path to tread. He would rather go down for this, a belated moral stance, than risk losing his family.

  “My apologies for the lecture, but you did ask. Every day brings a risk that something will happen to push the human race toward self-destruction. Balance is fragile, as we’ve learned from the proliferation of nuclear warheads. This Drone technology is assessed as being strategically important because of the incredible flexibility of scale, accuracy, and totally flexible altitude capability, covering both near-ground and stratospheric manoeuvers. During the war and in the immediate aftermath, the espionage activity was one of a duplex nature. But later, as fast as loose ends were tied up or amputated, new tentacles were created, and it is not known for certain if this technological thrust is also being replicated by the agglomerate known as the Soviet Union.

  “There is a tacit agreement between the former main antagonists, Britain and Germany, plus other members of the European Common Market, which states that all vulnerabilities by which the Soviets can begin or continue to fast track this research, should be nullified. Easier said than done. So, isn’t Marion doing what is best for Britain? That’s one way of looking at it, unless you believe that real deterrents are a product of mutual balance.

  “Furthermore, spying won’t go away just because it becomes more difficult, it merely ups the stakes. My story will never be allowed to reveal this scenario, I’m sad to say, but I need Marion to know it lurks out there in a safe place, unless she helps us to conclude a truly independent investigation of our case, and the others which have occurred around the country.

  “Protecting the interests of national security doesn’t have to mean that individuals who have ordered the deaths of British and German citizens should escape murder charges. Some of the deceased were actually working for the people who had them eliminated. Marion and her immediate superior should face up to that responsibility, just as high-ranking members of the Third Reich were pursued as war criminals.

  “Theo Devlin was one such thorn in their side, and exhumation would prove he did not die of natural causes. They finally found him, and they killed him. We may even find the ring with his remains. Obviously not the one you found in the coke works, he had the counterpart ring. My source is adamant that he never surrendered that ring to his boss when he left the country with Karl. Do I need to go on? You are both very quiet.”

  Black’s rationalisation was straightforward.

  “Sophie, my job is to bring criminals to justice, plain and simple. It doesn’t make any difference to me whether they are scallywags or royalty, I want closure without distraction. I admire your stance, and I still want to work with you, but that’s also up to Superintendent Moss. I’d like to think he agrees with me.”

  Moss was more circumspect
.

  “We can be seen to have worked with you, but not for you. I do agree with Black’s succinct summary of his personal leanings. The political stuff is a step too far for mere plods, Sophie, but I also support your reason for pushing this all the way, nobody is above the law. I’d like you to guide us to the identity of the man under the concrete, if you are sure it isn’t Karl Heinz Buchwald. We aren’t in a position to check your claim that he was still alive after the body ended up under the concrete, but if you can provide proof, it would surely help when we have to admit we were wrong. Even better would be the name of the man who was buried with Karl’s dog tag.”

  “I will be able to reveal the name which belongs with the skeleton, and proof that your evidence that it was Karl is suspect. Surely you both realise that an investigation which is exclusively conducted by a journalist does not have the gravitas to spark an independent inquiry. The ‘artillery’ of national interest would be assembled to discredit me. The populous must at least see the very same evidence verified by an apolitical organisation such as the police. Murder is murder isn’t it? Can we meet again tomorrow?”

  It was agreed as the waiter asked if they were ready.

  *

  Once she was back in London, Marion wasted no time in debriefing her boss. The emergence of Gunther Klein was another example of how poking a stick in precisely the right spot in a wasp’s nest can destroy the illusion of control.

  “Sir, I’m of the opinion that we may have to begin to be seen to go with the flow on this one. The long-standing objective of keeping certain things in cold storage has been compromised by this damned incident at the coke works. It could have been contained but for this journalist. I’d hazard a guess that she has not only fuelled intense public interest in the mystery, but hasn’t yet published everything she knows. It’s a strange coincidence that Gunther Klein has suddenly resurfaced. I’ve given serious consideration to this Czech offer to lure him to Newcastle, but now I actually recommend taking a step back. We suddenly need a flavour of humility, and a credible reserve of deniability, in the event that other names re-enter the fray, Devlin in particular.”