There was silence while Bennett absorbed what he’d been told.
‘Of course, he joined the party, didn’t he? Vane told us that.’
‘Indeed he did, sir.’
‘And the last thing the Nazis would want is for their reputations to be tarred by a case like this only months after they’ve taken power.’
‘I’m sure that thought occurred to them.’
‘So even if they do discover some link to our intelligence service it’s unlikely they’d want to air it. Mud sticks, after all.’
‘Quite. And there’s no prospect of anything more coming out at this end, is there? Lang’s background remains a mystery as far as our press is concerned. My impression is they’ve given up digging. I think your friends in Whitehall can sleep easy.’
‘My friends, Chief Inspector?’ Bennett favoured him with a stony glance.
‘A slip of the tongue, sir.’
Sinclair had derived some amusement from the minuet he had just performed with his superior. Not so Holly, who cleared his throat loudly.
‘Well, I think it’s a damned disgrace,’ he said bluntly. ‘The whole wretched business. What’s worse is, no one’s going to answer for it.’
In the embarrassed silence that followed, Sinclair returned Probst’s letter to his pocket.
‘And we’ve no cause to congratulate ourselves, either.’ The chief super was working up a head of steam. ‘There’s only one person who comes out of this with any credit: John Madden. I hope you’ll tell him that when you see him next, Angus. And thank him from me.
‘I will, Arthur,’ Sinclair promised him. He looked at his colleague with affection. ‘And sooner than you think. I’m going down to Highfield this weekend.’
A solitary figure was standing on the platform when Sinclair’s train pulled into Highfield. As he stepped from the compartment, the glint of sunlight on golden hair caught his eye. Helen Madden advanced down the platform to greet him.
‘John was planning to meet you himself. But the children insisted on an expedition into the woods. They’ve been cooped up for days with the rain we’ve been having. They’ll come back soaked, I know.’
The showery weather she’d been speaking of had begun to clear at lunchtime and the chief inspector’s train had passed through sunlit fields bright with spring flowers.
‘The house is packed at the moment. I hope you won’t find it too much for you. Franz was so pleased when he heard you were coming down. But you won’t see him till this evening. He’s been in London all day house-hunting.’
The blue woollen dress she was wearing matched the colour of her eyes, Sinclair noted. The pleasure he took in her company had never diminished with the years and he felt a lightening of his step as she linked her arm in his. They went out to where her car was parked.
‘I know you’ve been away, but it seems ages since we last saw you. I’m afraid it took me a while to get over that dreadful business. I needed time to recover.’
She glanced at him. They were driving past the village green.
‘But I’ve thought of you often, and particularly the day we went down to Midhurst. That family… the Ramsays… invited us. Not for the first time, either, poor dears. They wanted to thank John. But I hadn’t felt able to face them before. I thought it would be too upsetting. But it turned out to be a lovely day. Mrs Ramsay had organized a picnic for the children on the Downs and they’d also invited the man who was stabbed, Sam Watkin, and his family. It was his friend whose body was found in the burned out barn later. Eddie was his name. But they’d all known him, it seems, and they talked of him with such affection, particularly the girl, Nell, and her mother. They’d been trying to help him find a proper job – the Ramsays, I mean – and John and I could see how upset they still were by what happened.’
She mused in silence for a few moments.
‘Afterwards we walked up to the farm. The children insisted on seeing it and Nell told them the whole story. Needless to say, they were spellbound. They wanted to hear all the grisly details. It was poor John who couldn’t bear to listen. All he could think of was what might have happened. He knew better than anyone how close it came to ending in tragedy. People who don’t know him think he’s detached and unaffected by things. It’s because of his manner. But he’s not like that at all. He’s quite the opposite.’
She brushed a tear from her eye, then turned towards him, smiling. ‘But I don’t have to tell you that, do I?’ She touched his cheek with her hand as she spoke, a simple gesture that brought joy to the heart of the chief inspector, who saw that after all he had been forgiven. ‘That was a month ago, and it was only a few days later that I went to Germany.’
‘Yes, I heard about that from John. He rang me.’ The chief inspector became animated. ‘You brought Dr Weiss and his family back?’
‘I went over to help with the move. It seemed sensible, since I’m the one who speaks German, and I worried that Franz might not be able to manage on his own. You know his wife died?’
‘John told me.’
‘That was soon after Christmas. And something else dreadful had happened. They have two children, a son studying in America, and a daughter called Lotte, who was married to a university lecturer in Berlin, a young man called Josef Stern. He was active in politics, too much so, perhaps, and in the weeks before the Nazis came to power he got involved in a street battle with some brown shirt thugs and was terribly beaten. He never recovered consciousness and died in hospital. So thank heavens I went. They were both distraught, Franz and his daughter, quite unable to cope, and I took care of everything.
‘They had a house on the Wannsee, outside Berlin. It’s by the lake and lovely in summer when the trees are in leaf. But we never saw the sun while I was there, just leaden cloud. There’s a wall at the back of the house, and on the day I got there I found a Star of David daubed in yellow on it. I had it removed. The next day it was back, and again I made the gardener wash it off. And so it went on, day after day. I never saw who did it: there wasn’t a soul about. But each morning the star was there again. I finally got the house cleared and the furniture carted away, but I felt dreadful doing it. John and I spent a holiday with the family there two years ago and all I could think of was how happy they had been.’
She fell silent, and they continued through the village, passing the locked gates of Melling Lodge. Soon they were turning into the familiar drive where the lime trees were green with new leaf.
‘Franz is looking for a house in Hampstead. He wants to set up in practice. Lotte will live with him. She has a daughter called Hana, who’s six. Lucy’s taken a great fancy to her. She has such passions for people, my Lucy. Did you know your Billy Styles is one of her favourites?’
They’d arrived at the front door. Helen’s smile had returned.
‘He brought his fiancee down to meet us not long ago. Elsie’s her name. It must have been trying for the poor girl. Being put on parade is never easy. But to make matters worse, Lucy spent the entire day stalking her like a panther, watching her every move. Heaven knows when she’ll pluck up the courage to visit us again.’
Shown to his room, Sinclair returned downstairs ten minutes later to find his hostess sitting in a garden chair on the terrace, from which vantage point all the colours of spring were to be seen in the beds bordering the lawn and the air was sweet with the smell of honeysuckle.