The Poellenberg Inheritance (28 page)

‘I've been seeing the sights,' Dunston said. He held the handkerchief to his face, took it away and saw that fresh blood had stained it. He needed sticking plaster. By rights it ought to have a stitch. The man had given him a really professional karate blow …

‘What's doing?' He didn't want to know, but he had to say something to Fisher.

‘Plenty,' the reply came. ‘Look, I'm going to need your help. I know where the Salt is, and I'm going to pick it up with the Princess today. But there's a complication.'

‘Oh?' Dunston said. Every tooth was aching down the injured side of his jaw. ‘What's happened?'

‘The General,' Fisher said. ‘He's with Paula. When we go to get it, he'll be waiting. I don't want her hurt, if there's any trouble. I want you to come along.'

‘Where is the Salt?' Dunston said. His mind was far ahead of the conversation; he sucked hard on his lip, seeing again the figure looming at him as he struggled with the girl, delivering that expert blow. It was a killer stroke, aimed at the neck. There had been an impression of a tall man with white hair, now he remembered it. White hair.

‘Christ,' he said again, but softly, so that Fisher couldn't hear. That was who had saved Paula Stanley. Of course; he must have been hiding in the suite …

‘Where is it?' he repeated.

‘In the Ritz. In the General's old suite where he lived during the war.'

‘Very ingenious,' Dunston said slowly. ‘And I believe you're absolutely right. When you go for the Salt you'll find the both of them with it. Don't worry. You can count on me to come along. Just let me know the time.'

‘I will,' Fisher promised. ‘As soon as I've seen the Princess. And not a word about the General when you meet her. I've a special reason; I don't want the police called in on this.'

‘Why should you?' Dunston asked. ‘You won't need them. I'll come along and hold your hand.' He hung up. She wouldn't be able to complain. With her father hiding out with her, she wouldn't dare say anything to call attention. He took out the shirts he had packed and put them in the drawer again. She couldn't accuse him of anything, and risk the police coming round. He was safe. And Fisher had called him in. To recover the Salt. He opened the smaller drawer in the chest and took out his Smith and Wesson pistol. He loaded it, and put it in his pocket. He was going to confront a dangerous war criminal, wanted by Interpol. Two birds, he said to himself, and laughed, which changed into a grimace of pain from his swollen cheek.

Two birds with one stone. He might very well earn his money and a medal at the same time.

‘Don't be afraid,' the General said. ‘I'm not going to hurt you. Look at me, Paula.' She had fallen to the ground when Dunston flung her against him; he knelt beside her, an arm round her shoulders. Her face was streaked with tears; she stared up at him and he saw the expression changing in her eyes.

‘I am your father,' he said quietly. ‘I am your father.'

‘Father?' It was a whisper, for a moment her mouth quivered, and then she put up one hand and touched him.

‘It's you?'

‘Yes, it is. Don't cry, my darling child. Let me look at you.' He helped her up and for a moment they stood, the General holding her at arm's length. He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. Paula took a step forward and threw her arms around his neck. For a long, silent space they stood locked together.

‘I can't believe it,' she said. ‘It's really you, and you did come … That man – he suddenly attacked me …'

‘I heard you cry out,' the General said. ‘He was trying to kill you. Why?'

‘Not kill, rape.' She shuddered. ‘I know him slightly. My God, if you hadn't come in …'

‘I should have killed him with that stroke,' the General said. ‘But one slows down, one loses the old skills.'

‘Father, you shouldn't have taken this risk! Without the glasses, anyone would know you.'

‘It's our eyes,' he said and smiled. ‘The mark of Cain. You're beautiful, just as I imagined you. Sit down with me, and give me your hand. For twenty-seven years I have dreamed of this.'

‘And so have I,' she said. Her eyes filled with tears. It was a handsome face, but lined and tight skinned; the brilliant blue eyes gazed at her with tenderness and triumph. The hand holding hers was gripping hard.

‘Smile,' he commanded. ‘Smile for me, be happy! This is the most important day in both our lives.' He raised her hand and kissed it. ‘Tell me the truth, am I a disappointment? An old man – feeble and white haired? Am I what you expected?'

‘I don't know,' Paula said. ‘I never even saw a photograph; I hadn't anything to judge by. I just made up a picture of you when I was a little girl, and said, “that is my father, that's what he looked like”. I am so happy to find you, I can't think of anything to say. I can't express it, I'm sorry.'

‘I knew you'd come, when Schwarz gave you my message. I knew you'd find out where the Salt was hidden. But before we come to that, my darling, I want to know about you.'

‘How did you ever find me?' Paula asked him. She slipped her free hand through his arm and clung. There was a fresh, barbered smell about him. Seated so close to him she felt almost childish, as if the years had dropped away from her. ‘Oh, Father.' She leaned her head against his shoulder. ‘I'm so glad we're together.'

‘And so am I,' he said. ‘I saw the report of your divorce in the English newspapers. That's how I recognised you, you have a strong family likeness to my mother and my sisters. And I knew that Ridgeway was the name of the man your mother married after the war. So I sent Schwarz. He was a good man, very loyal. But even so I couldn't trust him with our secret. I had to send you the riddle because no man alive could resist the Salt. And Schwarz had seen it.'

‘Why didn't you just send for me?'

‘I would have done, if he hadn't been killed,' the General said. ‘When I was sure that you wanted to find me. I didn't know what your reaction to him would be.'

‘Mother never talked of you at all,' Paula said. ‘She told me you were killed on the Russian front.'

‘She didn't know the truth,' he said. ‘She couldn't be trusted with it. She hated me.'

‘I know,' Paula said. ‘She told me almost nothing, just that you were a general in the German army. They changed my name to Ridgeway.'

‘I was a general in the élite,' he said quickly. ‘In the S.S. where the best of our manhood served the Fuehrer. We were gods, Paula. We ruled the earth in those days.' He held her tight and smiled.

‘This was my suite during the occupation of France. I lived like a prince; the best food and wines, charming women, people bowing and crawling for favours. They were exciting years, wonderful years. I look back on them now and it's my present life that is the unreality. Mr. Weiss from Switzerland, working in Madrid.'

‘You don't regret the past?' Paula asked him.

His head was lifted and a proud smile curved his mouth. He looked down at her. ‘I regret nothing except defeat,' he said. ‘I regret what was lost, that's all. And we came so close, my child, so very close to winning everything. Now the Jews and the Communists run the world. It has no attraction for me any more. Tell me about yourself. Your marriage – what kind of man was your husband?'

‘It's not easy to describe him,' Paula said. ‘Mother liked him, because he had a snob value. But he wasn't made for marriage. All he wanted was motor racing, sex and excitement. It was disaster for both of us.'

‘That doesn't matter,' the General said. ‘Next time you will choose better.'

‘I'll never choose again,' she said quickly. ‘I'm finished with marriage. Now that I've got you, I don't need another man.'

‘You are a woman,' he reproved her gently. ‘Not a little girl. You must have a man to take care of you. Not an old father in sight of the grave.'

‘You're not to talk like that,' she told him. ‘I mean it; now I've got you I don't need anyone else. Father, all my life I've wanted someone of my own who loved me. Mother never did, the man I married didn't, now I don't care. To hell with them all. You and I can be together. I can spend my life with you and I shall be perfectly happy. That's why I came to find you. The Poellenberg Salt doesn't mean anything to me. It was you I wanted. And I've got you now.'

‘You don't know what you're saying.' The General spoke briskly. He hugged her for a moment and then let her go. He lit a cigarette. ‘You've no idea what you are suggesting. It is quite impossible. Believe me.'

‘Oh no, it isn't!. We're going away together – back to Madrid, if that's where you live. I'll move in with you and we'll just disappear.'

‘No.' He shook his head. He puffed out a stream of blue smoke. ‘No. You can't ally yourself with me.'

‘Why not? What do you expect – we meet here and then you just walk out and vanish? I'm not going to let you!'

‘I came to find you for a purpose,' the General said. ‘I left Spain, where I've been safe for ten years, and came back to Paris. Not to take you away with me to share my life of exile. A modest flat, a modest income, loneliness, boredom, anonymity! You think that is what I want my daughter's destiny to be?'

‘It's what I want,' Paula insisted. ‘It's what I've always wanted; to be with you!'

‘You are my child,' he said. ‘And all those years ago I put something away for you, when I knew that the end of our world was coming and I might well be killed. I wanted to make sure of your inheritance. I have kept one of the greatest treasures in the world to give you. And now, my darling, it is yours.'

‘I don't want it,' she said. ‘I don't want the Salt. It doesn't interest me.'

‘Stop being foolish.' He spoke sharply and he got up, leaving her on the sofa staring up at him. He began to pace the floor.

‘The Poellenberg Salt is yours. How can you dismiss it in that way? You've never seen it! You don't know what it means! A huge fortune in gold and jewels, a work of art that could command any price in the world – you will be one of the richest women – you will be powerful, sought after. You'll marry a prince, if you want one! People will fawn after you, as they did with me, anxious for a look or a word!'

‘Father, please,' Paula begged, trying to stop the flow. It had an ugly ring of exaggeration, there was a hard, impassioned look on his face which mocked his former gentleness. When he stared at her he was angry, almost hostile.

‘I may live like a nonentity, an exile – but you shall not! Come to Madrid and share my life – play nurse to me till I sink into the grave! If you imagine I would let you do it, then it was a great mistake for us to meet at all! No – you have a destiny. I planned it for you and you're going to fulfil it. You're going to possess the Poellenberg Salt. I've come to give it to you.'

‘It doesn't belong to me,' she said desperately. ‘It belongs to the Von Hessels. And they've discovered where it is – they're planning to get it some time today!'

He stopped abruptly; the hand holding his half-smoked cigarette lowered slowly to his side.

‘What do you mean? How can you know this?'

‘Because they have a private detective working on it; he contacted me and I gave him your clue. We made a bargain. He wanted to find the Salt, I wanted to find you. They know everything about it.'

‘You say they know where it is hidden?'

He was stiff and watchful, completely changed. Paula shivered. The man in front of her was stern and frightening. ‘Well,' he said, ‘answer me, Paula. Do they know where it is hidden?'

‘Yes; I told you. They intend to get it today.'

‘I see,' he said quietly. ‘That woman is trying to cheat me, it seems.'

‘They're entitled to it,' Paula said. ‘You took it from them, Father. It was in their family for hundreds of years; you looted it.'

‘That's what you think? You think I stole it from them? But they would try and say this, naturally. It is a lie. The Poellenberg Salt is legally mine. And legally yours. As you will find.'

‘No,' Paula said. ‘I mean this, Father. As far as I'm concerned the past is done with. I'm not your judge for what you did; but the Salt is part of it. I wouldn't touch it. I don't want to be rich or famous because of it. And you've forgotten yourself. You run a risk of being recognised as long as you stay here. An old woman called Madame Brevet recognised you; I went to see her and she spat in my face when I told her who I was. You had her son shot. We won't talk about that part of it, Father, but the Poellenberg Salt
is
part of it. And if you gave it to me now, I'd give it straight to the Von Hessels. I've promised to do exactly that, if I do have any claim.'

‘You fool,' he said slowly. ‘You fool, to propose such a thing. You know nothing about it. You know nothing of the truth. You'd give it back to Margaret Von Hessel?' He laughed, and it was harsh, contemptuous.

‘If you refuse it, one thing I promise you. She will never get it back!'

‘Oh please, please,' Paula begged. ‘Don't let's quarrel. Father, can't you see what really matters is you and me! Money isn't important to me, I don't want any of the things you want for me, I don't care about treasure or power or anything. I only have you in the world. And you talk about going away, leaving me – you'll break my heart if you do.'

He looked down at her and his expression slowly changed. He went over and held out his hand; she took it and he embraced her. She held him tightly, and for the first time since her childhood the prayer formed silently, please, God, please God … Don't let me lose him …

‘I want you to be happy,' the General said. ‘You are the only person I have ever loved. Thinking of you kept me alive, it gave me hope to know you were growing up, away from the ruin that followed our defeat. As a baby I held you in my arms and promised you the world. I am not the world, my darling. I have nothing to offer you – don't interrupt me, let me finish this. I have no future; I am an old man and I'm safe. For me that's enough. If I brought you back with me and saw you condemned to live my life, wasting yourself, then it is my heart that would break. I should lose hope completely. I can live through you, knowing that you are enjoying what I would have given you if we hadn't lost the war. Don't deny me this. Let me gratify my love for you. Take the Salt. At least,' he said slowly. ‘Let me show it to you and prove that it is really yours. Then if you refuse it …' He lifted her face and looked at her. There were tears in his eyes. ‘Don't deny me,' he repeated. ‘I have lived for this.'