Free The Secret of Spandau by Peter Lovesey Page B

peace?’ repeated Jane with heavy irony.
    â€˜Would you mind if I continued?’ Cedric mildly admonished her. ‘Albrecht comes up with a few names. He says,
I am of the opinion that those Englishmen who have property to lose … would be readiest to talk peace
. He mentions Sir Samuel Hoare, the British Ambassador in Madrid, and Lord Lothian, in Washington. Finally,…
the young Duke of Hamilton, who has access at all times to all important persons in London, even Churchill and the King
. Hess says he will consider the matter and send word in case Albrecht is to take steps. Interestingly, Albrecht records his strong impression that the conversation was conducted with the prior knowledge of the Führer.’
    â€˜But that doesn’t necessarily mean Hitler knew about the plan to fly to Britain,’ Jane pointed out. ‘They were just discussing peace feelers.’
    â€˜True.’
    â€˜So Hess plumps for the Duke of Hamilton,’ said Dick. ‘Why Hamilton?’
    It was Jane who supplied the answer. ‘We just heard. The Germans thought the idea of peace would appeal to the property-owning class.’
    â€˜Which accounts for your invitation here,’ Red slipped in. ‘Our expert on the idle rich.’
    Jane turned to Cedric. ‘Is that really why you asked me?’
    He drew on his cigar and answered with circumspection, ‘It’s not the only reason. But let’s follow it through the way it happened, shall we? I ought to mention that Albrecht Haushofer was on familiar terms with the Duke. They’d met in Germany and in England on various occasions before the war. Albrecht had actually stayed at Dungavel House. Hess now asked Albrecht to make contact with the Duke. It was to be done discreetly, by letter, through a friend of the Haushofers, an elderly Englishwoman living in neutral Lisbon. Hamilton was to be invited to Lisbon to talk to Albrecht.’
    He paused. ‘The plan misfired. The letter was intercepted by the British censor and passed to MI5. Hamilton wasn’t given a sight of it for many months, in fact until March 1941.’
    â€˜They were vetting him,’ put in Dick.
    â€˜Presumably. They suggested he made the trip to Lisbon with their blessing, to find out what it was all about, but he stalled. In effect, he was being recruited as an MI5 agent, and he asked for certain safeguards to be built into the arrangement. Besides, how would he explain his delay in answering the letter? It was still under discussion on 10 May, when Hess took off from Augsburg.’
    Red was frowning as he asked, ‘Are you telling us Hess had nothing back from the Duke and still went ahead with the mission? That doesn’t strike me as good German organization.’
    â€˜It may surprise you, then, that this was Hess’s fourth attempt to make the flight. He had been trying since December. Technical problems or bad weather caused him to turn back each time.’
    â€˜It doesn’t square with all the preparation,’ Red persisted. Would the Deputy Führer of Germany fly into enemy territory and throw himself on the mercy of some guy he’d never even met?’
    â€˜That’s what happened,’ murmured Jane.
    There was an affirmative grunt from Cedric. ‘Red’s right. It’s naive to suggest that Hess didn’t have other information to act on. He had his own intelligence agency, the
Verbindungsstab
, sending back reports from Britain and other places. Anglo-German contacts were secretly maintained in several neutral countries besides Portugal. No, he wouldn’t have come without some strong signal from a British source. The indications are that it was an acutely sensitive one.’
    â€˜We’re back to the brainwashing,’ said Red.
    Cedric nodded. ‘I think MI5 did their best to scrub it from his memory at Mytchett Place.’
    â€˜But you have a whisper who it was?’
    Cedric eased his way