Midnight Never Comes - Jack Higgins [18]
'But not Donner?'
'Not Donner. He went into partnership with a man called Victor Wiseman. They bought an old Victorian house in Kensington in January, 1950, for three thousand pounds with the aid of a substantial mortgage and converted it into four flats which they sold separately over the next six months for a total of seven thousand, three hundred.'
Chavasse pursed his lips in a soundless whistle. 'And never looked back.'
'Donner certainly didn't. Wiseman dropped out with his half when they reached twenty thousand and bought himself a restaurant in Clapham. You've got to take chances in the property game and he just didn't have the stomach for it.'
'He must have been kicking himself ever since.'
'I expect so. Our friend was doing so well by 1952 that he was able to form the Donner Development Corporation. One of the first outfits to get in on multi-storey office block building in the city centres. Later, he formed his own finance company. Hire purchase for the millions. The biggest golden goose of all.'
'I should have thought he would have been worth rather more than your million by now?'
'You should see what he spends. He believes in living life to the full and he's made some enormous donations to some of the new universities.'
'When did he get married?'
'1955. To Gunilla Svensson, widow of a Swedish stockbroker who'd handled Donner's affairs in Stockholm.'
'A love match?'
Mallory shrugged. 'It certainly looked that way at the time, especially if you go by what the gossip columnists were saying. I should think it quite possible. She was a very beautiful woman.'
'And what about the daughter. Presumably Donner's her guardian?'
'That's right. She has relatives in the States, but none in Sweden or this country. She was at Heathfield till she was seventeen then did a year at finishing school in Paris. She's spent this last year at Stockholm University studying Sociology.'
'Doesn't she ever come home?'
'She's stayed with him frequently in London if that's what you mean and he usually flies across to see her once a month.'
Chavasse nodded. 'Takes his parental responsibilities seriously then?'
'It certainly looks that way. From all accounts there can be little doubt about the genuineness of his affection for her.'
'And what about her?'
'One can't be certain. On the other hand she doesn't have a great deal of choice in the matter. Her mother left her a sizeable fortune, but Donner holds it on trust for her until she's twenty-five.'
'An interesting situation,' Chavasse said. 'But where does it all lead?'
'I'm not really sure. That's where you come in. About six months ago, M.I.6 handled a very minor espionage affair. You may remember it. An Admiralty clerk called Simmons was caught passing classified information to a man called Ranevsky, a naval attache at the Russian Embassy.'
'He got five years, didn't he?'
'That's right. It was all very small beer.'
'Didn't the Russian claim diplomatic immunity?'
Mallory nodded. 'M.I.6. had him for a couple of hours and then he had to be handed over to his own people. They flew him out next morning. The really interesting thing proved to be the fifty one-pound notes he'd passed over to Simmons before they were arrested. They were new notes and M.I.6. managed to trace them to a Bond Street bank where a cashier not only recognised Ranevsky's photograph, but also remembered details of the cheque he'd cashed.'
'Are you saying it was one of Donner's?'
Mallory nodded. 'Genuine, too.'
'What did Donner have to say?'
'He wasn't asked anything, Paul. That side of things was never mentioned at Simmons's trial. It wasn't worth wasting on such an insignificant event. They simply dropped the whole thing fairly and squarely into my lap and told me to get on with it.'
'And you've been checking on Donner ever since?'
'That's right and the deeper we probe, the unhealthier it looks. From Burgess and Maclean onwards, everywhere we dig,