Passenger to Frankfurt - Agatha Christie [76]
Chapter 18
Pikeaway’s Postscript
The meeting broke up at this point. It split into a definite rearrangement.
The German Chancellor with the Prime Minister, Sir George Packham, Gordon Chetwynd and Dr Reichardt departed for lunch at Downing Street.
Admiral Blunt, Colonel Munro, Colonel Pikeaway and Henry Horsham remained to make their comments with more freedom of speech than they would have permitted themselves if the VIP’s had remained.
The first remarks made were somewhat disjointed.
‘Thank goodness they took George Packham with them,’ said Colonel Pikeaway. ‘Worry, fidget, wonder, surmise–gets me down sometimes.’
‘You ought to have gone with them, Admiral,’ said Colonel Munro. ‘Can’t see Gordon Chetwynd or George Packham being able to stop our Cedric from going off for a top-level consultation with the Russians, the Chinese, the Ethiopians, the Argentinians or anywhere else the fancy takes him.’
‘I’ve got other kites to fly,’ said the Admiral gruffly. ‘Going to the country to see an old friend of mine.’ He looked with some curiosity at Colonel Pikeaway.
‘Was the Hitler business really a surprise to you, Pikeaway?’
Colonel Pikeaway shook his head.
‘Not really. We’ve known all about the rumours of our Adolf turning up in South America and keeping the swastika flying for years. Fifty-to-fifty chance of its being true. Whoever the chap was, madman, playacting impostor, or the real thing, he passed in his checks quite soon. Nasty stories about that, too–he wasn’t an asset to his supporters.’
‘Whose body was it in the Bunker? is still a good talking point,’ said Blunt. ‘Never been any definite identification. Russians saw to that.’
He got up, nodded to the others and went towards the door.
Munro said thoughtfully, ‘I suppose Dr Reichardt knows the truth–though he played it cagey.’
‘What about the Chancellor?’ said Horsham.
‘Sensible man,’ grunted the Admiral, turning his head back from the doorway. ‘He was getting his country the way he wanted it, when this youth business started playing fun and games with the civilized world –Pity!’ He looked shrewdly at Colonel Munro.
‘What about the Golden-Haired Wonder? Hitler’s son? Know all about him?’
‘No need to worry,’ said Colonel Pikeaway unexpectedly.
The Admiral let go of the door-handle and came back and sat down.
‘All my eye and Betty Martin,’ said Colonel Pikeaway. ‘Hitler never had a son.’
‘You can’t be sure of that.’
‘We are sure–Franz Joseph, the Young Siegfried, the idolized Leader, is a common or garden fraud, a rank impostor. He’s the son of an Argentinian carpenter and a good-looking blonde, a small-part German opera singer–inherited his looks and his singing voice from his mother. He was carefully chosen for the part he was to play, groomed for stardom. In his early youth he was a professional actor–he was branded in the foot with a swastika–a story made up for him full of romantic details. He was treated like a dedicated Dalai Lama.’
‘And you’ve proof of this?’
‘Full documentation,’ Colonel Pikeaway grinned. ‘One of my best agents got it. Affidavits, photostats, signed declaration, including one from the mother, and medical evidence as to the date of the scar, copy of the original birth certificate of Karl Aguileros–and signed evidence of his identity with the so-called Franz Joseph. The whole bag of tricks. My agent got away with it just in time. They were after her–might have got her if she hadn’t had a bit of luck at Frankfurt.’
‘And where are these documents now?’
‘In a safe place. Waiting for the right moment for a spectacular debunking of a first-class impostor–’
‘Do the Government know this?–the Prime Minister?’
‘I never tell all I know to politicians–not until I can’t avoid it, or until I’m quite sure they’ll do the right thing.’
‘You are an old devil, Pikeaway,’ said Colonel Munro.
‘Somebody has to be,’ said Colonel Pikeaway, sadly.
Chapter 19
Sir Stafford Nye Has Visitors
Sir Stafford Nye was entertaining guests. They were guests with whom he had previously