The Poellenberg Inheritance Read Online Free PDF

cautious.’
    â€˜Would you like to give me the details now?’ Fisher suggested. He was in need of a cigarette, but he remembered the chauffeur’s warning. The inhibition made him even more irritable than the deprivation. Who the hell did she think she was, that he couldn’t have a cigarette when he wanted one …
    â€˜As you know.’ The Princess began what he suspected was a prepared speech. She had folded her hands and settled in her seat. He recognised the symptoms of rehearsal. ‘As you know, the Nazis conducted a systematic policy of looting art treasures during the war. They confiscated pictures, jewellery, objets d’art and every kind of valuable; I had the misfortune to go to Goering’s house and see the result of this disgraceful pillage for myself. The houses of all the high-ranking Nazi officials were stocked with other people’s property. They stole from some of my dearest friends in France, for example. The property was recovered after the war and returned to them in a deplorable state. It was in Berlin and the house was shelled by the Russians. There was a magnificent Titian which was ripped to pieces by shrapnel. It was very sad.’
    Fisher sat still. It was going to be a long speech. Her eldest son shifted his position behind the sofa. Fisher noticed that he gripped the back of it so hard that his knuckles were taut against the skin. Unrelaxed, that was Prince Heinrich. Finding it a strain standing at attention like a dutiful soldier behind the general’s chair …
    â€˜All this you know, Mr. Fisher, as I said before. What you probably don’t know is that these creatures stole equally from their fellow Germans. There are many old families in this country who were looted as if they were enemies. A lorry with S.S. troopers just pulled up outside the door, and loaded everything from a list which had probably been made when some senior official was a guest in the house. It was infamous, and I could quote you several cases.’
    â€˜And is that what happened to you?’ Fisher interrupted. He wasn’t interested in the vicissitudes suffered by those who wined and dined the members of the Nazi hierarchy. The woes of the aristocracy seldom moved him to compassion.
    â€˜No, it was not,’ she answered. ‘We were too important to be treated in that way. My husband had a certain amount of influence with people like Goering, for instance. He was a dreadful gangster but he had come from a gentle family and it was possible to trust his word. We were not harmed in any way.’
    â€˜But something was stolen from you.’
    â€˜Yes. Stolen. Taken out of Schloss Würtzen, our house in the Rhineland. I must tell you, Mr. Fisher, I had given up any hope of recovering it until I read this in the newspaper. Philip, get the cutting of the Allgemeine Zeitung , will you? It is in the second drawer of my bureau, on the left.’
    Fisher watched the son move across the room. By contrast with the rigid figure of his elder brother he was pleasant to watch. He walked like a human being. He even looked across at Fisher and smiled as he handed his mother a newspaper cutting. She held it out and Fisher took it. He read it quickly; he showed no sign of surprise. Impassivity was part of the job. But if this tied in with the Princess’s desire to recover her stolen property, that thousand-pound cheque was just confetti. He gave the cutting back to her.
    â€˜It’s only a report,’ he said. ‘There’ve been a lot like it.’
    â€˜Not for this man,’ she said. ‘He’s been accounted dead since 1945. Believe me, Mr. Fisher, we made our own enquiries after the war, and they all said the same. Dead. Positively identified and buried. Now this report says he was seen in Paris, walking down a street in broad daylight.’
    â€˜I presume this means he’s the thief,’ Fisher said.
    â€˜It does.’ She nodded. The