The Secret of Spandau by Peter Lovesey

Author:Peter Lovesey [Lovesey Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2016-03-14T04:00:00+00:00

31

Red turned up early at the meeting-place – the central fountain in the Palace garden, hoping to get some time alone with Cal Moody – but the hope was frustrated. Heidrun and Cal arrived together precisely on time at 3.30 p.m. wearing identical ‘Olympischer Sportclub Charlottenburg’ tracksuits. It looked as if the interview would be as formal as the setting.

This must have been stage-managed by Heidrun. From what she had said before, she had strong doubts of Red’s ability to sustain a conversation on table-tennis, even after the crash course he had lately undergone as a spectator. The idea of testing him out probably appealed to her competitive streak. She certainly had a mean look this afternoon. She was like a boxer staring out the opposition before a fight.

Red didn’t let it trouble him. He had too much on his mind already. This was his big opportunity. He had set it up, and he didn’t mean to let it slip. There were vital things that he needed to know about the routine in Spandau, and Cal’s part in them. In twenty-four hours, he might be ready for the dialogue with Hess.

The garden was laid out in the French eighteenth-century ornamental style, which meant that nothing in the main area was permitted to grow more than knee-high. The result was that the sun beat down fiercely on anyone lingering for long in the centre. Red had cooled off for short periods in the fine spray of the windward side of the fountain, but it was no place for a press interview, so he suggested a move to the shadow of one of the avenues that lined the sides of the garden.

‘Does this kind of garden appeal to you?’ he asked Cal sociably, without expecting his question to lead at once to the subject that interested him most.

Cal cast his blue eyes rapidly over the dedicated efforts of two centuries of gardeners and commented, ‘Not much. If you gave me a choice, I’d be happier walking around the prison garden in Spandau. It’s a little overgrown these days, but I like it.’

‘Speer’s garden?’

‘That’s what we call it. He was Hitler’s architect, so while he was serving his time he devoted himself to making a place where the prisoners could walk. The directors encouraged it, naturally.’

‘Because it was work for the prisoners?’

‘Right. In its prime in the 1960s, that garden must have been one of the prettiest in the city. There are linden trees, pines, birches, lilacs, roses, hydrangeas, beds of irises. Some of us put in a few hours’ work there now and then to keep it from turning into a wilderness.’

‘I suppose Hess is too old to help?’ Red prompted him. This start was as good as a flier. For once, Cal was talking freely about prison life.

Cal grinned. ‘From what I hear, he was always too old to help. Maybe that’s unfair, but I know he only ever worked there under protest. They used to find him asleep in the wheelbarrow.

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