A normal working day began. Colonel Tucker, adjutant to the city commandant, looked in briefly, but there was nothing for him. Mr Gold, the inscrutable representative of the State Department, who apparently didn't speak a word of German although he came from Frankfurt am Main, brought the city commandant an envelope with 'Confidential' stamped on it, and Anny Randolph gave him a receipt. Herr Bongarts did his weekly round with his little bottle and brush, disinfecting the four hundred phones in OMGUS. The Americans feared germs even more than Communism.
Henry Abbot rose courteously when Detta entered his office, and pointed to one of the armchairs. 'Do sit down, Henriette.'
'Thank you, sir. It's about the licence to publish a new Berlin newspaper, isn't it?'
'My press officer Major Landon has checked up on the applicants. He has no reservations about them, but I'd like you to see them both. I rely a great deal on your understanding of human nature.'
'Only a bit of common sense, General,' said Detta.
The German visitors were punctual. Detta introduced them to the general. Hermann Lbttge was a printer and had the necessary machinery. He didn't say much, but his partner talked enough for two. 'I shall look after the publishing side. I've had years of organizational experience in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, entirely apolitical, as you can see from my files. My school friend Leo Wolf will be editor-in-chief and put the editorial team together. He was in a concentration camp,' he concluded on a triumphant note.
Detta interpreted. Henry Abbot listened attentively. 'Does having been in a concentration camp automatically qualify you for the post of editor-inchief?'
'Oh, please, commandant! The man is Jewish, of course. They're the cleverest folk you can find. Apropos of which, I would just like to say that I helped many of my Jewish fellow countrymen. I can prove it.'
The Goldbergs, for instance, thought Detta. She had recognized former Under-Secretary Aribert Karch at once. He obviously didn't know what to make of her. 'For a moment I thought we'd met before,' he said when they were back in the outer office.
'You thought correctly, Herr Karch. At Miriam Goldberg's farewell party in Gumbinner Allee. You were generously helping her and her family to get out of the country at the time. I'll write to her in America. I'm sure she'll support your application for a licence. By the way, do you still belong to the Circle of Friends of the Reichsfiihrer SS?'
Karch winced as if he had toothache. 'We all had to move with the times.'
And some of us moved further than others.'
'I don't understand a word of this,' said the printer.
'It does you credit, Herr Luttge. Goodbye, gentlemen.'
'Herr Karch has withdrawn his application,' she told the general.
'Couldn't he have done so a little earlier?' growled Henry Abbot, annoyed.
'He needed a little coaching.'
The blind man moved away from the street light on the corner of Waltraudstrasse and fell into step with Detta. 'I heard you coming a long way off. How are you this morning? I've been thinking of you all night. You are beautiful. A real lady. I can tell from your voice. I once knew many beautiful women. None of them have any time for me today. But you're different.'
Detta bristled. The fact that she had kept him from an accident yesterday gave him no right to take liberties. 'Excuse me. I'm in a hurry.'
She walked faster, but he was not to be shaken off. His stick kept time with her footsteps. It somehow sounded threatening. 'You work for the Americans, don't you? You'll be showing them what German punctuality is like. Unfortunately none of that concerns me now, out of service as I am. Who'd be interested in whether I arrived late or indeed at all?'
The guard would stop him following her in. She wasn't in the mood for this chatter. He took her silence as interest. 'Not so long ago it was different. The ground crew welcomed me back with a bottle of bubbly for every victory in the air. I got the Knight's Cross after the twenty-fifth.'
Thank goodness, the guard. 'I'm afraid you can't come any further. Goodbye.'
'Brandenburg, Captain Jurgen Brandenburg, Richthofen Fighter Squadron,' he called after her.
The city commandant was in unusually high spirits. 'Guess what, Henriette, I found a completely intact, seaworthy yacht in the Wannsee wharf. All mahogany and teak. A fine boat. The old boat builder there says it will take him a month to strip the Astra down. He'll do it for a few cartons of cigarettes. And then Colonel Hastings of Transport Command will take her to Bremerhaven for me, and we'll ship her home. Six weeks in the shipyard and she'll be like new.'
'What about the owner?'
'Some German.'
Detta was indignant. 'I am "some German" too, General Abbot. Unfortunately I don't have anything you can take away from me and ship home. If you'd excuse me. '
'One moment, Henriette.'
He's going to fire me, she thought.
'The owner of the yacht is called Erpenborg, a stamp dealer. A nice old fellow who doesn't sail any more. We agreed that I'd send the estimated value in dollars to his sister's account in Rio. She'll use it for her children there.'
'Will you accept my apology, sir?'
'Only if you'll come to dinner with us this evening. We have a surprise for you. Lucy likes you very much. So do I.' Embarrassed, he looked at the floor. Then he was the correct West Point officer again. 'Well, now to work. What do we have?'
The Evangelical Bishop of Berlin had a request. Curtis S. Chalford put his rosy face round the door. He had a proposal for regulating the working hours of German employees of the army. The city commandant saw a group of district council members from Schoneberg. Then it was lunchtime.
Detta could have gone to eat lunch in the Harnack House. She had a special permit, making her the only German woman there. But it went against her deep-rooted Prussian principles to accept favours from the victor. She saw her own dilemma clearly: on the one hand, she was grateful to the liberators who had freed her from the yoke of the oppressor: on the other, she still saw them as the enemy.
There was a stretch of woodland behind Truman Hall. The pine trees here were young, and so far had escaped the attentions of the black-market woodcutters. Soon they would be uprooted and a housing estate would be built on the sandy site; there had been plans before the war to erect one for the growing population of Berlin, and now it was to be built for the Americans. She sat down on the warm ground, which was cushioned with pine needles, and closed her eyes. Ever since Henry Abbot had mentioned the yacht and the Wannsee she had been thinking about David and the motorboat Bertie. It was ten years ago, yet those ten years seemed an eternity. She imagined his freckled face over her, grave and concentrated, concerned rather than passionate, as he tried to penetrate her without hurting her. She couldn't help laughing, and it did her good.
'You're in a cheerful mood, ma'am.' A voice interrupted her memories. The blind man was standing in front of her. 'May I?' He sat down close to her. 'Captain Jurgen Brandenburg, as I said before. Twenty-eight victories in the air, until the rear gunner of a B-17 got me. A blow on the head. Everything suddenly blurred around me. I've no idea how I got my plane down. Everything was black after that. Until today.'
Dislike arose in her. She wanted nothing to do with this man. 'I'm very sorry, but I can't help you.'
Only a year ago I'd have invited you to Horcher's or the Adlon. The waiters bowed there, and all the pretty ladies couldn't say yes quick enough.'
She rose to her feet. 'Please don't try to meet me again.' She forced herself not to run but walk calmly. There was no reason to panic. The OMGUS entrance was barely a hundred metres away. Yet she still had that oppressive feeling, even when she had passed the guard.
Frau Mohr inspected Detta's simple black dress and her blonde hair, smoothed back and worn in a chignon. There were no hairdressers open yet. She pointed to her shoes. 'Those casuals won't do at all. Try my black pumps.' The smoky-grey nylons were a present from Anny Randolph, and set off Detta's long, slender legs to perfection. 'Quite a few gentlemen will be turning to look,' said her landlady happily.