World War 2 Thriller Collection: Winter, The Eagle Has Flown, South by Java Head. Jack Higgins
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of war – defeat, disappointment, hunger. It will pass.’
‘I wish I could believe you, Dad. But the fact is that this poison is more prevalent among students than among any other sector of the population. Students – university students for the most part – fellows who were too young to go to the war, are more bitter about the defeat than the soldiers who were in the fighting. Veterans know in their hearts that the Germans were licked on the battlefield; the kids who weren’t there like to believe all that “stab-in-the-back” stuff. And the kids are the ones who get violent. They are full of energy and full of hate. They are looking for a cause, and Hitler will provide it for them.’
‘For God’s sake, don’t tell the Danzigers any of this, Glenn. Lottie’s father is worried sick at the idea of her remaining in Berlin. He always calls me up when he comes into town, and we usually lunch at the club. Some idiot friend of his sent him clippings from German newspapers. He had his office translate the stuff. I don’t know what it said, but he’s darned worried. So don’t tell him, huh?’
‘The club? Is Mr Danziger now a member of the club?’
His father looked flustered. ‘Well, no. They still have that stupid rule about members … but taking a Jew in as a guest is okay.’
Glenn could think of nothing to say. They sat in silence for a few moments. Outside there was the continual sound of motorcars, it was hard to believe that when he was a child the house had been so quiet.
‘He’s letting some little film company build movie lots and stages on his orange groves.’
‘Danziger?’ said Glenn.
‘Just a handful of cash and twenty-five per cent of the movie company.’
‘Is it a good deal?’
‘He’s gone soft in the head, if you ask me. Twenty-five per cent of nothing is nothing. Just like ninety-nine per cent of nothing is nothing. And what’s a movie company got in assets except its real estate?’
‘Did you tell Danziger that?’
‘Contracts, he says. Contracts with actors. Can you imagine how that would show on the auditors’ books?’
‘Movies are doing okay, aren’t they?’
‘Do you know how long it will take him to get real quality fruit growing there again?’
‘Danziger can afford a few mistakes,’ said Glenn Rensselaer.
‘I’m not sure he can,’ said his father. ‘The Danzigers are not rich.’
Glenn smiled.
‘I’m serious.’
‘I know you are, Dad, but I remember you telling me that his assets would total some five million dollars. How can you say he’s not rich?’
The old man did not reply for a moment. He didn’t think it was funny. But Glenn Rensselaer had noticed that this obsession with money, the raw measure of power that money represented, was one of the few ways in which his father’s old age showed. ‘To tell you frankly, I wasn’t happy to think of his eldest daughter marrying into the family. Lottie is a nice enough girl, of course, but not right for little Peter.’
‘Your “little Peter” is now a qualified lawyer and a junior partner in Winter’s holding company.’
His father seemed not to have heard. ‘I couldn’t say that to Danziger, of course.’
‘No, of course,’ said Glenn. In fact, old Cyrus Rensselaer’s opinion of Lottie Danziger’s suitability had not been sought by Harald Winter, by Veronica Winter, or by Peter Winter. And the old man had been hurt by that.
‘I miss her,’ said his father suddenly.
‘Veronica? But that’s half a lifetime ago.’
‘I should never have agreed to her going to Europe. I had a strange premonition about it.’
‘Really?’
‘But she was determined to go, and I wanted her to be happy.’ There was a passion in the old man that he’d not heard before. The loss of his beloved daughter was an agony that had tormented him all this time.
‘But that was more than thirty years ago, Dad.’
‘Wait till your children leave home; you’ll find out what it’s like.’
‘And me? Did you miss me?’
‘Sure I did. But I worried about Veronica. She was such a sweet child. So helpless, so trusting …I hate that bastard. You know that, don’t you?’
‘Harry?’
‘I’ll pay him back.’ For the first time his father smiled. It was the crafty smile that only the old know. ‘He’ll suffer as I’ve suffered. Then he’ll know what he did to me.’
‘You mustn’t blame Harry. He was an attractive man: powerful and ruthless in a way that Veronica found attractive…’ Glenn stopped.
‘Attractive in me? Is that what you were going to say?’
Reluctantly Glenn admitted it. ‘Yes, Harry is ruthless in that same way.’
‘And you didn’t admire it?’
‘It’s not my style, Dad. And that was just as well – we would have fought.’
‘You’re right, Glenn. You never fought me. You’ve been a good son. Did I never tell you that?’
‘You never did, Dad.’
‘Loyal. And I love loyalty. Just as I repay treachery. Want to know what I’ve done about Harry?’
‘I’m not sure I do.’
‘I’ve fixed it so that Peter is offered the job of a lifetime. And Harald adores Peter, the eldest.’
‘A job?’
‘A bank in Los Angeles. I recently bought a stake in it. They’ll offer Peter Winter a vice-presidency. He’ll come and live in America.’
‘A bank in Los Angeles?’
‘I fixed jobs for two of Dot’s boys in the bank there, and they are doing fine.’ Glenn nodded. He’d heard that the old man had gone to a lot of trouble for his stepsons. They, in return, had taken the name Rensselaer. ‘And Peter will do fine, too.’
‘I’d forget about it, Dad. You don’t want to come between father and son.’
‘What about father and daughter?’ the old man said shrilly. ‘That’s what he did, that Harald Winter, the swine.’
‘That was natural. He fell in love. He didn’t do it to give you a bad time, Dad.’
‘He fell in love with the Rensselaer money, that’s what he fell in love with; everyone knows that.’
‘He was doing all right without it.’
‘He was on the verge of bankruptcy. I bailed that tinhorn out, not once but twice, and then he had the nerve to pay me back in confetti.’
‘Let him be, Dad. Veronica loves you; she’ll visit you. Be patient.’
‘It’s too late now. He’ll find out what it’s like. He’ll find out and I’ll have the laugh on him.’
‘Take it easy, Dad.’
‘He’ll find out what it’s like to lose your favourite child.’
Glenn Rensselaer nodded but didn’t answer. He’d always known that he wasn’t his father’s favourite, but hearing him say it hurt, hurt like hell.
‘It’s nothing to cry about’
Veronica