man with white hair, in an old cardigan and carpet slippers, came in and stared at them. He shuffled into the lounge.
‘Thought I ’eard someone in ’ere.’ He had a high-pitched voice with a Birmingham accent. He peered at them short-sightedly, quite unafraid. ‘Who are you?’
David said, ‘We’re friends of Dr Muncaster, we’ve been to visit him in hospital.’
‘Do you live in one of the other flats?’ Geoff asked.
‘The one above. I’m Bill Brown.’ The old man looked around the room. ‘It were me called the coppers, last month. You’ll know all about it, if you’re friends of Dr Muncaster.’
‘Yes.’
The old man shook his head. ‘I’ve never heard anything like it, screaming and shouting then that window going. I looked out and there was that poor man lying on the ground, I thought he were a goner.’ He stared at them, bright-eyed. ‘And Dr Muncaster yelling and raving, smashing things up. Thank God me daughter got me to have the phone put in, I dialled 999 straight off. I can do without things like that at my age. I’m eighty, y’know,’ he added proudly.
‘Who boarded the window up?’ David asked.
‘I got the freeholder to do it. He’s a spare key to all the flats. He left one with me.’ Bill stared at him with watery eyes that still had a sharpness to them. ‘A house with a broken window’s a magnet for burglars. How is Dr Muncaster? Is he coming back?’
‘Not in the near future.’
The old man nodded. ‘Are you family?’ He looked round at them.
‘My friend and I were at school with him.’ David didn’t give their names. ‘We’ve come up from London to see him. We heard what happened through someone at the university. We came over to check everything was all right here.’
‘’Ow’s Dr Muncaster’s brother?’
‘He’s safely back in America,’ Natalia said,
‘Broken arm, the police said.’ Bill looked round the chaos again. ‘’E were always very quiet, Dr Muncaster. Polite. Never thought he’d go off his head like that.’
‘No,’ David said. He added conversationally, ‘Apparently he was shouting about the end of the world.’
‘He were that. Never ’eard anything like it. This has always been a quiet house, I’ve lived here since my wife died. Fifteen years. Gor, the way he was raving, yelling. How the world was ending.’ Bill looked at Natalia. ‘Are you German, miss?’ he asked suddenly.
‘No.’
He held her gaze for a moment, then asked, ‘What are they saying at the hospital?’
David answered. ‘They don’t seem to know much. When we saw Frank he was very quiet.’
‘Bartley Green loony-bin, isn’t it? A man I worked with had a sister in there once. Said it was a miserable place. Of course once you’re in somewhere like that often you’re there till they bring you out in a box.’ Nobody replied. ‘Like I said, I’d nothing against him. Though that funny grin of his used to give me the willies.’ Bill looked at the photograph of Frank’s father. ‘That his dad?’
‘Yes.’
‘Doesn’t half look like him. I lost me son at Passchendaele.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Geoff said.
Bill turned to him. ‘We were fighting the wrong enemy then.’ His eyes brightened. ‘Have you ’eard about the Jews?’
‘What about them?’ David asked.
The old man smiled. ‘They’re being rounded up, all over the country. It was on the news: Mosley’s to broadcast on TV about it later. They were all taken away this morning.’
‘Where to?’ David asked.
‘No idea. Isle of Man, Isle of Wight? I think it’s best to turn ’em over to the Germans.’
‘Are you sure about this?’ Geoff asked.
‘’Course I am. I told you, it was on the news. Surprise, innit? I never realized how many Jews there were in Brum till they made ’em wear those yellow badges. Good riddance. Glad I won’t be seeing them badges any more, they gave me the creeps.’ Bill looked between the three of them, then said sarcastically, ‘Still, you sound like educated people, mebbe you don’t see it that way. Well, I’ll leave you to it.’ He glanced around the flat again. ‘If ’e’s not coming back, maybe this place should go on the market.’ He nodded at them, smiled maliciously, then shuffled out, shutting the door behind him.
David turned to Natalia. He said, trying to keep the shock from his voice, ‘Looks like you were right. About the Jews having no future.’
She didn’t answer. Geoff said, ‘It’ll be part of some deal with the Germans, Beaverbrook will have got something in return.’
Natalia said, ‘I think we should leave. There’s nothing here.’ She frowned. ‘The end of the world. What did he mean by that?’ She looked around the room again, took a deep breath. ‘Come on, we should find a telephone box, ring Mr Jackson.’
GUNTHER AND SYME DROVE ON TO Birmingham, the windscreen wipers working against the misty rain. Syme looked preoccupied, lighting cigarettes one-handed. He was suspicious, Gunther guessed; having seen Muncaster he couldn’t believe he could be a man with dangerous political contacts. He knew something else was going on.
‘How long since you visited Berlin?’ Gunther asked, to begin a conversation.
‘Five years. I bet it’s changed a lot. They hope to have all those huge new buildings ready for the 1960 Olympics, don’t they?’
‘Yes. But there are problems with building such huge structures on sandy soil. They are still digging the foundations. They will be finished in time, they hope.’ He smiled at Syme. ‘The centre of Berlin is always so dusty. Lots of people have chest problems these days.’
‘Do you have a house there?’
‘Just a flat. My wife and I had a house but it was sold in the divorce.’
‘Maybe if I do a spell in the North I can earn enough for a mortgage on a decent-sized house. Then I might look round for a nice girl who doesn’t mind the hours.’
‘Yes. There is nothing like a house and family.’ Gunther spoke regretfully. ‘I hope to visit my son in the spring. In Krimea.’
‘Any problems with Russian terrorists there?’
‘Not in Krimea. We cleared the natives out of the peninsula ten years ago. There are only German settlers there now. So it is safe, though there have been attacks on the trains coming from Germany. Fewer now, we’re concentrating more on protecting the lines.’ He paused. ‘Russia is vast; I think it will be another generation before we control it completely. This is the greatest war of conquest in history.’
Syme turned to look at him. ‘They say Speer and the army would like to do a deal with the Russians, let them keep the country east of Moscow. Goebbels too, I’ve heard.’
‘No,’ Gunther said firmly. ‘What we have started we will finish. Squash Jewish Bolshevism for ever.’
Syme laughed, his good humour restored. ‘Well, we’re doing our bit here now, with what’s happening today. What times to live in. Bleedin’ exciting, eh?’ He slipped back into Cockney for a moment.
Gunther thought, yes, I know, you like your bit of excitement, while I am starting to feel old and tired before my time.
As they drove through the countryside there was little sign that this was anything other than a normal Sunday. Once, though, they passed near a railway line where a freight train of closed boxcars was moving slowly south. For a moment Gunther thought he heard faint cries coming from inside, but he wasn’t sure and Syme didn’t seem to notice anything.
It was mainly quiet on the outskirts of Birmingham, too, although Black Marias, their klaxons shrilling, occasionally sped past. Once, looking down a suburban street, Gunther saw two parked outside a house where
