Winston's Spy

by Robert Webber

  They went to the bedroom, and Teddy undressed and put on her pyjamas, and then lay down on the bed with Alex comforting her, not quite knowing what to do. He resolved that if Teddy were not feeling better by that afternoon, he would call Dr McLintock, just to make sure.

  Sleep proved to be a great healer, such that, by lunchtime, Teddy was feeling as right as ninepence and quite hungry. Alex suggested taking a leisurely stroll to the Brompton Road to try to find a restaurant where they could have lunch, which Teddy thought was an excellent idea.

  *

  During the morning, it had rained heavily, making the pavements shimmer from the deluge, but the local fish ‘n’ chip shop was open for business. Teddy decided that she had a craving for fried fish, so Alex bought two portions, and they walked back to the communal gardens, where they sat together on a damp bench eating their lunch out of the newspaper in which it had been wrapped. Once finished, they took a leisurely stroll back to Onslow Gardens.

  On arriving home, Teddy went to have a bath and, as she told Alex, to freshen up after feeling unwell in the morning. She drew her bath, added a bath cube, and when the tub was suitably full, she turned off the water and undressed. Teddy noticed a few spots of what looked like blood in the gusset of her panties, which led to increased anxiety and strengthened her resolve to see Dr McLintock as early as possible on Wednesday morning. She wondered how best to contact him to make an appointment without Alex being aware, as she certainly did not want to worry Alex until she knew what was happening; he had sufficient to concern him with the upcoming board of inquiry.

  She dried herself gently, dressed in clean panties before throwing the stained ones into the waste bin, and then prepared to receive Klara when she arrived.

  While Teddy had been bathing, Alex had noticed an unobtrusive car parked on the other side of the road, with a nondescript man watching their home from the passenger window; it was hardly discreet surveillance, and almost as if he intended to be seen.

  Alex rang the office, but the commander was out; Miss Willoughby assured Alex that everything was running like clockwork, and the commander would see Alex outside Room 5 in the War Office at Whitehall at about 9.30am on Wednesday morning. Alex mentioned to her that he believed that he was under surveillance, and he gave her the registration number of the car parked across the road. Miss Willoughby assured Alex that there was nothing amiss, but she agreed to pass on his concerns to the commander.

  He rang off just as Teddy arrived downstairs; she was wondering whether his apparent preoccupation had anything to do with her secret, but she reassured herself quickly that it was unlikely, it was just his worrying about Wednesday.

  Alex made them a cup of tea, and they sat waiting for Klara’s arrival. They did not have to wait long, as the new maid arrived a good fifteen minutes earlier than scheduled, and Alex helped her in with her luggage before paying the driver.

  Alex watched as, across the road, two other cars joined the car parked across the street. Two men from each of the newly arrived cars approached the other, opening the doors, and hauling both the driver and passenger from their seats before frogmarching each to another car and bundling them into the rear seats before driving away at speed.

  When he arrived back indoors, Teddy asked her husband, ‘What was that all about?’ Evidently, she had seen the commotion.

  Alex, not wanting to worry Teddy, shrugged his shoulders before commenting dismissively, ‘I truly have no idea.’ He turned to Klara, smiling as he welcomed her to the house.

  *

  Klara settled in well, and, as it was her first evening, Alex and Teddy invited her to join them for dinner so that they could discuss practicalities of what they expected and the household budget. She proved to be a good conversationalist, and Alex steered the conversation gently on to the subject of relatives that she may still have in Poland.

  Klara explained that there were none; her parents had died in 1934 when she was twenty-one and a student of music at the Academy of Music in Krakow. Following her parent’s death, she had to leave without graduating.

  She had been taken in by her grandmother, and it was she that Klara had looked after until she died in 1936. After her grandmother had died, Klara contacted her uncle in London to ask for help getting into a music school in England; he had recommended the Guildhall in London and had arranged an audition for her, provided she could get to London. She sold everything she could in Poland, caught several trains through Germany, and France, and then came to London.

  It had been a do-or-die experience because it took all of the money that she had raised in Poland, leaving none spare for a return fare. Klara won a place at the Guildhall, and she lived temporarily with her uncle until she and Rhodri, who was also a student and one of the best baritones in Wales, fell in love and got married. Rhodri had joined the Welsh Guards and was on active service with the British Army, which left Klara needing to earn money to live. She had thought about joining one of the military or civil services, but a friend had suggested domestic service until she exactly knew what she wanted to do, so here she was.

  Alex explained that he was being posted shortly, and, as his wife was expecting their first child, they needed somebody to help run the house. He confirmed that his uncle had bought a property in Gloucestershire with the intention that his mother and Teddy would move there as soon as it was convenient, to be out of the danger in London. He asked for reassurance that Klara was happy about going with them, as the house was sizeable and would need much work.

  Appreciating the tensions that have existed over the years between Russia and Poland, in which Russia typically had been victorious, he broached the subject of his ancestry gently, explaining that his heritage was Russian. Alex hoped that this would not be a barrier to her working for them. At this, Klara seemed to lighten a little, saying that they were both émigrés from their home country, and, as she did not hold with politics in any case, she did not foresee a problem.

  When they retired for the evening and were lying in their bed, both Teddy and Alex agreed that, had circumstances been different, they could easily have become friends with Klara. They felt it would be proper to regard the master-mistress-servant relationship in the lightest way possible, so that Klara might feel as welcome in their home as possible. Alex even joked that, with Klara’s skills, their baby might even grow up to be a concert pianist.

  *

  On Wednesday morning, Alex rose early so that he could bathe and shave before getting dressed in the formal uniform that he had last worn for his wedding. He chose not to wear Uncle Walter’s sword to the board of inquiry, instead preferring the regulation issue variety; he did not want the tsar’s sword tarnished by the squalid board of inquiry.

  The car was outside Onslow Gardens at just before 9.00am, and Alex kissed Teddy goodbye as she wished him good luck, waving as he left.

  He arrived outside the War Office at 9.20am, where he was soon acknowledged, signed in and directed to Room 5, which was one of the main meeting rooms.

  The commander was already waiting for Alex, and he smiled as Alex approached.

  ‘Good morning, Alex,’ the commander said cheerily, ‘I do not know how long this will take, but the room is booked for two days. I doubt it will take that long, as it is pretty cut and dried. Hopefully, we will wrap it up today.’

  ‘I hope so, too, sir,’ Alex agreed.

  ‘When they release us for the day, will you travel back to Broadway Buildings with me? I have details about your travel at the weekend.’

  ‘Of course, sir,’ Alex said.

  ‘Oh, by the way,’ the commander continued, ‘that car you saw last evening. Well spotted! It seems it was from the Special Branch at Scotland Yard, which has been trying to muscle in on this little episode. I do not think they will bother you further, as some of our colleagues had a word with both the driver and his passenger, and a very senior officer had a word with
Air Vice-Marshall Sir Philip Game, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Force, to persuade him to leave well alone… I rather think the message has been well received, so you should not be subject of any further interest.’ He smiled reassuringly.

  They were called in at 10.00am sharp, and they took seats in the main body of the room, facing a long table set with five chairs. The board all trooped in, dressed in civilian clothes, and took their positions at the table.

  At a side table, a wigged clerk rose and announced, ‘This board of inquiry has been formed to consider the death of Stefan Horváth, a Hungarian national, at Training Establishment H17 on 30th September 1939. This is not a court of law nor is it a court martial, even though we defer to His Honour Judge Smedley on legal matters,’ the oldest of the panel members nodded.

  ‘Presiding over this board of inquiry is Brigadier Sir Richard Danvers, assisted by Commodore Thomas Nash, Colonel Robert Hadley and Lieutenant-Colonel James Campbell.’

  They each nodded as their name was read.

  The clerk continued, ‘This board of inquiry is convened under section 6a of the…’ There followed the legal preamble stating the scope and objectives of the board, which lasted for a good fifteen minutes

  After this, the board heard the evidence.

  First to be examined was a captain who gave a fulsome account of how the service had recruited Stefan Horváth. He went on to confirm that this was, in fact, a pseudonym adopted by the deceased, whose real name was Martin Keller, and he came from a town called Szombathely, which is near the Hungarian border with Austria. His father had been an Austrian merchant with strong links to Germany, while his mother was Hungarian. His mother was still alive, as were his younger brother and sister, all of whom were living in Hungary. The captain assured the board that there was no known reason why Horváth/Keller should undertake to infiltrate the British Intelligence Services, except that – as a member of the right-wing Magyar Országos Véderő Egylet, or the Hungarian National Defence Association – his sympathies lay firmly with Fascist Italy and Germany. It was believed that he was recruited by the Abwehr Fremde Heere West – the German foreign intelligence arm that focused on Anglo-American activity. This speculation had arisen due to his association with Iryna Demchak, who was known to be an agent for that division of the Abwher Fremde Heere.

  In this ritual washing of hands, the captain assured the board of inquiry that his department of the Secret Intelligence Services had not recruited Horváth/Keller for use as an agent of Military Intelligence.

  The board asked the captain a couple of questions before he was released and allowed to resume his seat.

  Next came a rather solemn individual in a dark suit and wearing the hang-dog expression of an extremely overworked public servant. Alex was unsurprised when he identified himself as an officer of His Majesty’s Revenue, who confirmed that they had taken Horváth/Keller into custody in September 1938, when a routine patrol discovered him washed up on a beach in Sussex. They had handed him over to the local police force, believing him to be a Dutch sailor who had been washed overboard because he had a quantity of Dutch guilders in his possession. The police had taken Horváth/Keller to a local hospital, and the Revenue had relinquished their involvement at that point. During the time he was in the hands of the Revenue, he was unconscious at all times.

  Alex was starting to see a theme emerging whereby nobody wanted to take responsibility and all were keen to distance themselves from this man. The board of inquiry discharged Revenue man so that he could resume his seat.

  A doctor from the hospital and a local police inspector were next up. The latter confirmed that, when Horváth/Keller regained consciousness, he had told the police that he was a Hungarian national who had escaped fascism in his country, and he wanted asylum in England. They did nothing more with the man other than to register him, as they were required to do under the 1919 Aliens Restriction Act, before handing him over to the Immigration Service.

  So it went on. Horváth/Keller had been bounced around various departments, all of which were represented at the board of inquiry, so as to deny that they were at fault for allowing a dangerous spy into the country, but all – it seemed to Alex – had done as little as possible with the man before passing the responsibility elsewhere.

  Eventually, Commander Jeffers nudged Alex’s knee, and a bookish, little man took the stand and asked the board’s permission to read a statement from a Second Lieutenant James Smith of the MI(Q) division; the board’s chairman agreed.

  ‘I’ll wager that he doesn’t actually exist,’ whispered the commander to Alex, ‘they seldom do at Baker Street.’

  ‘Sorry?’ Alex whispered back.

  ‘That department of Military Intelligence. It’s very cloak and dagger!’

  Smith’s statement was read out, which confirmed that a man, who was subsequently identified as Stefan Horváth, was brought to their attention as a possible recruit by a contact in the Immigration Service who had vouched that Horváth was suitable. They believed that Horváth could be an asset if Hungary should fall under the jackboot. Horváth was interrogated by Smith, who concluded that there was prima facie evidence that Horváth might be useful. Smith passed the matter upstairs, and his superiors agreed that Horváth should undergo further checks to ensure that he was genuine.

  The checks suggested that he was sincere, and Smith initiated Horváth’s training programme. Horváth had been witnessed on one occasion meeting a girl whom he had described as a Dutch friend he had met in Rotterdam while travelling to England, and for whom he had affection. The narrator confirmed the identity of the girl as Maarit Vermeulen or Iryna Demchak. The little man resumed the narration by telling the board that MI(Q) had placed Horváth in Training Establishment H17 in preparation for his deployment as a subversive in Hungary.

  The department believed that it had completed thorough and extensive checks on Horváth, concluding that it was not unreasonable to train him as an agent to carry out sabotage in Hungary. The statement was signed, ‘J. Smith’.

  The junior board member, Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, asked why Lieutenant Smith could not be present at the board of inquiry. The reply came that Lieutenant Smith had been deployed on operations and was uncontactable.

  Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell pressed the point and asked what they meant by “uncontactable”.

  The little man said that “uncontactable” meant that Lieutenant Smith could not be contacted. The lieutenant-colonel told the little man not to be flippant and worded the question another way. ‘When did you last have contact with Lieutenant Smith?’

  ‘About two weeks ago,’ the little man said.

  ‘Nothing since?’

  ‘No, sir,’ came the reply.

  Colonel Hadley joined the conversation by enquiring, ‘Is he a spent asset?’

  ‘It’s possible, sir; we do not know at the moment, as the situation is rather changeable,’ the man said.

  ‘I see,’ the colonel concluded.

  Alex became perturbed at this talk of “assets” and whether they were “spent” or not. He wondered whether he was viewed as an “asset”, and if things went horribly wrong in Finland, whether he would become a “spent asset”. If so, how empathetic would his department be when breaking the news to his family.

  The commander leaned across, and whispered to Alex, ‘I really do believe that their “Lieutenant Smith” is one of their convenient “ghosts”.’

  Alex looked confused.

  ‘Rumours abound that the MI(Q) has several “ghosts” on their books to whom they can attribute cock-ups; the “ghost asset” becomes spent when the cock-up is attributed, and that way nobody can be brought to account for the error. It’s actually a very clever way of avoiding blame,’ explained the commander.

  ‘I see,’ said Alex, marvelling at the shenanigans that occur in government circles to evade accountability.


  At that point, Brigadier Danvers asked, ‘Are you authorised by your department to answer substantive questions in this matter?’

  ‘I am not, sir,’ the little man responded.

  ‘So, we have to accept the statement as given, while effectively being muzzled from asking questions relating to it?’ the brigadier continued for clarity.

  ‘It would appear so, yes, sir,’ the little man responded nonchalantly.

  The brigadier nodded sagely before addressing the corporal who was on guard inside the door of the room, ‘Corporal, will you fetch the sergeant-at-arms?’

  ‘This should be interesting,’ muttered the commander.

  The sergeant-at-arms appeared and performed the loudest salute that Alex had ever heard. ‘Yes, sir,’ he bellowed.

  ‘Please take a squad of men to Baker Street and find Major Shakesheff; then bring him here so that we can ask him some questions regarding the statement that his department has supplied. Should Major Shakesheff appear unwilling to join us, you are ordered to place him under close arrest and to bring him here by whatever means necessary; do I make myself clear?’ As an afterthought, the brigadier added, ‘Preferably conscious!’

  ‘Yes, sir!’ the sergeant-at-arms bellowed, and he stamped to attention loudly, saluted and left the room noisily.

  Alex speculated that, should the sergeant-at-arms ever get involved in clandestine activities, it was highly likely that the enemy would hear him coming from the next town!

  The colour had drained from the face of the little man, who was still on the stand, and he tried to regain his composure. ‘Is that wholly necessary, sir?’

  Brigadier Danvers declared, ‘You told this board of inquiry that you could not speak to this statement, so perhaps Major Shakesheff will feel more kindly disposed to do so when he gets here, but, either way, we will have the opportunity to question this statement. This board of inquiry is adjourned until 14:00 hours.’