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“I ht join you later,” said Adam, “but I still have one or two papers left over froh”

“Forget the finer details of your inheritance, my boy Why not join us and spend the entire windfall in one wild spaghetti fling?”

“Oh, have you been left lots of lovely lolly?” asked Carolyn, in a voice so shrill and high-pitched that nobody would have been surprised to learn that she had recently been Deb of the Year

“Not,” said Adaainst my present overdraft”

Lawrence laughed “Well, coh left over for a plate of pasta” He winked at Adan for “Be sure you’re out of the flat by the tiet back Or at least stay in your own room and pretend to be asleep”

“Yes, do co as if she uided her firmly toward the door

Adaer hear her penetrating voice echoing on the staircase Satisfied, he retreated to his bedroom and locked himself in Adam sat down on the one comfortable chair he possessed and pulled his father’s envelope out of his inside pocket It was the heavy, expensive type of stationery Pa had always used, purchasing it at Smythson of Bond Street for almost twice the price he could have obtained it for at the local W H Smith’s “Captain Adam Scott, MC” ritten in his father’s copperplate hand

Adahtly, and extracted the contents: a letter in his father’s unmistakable hand and a smaller envelope that was clearly old, as it was faded with time Written on the old envelope in an unfamiliar hand were the words “Colonel Gerald Scott” in faded ink of indeterminate color Adam placed the old envelope on the little table by his side and, unfolding his father’s letter, began to read It was undated

My dear Adam,

Over the years, you will have heard iment Most of them will have been farcical, and a few of them slanderous, but I always considered it better for all concerned to keep my own counsel I feel, however, that I owe you a fuller explanation, and that is what this letter will set out to do

As you know, nedfrom February 1945 to October 1946 After four years of aliven the task of co the British section that had responsibility for those senior-ranking Nazis ere awaiting trial for war crih the Americans had overall responsibility, I came to know the imprisoned officers quite well, and after a year or so I had even grown to tolerate some of them, Hess, Doenitz and Speer in particular, and I often wondered how the Germans would have treated us had the situation been reversed Such vieere considered unacceptable at the time “Fraternization” was often on the lips of those hts

A the senior Nazis hom I ca, but unlike the three other officers I have previously mentioned, here was a man I detested froant, overbearing and totally without shame about the barbaric role he had played in the war And I never once found any reason to change my opinion of him In fact I someti him

The night before Goering was due to be executed, he requested a privatewith me It was a Monday, and I can still recall every detail of that encounter as if it were only yesterday I received the request when I took over the Russian watch from Major Vladimir Kosky In fact Kosky personally handed uard and dealt with the usual paperwork I went along with the duty corporal to see the Reichs stood to attention by his sray-painted brick cell always made me shudder

“You asked to see et myself to address him by his name or rank

“Yes,” he replied “It was kind of you to come in person, Colonel I simply wish to make the last request of a man condemned to death Would it be possible for the corporal to leave us?”