I looked over at Brodie. For what purpose?”
“There’s more,” Alex continued, after taking a sip of whisky.
“Sir Collingwood had the plans in his possession when he left for Sandringham for that weekend get-together, with the excuse that he was going to show them to His Highness.”
Well and good, as far as it went. But there was obviously more.
“It seems that His Highness never saw the plans, nor was there any conversation regarding them.”
Brodie was thoughtful.
My thoughts raced.
“And what would the purpose of such a thing be?”
“Perhaps to put down some aggression. And it would seem that Sir Collingwood might have chosen to share that information with someone else.”
Someone he was to meet that last night at Sandringham, or perhaps afterwards taking advantage of his time away from London? But whom?
I thought of what Brodie and I had learned in our search of his private room at Sandringham, the footprints in the gardens that led to that horrible discovery, and then the information we’d managed to retrieve from his London residence.
I didn’t mention any of that at the moment. Alex undoubtedly knew from Sir Avery what we’d learned before leaving London.
“There’s more,” Munro commented. “I encountered an acquaintance of yers, Herr Schmidt at the German Gymnasium.”
I could imagine how that might have happened. It did appear that Brodie had shared that much with Munro.
“What was he able to learn?” Brodie aside.
“The man Szábo is Hungarian by birth. But over the past ten years he has established his ‘business’ in Frankfurt, Germany.”
Ticklish situation indeed if it was true, given the royal family’s connection to Germany through the Queen’s marriage to Prince Albert years before.
Though my great-aunt was quite a young woman at the time, she remembered the wide-spread disapproval of the marriage.
Yet, over the years Prince Albert had proven the naysayers wrong with his loyalty to the English crown and the Queen, his efforts to improve conditions among the poor, and he had been the driving supporter of the Great Exhibition.
Their firstborn, also named Victoria, had then married Frederick III, the German Emperor, when she came of age, as the Queen had encouraged—some said manipulated—all her children to make royal attachments throughout Europe, including Russia, spreading the influence and power of the British Empire according to some.
It seemed unlikely that a man of Sir Collingwood’s authority and reputation would be engaged in some nefarious undertakings. And yet...
“What sort of business activities?” I asked.
“Szábo provides information and opportunity to others, for a price,” Munro replied.
Perhaps connections to potential buyers and sellers?
“Who are his customers?”
“As with any businessman, it would be the highest bidder,” Brodie explained. “And for the greatest profit.”
“Surely someone knows where he might be and what he might know.”
“Herr Schmidt gave me the name of a man in Frankfurt,” Munro then added.
“He is said to be an associate of Szábo, who goes by the name of Sebastian Bruhl. Although, according to Schmidt, no one has ever seen Bruhl and lived to speak of it.”
“Did Herr Schmidt mention anything about a woman by the name of Angeline Cotillard?”
