Part 22 (1/2)

”And my father could have gone to jail for jury tampering. So what?”

Zenger smiled.

”That's only half of it. Sandler turned out to be an excellent spy, far surpa.s.sing anyone's expectations. It's remarkable ” he chuckled, 'how the criminal in society is always so patriotic. But then again, Sandler didn't just have a lot to lose. He had a lot to gain.”

Meaning?”

”Sandler was, or is, a man of endless ingenuity. He could always emerge from a situation in a position of maximum strength. For example, within one year of the time he was recruited ”The end of 1941?”.

”Yes. By that time he was the number-two German intelligence agent in New York. And he had the perfect cover. A third-generation American businessman with a chunk of the established order in America. But Sandler was never content in a subservient role. And yet he could only move up to be head of New York operations if tragedy should befall Karl Hunsicker, the number-one agent. So Sandler studied Hunsicker. He learned the man's habits. And he arranged the perfect accident.”

Zenger cleared his throat. A slight smile crossed his face as he continued.

”Hunsicker was a meticulously clean man who bathed before midnight each evening. Lived in a duplex floor through in an old apartment building at Eighty-fourth and Second. In the bathroom there was a large electric heater, equipped with a cone-shaped wire coil at its center.

Sandler called on Hunsicker late one evening.”

Adolph Zenger, apparently amused, toyed with the handle of his cane again. His eyes twinkled.

”Hunsicker got his hot bath that night, all right. They found him two mornings later, still sharing his bathwater with the heater. But, h.e.l.l. He was up to no good, that d.a.m.ned n.a.z.i. Civic improvement.”

”What happened to Sandler?” Thomas Daniels asked.

”He was moved up to number one in New York. Then about two months later things got hot for several Axis agents in the northeast.

Several of them were recalled to Germany. Sandler went'home'with them, traveling first to Mexico, where a submarine picked him up.

Fine instruments, those submarines,” he added parenthetically.

Then he concluded,

”Ultimately, Sandler drifted into German intelligence. Doing what, I don't know. He was a chemist, an engraver, a financier, and a pretty fair a.s.sa.s.sin. A man like that might have many uses..

Zenger hesitated, then actually stopped. His attention seemed to lag abruptly, his gaze drifting out the window to the ocean beyond.

”Funny thing about those submarines,” he said. A slight pause, then,

”Do you know that this island was blockaded during the war?

Sometimes bathers could see smoke rising on the horizon. U.S. merchant boats torpedoed by Hitler's submarines.”

The man's eyes were sad and distant.

”f.u.c.king foreigners” Zenger grumbled.

”Do you know what you can see from these windows now? Fis.h.i.+ng fleets!

Foreign fis.h.i.+ng fleets, especially the Commie ones, catching everything that swims.

Imagine. They come in here and catch American fish and we don't do a d.a.m.ned thing” He thought about it.

”Ought to blow their fis.h.i.+ng tubs right out of the water,” he concluded.

”Send out our Coast Guard ” ”What about Victoria?” Thomas asked.