“Are the Schirmers alive now?” George asked.
“Ilse Schirmer and her husband were killed in the big air attacks on the city in May 1942,” Miss Kolin interpreted.
“Did Frau Gresser inherit the garage land from them?”
Frau Gresser showed signs of indignation when the question was put and spoke rapidly in reply.
“By no means. The land was hers-hers and her husband’s, that is. Johann Schirmer’s own business went bankrupt. She and her husband had set him up in business again for the sake of Ilse. Naturally, they had hoped also to make a profit, but it was goodness of heart that motivated them in the first place. The business, however, was theirs. Schirmer was only the manager. He had a percentage of the takings and an apartment over the garage. No one could say that he had not been generously treated. Yet, after so much had been done for him by his wife’s friends, he had tried to cheat them over the takings.”
“Who was his heir? Did he leave a will?”
“If he had had anything to leave except debts, his heir would have been his son, Franz.”
“Did the Schirmers have any other children?”
“Fortunately, no.”
“Fortunately?”