“Raschner and I, without confiding in Oberst Perón, had come up with an idea to send the Widow Frade an unmistakable message of exactly how dangerous it is to assist traitors to the German Reich. I will get to that shortly.”
“The Widow Frade?” Boltitz asked.
“I’ll get to that shortly, Boltitz. Pray let me continue.”
“I beg pardon,” Boltitz said.
Cranz nodded his acceptance of the apology, then went on: “Loche reported that Frade went to see Perón only after Martín very strongly insisted that he do so. Loche also reported that there was nothing on the airplane but cargo, presumably spare parts for the Lodestars.
“Since Raschner has so far been unable to get someone into the Frade mansion on Libertador, I didn’t know what had transpired during their short meeting until Perón called me last evening and told me.
“I think we may also assume that el Coronel Martín had heard—possibly before Frade returned—at least something of what transpired. We know, of course, that Chief Pilot Delgano is actually Major Delgano of the Bureau of Internal Security, and that his role with SAA is to make sure that SAA does nothing against Argentine neutrality, with the secondary mission of keeping an eye on Frade generally.
“And knowing that Delgano would inevitably hear of what had happened at Casa Chica, I suspect that Doña Dorotea Frade would report to the authorities that there had been an attack for unknown reasons by a roving band of bandits, or whatever, on the house.
“We just don’t know. We will have to find out. Raschner’s working on that, and we all know how good our Erich is at that sort of thing.
“We do know what Oberst Perón told me on the telephone last night, and I’m afraid it was proof that once again I committed the cardinal sin of underestimating one’s enemy.
“Frade lost no time whatever, it seems, in showing Oberst Perón that he had photographic proof that Perón had been at the machine guns with Heitz and his men, as well as photographs of the bullet-riddled bodies of Heitz and his men.
“He also told Perón that he had photographs of the map SS-Brigadeführer von Deitzberg had given him of postwar South America.”
“Excuse me?” von Gradny-Sawz asked, visibly confused.
“Oh,” Cranz said. “That’s right. You weren’t made privy to that, were you, Gradny-Sawz?”
Neither was I, Boltitz thought. I have no idea what he’s talking about.
But he is intimating that Wienerwurst was the only one who doesn’t know.
“No, I wasn’t,” von Gradny-Sawz said, somewhat petulantly.
Did someone steal your ice-cream cone, Wienerwurst?
“It was a map prepared by the Army Topographical people showing South America after our Final Victory,” Cranz explained. “Briefly, Uruguay and Paraguay will become provinces of Argentina.”
I will be damned. Is that a fact, or something created to dazzle Perón?
“Frade told Perón that the first time he suspected an attempt was made on his life or on the lives of anyone close to him, the photographs and the map would be placed in the hands of the president of the Argentine Republic and appear in the world’s newspapers.”
“He’s bluffing,” von Gradny-Sawz said firmly.
“Possibly, even probably,” Cranz said. “But we don’t know that, do we, Gradny-Sawz? And do w
e want to chance he is not?”
Von Gradny-Sawz did not answer.
“Finally,” Cranz said, “Frade told Perón he wanted him out of his house by today. And then—after Frade was attacked—he called Perón and said he was going to give Perón the benefit of the doubt, that Perón simply had not had the time to call his German friends off before the attack, but that he suggested that Perón should make that call now.”
“What attack on him?” Boltitz asked.
“According to today’s La Nación,” Cranz said conversationally, “three criminals bent on robbing the Frade mansion—actually, it didn’t say ‘Frade mansion’; it said ‘a residence on Avenida Coronel Díaz’—were interrupted by alert police and died in a gun battle that followed.”
And that explains the message you were going to send to the Widow Frade, doesn’t it, you murderous bastard?
“To recapitulate, gentlemen: Both operations—eliminating the Froggers in Tandil and eliminating Frade here—failed. The only good thing to come out of it is that we have further leverage with Oberst Perón.