“We’ve got a lot to talk about, but it will have to wait until this is over. Let’s go find the tearoom.”
Fine. That’ll give me a chance to introduce you to my new girlfriend. She’s waiting for her husband in there.
[ TWO ]
1105 1 November 1945
In the tearoom, Cronley headed straight for the doughnut table. He wolfed down two of the enormous white sugar-coated cakes, and reached for a third.
“They don’t feed you at your monastery?” Frade asked.
“I didn’t have any breakfast. I had to get up in the middle of the night . . . and then had to take off as soon as I could see the far end of the runway.”
“You flew here? I mean you flew here?”
Jimmy nodded.
“In a Piper Cub? What does the Army call them? L-4s?”
“In a Storch.”
“Whose Storch?”
“I guess you could say mine. I have two of them.”
“Mattingly didn’t say anything about you having a Storch. Or Storches. Or about you flying.”
“He was probably hoping that on my way here I would fly into one of the many rock-filled clouds we have in scenic Germany and he wouldn’t have to talk about me at all.”
“Why do I suspect that everything is not peachy-keen between you and Mattingly? What’s that all about?”
“I’m sure he’ll tell you in detail just as soon as he has the chance.”
“I’m shocked. The way you talked about him in Argentina, I thought you were convinced he could walk on water and make the blind see with a gentle touch of his hand.”
Cronley was about to reply when three officers—a full colonel, a lieutenant colonel, and a major—walked up to them. All three had Army Ground Forces shoulder insignia.
“Colonel Frade, I’m Jack Mullaney,” the colonel said. “From General Magruder’s shop? We met, very briefly, earlier.”
Shop? What the hell does “shop” mean?
“How are you, Colonel?” Frade asked as he shook Mullaney’s hand.
“And this is Lieutenant Colonel Parsons and Major Ashley.”
Frade shook their hands.
“This is Captain Cronley,” Frade said.
Everybody shook hands.
“Actually, Colonel Frade, we were hoping Captain Cronley could point us toward the officer who will be running Mattingly’s shop in Munich. Parsons and Ashley will be joining it, and would like to make their manners.”
What the hell is he talking about?
Mattingly’s shop in Munich?
“Make their manners”? What the hell does that mean?