Death at Nuremberg (Clandestine Operations 4)

“We didn’t get into that, but I told you, he doesn’t think that was an accident, either.”

“Why didn’t you get into it?”

“Because I had pissed him off even further when I told him he didn’t have the Need to Know what really goes on here in the Compound. At that point, he made it clear our little chat was over.”

Cronley had, without warning, an epiphany.

Jesus, my mouth just ran away again!

By telling Wallace, in front of Gehlen and Mannberg, that Cohen doesn’t believe that “an accident, nothing suspicious” bullshit, have I just as much as signed Cohen’s death warrant?

If they took out the Schumanns and Derwin because they posed a threat to Operation Ost, why not one more guy they think poses a threat?

“And at that point, Loose Cannon, did it enter your mind that getting into it with Colonel Cohen might cause a little problem or two for you while you’re doing what you were sent to Nuremberg to do?”

“Actually, that did pass fleetingly through my mind.”

“What I should do is relieve you!”

“I think you’d have to explain why you did to Admiral Souers and maybe even the President. You sure you want to do that, Colonel?”

“Gentlemen,” General Gehlen said softly, “may I suggest that before this gets out of hand, we discuss what’s happened to Lieutenant Moriarty?”

Wallace, his face flushed, looked between Gehlen and Cronley.

“I told Justice Jackson that I would tell him what happened,” Cronley said.

Wallace took a deep breath and then exhaled between pursed lips.

The door opened again and General Greene came into the room, followed by Major General Norman Schwarzkopf, the USFET provost marshal.

“We’re late,” Greene said. “Sorry. The autobahn was icy. How much have we missed?”

“We haven’t even started,” Wallace said. “Captain—excuse me, DCI Special Agent—Cronley was just telling us about his meeting with Colonel Cohen.”

“I heard about that,” Greene said. “Morty Cohen is a good man, but sometimes he gets carried away. I made it clear to him, I think, that Cronley has the authority to do whatever he thinks he has to do. I don’t think there will be any more problems between them.”

“Harold, I’m having some problems with you taking this thing out of my hands,” Schwarzkopf said.

“General, I very much appreciate your cooperation. When you hear what went down, I think you’ll understand that what happened has to be kept under wraps.”

Schwarzkopf nodded.

“So, taking it from the top,” Wallace began, “Lieutenant Moriarty, who commanded the American troops who guard the Compound and Kloster Grünau and supervised the Poles—the Provisional Security Organization—elected last night to fill in for the PSO officer who was duty officer and had fallen ill. He did this routinely.

“The PSO duty officer and the NCOIC of the Americans do their thing in here, which also serves to keep an eye on the SIGABA machine. Last night the American was Staff Sergeant Henry J. Phillips, a very good soldier who had been one of Tiny’s Troopers since the Battle of the Bulge.

“Sergeant Phillips told me that after they inspected the guard at 0200, he suggested to Lieutenant Moriarty that since Cronley was no longer living in there”—Wallace pointed to what had been Cronley’s bedroom—“he could ‘crap out there while he minded the store.’ Moriarty at first rejected the suggestion, but then he changed his mind.

“He told Sergeant Phillips that he had been up most of the previous night with his newborn son, who suffers from colic. Moriarty went into the bedroom to lie down on what had been Cronley’s bed. He ordered Phillips to wake him for the 0300 tour of the Compound.

“Phillips did not do so. He said he felt sorry for Lieutenant Moriarty, who looked ‘really asleep on his feet.’ It has been protocol to have two people in the tour jeep since then Technical Sergeant Tedworth—now First Sergeant Tedworth—making a tour alone at Kloster Grünau nearly lost his life when persons we now believe to have been NKGB agents ambushed him. They had him on the ground with a garrote around his neck when a PSO officer—now DCI Special Agent Ostrowski—happened on the scene and disposed of all three.

“So, to make the tour, Sergeant Phillips called the Pole barracks and had them send him a PSO sergeant—the equivalent thereof—and they made the tour. Phillips kept the PSO man after the tour, and together they made the 0400 and 0500 jeep tours of the Compound.

“At approximately 0550, Phillips went to the bedroom to wake Lieutenant Moriarty. He found him lying on the bed, his bloody head on the pillow. Phillips went to the body and made the immediate judgment that Lieutenant Moriarty had been shot, twice, in the head, with a small-caliber weapon.

“Phillips immediately called Captain Dunwiddie at the Vier Jahreszeiten. Dunwiddie called me. I then called Sergeant Phillips and told him to secure the area, and not, not, to call the military police until I came to the Compound.