“Ginger,” Mrs. Bristol said, shocked and concerned.
“And you know it’s your fault, you bastard!” Ginger went on, coldly furious. “You’ve had my Bruce following you around since College Station. He even went into the Cavalry because of you. He really wanted to go into the Signal Corps, but he followed you into the Cavalry because he wanted to be just like you. And even that wasn’t enough. You got him to follow you to this goddamn concentration camp. If he hadn’t wanted to be a hotshot intelligence officer like you, we’d still be in Fritzlar. Bruce wouldn’t have been in the Signal Corps, but he wouldn’t be dead.”
“Ginger—” Cronley said.
“Get the hell out of my house, you sonofabitch!”
Cronley felt a tug at his sleeve, turned his head to see that it was Tiny Dunwiddie, and then turned and followed him out of the kitchen and ultimately out of the cottage.
“She’s upset, Jim,” Dunwiddie said, when they were outside.
“Yeah, I picked up on that. Unfortunately, she’s right. I got Bonehead to come here, and now he’s dead.”
“You’re not responsible for that, Jim.”
“I’d do it again, but I’m responsible. If I had left Bonehead in Fritzlar, he’d still be alive. I thought I was doing him a favor, but that didn’t turn out well, did it?”
Dunwiddie didn’t reply.
“Have you got a car?”
“No. I came out here in Colonel Wallace’s Kapitän. You’re going to the Jahreszeiten?”
“I’m going back to the airfield, back to Nuremberg . . .”
“If what I think you’re going to do—take one of the Storchs—”
“That’s exactly what I’m going to do. I was going to leave Ziegler here to see what he could find out and tell me. But with Greene and Schwarzkopf here—with their resources—he’d be redundant. And you can tell me what Greene and Schwarzkopf find out.”
“I don’t think Wallace would like you taking a Storch any more than he will like me being your mole here.”
“Fuck him!”
“And he will really be cumulatively pissed—maybe to the point of relieving you—if he also finds out you told anything about this to Janice Johansen.”
“I will tell her, and Wallace will probably find out. But he won’t relieve me without checking with Chief Schultz, and I know El Jefe well enough to know that he’ll want to hear my version of the story. I’ll take my chances with that.”
“I sometimes wonder if you have a death wish, that you really want to get relieved.”
“What I want to do is find out who whacked Bonehead. And I don’t want Wallace to tell me he’ll handle it, butt out.”
“I admit I think that’s on his mind. And I think you know what kind of a spot you’re putting me in.”
“Indeed I do. Is that a problem for you, Tiny?”
Dunwiddie looked at him for a long moment.
“Why don’t you go get Augie Ziegler and meet me at the motor pool?” he said finally.
IV
[ONE]
XXIst CIC Kaserne
The Palace of Justice Compound
Nuremberg, American Zone of Occupation, Germany