“Freddy’s not fucking her,” Cronley said.
“He said with a certainty I find fascinating.”
Cronley didn’t reply.
“One possibility that occurs to me is that you know Freddy has not been bedding Brunhilde because you are.”
Again, Cronley didn’t reply.
“Well, that went right over my head,” Wallace said. “You’re a regular fucking Casanova, aren’t you, Boy Wonder? Fucking Brunhilde is pretty goddamn stupid for a number of reasons.”
Then Wallace saw the look on Cronley’s face.
“Okay. So what else is there that you don’t want to tell me?”
Cronley remained silent.
“Goddammit, Jim. Answer the question. What else do you know that I should?”
Cronley exhaled audibly.
“You’re not going to like this,” he said.
“Understood. That’s why I insist you tell me.”
“I suspect—suspect, not know—that Gehlen was responsible for that gas water heater explosion.”
“Gehlen had Tony Schumann and his wife killed, is that what you’re saying?”
Cronley nodded.
“Why would he order that?”
“Because the Schumanns were NKGB agents.”
“That’s preposterous!”
“It’s true.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
“You know that the NKGB was waiting for Likharev when he went to Buenos Aires?”
“Yes. So what? The Soviet Trade Mission to the Republic of Argentina knew we had him, they knew we were sending people to Argentina, so they started watching the airport. That’s what Cletus thinks, and I agree with him.”
“They knew exactly when he would arrive in Buenos Aires,” Cronley said. “They probably had six, eight, maybe ten hours to set up that ambush. The ambush involved a lot of people, at least a dozen. They even used Panzerfausts. A lot of planning had to be involved. They weren’t just keeping an eye on the airport on the off chance that Likharev would show up.”
Wallace considered that a moment.
“How could they possibly know exactly when he would arrive?”
“Because I told Rachel Schumann and she told her—their—handler.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“After we loaded him on the plane at Rhine-Main, I went to the Park Hotel . . . next to the bahnhof?”
“I know where it is.”