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General I.D. White’s eyebrows rose in disbelief.
“What?” General White asked.
Captain James D. Cronley Jr. slid into the room.
“Oh, I now understand,” General White said. “You two decided the red Conference in Session light was actually advertising a brothel.”
Mrs. White slipped into the room.
“I didn’t hear that,” she said.
“Hear what, my love?”
“I insisted they make their manners,” she announced. “So that I would not have to hear you complaining that they hadn’t.”
“Why are they making their manners? We’re nowhere near Sonthofen.”
“They’re getting off in Munich.”
“I’ve seen Chauncey a total of twenty minutes,” he protested.
“Duty calls, apparently,” she said.
Tiny came to attention.
“Permission to withdraw, sir?”
“Granted.”
Tiny saluted, followed a half second later by Cronley.
The general returned them.
Cronley started to follow Mrs. White out of the conference compartment.
“Cronley!”
Captain Cronley froze in mid-step and then turned to face General White.
“Yes, sir?”
“The next time you want to talk to me, seek an appointment. I’ve told Colonel Davidson to put you ahead of everybody but my wife.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”
[TWO]
The Hauptbahnhof
Munich, American Zone of Occupation, Germany
1635 17 January 1946
The private train of the commanding general, U.S. Constabulary, rolled into what little was left of the bahnhof—it had been nearly destroyed during the war, and the recently started reconstruction had taken down what little had remained after the bombing—and stopped.
The door to the first car of the train slid open.
Two Constabulary troopers stepped onto the platform. One of them came to attention to the left of the door and the other to the right.
