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“Not much, as I have something to tell you,” Wallace said. “I didn’t know if you were coming back here today or not.”
He unlocked the door and waved Cronley and Hessinger into the office.
As soon as Cronley was in the office, he said, “Maybe I can save us both time. What would you say if I told you I need your help with getting Mrs. Likharev and offspring over the border?”
“The first thing that pops into my mind is that you have FUBAR something somehow.”
“Not yet. But that’s probably inevitable.”
“And the second thing is that you don’t want me to mention this to Colonel Mattingly. True?”
“True.”
“One of the things I thought you might be interested in hearing is that Colonel Mattingly was on the horn a couple of hours ago—”
“You haven’t answered my question. Can I tell you what problems I have without Mattingly hearing about any of them?”
“I thought that question had arisen and been disposed of,” Wallace said, just a little sharply.
“Sorry,” Cronley said, and a moment later, added: “I apologize.”
Wallace nodded, then said, “The officer in question was on the horn a couple of hours ago. It has come to his attention that General White has returned to
Germany, specifically, that he flew into Rhine-Main, where a large number of friends and others met him, and then, after making his manners to General Smith, set off for Sonthofen on his private train. He was curious as to why he was not (a) informed of this, and (b) was not invited to the arrival at Rhine-Main or to ride on the train.”
“And he thought you might know?”
“That, and he wondered if Tiny, because of his relationship with the general, knew about this, and didn’t think he would be interested.”
“Tiny knew about it because I told him. I don’t know if he would have told Mattingly or not . . . he probably would have, being the good soldier he is . . . but he didn’t have the time.”
“And who told you?”
“Hotshot Billy Wilson.”
“The plot thickens. What the fuck is going on?”
Cronley told him all that had happened.
During the recitation, Cronley saw that Hessinger was unable to keep his face from registering surprise, concern, alarm, and disbelief. Or various combinations of the foregoing.
“But, I just thought of this,” Cronley concluded. “Mattingly not getting invited may be innocent. I mean, nobody consciously decided, ‘Let’s not tell Mattingly.’”
“Explain that.”
“General Smith, who knew he was coming, either presumed Mattingly knew, or more than likely, didn’t give a damn about who was going to be at Rhine-Main or on the train. Anyway, after he told Hotshot Billy—”
“Why would Smith tell Hotshot Billy?”
“They were coconspirators in the Let’s Save a Train for General White business. Wilson told me Smith was disgusted with all the three stars fighting like ten-year-olds over who gets a train, and decided they would get the proper message if two-star White showed up with one.
“Try to follow my reasoning: Smith told Wilson, expecting that Wilson would . . . as he did . . . spread the word around in the Constabulary. He didn’t tell Mattingly because he figured Mattingly was in the Farben Building and would know. Did Smith tell Greene? I don’t know. Probably not. So if Greene didn’t know, he couldn’t tell Mattingly. And if he did know, he didn’t tell him because he thought he would already have heard.”
Wallace grunted.
“General White asked where Mattingly was.”
“How do you know that?”
