“Oh, shit,” the MP said. He sounded genuinely sorry.
“Is something wrong?” Elsa asked.
“Put your suitcase on the ground and open it,” the MP said.
“May I ask why?”
“Because I’m going to search it, and then you’re going to carry it over to that truck, put it on the truck, and then get on with it.”
The sergeant with the Wanted List was now standing with his hands on his hips beside the MP.
The young man who had been slumped in his jeep walked up.
“What have we got, Sergeant?”
“What’s it look like? We got a hit,” the sergeant said.
“Try that answer again, and this time preface your answer with ‘sir,’” the young man said.
Elsa tried not to stare as she thought, My God, he’s enormous! A perfect blue-eyed Aryan!
He looks like a recruiting poster for the SS.
And he’s an officer—he made the sergeant call him “sir.”
But he doesn’t have any officer’s insignia?
“Sir, this fräulein’s name is on the Wanted List,” the sergeant said.
Cronley gestured for the sergeant to hand him the list, and then again to get Elsa’s Personalausweis.
“Is this you, fräulein?” Cronley asked in German, showing her the Wanted List.
Elsa looked. “Yes, it is. But it’s ‘Frau,’ not ‘Fräulein.’”
“I told you,” the sergeant said, belatedly adding “sir.”
The MP captain walked over.
“What have we got?” he asked.
“We got a hit, sir,” the sergeant said. “I’ve been trying to tell this guy—”
“You have a problem, Mr. Cronley?” the MP captain said.
“Well, somebody obviously didn’t explain this list to your sergeant,” Cronley said.
“Meaning what?”
“After Frau von Wachtstein’s name is the number four. On the bottom of the list is an explanation of the numbers. Four says ‘Personnel in this category are to be courteously detained, and Colonel Robert Mattingly will be immediately contacted by the most expeditious means at Frankfurt Military 4033.’”
Cronley then handed the Wanted List to the captain.
“Jesus, Cronley, that went right over my head,” the captain said.
“Yeah,” Cronley said. And then, switching to German: “Frau von Wachtstein, will you come with me, please?”
“Is something wrong?” Elsa asked.