Five Past Midnight - James Thayer [33]
Dietrich helped him. "Offering pastries isn't some new German interrogation technique."
Heydekampf again changed the words to English.
When Hornsby slowly reached for one of the doughnuts, Bell and Davis leaped for them.
Ulster Rifleman Davis crammed one into his mouth, then mumbled, "You almost had a bloody mutiny on your hands, Captain."
Bell chewed frantically. "I would have joined Davis. A mutiny, I swear. Christ, this is good."
The inspector said, "You, too, Colonel Janssen and Lieutenant Heydekampf. I know you don't eat well anymore."
Heydekampf could not keep the gratitude from his face. He passed a cruller to the camp commandant before taking one for himself. The skin on Heydekampf's neck was still blistered and oozing from the delousing-shed fire. Biacelets of burned skin were around his wrist. Everyone chewed in silence for a moment.
The first thing Otto Dietrich had done after leaving the Gestapo headquarters was to reenter Heinrich Muller's Mercedes. When the SS chauffeur balked at driving the inspector without further instructions from Gestapo Müller, Dietrich produced Himmler's letter. With a laugh, the driver started the engine. On the inspector's orders, the driver took him to the Adler Bakery on Hermann Goring Strasse. The bakery provided cakes and bread for senior Party members. The baker swore he had no pastries that day. Flashing Himmler's letter quickly resulted in four dozen crullers. The SS driver had then volunteered around a mouthful of pastry, "We could have a lot of fun with that letter. I know some places on Friedrichstrasse." The street was home for Berlin's elegant brothels, some of which still stood. Dietrich declined with thanks.
Then Dietrich had visited his precinct station to requisition the talents of Peter Hilfinger, his assistant for the past six years. On first sight of Dietrich, Hilfinger had grabbed him in an unprofessional bear hug, and then had been quick to drop whatever he had been working on to join him.
They had stopped briefly at an orthopedic surgeon's clinic on Krummestrasse, where Dietrich and Hilfinger conducted an interview while the driver waited at the curb. Then they drove to a haberdashery. The inspector had given the driver six more of the pastries when they arrived at the new airstrip at the Tiergarten.
Gestapo Muller's Fieseier Storch airplane had then taken Dietrich and Hilfinger from Berlin to Colditz. The inspector had eaten four crullers on the flight. The pilot had juked the plane from cloud to cloud during the flight, hiding from prowling Allied fighters. Dietrich did not know whether his nausea during the ride was motion sickness or was from the rich pastries. Between bites of crullers and bouts of nausea, he filled in Hilfinger on the assignment.
Dietrich walked around a bunk to a barred window, giving the POWs more time to sate their sweet tooths. On Dietrich’s suggestion, Peter Hilfinger waited in the hallway so they would not give the impression they were trying to overwhelm the prisoners. Dietrich looked out into the prisoners' yard. At least a dozen guards were posted in the small area. The Gestapo had assumed administration of the prisoner camp, and six agents were also in the yard, all wearing the telltale trench coats. Colonel Janssen had been relieved of command but had not yet been arrested or ordered to Berlin, which offered him hope.
"If you will continue to translate for me, Lieutenant Heydekampf," Dietrich said over his shoulder. To help support himself, he put his hand against the window frame, hoping the POWs wouldn't notice. His legs were still weak from his time at Lehrterstrasse. The charred remains of the delousing shed were below him to his left. "Group Captain Hornsby, you are the senior allied officer at Colditz. Major Bell is the senior American officer. Colonel Janssen believes that you, Captain Davis, are the Colditz escape committee chief. He doesn't know for sure, but I trust his instincts."
Dietrich