Five Past Midnight - James Thayer [37]
The inspector said, "This is surgical tubing. When a surgeon amputates an arm or does some other invasive procedure on an arm, he wraps this tubing around the patient's upper arm, right under the shoulder. He pulls it tight. It prevents bleeding during the operation. And it blocks off all detectable pulse."
Colonel Janssen's face whitened. His eyes darted to SAO Hornsby, whose features remained unreadable.
"The tourniquet can remain in place up to two hours without damage to the arm," Dietrich went on. "Cray had tourniquets around both arms under his shirt and coat. Maybe not surgical tubing, maybe lengths of twine. But the tourniquets were there."
As he interpreted, Heydekampf’s voice lowered to a chagrined whisper. The POWs leaned toward him to hear the translation.
The inspector asked, "You remember the blood on Cray's neck? It seemed to have flowed there from his bleeding ears and eye. In fact, it had been smeared there just before he went through the windows. Probably the same POWs blood that was in his ears."
"Whatever for?" the commandant asked. His shoulders were hunched forward, as if the inspector's revelations were blows with Cray's bat.
"So you wouldn't check his carotid pulse in his neck."
Heydekampf closed his eyes. "Of course."
"When it's easy to check his wrists, no sense bloodying your hands by checking the pulse in his neck."
Janssen said quietly, "So that's how he did it. It's clear now. And I've never heard of anything like it, not from Colditz or any other POW camp."
"That's not quite all of it," Dietrich said, a note of apology in his voice. "Your report indicated that Major Bell and Captain Davis placed the American in the burial bag. To make him fit into the gunnysack, they had to relocate the arm. Another excruciating ordeal for Cray, who again remained silent, not calling out in pain. They also surreptitiously threw a knife into the bag, if Cray didn't already have one in his clothes, so Cray could cut himself out of the bag. And they may have removed the tourniquets, or Cray might have done it himself. The POWs who dug the grave made sure it was shallow."
Janssen only nodded.
"And then there was the shortness of the ceremony at the grave," Dietrich continued. "None of the POWs offered to speak a few words over the body, saying they didn't know Cray well enough. Group Captain Hornsby, you and the others knew that Cray could last only a few minutes below ground."
David Davis struggled, trying to keep a grin from his face.
"How did Cray know when the burial party had left?" Heydekampf asked.
"Maybe as he lay underground he could hear you. More likely he simply waited as long as he could, until his air was gone. The minister who read the service and who saw Cray rise from the earth estimates Cray was in the grave less than ten minutes. There was some air in the gunnysack When it ran out, he came up, hoping no one was watching. Cray didn't know the pastor was nearby, in the orchard. The American probably never saw the pastor."
Hornsby's head came up. He had not known about the minister seeing Cray emerge from the ground. So that was how the Germans were alerted so quickly.
Otto Dietrich replaced the American's bat where he had found it, leaning it against the wall. He stepped toward the ward's door "Colonel Janssen assures me that you have a radio hidden in the castle, and that in all likelihood you received coded orders over the radio to help Jack Cray escape this castle."
The POWs remained impassive.
"You probably were not informed of the reasons Cray was to escape. He may not know the reason himself as yet But he is going to try to commit a murder. Knowing this might reduce your pleasure from Cray's escape."
After the translation, SAO Hornsby said in a crabbed voice, "We need a lot of things in this castle, but moralizing from a German isn't one of them."
Dietrich locked his gaze onto Hornsby's. After a moment the investigator replied, "No, perhaps not." He buttoned his coat. "Good-bye, gentlemen. You told me nothing, but I learned a lot." He stepped to the door. Janssen and