Breach of Power by Chuck Barrett

spit the grit from between his teeth. Musty damp earth filled his nostrils.
    How could he have been so careless?
    But the bigger question stirring around in his mind was why a grave was left open? Even with the heavy rains, the pit should have been covered. No casket should be left in an open gravesite. And no open gravesite should be left without, as a minimum, flagging to prevent what had just happened.
    The casket rocked back and forth while he climbed from the pit. He looked for his penlight and clipboard and found both in the wet grass. He didn't remember seeing any notices of interments among his assigned markers, so why was this one open?
    Sergeant Blaine Roberts flashed the beam of light down into the grave.
    "Holy crap."

10
    S cott Katzer almost missed his connecting flight to Germany because of a weather reroute around thunderstorms in the D.C. area. His flight from Nashville left on time, but with the last minute booking, his layover time at JFK was short. The en route weather delay left him with only twenty minutes to change planes. And at JFK, that meant changing concourses as well.
    He arrived in Munich on time, but his luggage didn't. The airline informed him it would be the next day before his checked bag would arrive. Fortunately, Katzer carried the bare essentials in his carry-on. Enough to get him by until the airline delivered his bag to him in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. What he didn't have, he would buy.
    Garmisch, in the west, and Partenkirchen, in the east, were separate towns for centuries until 1935 when Adolph Hitler forced the two respective mayors to combine the two towns in anticipation of the 1936 Winter Olympic Games. Even though the two towns maintain separate identities, the twin townships are generally lumped together and referred to simply as Garmisch.
    Katzer didn't want to spend the time required for the long train ride from Munich to Garmisch, so he paid too much to rent an automobile to make the 120-kilometer drive. At least this gave him some mobility after he arrived at his destination. Upon arriving in Munich, Katzer received a text message from his mother; she had booked him for three nights at the Hotel Bavaria in Garmisch.
    His fluent German paid off after he arrived at the Garmisch Polizeistation—police station—since the only English-speaking officers had gone home for the day. He inquired about the man recovered from the glacier and was informed the body was being kept frozen at the Klinikum Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the clinical center in Garmisch. Further query revealed the officer in charge of the case was the only person that could approve a viewing and even then only when accompanied by him.
    Katzer arrived at the police station early the next morning and was met by Gerhardt Zeilnhofer, officer in charge of the investigation of the man found inside the Höllentalferner glacier. Zeilnhofer was a short man, maybe 5'6" with an athletic build, close-cropped blond hair, and a defined swagger when he walked.
    "Mr. Katzer, how may I be of assistance?" Zeilnhofer asked.
    "The man you found inside the glacier last week, have you identified him yet?"
    "No, his identity remains a mystery to us, but we are still in the infancy of our investigation. The only thing we have determined is he appears to have fallen into the glacier sometime in the mid-1940s. Probably around the end of the war."
    "Did he have any belongings on him, perhaps a book of some sort?" Katzer knew his lack of tact would draw suspicion, but he already had a cover story—the truth—with some selective omissions.
    Zeilnhofer was silent for a few seconds. "A rather pointed…and somewhat odd question wouldn't you say, Mr. Katzer? Perhaps you have something you would like to share."
    "So he did have something on him," Katzer said.
    "No, Mr. Katzer, he did not." Zeilnhofer pointed to a chair. "Have a seat. Please, explain yourself and your questions. I insist."
    Katzer spent the next ten minutes explaining that his