Five Past Midnight by James Thayer

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 paused, allowing Heydekampf to render his words into English. Then he said, "I asked you to meet with me because you three undoubtedly planned and assisted Jack Cray's escape."
    More translation. The three POWs were still eating with zest. But now their eyes were locked on the back of the German inspector as he spoke.
    Dietrich turned from the window. "After your capture, each one of you was questioned at Auswertestell West at Oberursel. Techniques there are sophisticated and successful. I'm sure that you have discussed your experiences there, and now understand fully our interrogation techniques. You know the water glass trick, and the escape ruse, and the Red Cross questionnaire subterfuge, all designed to get new prisoners to divulge information."
    Hornsby furrowed his brow at Heydekampf's translation, then glanced at Bell, who shrugged and reached for another cruller. Captain Davis licked icing from his fingers. They had no idea where the detective inspector was leading.
    Dietrich continued, "So it would be impossible for me to trick you into divulging information about the American's escape."
    "Too right," Davis said after Heydekampf's translation.
    "But I don't need to." The inspector patted a bunk, then picked up a paperback copy of John Steinbeck's The Moon Is Down from a tray at the bunk's headboard. "I am going to tell you how you and the American did it."
    Colonel Janssen blurted in German, "You know? How do you know?"
    When Lieutenant Heydekampf translated, the three POWs stopped chewing in unison.
    Ignoring the commandant, Dietrich lifted Jack Cray's baseball bat that had been leaning against a wall. He rolled it in his hands, examining it. "How do you hold this?"
    Harry Bell wiped his hands on his pants before reaching for the bat. "You right-handed?"
    When Heydekampf changed the words to German, Dietrich nodded.
    "Right hand over left, feet a little wider than shoulder-width, a bit of a crouch." Bell swung the bat slowly a few times then passed it