The police passed them through the barriers blocking Avenida Alvear without question, but the gates of the mansion were closed, and it was necessary for them to get out of the cars on the curb.
A barrage of flashbulbs went off. Gradny-Sawz glanced around, saw an unruly crowd on the sidewalk, and quickly decided what was going on. Though the police had tried to keep the journalists from Buenos Aires newspapers a respectable distance from the mansion, the journalists had jumped over the police barricades and were overwhelming the half-dozen policemen at the fence gate. They saw a good picture, and were going to risk a policeman's angrily swung baton to get it.
After paying what Gradny-Sawz thought was probably the shortest courtesy call possible. President Ramon Castillo was leaving the mansion with a small entourage just as the American Ambassador with his entourageGradny-Sawz saw Vice Consul Spiers and the American military Attach?started inside.
An exchange of handshakes was of course required by protocol, and that in itself would be a good news photograph. But this act was taking place as Ambassador von Lutzenberger also started to enter the mansion. A photograph of the President of Argentina shaking hands with the American Ambassador while the German Ambassador waited his turn was a photograph worthy of the front page, and would probably be seen all over the world.
And God was with Germany, Gradny-Sawz decided, as the American Ambassador walked into the mansion. At least three photographs got a shot of Castillo shaking hands with von Lutzenberger while, back to the camera, the American Ambassador, trailed by his staff, marched away.
Thatphoto would almost certainly appear on the front pages of La Nacion, La Prensa, and Clarin, the major Buenos Aires newspapers. With a little luck, it would be transmitted by cable all over the world.
The American Embassy Press Officer had somehow managed to make the major Argentine newspapers aware that the late Oberst Frade was survived by his son, Cletus Howell Frade, of New Orleans, Louisiana, USA and Buenos Aires. La Nacion had further described the son as "Teniente Frade, USMC"; and La Prensa as "Major Frade, U.S. Navy." The Buenos Aires Herald as expected, considering their close connection to the Americanshad reported that Major Cletus H. Frade, USMC, Retired, a hero of the Battle of Guadalcanal, had flown from his home in Texas, USA, to attend his father's funeral. Major Frade was expected to remain in Argentina, the nation of his birth, and was, under Argentine law, an Argentine citizen.
The photograph of President Castillo shaking Ambassador von Lutzen-berger's hand, in Gradny-Sawz's professional judgment, would affect Argentine public opinion far more effectively than the best public relations efforts of the Americans.
It was, of course, a shame that Ambassador von Lutzenberger was not a more imposing figure physically. Von Lutzenberger's uniform was, of course, even more heavily gold-encrusted than that authorized for First Secretary Gradny-Sawz. It was, Gradny-Sawz thought, as he usually did on occasions like this, no fault of Graf von Lutzenberger that he was fifty-three, sharp-featured, small, skinny, and almost entire bald. But the result was inevitable: Von Lutzenberger looked somehow comical in his uniform, like a member of the chorus in an operetta.
The police soon managed to get the press back behind their barricades, and Gradny-Sawz, Goltz, and von Wachtstein walked quickly to the gate in the fence. And Ambassador Graf and Frau Grafin Ambassador von Lutzenberger were waiting for them just beyond the servants checking invitations at a table set up inside the door.
There were only two people receiving. Se?or and Se?ora Duarte. Gradny-Sawz wondered where the son was; he had been at the church earlier, and it had been reported to him that he had also gone to the Edificio Libertador.
"Permit me, Se?or Duarte, and Se?ora," von Lutzenberger said, "to offer the most profound expression of condolences on the tragic loss of el Coronel Frade on behalf of the German government, and my wife, and myself personally."
"How kind of you," Humberto said.
"My brother is now in heaven with the blessed Jesus and all the angels," Beatrice said, almost cheerfully.
"You know my wife, of course," von Lutzenberger said. "And First Secretary Gradny-Sawz. May I present Standartenf?hrer Goltz? Herr Standartenf?hrer, these are my friends Se?or and Se?ora Duarte. Se?or Duarte is the managing director of the Anglo-Argentine Bank."
Goltz clicked his heels and bowed, then bent over Beatrice's gloved hand.
"I am honored, Sir and Madam," he said, "to meet the parents of the courageous officer who gave his life in the war against Bolshevism."
Beatrice did not seem to hear him.
"Good afternoon, Peter," she cried happily.
Peter von Wachtstein clicked his heels and bowed.
"Se?ora," he said.
Beatrice pushed between Frau Ambassador von Lutzenberger and Standartenf?hrer Goltz to clutch Peter's hand and offer him her cheek.
"And we are going to see you over the weekend, aren't we?" Beatrice said. "You'll come to the estancia for the memorial mass?"
"I hope to have that privilege, Se?ora," Peter said.
"You'll sit with us, of course. I'll tell Se?ora Carzino-Cormano," she said, then kissed her cheek again before resuming her place in line to shake the hand of Gradny-Sawz.
"Anton," she said, gushing sincerity. "Thank you for coming."
"Thank you having me, my dear Se?ora," Gradny-Sawz said, and the German delegation was through the line.
A white-gloved servant showed them the door of the reception. Another servant stood just inside the door holding a tray of champagne glasses.
"The bar, gentlemen, is at the rear of the room," he said.
They all took champagne and moved into the reception.
Goltz turned over his shoulder.
"What was that about, von Wachtstein?" he asked. "With our hostess?"
Ambassador von Lutzenberger answered for him: "There is to be a private memorial service, family and friends only, for Oberst Frade at his estancia on Sunday. To which, apparently, our von Wachtstein has been invited. Since he escorted the remains of Hauptmann Duarte to Buenos Aires, the Duartes seem to have almost adopted him."
"How interesting," Goltz said.
Fascinating. Von Wachtstein has developed a friendship, a close friendship, with the people who run the Anglo-Argentine Bank. That may prove very useful indeed.
[FOUR]
Clete's first visitors in the upstairs sitting were Se?ora Claudia Carzino-Cormano and her daughters. He had been sitting slumped in an armchair with a drink, reading with disbelief the Buenos Aires Herald.
It was clear to him that the front-page storywhich described him as a hero of the Battle of Guadalcanal, retired from the Marine Corps as a Major, and an Argentine citizenhad come directly from the typewriter of the Information Officer at the American Embassy. He wondered if it had been written at the Ambassador's orders, or whether Colonel Graham had something to do with it. That seemed unlikely, but Graham routinely did unlikely things.
Accordingly to other stories in the Herald, the Germans and the Japanese were retreating on all fronts after suffering severe losses. Hitler was about to fall on his knees and beg for mercy, and Emperor Hirohito was next in line.
The last he had heard, the Germans were still occupying most of the land-mass of Europe. And the Japanese were still in Singapore, and for that matter, the Philippines, plus all the little Pacific islands from which the Marine Corps would have to remove them, in fighting that was going to be at least as bloody as it had been on Guadalcanal.