“After you told him you were on the Maine.”

“Yes, I did, a marine aboard the battleship the night the dons blew her up in Havana harbor, 1898, and set us at war with Spain. I told him there wasn’t a destructive act he could think of that would compare to blowing up the battleship Maine.”

Carl said he got a kick out of Jurgen slipping out of camp every couple of months to get laid, spend some time with his girlfriend, Shemane.

“She was a hot number,” Virgil said, “worked in a Kansas City cathouse. The next time she’s seen she’s driving by here in a Lincoln Zephyr.”

“Looking for Jurgen,” Carl said. “He’d sneak out for a few days and show up at the OK Cafe, PW printed on the back of his short pants-always wore those Afrika Korps shorts-and wait there for the MPs to come get him. The last time he broke out we’re certain it was Shemane drove Jurgen and Otto to Fort Smith and bought ’em their getaway car, a ’41 Studebaker.”

Virgil said, “You ever gonna arrest her?”

“Shemane’s mom was along for the ride. She raised hell with the agents bringing ’em back from Arkansas. She said they were on their way to Hot Springs to take the waters and had not socialized with any Germans or ever would. I told the agents in Tulsa I’d let Shemane think she’s off the hook. Wait for her to leave her mom and go up to Detroit. She does, you got Jurgen. She doesn’t, they weren’t as nuts about each other as I thought. I said to one of the U.S. attorneys, ‘What’re you gonna bring her up on, sleeping with the enemy? You want to charge this poor girl, who’s gone to bed with some of the most prominent criminal defense lawyers in America?’”

Virgil said, “Is that true?”

“Pretty much. I’m counting on Jurgen sticking by Otto, doing what he can to keep him under wraps.