Buenos Aires
1745 20 December 1942
Wearing a somewhat soiled, loose-fitting white cotton uniform of the type issued by the Argerich Military Hospital to its maintenance personnel, Second Lieutenant Anthony J. Pelosi, CE, USAR, moved slowly down the third-floor corridor of the hospital. He was holding a large coil of black electric wire, and following a
man moving a floor polisher in a slow sweeping motion from side to side.
The man with the floor polisher stopped in front of Room 305 and put a key to the locked door. The door was opened by a large man; he was holding a shotgun in one hand. The muzzle was eighteen inches from Tony’s belly. The man motioned for him to enter.
First Lieutenant Cletus H. Frade, USMCR, wearing a light-blue hospital gown, was seated at a small table. Tony could see a pot of coffee on it and the remnants of sandwiches and pastry.
“Jesus, what’s that purple shit all over you, Lieutenant?”
“Some kind of antiseptic,” Clete said, walking to Tony and shaking his hand. “How did you get past the clowns?”
“I’m holding the cord for the guy with the floor polisher,” Tony said. “He said we have ten minutes, and the less time I’m in here, the better.”
“That’ll be enough. Tony, this is Suboficial Mayor—Sergeant Major—Rodríguez. Enrico, el Teniente Pelosi.”
“A sus órdenes, mi Teniente.”
Tony shook Enrico’s hand.
“What the hell happened at your house? When I went by there, the place was surrounded by cops; I couldn’t even get near. And when I tried to telephone, I got some guy on the line who was obviously a cop, and he wouldn’t tell me shit.”
“The Germans sent a couple of guys to kill me; the local mafiosi.”
“No shit?”
“They killed Señora Pellano,” Clete said.
“And then you killed them? With your grandfather’s six-shooter?” Tony asked in a combination of admiration and incredulity.
“I thought you didn’t know what happened.”
Pelosi hoisted the hem of his white jacket and came out with a copy of the Buenos Aires Herald.
“You’re on the front page,” he said, handing it to him. “I suppose most of the story is bullshit.”
* * *
ROBBERY ATTEMPT IN BELGRANO
LEAVES HOUSEKEEPER AND
TWO CRIMINALS DEAD
By C. Edward Whaley
Herald Staff Writer
Buenos Aires 20 Dec—An attempted robbery of the residence at 4730 Avenida Libertador just after midnight this morning left the housekeeper, Señora Marianna Pellano, 52, and two as yet unidentified criminals dead, according to Colonel Ricardo Savia-Gonzalez, Chief of the Policía Federal.
“These criminals,” Colonel Savia-Gonzalez told the Herald, “apparently in the belief the residence was not occupied, broke into the house from the rear. Surprised by Señora Pellano, they cruelly took her life, then proceeded upstairs.
“There they encountered Señor Cletus Frade, son of el Coronel Jorge Guillermo Frade, and attempted to murder him with a pistol it has been determined was stolen from the Argentine Navy.
“Señor Frade, luckily, was in the process of cleaning an historic military firearm, a Colt revolver once carried by his grandfather, El Coronel Guillermo Alejandro Frade, who carried it while commanding the Husares de Pueyrredón. Although wounded, he courageously managed to load the revolver and with it dispatched both criminals, killing both instantly.