Comfort to the Enemy and Other Carl Webster Stories

by Elmore Leonard

  They're all here today, aren't they?

  Maurice is tied up, has to see his parole officer." "I never met him," Frankie said. "How do we know he won't choke?"

  "He's a little smart-aleck colored boy, Teddy says he's a pro. Teddy tells Maurice to get us a gasoline truck so we can fill up our cars. Maurice comes back with a highway hauler, Texaco written across the tank. The time I met him Maurice had swiped more different kinds of vehicles than any car booster doing time at Jeff City. But you're right, what's the rush?

  "We put it off till the next Sunday," Frankie said, "we have time to look the place over. I said to Teddy, 'Don't they have gun towers at this camp? Keep the Krauts from going over the fence?' He says it'll take 'em by surprise. I said to him, 'You mean the guys in the gun towers are deaf? They won't hear the Thompsons going off?' He says they'll see a U. S. army truck flying by the camp, the star insignia on the door. It confuses the guys in the towers. What's going on? That's one o f o urs. By the time they wake up we're gone. I asked him where're the trucks at. He said they're the ones take the Krauts to work during the week. Sunday, they'll be sitting in the motor pool not doing anything."

  "I agreed do the job, Frankie said, but I want to see the camp first, and not have to boost a car to do it."

  Tutti was watching the waitress over at the counter: watched her pick up a cigarette to take a drag and then set it on the edge of an ashtray. Now she was coming to their table, while Frank was saying, "I see the Oklahoma gunslinger before tomorrow, he goes to the front of the line."

  Tutti spotted her name tag. He said, "Norma, you behaving yourself?"

  "I'm trying to," Norma said. "What can I get you fellas, just coffee or you're ready for lunch?"

  "Breakfast," Frankie said. "Eggs over easy, bacon, fried potatoes, no grits."

  "Gee, I'm sorry," Norma said, "but we stop serving breakfast at eleven."

  "You don't have two eggs in the kitchen?"

  "It's just how we do it," Norma said. "By eleven-thirty there won't be an empty table. But we have a special today, loin pork chops and 'scalloped potatoes. Or the pot roast looks good, with carrots and oven-brown potatoes?"

  "I'll tell you what," Tutti said. "I'll have the pork chops and 'scalloped potatoes. My partner will have bacon and eggs over easy, fried potatoes but no grits. You need to bring the manager over? You can do that if you want."

  Norma smiled, not showing any kind of strain. She said, "Let me see if I can sweet-talk the cook, ~"

  okay.

  Tutti watched her walk back to the counter and pick up her cigarette. He said, "I wouldn't mind checking Norma out. Except I want to see this Shemane. Teddy says she misses him so much she gets smashed every night."

  Well, I sure need to see Carl again, get that taken care of. Before or after the job, I don't care."

  "You know what I think," Tutti said. "When this job's done, I don't see Teddy'll need Carl anymore and won't mind us taking him out. In other words, be patient. Wait and see can we get paid for it."

  *

  Louly walked along the perimeter road outside the fence, looking at life in a POW camp: the rows of barracks across the yard where German prisoners were hanging up their wash. Gary Marion, staying close to her while Carl was with the colonel, said, "Any of these Krauts yell at you and make remarks--some were looking this way, some even waved--"I'll see they answer for it."

  "They're guys," Louly said. "Don't worry about it."

  Getting Gary to talk on the ride down from Tulsa was like pulling teeth, until Louly said, 'Carl tells me you were a rodeo bullrider," and that got him going. Yeah, he had some hair-raising rides when he was competing. He told Louly you had to wrap the bul l r ope around the hand you were holding on with good and tight.

  "She comes loose on you, you're done." He told her the bulls had to do their part; you got to draw one was mean and tricky to be in the money.

  After that Gary didn't say much and Louly didn't know what to ask him. Where he was from in Texas and did he have a girlfriend ...?

  Louly looked out at the yard hearing Gary say, "The hell you looking at?" to the German coming toward them now. About five meters from the fence and smiling.

  He said, You must be Gunnery Sgt. Louise Webster, You still teaching marines to shoot straight? He was wearing a uniform overcoat, open, and short pants.

  "From the back seat of a Dauntless dive bomber," Louly said, "to shoot down any one-oh-nines get on their tail. I'm Louly, not Louise, and if you know who I am you must be Jurgen the escape artist."

  Louly saw she was older than Jurgen by a few years. She had never thought of herself older than anyone. She watched him take a few steps toward them.

  A voice through a bullhorn said, "Back away from the fence.

  Jurgen did as he was told, looking up at the gun tower. He said to Louly, "They say it twice, and that's all."

  "You tested them?"

  "No, I saw a man shot."

  Gary got into it saying, he looked up at the gun tower and made what you'd call an obscene gesture."

  "He grabbed his crotch in a defiant way," Jurgen said. "I just found out Carl's married to a marine, Jurgen smiling at her. What is it, seven years? He didn't say if you had children."

  "Carl said he didn't want to leave me a widow with a child to raise. In case somebody ever sneaked up behind him with a pistol. You must know Virgil, you worked at his pecan farm, didn't you? He told Carl not to worry about my ever being in want. I'd marry a couple of rich oilmen, one after another and be fixed for life. Except I'd have to live in Maple Ridge with all the Republicans.

  As she said it they heard Jurgen's name called from out in the yard.

  Jurgen turned and Louly looked through the fence to see Carl coming away from the main gate. He waved to her, then stopped and motioned Jurgen to come out to him, and now they were in conversation, Carl talking, Jurgen shaking his head. Jurgen talking and Carl, Louly would bet, looking him in the eye.

  She said, "They're serious," and had to think about it because it surprised her.

  Gary said, "I know they're talking about something."

  *

  The sauerkraut and ham for supper made Jurgen think of Carl explaining why they were called Krauts. He was already thinking of Carl in the yard this afternoon asking him to name the ones who killed Willi Martz.

  Jurgen stood in front of the messhall waiting for Otto to finish supper and come out. Tell him Carl was getting tough, threatening in his own way, saying give up the names and they would see he was protected. Jurgen had to smile. He'd said, "Send me to another camp?" and shook his head. "You think they can't get to me? There are Nazi fanatics in all the camps."

  He saw Otto coming out, stopping to light a cigarette, Otto in his SS uniform this evening, silver medals and insignia on black. He walked past officers standing about talking and came to Jurgen.

  "Are we looking for each other?"

  "Carl Webster," Jurgen said, "the marshal--" "I know who he is."

  "He wants to know who killed Willi Martz. I don't tell him, the FBI will interrogate me for days, wear me down.

  Otto said, "You're in a canoe on a furious river "If I tell."

  Now. Whether you tell or not. You're in the canoe and you don't have a paddle."

  Jurgen said, "Well, I can always swim."

  "It's your only chance. The Committee is finally tired of you. They want to believe you're a spy for the Americans, so they're going to test you." Otto motioned and they walked to a bench facing a flower garden, the blooms withering as the weather turned cold.

  Jurgen said, "Remember the red impatiens filling the bed? Except for the center where the white ones formed a swastika? It took them days to notice it. I n t heir way they seem slow to catch on, but once they do they come after you.

  "I agree," Otto said, but the Americans aren't our problem. I include myself because I've sieg heiled those cast-iron Nazis for the last time. The Committee says to me, 'You're SS. See that you wear your uniform every ev
ening.' I can't tell them I feel like a toy soldier you wind up and it goosesteps. They tell me I have to give you the name of a comrade has stopped coming to their inspirational meetings, the ones that rave about the Fnhrer like a broken record. The only reason I go, they open with a recording of 'Der Blomberger Baden-Weiller Marsch,' heavy, but always a favorite of mine. They want you to execute this disgrace to his uniform. Use a clothesline to string him up. Or your ingenuity, see if you can convince him he should commit suicide.

  "This is the test? If I refuse--"

  "One of their apes will strangle you. So, you swim?"

  "Yes, I suppose--"

  "Remember saying I should go with you sometime, your girlfriend will fix me up? I said if I ever went out with you it would be the time they'd quit acting like fools and shoot you? Now we're dead if we stay here."

  "When do you want to go?"

  "Tonight," Otto said. "You understand, if we can escape it won't be for a few days this time, but for life. I see this coming and I've been getting ready. I can put my hands on civilian clothes, suits made from uniforms, and I've looked at a way we can possibly get out-if you know how to hot-wire a car. You know whenever w e h ave a film in the evening, the one who shows it leaves his truck behind the recreation hall."

  Jurgen said, "I think I can start the truck.

  "Tonight They're showing 'Louisiana Purchase' with Bob Hope and Vera Zorina.

  "I saw us walking out in our new suits, Jurgen said, but driving out, yes, is the way to do it."

  "You drive and do the talking," Otto said, "with your American accent. I'm in the rear of the panel truck with cans of film."

  "It's perfect," Jurgen said. We can't go under the fence now, the guard I gave all the souvenirs to has been transferred out.

  "Also," Otto said, "and this is most important. We write a letter, a statement, to your friend the marshal. We let him know it was the Committee who sent the apes to kill Willi Martz, and we list all their names. We say we have escaped, not to be free but to protect ourselves. For if we remain here, or we're transferred to another camp, it won't be long before we' re dead. We both swear to the statement and sign it."

  Jurgen was nodding as Otto said, "But how do we see that your friend Carl gets it?"

  "That's what I'm wondering," Jurgen said. "But let's get ready. We only have a few hours."

  "Less than that," Otto said, and looked at his wristwatch. "We have to hurry."

  Chapter 11

  It's Up to You, Carl

  They were behind the big recreation hall standing at the rear end of the panel truck, in the dark, waiting for "Louisiana Purchase" to finish, Jurgen in a black suit cut from an extra-large SS uniform, Otto Penzler wearing one tailored from basic Wermacht gray-green. The suits were from a wardrobe intended for a major escape the Committee was planning, all the way to Mexico.

  The film cans in the panel's load space were "Salute to the Marines," and "Dixie," and "Commandos Strike at Dawn," shown last week. Jurgen smiled remembering the howls of laughter from the audience during th e c ommando combat scenes. Now with "Louisiana Purchase running, he would hear scattered laughter from the audience on Bob Hope's lines. When they cheered and whistled it meant Vera Zorina was on the screen in a dance number. "Dixie," was another Bob Hope Dorothy Lamour movie.

  "It's over," Otto said. "They're leaving."

  "I'll wait a few minutes," Jurgen said, "give the projectionist time to put the film back in the can and do whatever else he does.

  He closed the rear door on Otto, inside now curling himself among the film cans in his gray-green suit. They both wore white shirts and neckties once tan, now dyed in strange shades of color, Otto's a dusty blue, Jurgen's deep red. He got in behind the wheel, came out from between barracks, waited for moviegoers to pass and turned onto the road that crossed the yard to the main gate.

  *

  The guard on duty wore a helmet liner and sidearm. He came through the walking gate next to the main one: came staring hard at Jurgen.

  "Where's Lloyd?"

  "A reel broke on Vera Zorina and almost caused a riot.

  You didn't hear the Krauts booing? It was right at the part it looks like the top of her costume is coming open. You know who I mean, Vera Zorina? Lloyd got the pictur e r unning again, but he's sending me to the movie theatre in town to get some splicing stuff. He want to put all of Vera back in before we leave."

  "How come I didn't see you coming in with Lloyd?"

  "I was in back. 'Commandos Strike at Dawn' kept sliding against the rear door every time Lloyd hit the gas. He swore and I laughed, and he made me go back and sit on the can.

  Listen, Jurgen said, bringing a business envelope out of his inside coat pocket, "I gotta hurry and get back, but before I forget, would you see this is delivered sometime tomorrow? It doesn't have to be first thing, so don't break your neck to get it to him. Long as you don't forget."

  The guard, a PFC, looked like a serious young guy. He held the envelope in both hands to read Colonel Wesley Sellers and below the name, Commander Camp Deep Fork "It's about movies?"

  What's coming up," Jurgen said. "Have to get the Colonel's okay." He waited for the guard to open the double main gates and said, "Much obliged," on the way out.

  They followed the back road that bridged the Deep Fork, barely a stream after hot summer months. Jurgen said to Otto in the rearview mirror, "The man who owns this property is Carl Webster's father. He said I should see the river in the spring, at flood stage. He said it keeps the weevils from eating his pecan trees."

  The outside mirror showed the camp's tower lights against a black sky.

  Once they were in farmland following a gravel road he told Otto to climb up front with him. Otto said, "You keep making turns, following roads--do you know where you're going?" Otto the tank killer sounding a little nervous.

  Jurgen said, "The road of life, Otto, takes many turns," Jurgen in a playful mood. "As we wander the countryside looking for Okmulgee. I think what we'll have to do is take the first train out of here, We'll see if Shemane will pay for our fares, and give us a bit of spending money.

  They hadn't discussed this earlier, the idea of taking a train. Otto said, "But we have this truck."

  "The projectionist comes out, looks around. 'Where's my truck?' They go to the main gate and hear the guard's story, they know a POW took the truck. But we can't take it to Shemane's, so I thought we'd leave it somewhere in town."

  They came into Okmulgee from the west and moved along Sixth Street, Otto seeing most of the storefronts dark at ten o'clock. He said, "There are no beer halls open? This doesn't look like our villages at home, does it?"

  "It's what towns in the middle of America look like, Jurgen said. All of them.

  *

  The moment Shemane opened the door to Jurgen in his black suit and tie she knew this was the last time she'd see him. Still, she said, "Well, look who's here. And you brought a friend." She called, "Mom?" and Gladys came over with her hand extended and held high, in case the German officer wanted to kiss her hand; he didn't, but seemed pleased to meet her. Gladys said they weren't expecting to entertain this evening but was delighted they'd dropped in. She took Otto by the arm to the kitchen asking what he'd like to drink, a martini?

  Otto said, "Really? Would you have bourbon?"

  Shemane watched Jurgen turn off the lamps in the living room. He came over to her still at the front door and flicked the switch to turn off the porch light.

  She said, "I'll never see you again, will I?"

  He looked through the glass pane in the door to see empty pavement in the streetlight.

  "I'm going to tell you again," Jurgen said, "I'm in love with you. I don't want to leave, but have no choice if I want to stay alive."

  Shemane said, "You're afraid they'll shoot you? They won't even know you're gone till the morning."

  "We stole a truck and left it in town."

  "You drove out of the camp? How?"

  He said, "Wait," ra
ising his hand, his fingers touching her lips. "I don't have time t o e xplain. But, please, if you and your mother wil l g o up to your rooms and put on your night clothes, leave the lamp on by your bed--"

  "How would they know it was you in the truck?"

  "They don't. But when they tell Carl, and they will because he's still here, at his father's, Carl will think of me right away."

  It was almost 10:30.

  *

  Carl rang the bell at a quarter past eleven.

  He turned to watch Gary Marion pull up behind the Chevy in the street light, Gary driving an olive-drab sedan borrowed from the POW camp motor pool. Now he was coming this way and Carl motioned him to go around back.

  Shemane opened the door holding her silk wrap closed, her blonde hair hanging across her eye like Veronica Lake. He waited for her to turn on the porch light.

  Carl...?"

  "I got you out of bed, didn't I?"

  "I fell asleep reading Dawn Powell. I like her, but she uses an awful lot of words the way she writes. Shemane yawned and said, "Mom and I were up late last night."

  He waited for her to ask him in, but she didn't: He waited to hear what else she might say..

  "What's going on?"

  "Jurgen's out again."

  She said, "He is? sounding surprised. Are you sure?"

  "A prisoner wearing a suit of clothes drove off in the truck that brings the movies. He told a story at the gate and was out.

  She said, "You mean you think it might be Jurgen, or you want it believe it is.

  I can see him doing it, talking his way out.

  Shemane kept hold of her wrap, her fist tight in the red silk, not anything like the other night, letting her jacket come open as she made their drinks. He stopped counting on Shemane asking him in. Yawning again, covering her mouth and saying excuse me. She did look beat.

  Still, he hesitated.

  She said, "Are you looking for help or whaT?"

  "Not if you haven't seen him."

  "Wouldn't I tell you if I did? She said, "Carl, I thought you and I were on the same side when it comes to Jurgen. What do you want to do, come in and look around the house?