The German Nurse

by M. J. Hollows

  There was a hesitancy in her tone. She coughed as if the grief was making her ill, but it gave Jack an idea.

  ‘I know someone who can help,’ Jack said, in a hurry.

  He was thinking quickly and as he did so he stood up and began to pace around the room. Johanna’s eyes followed him. He stopped in the middle of the room and turned to face her. For some reason he was suddenly worried that if he went to her, that if he got closer, then something would happen to drag them apart. He didn’t want to tempt fate. The Germans could arrive at any moment, and the thought terrified him. She looked up at him from where she was sitting, worry in her brown eyes.

  ‘Who could possibly help?’ she asked, her voice low. ‘Telling someone else is dangerous.’

  ‘There’s a doctor up at the hospital,’ he replied, pacing again. ‘You must know Doctor Abbott. I’ve helped him out a few times and come to know him quite well, in a professional sense. He’s the doctor I got to know when the harbour was bombed.’

  His duties had taken him up to the hospital several times in the last eighteen months, and when he was there he had always made a point first to check in with Johanna, then to see Doctor Abbott and enquire whether he needed any help. Jack had come to admire the older man.

  She nodded. ‘I know him – he’s a good man. But what can he do about … about my situation?’

  ‘He’s done things like this before. We can ask him to give you some medical reason for staying on the island.’

  ‘It won’t be enough. I’m untermensch. Medical reasons mean nothing to them if you are subhuman.’

  ‘Then he can change your details. Make it official so that anyone who needs to can see the proof that you’re Christian. Make it look like you’ve been on the island for some time, whatever it takes. We have to build a lie – it’s the only way. If you do that then they will have no reason to evacuate you.’

  ‘Fine, I will ask him. But if he is not comfortable with it then I won’t force him.’

  Finally Jack sat. He had to hope that Doctor Abbott would go along with it. They had built up a relationship since Jack had helped in the hospital during the invasion. The doctor was a good man, but would he be willing to risk his livelihood? If he did, then they might just be able to keep her safe. It was risky, but it was the only choice they had. He looked over at the woman he loved, noticing the way her hair curled around her ears and the intense look in her eyes. He would do anything for her, risk anything for her, and it would all be worth it.

  Chapter 28

  The police station was quiet, and there was no one on the front desk. Jack leant on the surface and peered into the room behind to see if anyone was there, but it was deserted. He had found William in the office sorting through some paperwork. He looked up as Jack entered and put the papers down.

  ‘Oh. Hullo,’ he said. ‘Doing the night shift again?’

  William knew full well who was on each shift, but he liked to have something to say, anything to start a conversation. It was why he was the desk sergeant, his easy manner and habit for talking.

  ‘I’m on call. Harry and Bob are on shift.’ He decided to throw William a lifeline. ‘What’s that you’re doing?’ He pointed at the table.

  William’s wide face seemed shocked that Jack would even bother to ask. ‘Oh, just some paperwork for the inspector. Nothing exciting. What about you?’

  Jack walked past William, whose head tilted to observe him, and sat down on a chair at the back of the office. ‘I was hoping to keep out of the way for a while, to be honest with you. And maybe read this book.’ He pulled the book out of his jacket pocket and waved it for William to see. He knew that the sergeant was keen on reading.

  ‘H.G. Wells? Where did you get hold of that?’ He almost stood up to come and get a better look at it. ‘You know the Germans have banned his books, right?’

  ‘I’d heard. According to my mother it belonged to my father. He was a great reader, and I wanted to see what the Germans had against Mr Wells. What exactly is anti-German about a book?’

  ‘Who knows! Don’t let me interrupt you then.’ William beamed at Jack before returning to his work. The pair of them settled into a working silence, William shuffling papers and occasionally tutting to himself, before licking his finger and scribbling a note on the page, and Jack staring intently at The War of the Worlds and trying to concentrate. The station clock ticked to itself on the other side of the room.

  An hour or so later, the office door opened and David entered. He didn’t look over at either Jack or William, but carried on as if he expected no one to be there. David pulled a chair from one of the desks over to the wall, then stood on it to take down one of the keys. From where Jack was seated he could see that it was the key to the market gate, but what would David want with that? As he stepped down from the chair he looked straight at Jack and stopped. A grin flashed across his face, as if he had only just noticed them.

  ‘Don’t say anything,’ David whispered, with a wink.

  Jack stared back with a straight face. What would he tell anyone? He wasn’t even sure he knew what David was doing. David nodded at William, who Jack knew owed him a favour. There was no way he would say anything either.

  ‘Look, it’s every man for himself,’ David said. ‘We’re just doing what we need to do to survive.’

  The one thing they had all got better at was guarding their words. A careless conversation could see them in trouble if the wrong people heard it, even if the intent had been perfectly innocent. Apparently, David was an exception to that rule. But he had always spoken his thoughts aloud. It was a wonder he had made it this far.

  ‘What do you mean by that?’ he asked, angry with himself for getting drawn into a conversation. Whatever David was up to he was better off out it.

  ‘Well …’ David hesitated in his answer. It was clear his mind was catching up with the danger of his words. ‘Times are hard,’ he continued. ‘That’s all I meant. Why don’t both of you just forget you saw me, okay?’

  It was the first thing David had said that he agreed with, and he nodded, pointedly returning his gaze to the book in his hands. David shrugged and left the police station without another word. Jack stared at the door as it closed behind him, wondering whether he should go after his friend and stop him. It felt like there was a cloud hanging over their friendship. Jack wouldn’t push the issue, but he would keep an eye on David’s behaviour.

  William looked over at where Jack was sitting, his mouth opened a few times as if he wanted to say something. Jack buried himself in the book, forcing William to stay silent. He didn’t want to discuss what had happened. He didn’t want to discuss anything; he just wanted to escape into another world and forget that anything was happening at all.

  *

  The shift continued in silence for the rest of the night, each man concentrating on their own task. After a few hours William had finished his paperwork and pushed his chair back. He pulled a newspaper out from somewhere and stuck the end of a pencil in his mouth as he considered the crossword. David did not return to the police station, but as the morning drew on more policemen arrived. Daylight took over from the faint light of the candles. Eventually William got up and left, finishing his shift, but due to being short-staffed Jack was on until midday. He struggled to stay awake as he drifted in and out of the book he had been reading. When the inspector came into the office, quietly inspecting them, Jack hid the book back in his jacket pocket. After only saying a few words, the old man proceeded upstairs to his office.

  It had gone eleven when the door slammed open and a German officer wearing the uniform of the Feldgendarmerie entered. He looked around at the half dozen policemen, then clicked his heels together.

  ‘Where is your senior officer?’ he barked as if on a parade ground.

  Sergeant Honfleur was the first to respond, jumping up out of his chair, his face red.

  ‘What on earth do you want? You can’t just barge in here like—’

  ‘Do you know
who I am, Sergeant?’ He pushed past the sergeant to stand in the middle of the station office. ‘I suggest you do not push me. I am a member of the German Feldgendarmerie and I am here to place you all under arrest for thefts.’

  ‘What? You can’t—’

  ‘I suggest you do as I say and find the inspector immediately!’

  *

  Jack had never seen the old man so furious, as he paced up and down the office. Typically a man of few words, he muttered to himself before turning to the German policeman. His skin was red and splotchy as if he had been holding his breath. He looked up at the assembled policemen as if noticing them for the first time. His eyes played around the room, then he shook his head in defeat. He opened his mouth to speak then closed it abruptly. He did so again a few times, which made him look like a fish struggling for air.

  ‘What do you want me to do?’ the chief eventually said, looking smaller and older than he had done before. They called him the old man, but it had only been a joke. Now he truly looked his age.

  ‘You are to close the police station and everyone present is to come with me,’ the German shouted, apparently for everyone’s benefit.

  ‘Where are we going?’ This time it was Sergeant Honfleur. ‘What do you want with us?’

  ‘You will follow me to the Feldgendarmerie Headquarters at Grange Lodge and submit yourself for questioning. Immediately. The police station will remain closed.’

  ‘You can’t just close the police station. What if someone needs help?’

  ‘I have men outside. If you do not come willingly then we will take you by force. One of them will stay here to take charge of the police station.’

  ‘Force will not be necessary.’ The inspector had found his voice at last. Some of the old steel had returned to it as he held his head up high and looked the German in the eyes. ‘We will come and answer these accusations against my police force. Lead the way.’

  They all stepped out of the building, leaving it empty for the first time since it had opened. Not even the bombing of the White Rock had left the station unmanned, nor at any other time during the occupation. There was a group of half a dozen soldiers outside the station, all carrying rifles. Two of them raised them as the policemen appeared, but their officer waved them away and muttered something in German.

  For the roughly ten minutes it took to walk up La Grange to Grange Lodge the Germans flanked them, never taking their eyes from the policemen. The locals stared at them, confusion and anger writ large upon their faces. It was as if they were already convicted criminals.

  *

  Jack could feel the sweat building under his uniform as he sat there awaiting judgement. The policemen had been separated, and Jack had been taken into one of the upstairs rooms and left there.

  For a long time there was a silence behind the locked wooden door, a silence that meant they were on their way. His time would come. He wasn’t sure if there was anything special about these doors, whether the Germans had installed something to silence their interrogations. He had heard horror stories of intimidation techniques and worse. At first he hadn’t believed them, but the older he got and the more the occupation went on, the more he shed his naivety like a snake shed its skin. Some of the policemen on the island were apparently no more trustworthy than the Germans, and he had seen some of the methods they used. He expected the Germans to be worse.

  He wondered whether this was a test, to see how long he would be able to keep his silence before his guilt ate away at him completely and he broke down.

  There was a thump that sounded like a butcher slamming his blade down on a slab of meat, then silence.

  He wanted to get up and try the door, but he didn’t know what would happen if he did. It was part of the deliberate fear, forcing him to sit there on that uncomfortable chair, waiting for something to happen.

  Whoever was in the room next door sounded as if he was in trouble. It could have been David, but it was hard to tell. As far as Jack was aware David had stolen, and no matter how desperate he was a policeman should not steal. He had every right to be in trouble, but that didn’t mean he deserved what was happening to him. Jack was not above suspicion either; as a friend of David’s it wouldn’t be much of a leap to assume he had something to do with it. If he stopped sitting there and tried to open the door, would that show his guilt? But if he did nothing, would that not also make him seem guilty? He stood and walked to the threshold.

  There was a further series of thumps through the wall, then the sound of metal being drawn against metal. Jack reached out a hand for the cold steel handle, but stopped just shy of his fingertips touching it. The scraping sound stopped with the rattle of hollow metal, as a chair fell over. Then silence again.

  There was a click as the door handle turned a fraction of an inch, then stopped. It seemed to take an age before it moved again, Jack watching it the entire time as if doing so would put off the inevitable. The door wheeled open and a face appeared through the crack.

  ‘Henrik?’ Jack asked as his voice cracked from thirst. Henrik nodded and placed his index finger across his lips.

  ‘I heard what they were doing,’ he said. ‘And had to check if you were here.’

  ‘Can you tell me what’s going on?’ Jack tried to keep his voice as low as possible.

  ‘I cannot tell you more than I have seen first-hand. I am not involved in this investigation, perhaps for obvious reasons. Those who are interrogating your friends … Well, they are not good people. They will get what they want, even if they have to beat it out of them.’

  ‘And what do they want?’

  ‘Signed confessions of the thefts from German stores.’ He paused, looking out of the door to see if there was anyone in the corridor. ‘Do you have anything in your home you should not?

  ‘No! Of course not.’ He thought of the H.G. Wells book, but that was at the station where he left it. ‘I have no idea what the others have been up to.’

  Henrik let out a long sigh. ‘Good,’ he said. ‘If you have nothing to hide then you shall be fine. I should go, before they return.’

  He closed the door with a slight click. Jack wanted to call after him. Henrik had done the only thing he could, and that was to check on Jack. He didn’t know whether Henrik would have gone to his house to hide anything that he shouldn’t have had, but then it occurred to him. What if Henrik was part of their plan as well? What if they had expected him to confess to Henrik that he had been involved in the thefts?

  Jack pushed the thought from his mind. The isolation was driving him crazy and his thoughts were going around in circles. Instead, he settled back into his rhythm of watching the door handle. If he cleared his mind, he could settle into a sort of absent-minded trance that he used when he was posted on guard duty. But no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t stop thinking about Johanna. He had to make sure he got out, for her sake.

  He didn’t know how many hours had passed when the door opened again and Major Obertz stepped in. Jack had lost count of how many times they questioned him, going over and over the same points, looking for a weakness. He no longer knew what time it was or how long it had been since he had last eaten. All of their questions had led nowhere. Jack knew nothing about what his colleagues had been up to, and even if he did he wouldn’t tell the major.

  ‘PC Godwin,’ he said, looking at Jack as he sat on his chair.

  The German’s clenched knuckles were covered in dried blood, but he didn’t appear to notice. The colour matched the hue of his cheeks as he looked as if he had run a marathon. His eyes were black in the dim light of the corridor, and they appeared to be staring into the middle distance. He cleared his throat.

  ‘We found no stolen goods in your possession, and therefore you are free to go.’

  Was that it? Jack’s mind raged at the needlessness of it all. He wondered whether they were testing him, but they could keep him locked up if they so desired. This was something else. They trusted him, thought he was on their side, and the t
hought made him sick.

  ‘If, however, we find evidence that demonstrates you helped your colleagues in their thefts then we will arrest you again. Be warned. Now go.’

  Jack stood up on unsteady legs. He didn’t know how long he had been sitting, but it had been long enough for his thighs to cramp at the unusual movement. He followed the major out of the room as quickly as he dared, wary that he was walking into a trap.

  He smelled the stink of iron as he passed the door to the next room. Someone had left it open and Jack could see right in. What he saw made him stop on the threshold. David sat on a steel chair in the middle of his cell. His chin was resting on his chest as if he had fallen asleep, but his face was covered in red splotches and bruises that were already turning purple. He had one black eye and blood had stained his uniform shirt brown. Jack stared at his friend, wanting to run to his aid, but knowing that he couldn’t.

  He tore his eyes away from the injured man. They had left him there as a warning to Jack. ‘Steal from us and this is what happens,’ it said. So, he followed the major, on his unsteady legs, eager to be away from that hell as quickly as possible.

  *

  The air at the station had changed, but Jack couldn’t put his finger on how. The few remaining policemen had gathered to find out what happened next, as the inspector’s deputy addressed them. None of them dared look him in the eye, lost in their own private despair. Amongst them were a few special constables who had been promoted to acting constables.

  ‘I am replacing the inspector for now as acting inspector,’ the deputy said, his accent demonstrating the quality of his education. ‘And the Guernsey Police Force will for the foreseeable future come under the purview of the Occupation Force’s Kommandant, and 515 Feldkommandantur. All our reports will be forwarded to them for review, so make sure that everything is above board. They will be looking for mistakes, gentlemen. Don’t give them one.’

  That was it then. The old man had been arrested and imprisoned with the others. If things hadn’t been hard before, then they would be now. The police force had carried on almost as normal since the occupation, but now things would be different. If he thought they were being watched before, then it would be even worse now. They would all have to be more careful. If not, then Jack could find himself behind bars, and that mistake could lead them to Johanna.