Nurse Kelsey Abroad (17 page)

“Larlez will take you there,” he informed her, “and when I’ve finished here—at least for my free time and before the evening round is due—I’ll drive out and bring you back. I haven’t been to see the Hanvitchs for a long time. They’ll think we’ve all been neglecting them, and they’ve both worked hard for St. George’s ever since it opened.”

Jane went up to flat to change, feeling she had been, in some way, dismissed from responsibility. She tried to see Kevin alone before she went, but he was doing a round of the male medical ward and there was no excuse she could think of which would take her there. She went slowly to her flat and changed, resisting, by sheer effort of will power, the temptation to pull an ugly face in the direction of the ever-watchful caretaker, since she was more than convinced it was he who had telephoned Karl Brotnovitch and had someone spy on Kevin’s leaving the flat.

She changed into her cream wool skirt and royal blue sweater. There was something about this outfit and the effect she knew it had on her eyes her hair and complexion which always boosted her morale, and this, she felt, was badly ne
e
ded just now.

The drive out was pleasant, and if she had not been so worried by the thought of what Kevin was determined to risk, his career, his integrity, the trust of the government of both his own country and the country in which he had come to work, she might have been better able to relax. Except, conscience reminded her, that only that morning Karl Brotnovitch had offered what to him appeared to be the ideal solution where Jane, at any rate, was concerned.

There was little point in thinking along these lines, she knew. Once at the small, cosy house she made a determined effort to put it all behind her and to concentrate on Granny’s conversation. The old lady loved to air her knowledge of Jane’s language, and although at times the context of her words didn’t quite fit the occasion, all the same they got along splendidly together, Jane listening as the old couple talked of the people and things they believed would interest their visitor.

She was never certain at what point in the conversation the name of the Chief of Police cropped up, but

Granny, once launched on a topic, was not to be lightly discouraged. It appeared Granny had known Karl from boyhood, and his family background was as familiar to her as her own.

“He’s hard on top,” she said now, “but he has to be. Seonyata needed a strong man, someone with a firm hand on the guiding reins after the war. He’s clever. He can see things other people miss; there’s not much escapes his notice, and he usually works things out in the best way for everybody in the end
...
I hope you trust him, Nurse Kelsey?” she asked anxiously. “His mother was one of the most wonderful people I ever knew, and he’s very like her.”

Jane evaded a direct answer. This was an entirely new aspect of the man she had come to regard as a sort of human machine for vengeance. This was a side of Karl about which she would have to think more seriously before she explained to him that, flattered though she might be by his concern and his attentions, she could not be less than honest and must tell him she could never love him enough to marry him, no matter what the consequence to herself, for the simple reason that her love was already given elsewhere. If, she thought wryly, he was as clever and as honest as that, it wouldn’t be hard for him to understand that it would be the-height of dishonesty for her to pretend otherwise.

By the time Dr. Jim came for her she had an entirely fresh mental view of the Chief of Police. Now she saw him as he was, a man whose life was as dedicated to and as devoted in performance for the good of his fellow
-
countrymen as was Dr. Jim’s, although in an entirely different way. The idea made her thoughtful as she sat beside Jim on the return journey to her flat.

“I heard something of what Granny had to say,” he broke the silence which had fallen between them. “She’s a little prejudiced, of course. She helped to bring him up, years ago, but she’s right too, of course. He’s a good man, according to his lights. It’s just that, somehow, I can’t see you fitting in with his ideas and his environment. Can you, Jane?”

“Not at all,” she said quietly. “And yet there’s
something
likeable about him, even though he
does
make my blood run cold. I suppose it’s his job, and the fact that if he wants to protect me
...
”

“From what?” Jim shot the question at her, and immediately she regretted her words, though she could not have said why.

“From
...
Kevin
...
Dr. Dean, I think,” she said lamely, and was rewarded by a sound of smothered indignation from beside her.

“There are other ways of coping with
him
!” Dr. Jim said fiercely. “So far he hasn’t done anything stupid enough for my having valid reason for his removal, but it could be arranged, and someone else sent out in his stead. What I’m trying to tell you, Jane,” she noted he had reverted to the use of her Christian name and her heart leapt in delight, “is that you have no real need to agree to this
...
proposal of Karl’s if you would rather not ... no need whatsoever. Leave it with me,” he went on magnanimously as he halted outside the door of the block of flats, “and I promise I’ll find a better solution for you than a drastic step such as Karl proposes!” Jane thanked him, knowing an inner relief she could scarcely believe, and when she ran upstairs even the knowledge of the watchful caretaker could do nothing to dampen her suddenly rising spirits. After all, Karl was not calling until the next evening, and perhaps before then Jim would have told her whatever he had thought of as a proposed solution. Of Kevin she refused to think. He had been warned, cautioned, advised, not only by herself but by Karl, the government departments, everyone, and he persisted in whatever it was he was doing.

Maybe, she thought with sudden understanding for his peculiar temperament, there was nothing
more to it where he was concerned than his love of excitement, of adventure. Maybe there was nothing more to it all than that. She did not believe him the type to consider money of more importance than his own integrity, but he belonged to that kind of men who never really outgrow their “cowboy and Indian” ideas of living, or “gangsters in the underworld.”

Reflecting that it was more than likely the mere sense of outwitting someone like Karl, of flouting authority
—
as well as being well paid for it—the sense of adventure, were all which prompted his activities amongst the members of the New Thought, the majority of whom seemed to be much younger than himself.

By the time she was undressed and had composed herself for sleep she felt more sure of herself than after her two unexpected visitors had called and between them thrown her, willy-nilly, into a state of panic.

Karl would not be here until the following evening, and in some strange way—maybe the “fey” way of Dorothy Wroe—she was certain that by that time Jim would have found an alternative solution. She snapped off the light and thought of Granny’s words
:
“He usually works things out the best way for everybody in the end,” and with a soundless prayer that Granny might prove to be right, she turned on her side and settled down.

She
w
as wakened by the shrilling of the emergency bell which was installed in her room. There was one number for all St. George’s and another one for Dr. Jim. It was from his phone the alarm bell was wired to her own and to the rooms of the other two English nurses. Something must be very wrong for her bell to be ringing so insistently at this hour of the night.

She glanced at her clock as she picked up the instrument. The dial read ten
minutes to three in the morning,
and with her heart suddenly hammering like a mad thing, Jane spoke into the receiver.

“Staff Nurse Kelsey here,” she said breathlessly. “What is it?”

Jim’s voice came to her over the wire. He sounded upset and disturbed, but his voice was under complete control. It was only because she knew him so well, recognised every inflection of his tone, that she recognised the signs of strain.

“Come to the theatre at once, will you, please, Jane?” he said quietly. “Dr. Dean’s been shot, and I’m operating immediately.”

CHAPTER 9

NEVER before in her life had Jane dressed so speedily. On the occasion of the disaster when she had been at Rawbridge General she had been amazed by the speed at which everyone, herself included, had been ready and able to deal with whatever came to hand in their line of duty. Here there was no such colossal disaster, but something told her there was more behind the apparently small emergency than she had yet realised.

She was running a comb through her hair preparatory to fixing on her cap, when the explosion sounded through the still night air. Jane resisted the impulse to rush to the window and look out. Whatever had happened now it seemed fairly certain that the results of this further event would soon be with them in the wards of St. George’s. She ran downstairs, mindful of the caretaker’s open mouth as she rushed past him. There was a temptation to call something out, to tell him Dr. Dean had been shot, probably as a direct result of his spying on whatever Kevin had been up to or believed to have been up to, but of course she did no such thing. She gathered her cloak around her and sped to the theatre, scarcely surprised when Amy Dawlish joined her, panting, as they raced along together. There was no time for words or explanations. Neither of them spoke until they were in the small wash and changing room outside the theatre.

“Nurse Dawlish will act as anaesthetist,” Jim greeted them. “She’s done it before. The wound isn’t dangerous
—
as yet, but he’s lost a great deal of blood and the bullet is embedded in his left shoulder blade.”

No one wasted time in asking what had happened.

There was a uniformed member of Karl Brotnovitch’s force standing at the far end of the theatre, and none of them required Jim to say whatever they said would be understood—or misinterpreted—and remembered.

Jim worked deftly and doggedly, and as she handed the sterilised instruments, the forceps, the towel clips, the surgical needles, the sutures and ligatures, half Jane’s mind was busily occupied in wondering precisely what had happened and how on earth Kevin had managed to meet up with a disaster such as this.

She found she was watching, not particularly as a theatre nurse, but as a very interested spectator. When the bullet was extracted and dropped into a dish, the policeman left his position and moved nearer, so that it was perfectly evident to all of them that he was prepared to mount guard over the bullet and preserve it at any cost.

Outside the hospital there was a sudden commotion and the sound of the one ambulance boasted by St. George’s. Jane did not dare leave her post although she burned with curiosity, but at length, as he completed the stitching of the shoulder and also placed a clamp in position, Jim nodded in her direction. She did not know whether or not she had interpreted the nod correctly, but she went quickly and quietly to see what was wrong now.

In the corridor, directing men bearing a stretcher, Dorothy Wroe stood calm-eyed as ever. She spoke to Jane in a quiet, quick whisper.

“When the guard fired it seems a large jar which contained phosporous crystals was shattered. The crystals were, of course, released from the liquid—oil, I think
—
which had rendered them safe. As soon as they were exposed to the air they burst into flames. Somehow or other ether’s been added, and the result is Professor Leczinska’s both shocked and badly burned. Poor man, nobody has dared to tell him most of his laboratory is now burned out. Years of work ruined
!
” and tut-tutting to herself, she hurried away to rig up an electric cradle to receive the professor.

Jane felt shattered. She could not imagine as yet where Kevin’s part was in all this disaster, but he had been there, and perhaps his presence was the reason for the shot. Whatever it was, Jane decided, she was more than thankful she herself had refused to have anything to do with this mad scheme of his, particularly so since it had so severely injured the elderly professor who, according to Kevin, had helped his country in many ways for the past half century.

She went thoughtfully back into the theatre. Jim had finished now and was scrubbing his hands again, divesting himself of his gown and mask.

“This is a pretty kettle of fish, isn’t it?” he asked in a low tone and with a significant glance in the direction of the watchful young policeman. “He,” he jerked his head in the officer’s direction, “insists he must stay by Kevin’s bed and be there when he comes round. I should like someone else there too,” he added worriedly. “I should like to know myself, and at first hand, exactly what he does say when he comes conscious.”

“I’ll try to arrange it, Doctor,” Jane promised, watching as he hurried off to see what he could do for the professor and for the two men who worked in the laboratory and who had been admitted suffering from minor burns which they had sustained as they had rescued the professor and tried to save something of his work.

She had to supervise the cleaning up of the theatre, change her gown and prepare to help when and how she could in the main ward. For the first time since she had come to Seonyata she found herself really longing for the orderliness of the theatre and the wards, the whole general layout of Rawbridge General with all the amenities which, along with almost everyone else who worked there, she had once deemed so inefficient.

She was walking towards what was known as the “emergency Unit”, to give it, as Kevin had once joked, a more dignified name than anything else they could think up on the spur of the moment, when there was the noise of a car being driven rapidly to the doors of the hospital, braking fiercely, the slam of a door and then Karl Brotnovitch strode in through the open doors.

He stood still staring at Jane, taking in every detail of her appearance as he always did, and it seemed his eyes gleamed in approval as he noted she was obviously on duty and had not simply rushed in at that moment.

“You were here when they brought Dr. Dean in, Staff Nurse?” he asked formally, but his eyes told her this was a routine questioning and not in the least personal. He, just as much as she was herself, was aware of the other two young officers who stood a respectful yard or so behind him.

“No, Inspector,” Jane hoped her voice did not sound as feeble to him or the others as it did in her own ears. “I was in bed and asleep, when the bell rang.”

“Bell?”

“We have a bell which Dr. Lowth rings if our services are required in any emergency,” Jane informed him, although she was certain he knew this, just as he seemed to know everything about everyone, without their saying a word.

“I see.” His glance was cold and clinical. There was nothing of the would-be suitor about him now. “And what sort of emergency did you have in mind when you heard the sound of the bell, Staff Nurse?” he queried, eyeing her fiercely.

“I?” Jane was nonplussed. To say her thoughts had immediately flown to Kevin would have said, without words, that she had expected something like this, implied that she knew what had been about to happen, whereas even now she did not know exactly what had taken place.

“I didn’t think of anything in particular,” she said bleakly, and hoped Granny had been wrong when she had said Karl saw things other people missed. “I just
...
reacted to the bell as we’re expected to do,” she said simply. “I dressed as quickly as I could and came along to the operating theatre at once.”

“And you were surprised to find the patient was Dr. Dean, I suppose
?
” Karl said smoothly.

Was he, Jane wondered, trying to trap her? He would be unlucky. She had no intention of lying, since she felt suddenly perfectly sure the line from Dr. Jim’s telephone had been tapped perhaps for days, ever since Karl had been certain his suspicions of Kevin were not without foundation.

“No,” she said quietly, “I wasn’t surprised. Dr. Lowth had told me that Dr. Dean had been shot and that he was operating at once. What
did
surprise me,” she admitted, “was the explosion shortly afterwards, that and the admission to St. George’s of Professor Leczinska, and in such a condition
...
”

“That,” Karl sounded genuinely regretful, “was an unavoidable accident. So often those who do the damage are allowed to escape scot-free, isn’t that what you people say? And those who are only doing their duty as they see it suffer. Professor Leczinska is a remarkable man. He had almost completed his experiments for the growing of more food in the same amount of space for our country, that would help enormously, for we have to import so much. In the course of his experiments he developed something else. It was that something else your friend sought to possess,” he looked sternly at Jane. “Do you understand what it is to which I refer?” he asked.

“Not altogether.” Jane felt a little afraid. Someone, maybe it had been Dr. Jim, had said Karl would prosecute
anyone
if he felt he was in the right to do so, and she had no desire to see what the inside of a Dalasalavian jail looked like.

“No one will possess it now,” Karl remarked gloomily, and in such a low tone he might have been talking to himself. “It is burned, along with most of the Professor’s notes on his cultural developments. Years and years of work, to say nothing of money, have been destroyed tonight,” Karl went on sternly. “And for what?”

“I ... I don’t know,” Jane said slowly, thinking how Kevin had boasted there would be “money and to spare” from even a “cut” of the whole amount promised to the members of the New Thought.

“So that
...”
Karl was beginning in a hectoring tone, when Marietta came into the corridor, looking for Jane.

“Dr. Dean is conscious, Staff Nurse,” she said in a whisper, “and he’s asking for you.”

“Do not tell him I am here
...
not yet,” Karl ordered, and as Jane walked away to Kevin’s bedside she knew the Inspector was not far behind her, keeping out of sight by means of the screens which had been placed around Kevin’s bed, but well within earshot.

She longed desperately for Jim to arrive, but Jim was in the small closed-off side-ward, doing what he could for the Professor. With all the inner force at her command she tried to will Kevin to say nothing which would incriminate herself, not because she would have been afraid had this been a cause she believed in, but because she had done her best to persuade him to have nothing to do with it, and she had failed.

“Hello, Staff!” Kevin greeted her, grimacing a little with pain as he strove to sit up, gave up the attempt and sank back, regarding her with eyes which still strove to twinkle but which were failing lamentably in the attempt. It was the first time she had seen him in any but the confident mood of the mischievous schoolboy who, although aware others might be injured by his pranks, sees no harm in their continuance.

“You did right to warn me,” he commented. “This would never have happened, though, if you’d come along! They’d have let me in without a murmur with you by my side! The Professor would have felt flattered that you’d shown an interest ... as it was, I had to sneak in. I’d have done it too,” the old boastful, adolescent note was back in his tone, and desperately she tried to signal a warning with her eyes, but he would not accept the hint, “but for that confounded guard dog! It began to growl just after I’d made it through the fence. That brought the guard back... I’d waited until he’d passed, you see. The blessed dog tracked me right to the lab, and then...” he touched his shoulder with the uninjured hand, “this,” he ended.

“I’m sorry you’ve been hurt, Kevin,” Jane said quietly, “but I’m not sorry you didn’t succeed in doing as you’d planned. I’m even more sorry that an elderly man, who has worked so hard for his country’s good, is now lying burned and shocked, as a direct result of your interference with what’s no concern of ours.”

“It’s the concern of everyone,” Kevin said defiantly. “The young people here don’t get a chance to show what they can do
...
”

“They’ve shown
...
tonight.”

Karl had put the screen on one side and stood there, stern and unrelenting, looking down on Kevin and then back again to Jane.

“Do I understand you were aware of this
...
plot, Staff Nurse?” he demanded in a cold tone. “That you knew what was being planned, and yet you did not say a word to me when I visited you this morning?”

“She knew what we were hoping to do, and why,”
Kevin said clearly. “She didn’t know when, but she knew about it, because I tried to make her see it could mean a new life for herself and for me ... if we succeeded, not for ourselves, but for your own young people. What I was to be given would only have been a small part, a bonus, for helping. I went to Jane and told her about it
.
”

“In that case, then, Staff Nurse,” Karl’s voice did not hold a trace of emotion, although for the first time since she had known him, Jane felt he looked faintly shocked, “I must take you along to Headquarters with me. I am determined to discover the names of all who are behind this sort of thing in Seonyata, and to stamp it out. This is not progress they say they long for. This is, a step backwards, and that we will not allow.”

“But
...
but I don’t know any of them,” Jane stammered, for the first time feeling really frightened. She looked appealingly in Kevin’s direction, and now he appeared to have some compunction for what he had done, at least so far as Jane was concerned.

“Of course she doesn’t know anyone, Inspector!” he said in a scornful tone. “She hasn’t been here long enough to have been admitted to the group as I’ve been.”

“She has been seen at the New Thought Club,” Karl said stonily. “I have the date, the time and all the facts.”

“I took her there one night,” Kevin said defiantly from the bed. “She needed cheering up a little bit, as everyone does around here
!
There was no harm in it. Nobody said anything that night
...
and if they
had
said anything she wouldn’t have understood.”