“Yes, us.”
“Well, to be honest, Jack, not great.” She took a puff that consumed half her papirosa. “But with all these sick people around me, wasting my strength worrying about my own unhappiness is a luxury I can’t afford.” After a long pause, she said, “And you?” She drummed her fingers on the chair’s arm.
“The same, I guess. I miss you.” He hadn’t realized how unhappy he’d been until the moment he saw her again.
“You’ll get used to it. I have. I have my work, and you have your girlfriend.”
“Please, Natasha! Let’s put that behind us. I told you Elizabeth had nowhere to go. As soon as this business with her uncle’s been resolved, she’ll go back to him.”
“And then I’ll go back to you?”
“Look, this is a stupid argument. What is it you think I should do? Tell me! I’ll follow your advice to the letter.”
Natasha was silent. She took a draw that finished off the cigarette, and got up to consult some X-rays hung on an illuminator. “Anything else? I have a lot of work to do,” she said to end the conversation.
Jack also stood up. “Now that you mention it, I need you to tell me about the usual procedure for counterrevolutionary trials—time frames, defense, appeals . . .”
“Why? Are you afraid you’ll be arrested?”
“It’s not for me. It’s for Wilbur Hewitt. A friend’s told me his hearing will be very soon.”
“Sorry, Jack, but I don’t know anything about it.”
“You haven’t spoken to your father? Hewitt’s trial is all anyone is talking about.”
“No, I haven’t. And I couldn’t care less about that American’s court case. I have enough to worry about with my patients.”
“Do you know who could give me some information? Please . . .”
“Tell me one thing, Jack. Why should I help that American?”
“All I can think of to say is because it’s me asking you.” His voice trembled slightly.
Natasha looked at him. She approached in silence and kissed him lightly on the lips, in a way that seemed to Jack as if she were saying good-bye forever. Then she wrote the name and address of a party lawyer on a piece of paper, handed it to him, and with tear-filled eyes, asked him to leave her office.
When he was outside, he wondered why Viktor Smirnov had threatened Natasha and why she had concealed it from him.
34
Jack didn’t know whether to hide the store’s stock or take it to his house. In the end, he did neither. He took the essentials, left some provisions on the shelves, and shared the rest with Joe Brown, Miquel, and the Daniels family, advising them that, to keep up appearances, they should continue to come to the store even if it was almost empty.
One week. That was the time that the lawyer Natasha had recommended had estimated the trial would last. According to the attorney, it couldn’t go on much longer because Stalin had to return to Moscow for affairs of the state.
The lawyer also warned him of the particular circumstances that could work against Wilbur Hewitt. “Usually, common criminals are tried by a committee of citizens made up of twelve people elected in a public assembly, but counterrevolutionary cases are settled behind closed doors by the local OGPU branch. However, with such a high-profile defendant, I imagine Stalin himself will preside over the trial and open the hearing to the public to make an example of him.”
Jack explained this to Elizabeth.
“A public defender belonging to the party? Would anyone in their right mind think that a paid-up Communist will take the side of an American against Stalin and half the Supreme Soviet?”
Jack shrugged. It was what he had been trying to make her understand all along. “The other possibility is for Wilbur to turn down his public defender and choose someone he considers more appropriate. Problem is, I doubt anyone will be prepared to take that risk.”
“Then we’ll do it!”
“What?”
“You and I. We’ll defend him! Let’s do it ourselves!”
Jack slowly shook his head. Elizabeth was clearly out of her mind. “Are you serious? You’d be signing his death sentence, and ours. We don’t know—”
“You just said nobody will want to defend him. You’ve studied the Penal Code. We’ll pay that lawyer to advise us in secret. With the six thousand dollars my uncle gave you, we could—”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea. Anyway, that money was for our passports.”
“Who cares about the passports? We haven’t seen them, and we don’t need them for the time being.”
“Elizabeth, we don’t have that money anymore. I paid in advance. I can’t go to my supplier now and demand he return what he’ll already have shared out. And that lawyer you mention helped me because Natasha asked him to. For no other reason. He wouldn’t agree to advise us for all the gold in the world. Don’t you see? Whoever does it will be a marked man.”
“Give me his name.”
“Who?”
“Your supplier. I’ll speak to him. Or I’ll speak to your friend Walter. Damn it, Jack, I swear to you that if I have to move heaven and earth, I’ll get that money back!”
Jack clenched his fists. He could see that, if he didn’t help Elizabeth, she’d end up dragging everyone down with her. The problem was that he had no idea how to defend a man who deep down he believed was guilty. He sighed loudly before asking her to bring him the Penal Code that he’d left upstairs. By the time Elizabeth returned, Jack had brought McMillan’s documents out from their hiding place. He looked at her imploring, hopeful face. “I’m not promising anything,” he said.
“Well, I am promising you something. If you help me save my uncle, I’ll give you whatever you want. Do you understand? Whatever you want.”
Neither Elizabeth’s pleading nor her tears affected the policeman on guard at the OGPU offices. The man, who looked like a woodcutter wearing a faded uniform, told her that he wouldn’t disturb Sergei Loban by order of the devil himself, but when the policeman stuffed an envelope containing five hundred rubles that Jack had dropped on the ground into his jacket, he knew there wouldn’t be a problem. The man telephoned his superior and passed on Elizabeth’s request. After a brief conversation, he hung up.
“You’ll have to wait for Comrade Loban to finish some business,” was all he said.
Jack and Elizabeth waited, each deep in thought. After several long minutes, the telephone rang. The policeman took the call. Then he turned to them.