“They can’t prove anything.”
“Maybe not. But do you want to go through it all again? Defend yourself? And meanwhile your license gets suspended while they try to decide just how guilty you are. That usually takes a little time. Which we don’t have. So decide.”
Gustav glared at him. “Jew.”
Alex went still for a second, then let it go. “Your wife just tripped in the dark. A nasty fall. Her head. You’ll want her seen right away.” He dropped his hand. “Get in the car.”
“How can you talk to Gustav this way?” Elsbeth said.
“She’s hurt,” Alex said. “And that’s all you can say? Be nice to Gustav?”
“He’s a good man,” Elsbeth said vaguely, not really following. “We’re decent people.” Shoulders back, the von Bernuth posture.
Alex looked at her, dismayed, then turned to Gustav. “Do you need anything? To admit her? Papers?”
“Just my signature.”
“Then let’s go.”
Gustav checked Irene’s pulse, her pupils, feeling lightly for broken bones.
“How long has she been unconscious?” he said, daubing the dried blood on her head with a handkerchief.
“Half an hour. Maybe more.”
“Let’s hurry, then.”
In the car, Gustav was sullen.
“It’s illegal, what you’re doing.”
“I’m keeping her safe. If anyone checks the hospitals, she’s not there.”
“And why would they check?”
Alex ignored this. “Remember, she tripped. In the street. No car. Nothing that needs to be reported.”
“Except you. Like gangsters. What is it, something with the black market? I thought she didn’t need that. Sleeping with Russians.”
“When we get there, you’re not just a doctor. You’re her husband. Worried. Got it?”
They went to the emergency entrance and got Irene onto a gurney, wheeling her into the exam room, her eyes fluttering open, surprised, then closing again.
“She’s awake,” Alex said.
Gustav, on his own turf now, paid no attention, handling the admitting staff with efficiency, a doctor who knew what he was doing. Alex was asked to wait in the hallway.
“Just give me a second.” He took Irene’s hand, bending low to her ear. “Can you hear me? You’re here as Elsbeth. Gustav will take care of you.”
Her eyes opened, confused.
“If they check, there is no Irene. Do you understand? She’s not here.”
She took this in, then smiled faintly. “No, in Wiesbaden.”
“Somewhere. Anyway, not here. You’re safe this way.”
Another twitch, almost a smile. “Clever Alex.”
“You must leave her now,” a nurse was saying.
“Remember, you’re Elsbeth, yes?”
She nodded, then clutched his hand. “Those people. They’re dead?”
“You fell in the dark. In the street. That’s all you remember. I’ll be here. Just outside.”
She grasped his hand again. “You were right. They were waiting for us.”
“Ssh. No more. Remember, you’re Elsbeth.”
The wait in the hall seemed endless, a movie scene in a maternity ward, pacing, smoking, staring into space.
“No ribs broken,” Gustav said, finally coming out with an X-ray folder. “Just a bad bruise. The concussion is something else. No major clotting. But a concussion is always serious. Let’s see how she is in the morning.”
“But she’ll be all right?”
“I think so. But let’s see how the night goes.” He glanced at Alex. “Do you want to tell me how she did this?”
“Does it matter? I mean, for the diagnosis?” He caught Gustav’s look. “In a car. We stopped too fast for a light. She hit her head.”
“I see. And that’s why it’s important no one knows who she is.”
“Can I see her now?”
“In the morning. We’ve moved her upstairs. She’s asleep.” He began taking off his white jacket. “So good night.”
“I’ll give you a lift.”
“In the getaway car? I don’t think so. I’ll call a taxi. I’m finished with this.”
“But you’ll be back in the morning. To see how—”
“Of course. I’m her doctor.” He looked over at Alex. “And her husband.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank you,” Gustav said. “For something like this. A criminal act.”
“A small one. To keep her safe.”
“And me?”
“Don’t get caught. Then you’ll both be safe.”
Outside he checked the car for damage. There were dents on the bumpers and scratches on the side where he’d scraped the overpass wall, but nothing that would attract notice in a city of patched-together heaps. He moved the car back to the Charité faculty lot and picked up Irene’s purse, fishing for her house key. Put her at Marienstrasse.