A Man Without Breath

‘What’s another corpse around here, Gunther? I’ve spent my whole day with them. I never saw so many dead people. You were in the war – the Great War. Was it anything like this?’

‘Yes, now you come to mention it.’

‘Think he’s still out there?’ She drew the curtain and turned to face me.

‘Who? The gunman? No. All the same I think I’d better stay here tonight. Just in case.’

Ines shook her head. ‘Not tonight, lover. I’m exhausted.’

‘Have you got a drink?’

‘I think so. If you don’t mind Spanish brandy.’ She pointed at the bed. ‘Sit down.’

‘I don’t mind it at all,’ I said.

Ines opened one of her cases, took out a silver hip flask that was as big as a hot water bottle and poured me one into a teacup. I sat down on the edge of her bed, tipped it into my mouth and let the stuff chase down my nerves and put them safely under anaesthetic for another time.

‘Thanks.’ I nodded at the flask in her hand. ‘Is there a dog that comes with that thing? To rescue travellers?’

‘There should be, shouldn’t there? This was a present to my uncle, from the nursing staff at the Charite Hospital in Berlin, when he retired.’

‘I can see why he had to go. That’s quite a drinking habit he must have had.’

She was wearing black baggy trousers and a thick tweed jacket over a plaid shirt; her red hair was gathered at the back of her head in a bun and there were black loafers on her feet; she smelt lightly of sweat and her usually pale flesh was looking just a little flushed – the way all natural redheads do when they’ve been doing something strenuous like running or making love.

‘You’re hurt, do you know that?’

‘It’s just a scratch. I threw myself on the ground when the shooting started and landed on a tree root.’

‘Take off your shirt and let me put some iodine on it.’

‘Yes, doctor. But I’d rather you saved the shirt, if you could. I didn’t bring that many with me, and the laundry here is a little slow.’

I took off my tie and then my shirt and let her clean the scratch with some lint.

‘I think this shirt has had it,’ she said.

‘Which makes it fortunate I own a needle and thread.’

‘I’m considering asking you to fetch it. Your wound is actually quite deep. But for now we’ll see how you manage with a field dressing.’

‘Yes, doctor.’

Ines tore open a bandage parcel and began to wind a roll around my chest. She worked quickly and expertly, like someone who’d done it many times before, but gently, too, like she wanted to spare me from pain.

‘You know, I really don’t think there’s much wrong with your bedside manner.’

‘Maybe that’s because you’re used to sitting on my bed.’

‘True.’

‘Help yourself to more brandy.’

I poured another cupful, but before I could drink it she took it out of my hands and drank it herself.

‘Why didn’t you come to dinner tonight?’

‘I told you, Gunther, I’m exhausted. After we picked up the commission from the airport, Professor Buhtz and I went back to grave number one and did another sixteen autopsies. The last thing I feel like doing is putting on a nice dress and having my hand kissed by so many gallant army officers. It still stinks of the rubber glove it’s been wearing.’

‘Tough day.’

‘Tough but interesting. As well as having been shot, some of the Poles were stabbed first with a bayonet. Probably because they resisted being dragged to the graveside.’ She paused and finished tying off the bandage. ‘Interestingly, many of the bodies we’ve found aren’t in a condition of decomposition at all. They’re in the initial phase of desiccation and of formation of adipocere. The internal organs have almost normal colour. And the brains are more or less … Well, it’s interesting to me, anyway.’ She smiled a sad little smile, stroked my cheek and added: ‘There. It’s done.’

‘There’s mud on your shoes.’

‘I went for a walk instead of coming to dinner.’

‘See anything suspicious?’

‘You mean like a man with a gun?’

‘Yes.’

‘The last time I looked there were several by the front gate.’

‘I meant hiding in the bushes.’

‘I should really give you a tetanus shot. God only knows what’s in the ground around here. Luckily for you I brought some from Breslau. Just in case I cut myself working down here. No, I didn’t see anyone like that. If I had I would have roused the sheriff.’

She fetched her doctor’s bag, found an unpleasant-looking syringe, and filled it from a little vial of tetanus vaccine.

‘Was that your uncle’s, too?’

‘As a matter of fact it was.’

‘It looks as if it’s going to hurt,’ I said.

‘Yes. It is. So it’s best I stick it in your behind. If I put this needle in your arm it’ll hurt for days, and then you might not be able to do a nice salute and you wouldn’t want that. This way only your dignity is affected. Not your Nazism.’

When the needle went in it felt like it was going all the way down my leg, but of course that was just the cold tetanus vaccine.

‘Is my dignity affected if I groan?’

‘Of course. Weren’t you ever a boy scout? They’re not supposed to cry out when they’re in pain.’

I groaned. ‘I think you’re confusing them with the Spartans.’