Pittsburgh General Hospital, Saturday, August 30, 9:21 a.m.
"Miss Roberts," a nurse said, "are you okay? Your visitors seemed to make you kind of upset."
"Oh no," Betty said. "They just got me up to date about what's happening at work."
The nurse smiled. "You certainly have got two handsome co-workers. Well, I have to take your temperature and then you'll be set for an hour or so."
She slid the thermometer under Betty's tongue. She sat there for a few minutes as she puttered around the room, examining the flowers that Scott had left her. She took Betty's blood pressure, which was normal. "It looks as though you should be able to leave tomorrow. Everything's normal. Dear, could you take out the thermometer."
Betty removed the thermometer from her mouth and handed it to the nurse. She examined it in the light and said, "Quite normal. Can I get you anything?"
"Could I get some paper and a pencil?" Betty asked. "I really need to get working on my scripts."
The nurse smiled, "What do you write for?"
"I'm the writer from WENN. I write all the shows."
"Oh really!" she exclaimed. "I love that station. My favorite show is Young Doctor Talbot. I wish real doctors were like him."
"Well, I try," Betty said modestly. "Scott, one of my visitors, actually does the voice of Doctor Talbot."
"Which one was he?" the nurse asked. "Was he the one with dark hair or the taller gentleman?"
"He was the dark haired one. His name is Scott Sherwood."
The nurse shook her head. "He doesn't look anything like I pictured Dr. Talbot. Well, let me see if I can find you some paper and a pencil."
She left the room and Betty was left alone with her thoughts. She kept thinking back to the green room. Things had certainly changed in those few moments. Just then, the nurse returned with paper. "Here you go. Good luck writing. Oh, and one of those gentlemen told me to make sure that you read the note that came with the flowers." She handed me the note and left.
Betty examined the envelope the note had come in and slit it open. Scott's dark scrawl covered the paper.
Betty--
I hate to burden you with this after your accident, but it is essential that you do not tell the police the truth about the shooting. You have to tell them that we had confronted Mr. Pruitt about the secret code I found in the Sentry Savings advertisements. He became extremely perturbed and threatened to shoot you. Tell them that I tried to overpower Pruitt, but ended up deflecting the bullet at you. This is to protect Victor. No one can know about him until he talks to his contact.
Scott
Well, Betty thought, now I know what to tell the police when they come looking for me. I know that I should get started on writing the shows. Who else is going to write them? She picked up the pencil and prepared to write another action-packed episode of Amazon Andy, which should have been no problem after her brush with death, but nothing worked. After several horrible starts, Betty threw the pencil down in frustration. She reached over to the radio next to her bed to listen to how WENN was doing in her absence. Betty’s fingers slipped on the dial and she paused on a station. A song was just beginning to play and the music drifted out slowly.
It's, oh, so quiet
It's, oh, so still
You're all alone
And all so peaceful until...
You fall in love
The sky above
Is caving in
You've never been nuts about a guy
You wanna laugh you wanna cry
You cross your heart and hope to die
'Til it's over and then
It's nice and quiet
But then again
Starts another big riot
You blow a fuse
The devil cuts loose
So what's the use
Of falling in love
It's, oh, so quiet
It's, oh, so still
You're all alone
And so peaceful until...
You ring the bell
You shout and you yell
You broke the spell
Gee, this is swell you almost have a fit
This guy is gorge and you got hit
There's no mistake this is it
'Til it's over and then
It's nice and quiet
But soon again
Starts another big riot
You blow a fuse
The devil cuts loose
So what's the use
Of falling in love
The sky caves in
The devil cuts loose
You blow blow blow blow blow your fuse
When you've fallen in love
Wow, Betty thought. That song summed up everything that was going wrong in my life. Or right, depending upon your perspective. I had two guys who were in love with me and I was still confused. She reached over and turned off the radio as two policemen entered the room. "Miss Roberts," an Irish policeman said, "we need to speak to you about what happened last night."
Hilary’s apartment, Saturday, August 30, 5:15 a.m.
Hilary sat on her sofa, anxiously awaiting Jeff's arrival. She had been nervous all night and barely got any sleep. He had to come, she thought to herself. I want him to come. As if on cue, there was a tentative knock at the door. Hilary sprang up and ran to the door. Jeff had started to walk down the hallway. "Jeff!" Hilary shouted. "Pumpkin, please come here."
Jeff turned around and looked at Hilary. "I thought you never wanted to talk to me ever again."
"Jeffrey, we need to talk," Hilary pleaded with him. "Just come inside."
Jeff, still surprised by Hilary's change in attitude, walked to the apartment. He sat down on the sofa and Hilary shut the door. She sat on the chair opposite Jeff. "Tell me the truth about everything," Hilary said. "I've spoken to Victor. He gave me a vague idea of what the problem is, but I'd like to hear it from you."
Jeff looked down at his hands. "Victor is in Pittsburgh?" he whispered. "I thought . . . I thought he'd be dead by now."
"Pumpkin," Hilary said, shaking him gently, "talk to me. How are you involved in all of this?"
Jeff clenched Hilary's hands in his and looked into her eyes. "Hilary, will you believe me? Say you trust me to tell you the truth and then I can tell you the whole story."
"Jeff, dear," Hilary said, "you're hurting me." Jeff relaxed his grip on her hands. "Jeff, I promise. I will believe you."
He sank back into the cushions and sighed. "You have no idea how many times I've wanted to tell you. And after I was in London, all those missed connections. I'm Victor's contact. I've been involved with Military Intelligence since Victor died. Since I knew Victor, I was his contact with the United States. That's why I had to go back to London. The military wanted me back to work on getting Victor out of Berlin. Our attempts failed. And that's why I had to marry Pavla."
"You were forced to marry her?" Hilary asked.
"Well," Jeff hedged, "not exactly."
"What do you mean by not exactly?" Hilary asked, her eyes narrowing suspiciously.
"Hilary, you need to hear the whole story. It all begins when I got back to London."
London, Monday, May 19, 12:41 p.m.
Jeff had just finished broadcasting the latest news and was preparing to leave when someone walked into his office. "Jeffrey Singer," said a foreign-sounding voice. Jeff looked up. In the doorway stood a beautiful woman. "I was wondering if you would have lunch with me. Oh, forgive me for being so forward," she said, blushing. "My name is Pavla Nemkova. I work as a simultaneous Czech translator for the BBC."
Jeff looked stunned. Why did she want to have lunch with me? he thought. "Umm--I'm married," Jeff finally blurted out.
"Married people eat lunch too, right?" Pavla asked. "I would just like to talk to you about America. I heard that you are from Pittsburgh, right?"
"Yes, I am. Okay, I’ll have lunch with you," Jeff agreed. "Where should we go to eat? I know good place that's just around the corner."
"That would be fine with me," Pavla said.
The pair walked across the street to a small café. They were seated and ordered their food. "Well, Miss Nemkova," Jeff started to say.
"Please, call me Pavla."
"Okay, Pavla. You can call me Jeff. What do you want to know about America?"
They talked for a while about American movies. Pavla confessed that her favorite actress was Greta Garbo. Then Pavla said, "Well, enough of this chitchat. Do you work for the Allies?"
"What are you talking about?" Jeff questioned. "Of course I do. So do you. We both work at the BBC in London."
"Don't play coy with me," Pavla said, her tone becoming spiteful. "Let me put it bluntly. What are your connections with the British Military Intelligence?"
Jeff's eyes widened slightly. No one knew about his connection to the British Military Intelligence. He decided to play dumb. "What do you mean, Pavla? Who are the British Military Intelligence?"
Pavla shook her head. "You cannot play dumb with me, Singer. We know all about you. And your wife. If she could be called that."
"Who's we?" Jeff asked, ignoring the subtle hint about Hilary.
"Perhaps we should go somewhere more private," Pavla said, gesturing to all the other customers. "My flat is nearby."
Jeff stood up and said, "I don't know what you are talking about. Why should I go to your apartment?"
"Because," Pavla answered, "I have a gun pointed right at your heart. You wouldn't want to cause your sweet wife any heartache, right?" Jeff nodded. "Come with me," Pavla ordered.
They walked a few blocks to Pavla's flat, which was located over a dressmaker's shop. She unlocked the door and they walked up the stairs. Pavla pulled the gun out of her pocket and gestured for Jeff to sit down. "Now, Jeffery, I would like you to tell me what you know."
"Like I said before," Jeff said, "I don't know anything." He eyed Pavla, trying to decide when to make a break for the door.
"Perhaps when Hilary is dead, you will talk." Pavla walked over and picked up the phone. She dialed a number and began speaking in German.
"What-what are you doing?" Jeff asked.
Pavla broke off her conversation to say, "I'm ordering your wife killed. There's a Nazi agent at WENN this very moment. Unless you start to talk, she'll be dead within the hour. Which method would you prefer, a shooting or a stabbing?"
Jeff looked at Pavla in horror. He couldn't believe this was happening. "Call it off," he said in a defeated tone. "I'll talk."
Pavla returned to the phone and barked an order in German. She hung it up and looked expectantly at Jeff. "Out with it. I want all the details. What are your connections with Military Intelligence?"
"I'm the contact for an American double agent in Berlin," Jeff said. "I'm not going to tell you anything else because you don't seem to know much more yourself."
"Well, then," Pavla sneered, "you obviously want your wife to get killed. I don't know if we could really call her that. Your marriage in Mexico was, how shall I say, less than legal."
Inside, Jeff was stunned by the woman's knowledge of intimate details about his marriage. On the outside, he tried not to react. "What else should I tell you?" he coolly asked.
"Who is the double agent?" Pavla demanded. When there was no response from Jeff, she walked over and picked up the phone. She looked at Jeff expectantly and said, "I don't want to have to threaten you again. It seems that you do love your wife, yet you refuse to give us details. That kind of behavior will only result in her murder."
"All right, all right," Jeff said, sighing. "I give up." Pavla sat down once again and gestured for Jeff to begin. "I'm Jonathan Arnold's contact. He's the American double agent. I don't work for Military Intelligence. I'm just someone who got caught in the middle of everything. When Jonathan contacts me, I am supposed to report to Military Intelligence. I'm nothing more than a glorified messenger boy."
Pavla smiled and said, "What a wonderful story. Now, as I was saying before, your marriage is less than legal. Because of that, you are going to marry me."
"What! Why on earth would I marry you?" Jeff sputtered. "You've just threatened to kill my wife!"
"Because," Pavla explained calmly, "I know all of your secrets. If you don't go along with my plan, I will expose you as a Nazi double agent to Military Intelligence."
Hilary’s apartment, Saturday, August 30, 6:01 a.m.
"That’s why you married her?" Hilary asked. "To protect me?"
"Yes," Jeff said slowly. "I didn’t want you to get killed and I didn’t want to be exposed as a double agent. That’s why I kept trying to call you from London before Pavla came to the United States. I was trying to tell you what was going to happen. Since this wasn’t exactly the kind of message I could leave with Gertie, I couldn’t warn you about Pavla."
Hilary was still confused. "Why did she want to marry you?" she asked. "What good did it do her?"
"Her superiors wanted her to go to America," Jeff explained. "She couldn’t get into the country so she decided to blackmail me into marrying her. The Nazis want her to wreak some havoc on the Coast now. She said something about the Japanese and Hawaii. I wasn’t paying that much attention."
Hilary threw herself on Jeff. "Jeff, I love you so much!" She began to kiss him and they fell back on the sofa.
WENN, Saturday, August 30, 10:32 p.m.
The studio door opened and Scott entered, trying to assist Betty into the station. "Scott," she said in exasperation, "I am perfectly capable of walking without your help. That’s why the doctor gave me these crutches." She looked pointedly down at her crutches. "Why did you take me here any way? The station is closed for the night."
Scott dropping his arms and said, "I thought you might want to talk with Victor. That’s why I brought you straight here. He’s in the green room waiting for you."
Betty nodded and began to propell herself towards the green room, but she stopped halfway and turned to face Scott. "Thank you," she said quietly. "Thanks for saving my life."
Scott shrugged and said, "It was nothing."
"Don’t say that. Without you," Betty said, "I don’t know what would have happened."
"You probably wouldn’t have been shot."
"I doubt that," Betty said. "Victor was ready to shoot Pruitt and Pruitt was ready to kill me. You distracted everyone when you walked in."
"Betty, I did mean what I said in the green room," Scott said.
Betty clutched her crutches and began to hobble to the green room. "Betty?" Scott asked.
Without turning around, Betty said, "I know you meant what you said. I just don’t know what I want. Let me talk to Victor."
Betty pushed the green room doors open and saw Victor sitting on the sofa. "Betty!" he said as he noticed the door opening. Betty smiled and tottered over to the sofa. She sat down near Victor. "There is so much to tell you," Victor said. "I am so glad to see you alive! I was so scared when I saw all the blood after I shot you."
"Scott said you had something important to tell me," Betty said. "What's wrong now?"
Victor reached over and took Betty's hand in his. "I talked to the government this afternoon. I'm being put into protective custody."
"But why?" Betty asked. "You're home now, safe. What's going to go wrong now?"
"Well," Victor began, "because of my brainwashing, I've become an easy target for the Nazis. The government is making me assume another identity until the war is done. It's some sort of protection progam they're thinking about starting. The government feels that I am at risk because other Nazis know who I am. I'm leaving tomorrow morning."
"Oh, Victor! We haven't had any time to talk about anything. It's already late."
Victor leaned over, saying, "I know, but this war will be over with soon enough. I'm glad to just be here, safe, and to know that you're safe."
Victor reached over to give Betty a kiss good-bye, but she squirmed out of the way. "Victor," she began, "I'm not sure about anything right now. First Scott tells me that he loves me and now you want to kiss me. How do you feel about me?"
Victor leaned back against the cushions, thinking. "Betty, I love you. I think I've loved you since the first time you came into WENN and improvised that whole scene on 'Valiant Journey'."
"Why didn't you ever tell me?" Betty demanded. She was getting upset now. Why was it, she thought, that the men in her life waited until the last minute to tell her anything important?
"I tried to tell you when I was leaving," Victor said, trying to defend himself. "Who do you think that whole speech when I left was to? I was trying to communicate my feelings to you. And that time that we got cut off on the phone because of an air raid."
"Nothing like leaving it to the last minute," Betty said bitterly. "I'm sorry, Victor. It's just that I'm very confused right now."
"That's understandable," Victor said. "Can I kiss you good-bye?"
Betty smiled at his politeness. Victor, taking this as a yes, leaned over and kissed her passionately. "While I'm gone," Victor said, "don't close any doors."
Betty nodded. Victor continued, "Sherwood seems like a nice enough guy."
Betty paused to think, reflecting over her experiences with Scott, and nodded in agreement. "Oh, will you look at the time," she said, glancing at her watch. "Victor, the doctor said I should get home and get some rest." She picked up her crutches and stood up. "Victor, at one time I could have definately said that I loved you. Right now, I'm just not sure." She smiled weakly and leaned over to kiss him good-bye again. Before she pulled away, Betty whispered, "I'll miss you."
Scott was waiting out in the hallway. "Can I walk you to the trolley?" he asked.
The End
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