One of them was Irina Igorneeva’s husband. I remembered from her chart that his last name was Blok. The other was bigger, with a walrus mustache and a large, crooked nose.
“I believe you are Charlotte Danielovna Masonaya?” Blok said in an official-sounding voice.
I put the lockbox back in the cupboard, hoping they hadn’t noticed what it was. “Yes. What can I do for you?” I thought I managed to keep my voice from wavering, though my jaw was clenched so tightly it hurt.
“We are here to inspect the facilities,” he announced. “We’ve had reports of black-market activities. Show us to your food storerooms.”
I should have foreseen it. I should have realized a toad like Blok would find a way to take revenge for having to give way to a girl.
I thought of my mother and what she’d do in such a situation. “There must be some mistake,” I said. “We are a hospital, and the food we have stored here is for our patients.”
“Show us,” he ordered.
I hesitated, wondering if I could refuse. The other man chuckled. “I know what you are thinking, but you should realize people don’t say no to us, not even foreigners. If you don’t like this, complain to your embassy later, but now do what we say.”
“Yes,” Blok added. “We can find reasons to arrest everyone who works here if you refuse.”
I knew they probably would, just out of spite. I couldn’t let them arrest the nurses. “This way,” I said, and led them to the kitchen in the back, my mind racing.
The cook, Tanya, dropped a spoon when she saw the policemen and then grabbed the ends of her apron, clenching them between her hands. She was Galina’s grandmother, a tiny elderly woman who, when she wasn’t cooking, loved sitting in a chair in the nursery rocking the babies.
“It’s all right, Tanya.” I tried to smile. “These men won’t be here long.” She picked up the spoon and held it in front of her as if it would be some kind of protection. I hated to see the fear on her face.
“In here.” I pointed to the pantry. It was only about a third full, and I hoped that the other policeman would see that it was a normal amount for a small hospital.
“Where did you get all this food?” Blok demanded.
I clasped my hands together and tried to sound as if I were one of my former teachers patiently lecturing something to us ignorant students. “We buy it at locations all over the city. Some of this we have had for a long time, since before there were so many shortages. My mother, who founded the hospital, believed that we should keep a stock of basic supplies on hand all the time because we never know how many patients we are going to have in any given week. Patients need good food to recover their strength and go home to their families.”
Blok slapped his hand down on one of the empty shelves. “Hoarding food is unpatriotic. You should be ashamed. Our men at the front go hungry while you let women feast on all this.”
“They aren’t feasting!” I realized I had raised my voice, so when I spoke again, I tried to go back to sounding calm and reasonable. “And many of these women are the wives of our soldiers. I’m sure the soldiers wouldn’t want their families going hungry. We send bundles of food home with each patient when she is released, so she can feed her other children.”
“Be quiet!” Blok moved so he was only inches from me. “You can talk and talk, but it doesn’t change the situation.” He turned to the other man. “I think we should arrest her, don’t you?”
He was trying to scare me. I sucked in a breath, weighing what to say. The wrong thing might make the situation worse.
“Perhaps,” the other policeman said as he walked over to one of the sugar tins and opened it up. He dipped his fingers in and brought up a pinch of sugar, which he put in his mouth.
“This is not illegal!” I said. “The patrons of the hospital are well-respected and well-known supporters of the czar. They will tell you we run the hospital according to the rules.” I didn’t want to draw my stepfather into this, even though I suspected they already knew all about him.
“Can you prove where you got all this?” the other man asked.
I’d thought about writing up some fake receipts before, but I hadn’t carried through with the plan. We did have some legitimate receipts, since we still bought what we could from local merchants, but they weren’t enough to account for all the food.
I decided to try to bluff my way around the question. “I can give you some boxes of our paperwork. We don’t have a bookkeeper at the moment so they aren’t very well organized, but if you want to go through them, you are more than welcome to.”
“Dealing on the black market is quite a serious offense,” Blok said. “You could be put in prison for many years. It would be a shame for a young girl like you to waste the best years of her life.” He paused. I clasped my hands together so they wouldn’t shake, though they were slick with sweat. I didn’t know if it was better to stay silent or keep talking. A terrible feeling was growing in me that it wouldn’t matter what I did.
The corners of Blok’s mouth turned up into a smirk. “Though perhaps we can find a way to overlook this. Of course, if we do, you’ll have to swear to never do this again. We could see that all this food gets donated to a worthier cause. The hospitals for our soldiers always need food.”
I realized what he was saying. They wanted it for themselves. They’d take it, claiming it would go to another hospital, but it wouldn’t. It would go to the police.
I wished I could wipe the smirks off their faces. My fear disappeared, replaced by anger. How low could a person sink to take food from a hospital? I decided I wasn’t going to make it easy for them. “Every hospital needs food,” I said. “If you know of one that has a shortage, then of course we will let our supplies go to them. I’m afraid you’ll have to arrange a way to get it moved, though. We have very little help here besides the nurses, and they must stay with the patients. You saw yourself, the cook is an elderly woman.”
I’d hoped they’d both leave temporarily to get a cart or something so we could at least hide some of the food. If we were clever, they wouldn’t be able to tell anything was missing.
“Fine,” the other man said. “We’ll arrange to transport it immediately. You stay here and help load it up. Blok will stay to oversee the transfer.”
I gritted my teeth together. “I need to get back to work,” I said. “Perhaps the policeman would like some tea while he waits. There is tea in our little sitting room, and it’s the warmest room in the building.” If I could get him up there, we could get back into the storeroom without him seeing and move some of the food into a hiding place.
Blok rubbed his hands together. “Yes, I will have tea.” I took him to the sitting room and motioned at the samovar, not trusting myself to speak, and then hurried back to the kitchen.
I explained to Tanya what I was going to do and asked her to find some hiding place while I went into the pantry. I took a large piece of cheese and one of the baskets of eggs, trying to figure out how much I could take before they’d notice.
Tanya cried out. I whirled around and ran right into Blok.
“Foolish girl.” He snorted and then added, “I knew what you were going to do. You aren’t so clever.”