The Human Factor Part 10

Chapter VI.

I.

Castle's train was forty minutes late at Berkhamsted. There were repairs to the line somewhere beyond Tring, and when he arrived at the office his room seemed empty in an unaccustomed way. Davis wasn't there, but that hardly explained the sense of emptiness; Castle had often enough been alone in the room with Davis at lunch, Davis in the lavatory, Davis off to the Zoo to see Cynthia. It was half an hour before he came on the note in his tray from Cynthia: 'Arthur's not well. Colonel Daintry wants to see you.' For a moment Castle wondered who the h.e.l.l Arthur was; he was unused to thinking of Davis as anyone but Davis. Was Cynthia, he wondered, beginning to yield at last to the long siege? Was that why she now used his Christian name? He rang for her and asked, 'What's wrong with Davis?'

'I don't know. One of the Environment men rang up for him. He said something about stomach cramps.'

'A hangover?'

'He'd have rung up himself if it had been only that. I didn't know what I ought to do with you not in. So I rang Doctor Percival.'

'What did he say?'

'The same as you-a hangover. Apparently they were together last night-drinking too much port and whisky. He's going to see him at lunchtime. He's busy till then.'

'You don't think it's serious, do you?'

'I don't think it's serious but I don't think it's a hangover. If it was serious Doctor Percival would have gone at once, wouldn't he?'

'With C away in Was.h.i.+ngton I doubt if he's got much time for medicine,' Castle said. 'I'll go and see Daintry. Which room?'

He opened the door marked 72. Daintry was there and Doctor Percival-he had the sense of interrupting a dispute.

'Oh yes, Castle,' Daintry said. 'I did want to see you.'

'I'll be pus.h.i.+ng off,' Doctor Percival said.

'We'll talk later, Percival. I don't agree with you. I'm sorry, but there it is. I can't agree.'

'You remember what I said about boxes-and Ben Nicholson.'

'I'm not a painter,' Daintry said, 'and I don't understand abstract art. Anyway, I'll be seeing you later.'

Daintry was silent for quite a while after the shutting of the door. Then he said, 'I don't like people jumping to conclusions. I've been brought up to believe in evidence-real evidence.'

'Is something bothering you?'

'If it was a question of sickness, he'd take blood tests, X-rays... He wouldn't just guess a diagnosis.'

'Doctor Percival?'

Daintry said, 'I don't know how to begin. I'm not supposed to talk to you about this.'

'About what?'

There was a photograph of a beautiful girl on Daintry's desk. Daintry's eyes kept returning to it. He said, 'Don't you get d.a.m.ned lonely sometimes in this outfit?'

Castle hesitated. He said, 'Oh well, I get on well with Davis. That makes a lot of difference.'

'Davis? Yes. I wanted to talk to you about Davis.'

Daintry rose and walked to the window. He gave the impression of a prisoner cooped up in a cell. He stared out morosely at the forbidding sky and was not rea.s.sured. He said, 'It's a grey day. The autumn's really here at last.'

' "Change and decay in all around I see," ' Castle quoted.

'What's that?'

'A hymn I used to sing at school.'

Daintry returned to his desk and faced the photograph again. 'My daughter,' he said, 'as though he felt the need of introducing the girl.'

'Congratulations. She's a beautiful girl.'

'She's getting married at the week-end, but I don't think I shall go.'

'You don't like the man?'

'Oh, I dare say he's all right. I've never met him. But what would I talk to him about? Jameson's Baby Powder?'

'Baby powder?'

'Jameson's are trying to knock out Johnson's-or so she tells me.' He sat down and lapsed into an unhappy silence.

Castle said, 'Apparently Davis is ill. I was in late this morning. He's chosen a bad day. I've got the Zaire bag to deal with.'

'I'm sorry. I'd better not keep you then. I didn't know that Davis was ill. It's nothing serious?'

'I don't think so. Doctor Percival is going to see him at lunchtime.'

'Percival?' Daintry said. 'Hasn't he a doctor of his own?'

'Well, if Doctor Percival sees him the cost is on the old firm, isn't it?'

'Yes. It's only that working with us he must get a bit out of date-medically, I mean.'

'Oh well, it's probably a very simple diagnosis.' He heard the echo of another conversation.

'Castle, all I wanted to see you about was you are quite satisfied with Davis?'

'How do you mean " satisfied "? We work well together.'

'Sometimes I have to ask rather silly questions oversimple ones-but then security's my job. They don't necessarily mean a great deal. Davis gambles, doesn't he?'

'A little. He likes to talk about horses. I doubt if he wins much, or loses much.'

'And drinks?'

'I don't think he drinks more than I do.'

'Then you have got complete confidence in him?'

'Complete. Of course, we are all liable to make mistakes.'

'Has there been a complaint of some kind? I wouldn't want to see Davis s.h.i.+fted, unless it's to L.M.'

'Forget I asked you,' Daintry said. 'I ask the same sort of thing about everyone. Even about you. Do you know a painter called Nicholson?'

'No. Is he one of us?'

'No, no. Sometimes,' Daintry said, 'I feel out of touch. I wonder if-but I suppose at night you always go home to your family?'

'Well, yes... I do.'

'If, for some reason, you had to stay up in town one night... we might have dinner together.'

'It doesn't often happen,' Castle said.

'No, I suppose not.'

'You see, my wife's nervous when she's left alone.'

'Of course. I understand. It was only a pa.s.sing idea.' He was looking at the photograph again. 'We used to have dinner together now and then. I hope to G.o.d she'll be happy. There's nothing one can ever do, is there?'

Silence fell like an old-fas.h.i.+oned smog, separating them from each other. Neither of them could see the pavement: they had to feel their way with a hand stretched out.

Castle said, 'My son's not of marriageable age. I'm glad I don't have to worry about that.'

'You come in on Sat.u.r.day, don't you? I suppose you couldn't just stay up an hour or two longer... I won't know a soul at the wedding except my daughter and her mother, of course. She said-my daughter, I mean-that I could bring someone from the office if 1 wanted to. For company.'

Castle said, 'Of course I'd be glad...you really think...' He could seldom resist a call of distress however it was encoded.

2.

For once Castle went without his lunch. He didn't suffer from hunger he suffered only from a breach in his routine. He was uneasy. He wanted to see that Davis was all right.

As he was leaving the great anonymous building at one o'clock, after he had locked all his papers in the safe, even a humourless note from Watson, he saw Cynthia in the doorway. He told her, 'I'm going to see how Davis is. Will you come?'

'No, why should I? I have a lot of shopping to do. Why are you going? It's nothing serious, is it?'

'No, but I thought I'd just look in. He's all alone in that flat except for those Environment types. And they never come home till evening.'

'Doctor Percival promised to see him.'

'Yes, I know, but he's probably gone by now. I thought perhaps you might like to come along with me... just to see...

'Oh well, if we don't have to stay too long. We don't need to take flowers, do we? Like to a hospital.' She was a harsh girl.

Davis opened the door to them wearing a dressing-gown. Castle noticed how for a moment his face lit up at the sight of Cynthia, but then he realised that she had a companion.

He commented without enthusiasm, 'Oh, you are here.'

'What's wrong, Davis?'

'I don't know. Nothing much. The old liver's playing it up.'

'I thought your friend said stomach cramps on the telephone,' Cynthia said.

'Well, the liver's somewhere near the stomach, isn't it? Or is it the kidneys? I'm awfully vague about my own geography.'

'I'll make your bed, Arthur,' Cynthia said, 'while you two talk.'

'No, no, please no. It's only a bit rumpled. Sit down and make yourself comfortable. Have a drink.'

'You and Castle can drink, but I'm going to make your bed.'

'She has a very strong will,' Davis said, 'What'll you take, Castle? A whisky?'

'A small one, thank you.'

Davis laid out two gla.s.ses.

'You'd better not have one if your liver's bad. What did Doctor Percival say exactly?'

'Oh, he tried to scare me. Doctors always do, don't they?'

'I don't mind drinking alone.

'He said if I didn't pull up a bit I was in danger of cirrhosis. I have to go and have an X-ray tomorrow. I told him that I don't drink more than anyone else, but he said some livers are weaker than others. Doctors always have the last word.'

'I wouldn't drink that whisky if I were you.'

'He said "Cut down ", and I've cut this whisky down by half. And I've told him that I'd drop the port. So I will for a week or two. Anything to please. I'm glad you looked in, Castle. D'you know, Doctor Percival really did scare me a bit? I had the impression he wasn't telling me everything he knew. It would be awful, wouldn't it, if they had decided to send me to L.M. and then he wouldn't let me go. And there's another fear-have they spoken to you about me?'

'No. At least Daintry asked me this morning if I was satisfied with you, and I said I was-completely.'

'You're a good friend, Castle.'