‘But I thought you said he came back to see you out?’
‘I pushed him out.’
‘I see. You pushed him out.’ I could tell by the tone in which he repeated the phrase that he didn’t believe me. ‘And then what happened?’
‘I flew the plane back to Membury. It was moonlight all the way. I found the airfield quite easily and when I landed-’
‘Please, Fraser … I want to get at what happened in that plane. Now try to help me. What happened after Carter went out? We know the plane dived into the ground. I want to know how-’
‘It didn’t dive into the ground,’ I said. ‘I told you what happened. I flew it back to Membury.’
He got up and came over to me. ‘Now pull yourself together, please.’ His hand pressed gently on my shoulder. ‘We naturally want to know what happened. There’s no question of the accuracy of the Russian report. They’ve even sent us a piece of the tailplane. The plane is yours all right. It has your flight number on it and it’s unquestionably a Tudor. Now what caused it to crash?’
‘It didn’t crash,’ I said wearily. ‘I tell you, I flew it ‘Then if it didn’t crash, how the devil are the Russians able to send us a sample of the wreckage that clearly shows it to be your plane?’
‘I tell you, we put it there,’ I replied desperately. ‘We loaded it into the plane and flew it there. Saeton stooged around whilst I pushed the bits out. Then he landed me at Hollmind. That was when he flew out to Wunstorf to join the airlift. I searched all that night and all the next day for some trace of Carter. Then I found his helmet. It was just after the snow had started. It was lying on the snow and-’
‘I just can’t follow what you’re saying,’ the station commander interrupted. ‘Will you please stick to what happened in the plane.’
But before I could answer, the door of the room opened. ‘Come in, Pierce. You, too, Gentry.’ The station commander crossed over to the taller of the two men, drawing him aside and speaking to him in a low voice. I could see the two of them glancing covertly in my direction. Symes was beating an impatient tattoo on the edge of the desk with his long fingers, his dark eyes fixed curiously on my face.
I felt as though an invisible curtain was being lowered, separating me from contact with.them, and I pulled myself to my feet. ‘You don’t understand,’ 1 said angrily. ‘I joined Harcourt’s outfit in order to get hold of one of his planes. We’d crashed ours. It had to be replaced. We had to get hold of another plane in order to test the engines. Saeton was due on the airlift on the 25th. We had to have another plane. The only place we could get one was in Germany — off the airlift. It had to be a Tudor. That was why-’ My voice trailed away as I saw them all staring at me as though I were crazy.
The man who was talking to the station commander said quietly, ‘It’s obvious he’s had a nasty shock. He’s suffering from some sort of mental disturbance — he’s all mixed up with that escape he did. I’ll get him down to the sick bay.’
The station commander stared at me and then nodded. ‘All right. But I wish to God I could find out what happened to that plane of yours.’
‘Nothing happened to it,’ I cried angrily. There was nothing wrong with it at all. I flew it back to Membury. All the Russians have found-’
‘Yes, yes,’ the station commander cut in impatiently. ‘We’ve heard all about that. All right, Gentry. Take him down to the sick bay. Only for God’s sake get some reasonable statement out of him as soon as possible.’
The M.O. nodded and started towards me. It was then that the other man stepped forward. ‘Mind if I have a word with him first, sir?’
The station commander shrugged his shoulders. ‘Just as you like, Pierce. I suppose you think in his present muddled state he’s more likely to tell you the truth.’ He gave a quick laugh. ‘I hope you make better progress than we have.’ He crossed to the door and paused with his hand on the handle. ‘I’d like a word with you, Symes, after breakfast.’
The I.O. rose to his feet. ‘Very good, sir.’
The door closed behind the station commander and as I slid wearily back into my seat the policeman came and leaned on the edge of the desk, his hard, slightly pitted features seeming to hang over me, a dark blur against the lights. ‘My name’s Pierce,’ he said. ‘R.A.F. Policy. You’re Fraser?’
I nodded hopelessly. All chance of a plane had vanished with the departure of the station commander and I felt drained and utterly exhausted. If only they’d let me tell my story the way I’d wanted to. But I knew that even then they wouldn’t have believed me. Put into words it immediately became fantastic.
‘Christian name’s Neil Leyden?’
Again I nodded. It was stupid of him asking me my name when everybody in the room knew damn’ well who I was.
‘I’ve been instructed to ask you a few questions.’ His voice was quiet, almost gentle; very different from his features. ‘Do you remember the night of November 18th last year?’
I thought back. What an age it seemed. That was the night I’d arrived at Membury. ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I began working with Saeton that night.’
‘At Membury?’
‘Yes.’
‘How did you get there — by car?’
‘Yes, by car. There’s no train service to Membury.’
‘A car was found that night at the foot of Baydon Hill. That was your car, wasn’t it?’
I stared at him, struggling to understand the drift of his questions. My hand reached up almost automatically to the crust of blood where my forehead was cut. ‘I had a crash,’ I said.
He nodded. ‘You’ve another name, haven’t you? Callahan.’
I started involuntarily. So that was it. This was what Saeton had meant. I stared up at him, meeting his steady gaze, knowing they’d got me and thinking that I might just as well have refused when Saeton had forced me to take that job with Harcourt. But it didn’t matter now. So much had happened, nothing seemed to matter any more. It was as though in some queer way I was now paying the price for what I’d done to Tubby. ‘Yes,’ I said in a whisper. ‘I’m Callahan.’ And then in the silence that gripped the room I asked, ‘What happens now?’
He shrugged his shoulders. ‘It’s nothing to do with me, old man. I’ll send back a report to England. In due course I imagine you’ll be flown back and they’ll decide what they’re going to do about you. There’s no warrant for your arrest or anything like that at the moment.’ He coughed awkwardly. ‘Sorry to have to put the questions so soon after your escape from the Russian Zone. Now, I think you’d better go along with Squadron Leader Gentry here. It’s time you had that cut cleaned up and you look as though you could do with a bit of rest. I shan’t be worrying you again — not for some time anyway. So you can just relax.’
I thought how reasonable and logical his questions had been. If I could get him to do the questioning about what had happened to Tubby — they’d believe me then. I pulled myself to my feet again. He was already at the door. ‘Just a minute,’ I gasped, feeling the room reel. ‘I’ve got to tell you something.’ He had stopped in the doorway and was looking at me with a slight frown. ‘You got this from Saeton, didn’t you? It was Saeton who told the authorities who I was. You know why he did that? It was because he was afraid I’d talk. I didn’t want to pinch” the plane. But he made me do it. He said if I didn’t he’d-’ I closed my eyes trying to shut out the blurred movement of the room. The engines of a plane thundered on the perimeter track just outside the building. The windows rattled, the sound merging with the din in my ears. The sound was like the roar of a great fall; it went on and on. ‘Don’t you see?’ I gasped. ‘He blackmailed me-’ My knees trembled and gave. Somebody called out something and I felt myself slipping. Hands caught hold of me as I fell, supporting me whilst my legs seemed to trickle away like used-up water from the base of my body. Everything was remote and indistinct as I slipped into unconsciousness.