"Yes."
"Is this another of your literary puns?"
"Yes, an affectionate one."
"How would you describe Major Astor, or Major Catastrophe as she is affectionately called?"
"She's a woman in her late fifties, and she's been a nurse for perhaps fifteen years or so. Irish background, rather tall and big-boned, ample-breasted, and… big feet, she has big feet. She's constantly predicting doom, which is how she earns her nickname. She carries a note from the lieutenant to Jan in one scene."
"I ask you now if you remember a character in Catchpole called Captain Sykes?"
"I do."
"Do you remember that she is an Army nurse?"
"Yes."
"Do you remember how old she is supposed to be?"
"No."
"Will you turn to the page immediately following the title page of Mr. Constantine's play, the page title 'Cast in Order of Appearance,' and will you look down that page to the description of Captain Sykes? Have you got it?"
"Yes, I have."
"Do you see her age there?"
"I do."
"What is the age?"
"Fifty-two."
"Do you recall why Captain Sykes joined the Medical Corp?"
"Yes."
"Would you tell us, please?"
"She enlisted after the death of her husband."
"Let's get back to your character, shall we? Major Catastrophe. How does she happen to be in Korea?"
"She is sent there."
"Is it not true that she becomes a nurse after her husband dies?"
"Oh, boy," Driscoll said.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Are you going to claim…"
"Please answer the question, Mr. Driscoll."
"Yes, I'll be very happy to answer the question," Driscoll said angrily, "if I may be permitted briefly to go into the backgrounds of these two characters."
"Briefly, but not with as much volume, I hope," McIntyre said.
"I'm sorry."
"We're none of us deaf," McIntyre said, "Go on, go on."
"The senior nurse in my book, Major Astor, has been in the Army since 1935. She joins several years after her husband passes away, of natural causes, in his own bed. There is no indication that she enlists for patriotic reasons or for any reason other than to give herself a worthwhile occupation. The nurse in the play Catchpole is a woman who left nursing to get married. Her husband is a doctor who is killed in action in a bombing attack on a London airfield. To avenge his death, she joins the Medical Corps and is ironically sent to the Pacific where the enemy are the Japanese rather than the Germans. She is pictured as a rather bitter woman who strongly resents the developing love affair between Mr. Constantine's principal characters. I don't see any similarity between these two women, aside from the fact that they are both nurses in the same general age bracket."
"Is it not true," Brackman asked, "that Captain Sykes in Catchpole helps Diane Foster to arrange a rendezvous with Lieutenant Mason?"
"No, it is not true. She makes it extremely difficult for the pair to meet."
"Does she not deliberately leave them alone together one night?"
"She does not do it deliberately. One of Mason's friends gets her drunk and puts her to sleep in a weapons carrier. It's a comic scene in the play."
"Where is this scene, Mr. Driscoll?"
"In the second act someplace."
"Do you recall whether or not Captain Sykes has a nickname?"
"Yes, I think she does. They call her 'Big Red.' "
"Why do they call her that?"
"Because she has flaming-red hair."
"Is this fact ever mentioned?"
"Yes, when Mason's friend dumps her into the weapons carrier, he puts his Eisenhower jacket over her head because he's afraid someone will spot the red hair."
"What color hair does your nurse have?"
"Brown."
"You're talking about Major Astor now?"
"Yes."
"Does Major Astor deliver a note to Jan Reardon in your novel?"
"Yes, she does. Arranging a meeting with the lieutenant."
"Doesn't Captain Sykes in Catchpole also deliver a note to someone?"
"No."
"Isn't there a scene with the colonel where…"
"That isn't a note."
"What is it?"
"She shows him his medical record."
"Your Honor," Willow said, rising, "I do not see where this is going."
There was a peculiar note of warning in his voice, and whereas he had addressed the words to McIntyre, Driscoll had the certain feeling he was trying to communicate something, was objecting not to Brackman's questions but rather to his own answers. Confused, aware of the warning but unable to ascertain what he was doing wrong, he stared at Willow in puzzlement, and suddenly his hands began to shake.
"We are attempting to explore the similarities, your Honor," Brackman said. "That is all."
Brackman's explanation sounded reasonable enough, and yet Driscoll detected a note of confidence that had not been there several moments ago when he could barely stutter his way through a sentence. He tried to understand what had happened between then and now, but he could find no clue, and McIntyre's next words left him with a curiously unsettled feeling, as though he were on treacherous ground that was giving away beneath his feet, inch by crumbling inch.
"I find this all to the point," McIntyre said. "Proceed, Mr. Brackman."
"Mr. Driscoll, you have testified that you met with your erstwhile commanding officer, Colonel Hamilton, in order to get some information from him about specific scenes in your book."
"Yes."
"Some of this information was about dissembling a rifle, is that right?"
"Yes, I wanted the exact language describing the operation."
"You did not possess any books that might have given you this information?"
"No."
"Weren't you issued any such books when you were in the service?"
"Yes."
"Did you later discard them?"
"I must have."
"So you had to go to Colonel Hamilton for the information."
"I went to the library first, but I couldn't find it there. Nor could I find a breakdown of the Chinese troop concentrations, or some of the other information I needed."
"Like what?"
"Like some of the actual code names used in the Ch'ongch'on River operations."
"Which Colonel Hamilton supplied."
"Yes. This was no longer classified material."
"I understand that, nor am I intending to impugn a dead man's loyalty. In Officer Candidate School, Mr. Driscoll, you took a great many courses, did you not?"
"I did."
"And I assume you took notes in these courses."
"In most of them. In some courses, for security reasons, we were not permitted—"
"Yes, I understand that. But you did take notes in most of the courses?"
"Yes."
"Do you still have those notes?"
"No, of course not."
"When you were released from the Army, Mr. Driscoll, you attended N.Y.U., I believe you said, and you took some courses in creative writing."
"I took most of the writing courses the school had to offer."
"Did you take notes in those courses?"
"Yes."
"Do you still have those notes?"
"No."
"Your Honor," Willow said, "again I must ask…"
"It will become clear, Mr. Willow," Brackman answered.
"I hope so," McIntyre said.
"You have testified that you wrote several short stories while you were a student at N.Y.U. Did you make carbon copies of those stories?"
"Yes."
"Do you still have those carbons?"
"No."
"Do you generally save things?"
"Important things."
"You did not save any of your Army notes, or your college notes, or carbon copies of your short-story attempts."