And then, as I sat thinking out my first move, I noticed a brief story headed — ARMS WORKS MANAGER MISSING. It was the name Calboyd in the opening sentence that caught my eye. Mr Sefton Raikes, works manager of the Calboyd Diesel Company, had apparently left the works on Thursday evening as usual by car and had not been seen since. A section of the canal had been dragged without success and the whole length of road between the works and his home had been thoroughly searched. Both the car and its owner had simply disappeared. And then followed a significant paragraph. ‘Anxiety is being felt by those who were closely associated with him in his work. It is believed that he was opposed to the policy of the directors. His plans for the production of a special type of diesel engine had been repeatedly overridden by the board. His assistant, Mr West, has told the police that he had been depressed and very worried during the past few weeks.’
Thursday evening! My thoughts had immediately switched to a lonely beach somewhere near Bude, where the wreckage of a car had been found on Friday. It seemed too improbable that there should be any connection. Yet a body, which certainly was not mine, had been found in that car. It had to be someone’s body and if Raikes had been giving trouble, they would be killing two birds with one stone. But that implied that there was something like revolt brewing among the technical staff at Calboyds. I got up in some excitement. ‘Could I have the City page a minute?’ I asked.
The old man, who was now sitting with the paper on his knee, staring into the fire, looked round and then handed me the whole paper. I ran through it quickly and found the page I wanted. I could have shouted for joy, for there, right across the top of the page, was the headline — ARE CALBOYD SHARES TOO HIGH? And below, I read — ‘Calboyds received a sharp jolt on Friday. Throughout the week these shares had been steadily rising to a peak of 52s 6d. On Friday they opened at this figure, but by midday they had reacted Is. By the 3 o’clock close they had slumped to 45s. to the accompaniment of ugly rumours about the prospects of the expected Government contract.’ There followed a discussion of the merits of the shares with information about the expected contract. And then came this sentence: ‘The fall in the shares is being attributed in some quarters to the disappearance of Mr Sefton Raikes, the works manager. It is said that there have been considerable differences between the company’s executive and the board. There are apparently some grounds for this rumour and until the matter has been cleared up, I should advise investors to keep clear of these shares.’
I put the paper down on the table. My mind was made up. The first thing to do was to get hold of David. That wire he had sent from Oldham must have meant something. He may even have talked to Raikes on the eve of his disappearance. If he had discovered something concrete about Calboyds, we might even be able to write up a really hot story about the company. There was Jim Fisher of the Evening Record. I knew him. He’d jump at it, if he thought there was a chance of getting away with it without a big libel suit. I went upstairs and got my old coat. ‘What time will you be ready to go over to the wharf?’ I asked the old man when I returned to the kitchen.
‘Better say ’alf-past two,’ he grunted sleepily. ‘We’ll just catch the tide before she turns.’
‘Right,’ I said. ‘I’ll be back at two-thirty.’ And I hurried through the empty dining-room and out into Wapping High. The sun was shining, but the air was raw, with a cold wind that swept in gusts across the dusty cobbles. I made straight for Tower Hill. Thence down Eastcheap to Cannon Street, where I picked up a bus which took me to Charing Cross. And as I slid through the empty Sunday streets of London with the warm sunshine on my neck, I found myself thinking of Freya and wondering whether she had been worried at my absence. It was a silly thought, but I remembered her lovely face puckered as she smiled at me over her glass on our evening out together, and I thought how nice it would be to have her anxious for me.
At Charing Cross station I felt myself far enough from Wapping to go into a call box. I dialled TER-minus 6795, and almost immediately there was a gabble of barely intelligible English over the wire. I asked for David, but was told that he was not in. I asked for Freya and was told she, too, ‘no home.’ In desperation I asked for Mrs Lawrence. ‘Och, it’s you, is it, Mr Kilmartin? Wherever have ye been? The young lady was fair worrit to death when ye didna come home.’
‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘I was — er — unavoidably detained. Are Mr Shiel and Miss Smith both out?’
‘Aye, and I’m worrit aboot them myself. Young Mr Shiel, he got back on Saturday morning at about seven. He’d travelled all night, and he was that excited, Mr Kilmartin. But then he found that you hadn’t come home, and he and the young lady left hurriedly in a taxi. They looked terrible anxious. They didna come back last night and I havena seen them since.’
‘Did they say where they were going?’
‘No. But they were in an awful hurry.’
‘All right. Don’t you worry, Mrs Lawrence. I’ll find them.’ I rang off. For a moment after I had replaced the receiver I just stood there in a daze. I was thinking of Freya, and there was a horrible clutching fear at my heart. It was then that I realised consciously for the first time that I was in love with her. The realisation of it did me good. I had never allowed myself any illusions. I allowed myself none now. When a confirmed bachelor of forty-two finds himself in love with a girl of twenty-six — yes, subconsciously I had even made a note of her age, based on what Schmidt had told me — there is only one thing for him to do, and that is to realise his folly and face up to it. I faced up to it then and the knowledge that I was being a fool cleared my brain.
There could only be one explanation of their failure to return. If trouble were brewing up at Oldham, the probability was that Sedel had men up there. One of them must have recognised David and followed him back to London. What he and Freya had dashed off for in such a hurry, I did not know. Perhaps they had gone to see Crisham? No, that was hardly likely, for it was on a Saturday evening that I had spoken to Crisham over the phone and he had given no indication that he had seen them. But whatever they had been up to, they had not returned to the digs. Either they had discovered they were being followed and had gone somewhere else for the night, or they had been picked up by Sedel’s gang. And of the two possibilities, I feared the latter, for I thought it possible that David might have made straight for his godfather, Sir Geoffrey Carr. Sedel would not like that. I looked up the number in the telephone directory, but when I got through, his butler informed me that Sir Geoffrey was out.
I hesitated. If there were trouble at Calboyds and if David had seen Carr, then things might be coming to a head. But I knew enough about the workings of the official mind to know that, even if David had seen his godfather and had been able to convince him of the seriousness of the situation, there was little likelihood of action being taken before the Thirlmere sailed. In any case, David knew nothing about either Marburg or the Thirlmere. He would not be able to tell them where to find the engine. It was up to me. And I decided upon the bold course. I rang Jim Fisher. At first he was dubious of my identity. But when I repeated in some detail conversations we had had at various times and I had tossed him the bait of a good story, he seemed convinced and agreed to see me.
I must admit that, as I took the bus up Kingsway to Russell Square, I was sorry that Fisher was not the editor of a daily paper. On the other hand, evening paper editors, especially now that the sales had fallen off so badly, are always more inclined to take chances. Anyway, he was the only editor I knew well. He opened the door of his flat to me himself. His small restless eyes took in every detail of my appearance. Then he suddenly grinned and held out his hand. ‘Glad to see you, Andrew,’ he said.