Sakowitz stood there looking after him. His secretary came hurrying in. She saw the overturned chair and Sakowitz’ s bloody lip.
“ Are you all right?” she asked.“ Terrific,” he said.“ Ask Mr. Eastman if he can see me.” Ten minutes later Sakowitz had finished relating the incident to Carl Eastman.“ What do you think’ s wrong with Douglas?” Eastman asked.“ Honestly? I think he’ s a psycho.”
Eastman regarded him with his piercing hazel eyes.“ That’ s pretty strong, Sak. He wasn’ t drunk when he was flying. No one could even prove that he’ d had a drink on the ground. And anyone can be late once in a while.”
“ If that’ s all it was, I wouldn’ t have fired him, Carl. Douglas has a low boiling point. To tell you the truth I was trying to provoke him today, and it wasn’ t hard. If he had stood up under the pressure, I might have taken a chance and kept him on. You know what worries me?”
“ What?”
Sakowitz said,“ A few days ago I ran into an old buddy who flew with Douglas in the RAF. He told me a crazy story. It seems that when Douglas was in the Eagle Squadron he fell for a little English girl who was engaged to a boy named Clark in Douglas’ Squadron. Douglas did everything he could to move in, but the girl wasn’ t having any. A week before she and Clark were to get married, the Squadron went up to cover some B-Seventeens in a raid over Dieppe. Douglas was flying at the rear of the Squadron. The fortresses dropped their bombs and everyone headed for home. Coming back over the Channel, they were hit by some Messerschmidts, and Clark was shot down.” He stopped, lost in some reverie of his own. Eastman waited for him to go on and finally Sakowitz looked up at him.“ According to my friend there were no Messerschmidts anywhere near Clark when he got it.”
Eastman stared at him unbelievingly.“ Jesus! Are you saying that Larry Douglas …?”
“ I’ m not saying anything. I’ m just telling you an interesting story I heard.” He put his handkerchief to his lip again. The bleeding had stopped.“ It’ s hard to tell what’ s happening in the middle of a dogfight. Maybe Clark just ran out of gas. One thing is certain. He sure as hell ran out of luck.”
“ What happened to his girl?”
“ Douglas moved in with her until he came back to the States, then he dumped her.” He looked at Eastman thoughtfully.“ I’ ll tell you one thing, for sure. I feel sorry for Douglas’ wife.”
Catherine was in the conference room having a staff meeting when the door opened and Larry walked in.
His eye was bruised and swollen, his cheek was cut. She hurried over to him.“ Larry,