“Have you had painkillers?” he asked.
“Yes. I’m due some more in an hour or so. I’ll be all right once I’m lying down.”
That was a patent untruth, but Percy let it ride.
* * * *
Mrs Barker was all pr icality.
“Mr Wright!” she said when he introduced himself as she picked up the phone. “Is something wrong?” They’d met briefly last summer and he had thought her a sensible person. She’d apparently nursed during the war and didn’t seem fazed by much.
“Les is all right,” said Percy, as an opener, not entirely truthfully. “Don’t panic.”
“That’s never a good place to start a conversation, Mr Wright. What’s happened?”
He told her the basics. Les had been beaten up by some young thugs. He’d been seen by a doctor who had advised a couple of weeks rest. It would be better for him not to be in London.
“Quite right,” she said. “I’ll come down now. If I leave now, I’ll be with you well before midnight and we can leave first thing in the morning.”