Tuesday The Rabbi Saw Red (29 page)

“The Excelsior is managed by a husband and wife?”

“Yeah, It’s right by a small shopping center. You know how it is with these motels. If they’re in a good location and get plenty of business, they’ll operate nice and legal and respectable. But let business slack off and they tend to get a little careless, like renting rooms to hookers or college kids who are looking for a roll in the hay for a couple of hours.”

“And how is business at the Excelsior?”

“So-so. Did she happen to say why she picked the place?”

“Only that it had been recommended by one of the girls in the dorm.” said the rabbi dryly.

“Doesn’t surprise me, well, here we are.”

A brass nameplate on a triangular block of mahogany identified ALFRED R. JACKSON; MGR. Jackson, dressed in sport shirt and golf sweater, came out to meet them and introduced himself. “Is there something I can do for you gentlemen?”

“Like to use your phone.” said Lanigan.

“Sure, go ahead.” He slid it over.

“Anything wrong?” he asked the rabbi, as the chief dialed.

Rabbi Small shook his head. Lanigan spoke a few words into the receiver and then hung up. “Just a routine inquiry/ he said. “Can I see your register for the thirteenth of this month?”

“Anybody in particular?” asked Jackson as he went to the card file. “The thirteenth, that was a Friday?”

“That’s right. Katherine or Kathleen Dunlop, she would have registered sometime that afternoon.”

“Here’s a Mrs. Kathy Dunlop. Mass, license plate 863529. Came in at 1:52.” He pulled the card and put it on the desk.

“That’s not Mrs.,” said the rabbi. “It’s Ms.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right. Women’s Lib.” He laughed as though it were a good joke.

“Was she alone?” asked Lanigan.

“Gosh, I don’t remember, Captain – er, Chief. I remember the day all right on account it was Friday the thirteenth. I’m not superstitious, but you know how it is.”

“She said there was a woman in charge,” the rabbi remarked to Lanigan.

“How about it?” asked the chief.

“Oh, that would be my wife. Just a minute.” He opened a door and called inside. “Martha, want to come out front a minute?”

They were joined by a woman in a housedress, her hair elaborately done up in plastic curlers. “I look a mess,” she apologized. “Just getting ready to go out.”

“These gentlemen are interested in a Kathy Dunlop who registered with us on Friday the thirteenth, early afternoon. You remember her? You checked her in.”

“Yes, I do, a little bit of a thing. Nice girl.”

“What makes you say that?” asked Lanigan.

“Well, I don’t really know, of course, except that she was quiet and polite and – oh yes, she was wearing a cross, so I guess she didn’t seem like some of these girls you see around nowadays, she told me she’d been driving straight through from the night before and needed some sleep, so I put her in Number 6 where she wouldn’t be disturbed by people coming in later to register, and oh yes, she asked if there was a phone in the room, and I told her she’d either have to use the pay station across the way in the parking lot or the one here in the office.” To her husband she said. “Don’t you remember, al? I said Friday the thirteenth was unlucky., and that was the day we had trouble with the switchboard.”

Lanigan asked if she had used the phone in the office.

“Not that I remember. Besides, the one in the parking lot is nearer.”

“What about visitors?”

“Well now. I don’t spy on my guests,” she said virtuously. “A guest rents a room, he can have people come to see him same as if it was his own home. I don’t go around snooping.”

“Did you see anyone with her? A red-haired man with a cane?” Lanigan prompted.

Mrs. Jackson shook her head positively.

“Who else was registered at the time?” asked the rabbi.

She looked inquiringly at her husband. “That couple from Texas?”

“No, they checked out at the regular check-out time, that’s eleven o’clock, we must have been empty at the time,” he said.

She amplified. “This time of year, people don’t start checking in until late afternoon or early evening.” She flipped through the cards in the file. “Here – 4:20,4:38, 5:02.”

“What time did Miss Dunlop check out?” asked Lanigan.

The woman colored. “Why, I seem to remember that she stopped by in the evening to leave the key and say she was going out for a bite. I don’t think – no – I’m sure of it; she didn’t come back. You remember, Al. I said I thought she might have gone to a movie.”

Lanigan asked Mrs. Jackson whether she had made up the girl’s room the next morning, whether the bed had been slept in.

“I don’t remember,” she said warily. “I’m sure it must’ve been or I would’ve remembered.”

“One person or two?”

“How would I know that?”

“Oh, you’d know all right.”

“I – I don’t remember.”

As they drove off. Lanigan said. “I’m sorry, David, but I’m afraid your friend Fine had no alibi. Neither the manager nor his wife saw him, there were no guests in the motel, and with the phone out of order no one could have called in and thus confirm he was there at a certain hour.”

“There’s the girl…”

Lanigan shook his head. “Not very good. No corroboration, and she’s in love with him obviously, so it wouldn’t be hard to believe she’d lie for him. Of course, Fine’s lawyer might put her on the stand and hope she’d make a good impression on the jury, and she might, too, until the D.A, started tearing into her, he’d make her out to be a common whore, even worse for knowing he was a married man.”

Lanigan and the rabbi entered the station house, and the desk sergeant called out. “Say; Chief. Grace just phoned from the neighbor’s to say she’s locked out, all right if I run down and let her in?”

“Okay;” said Lanigan. “I’ll cover the desk.”

He glanced over the blotter. “How come you didn’t log in the call?”

“Why, it’s my wife. Chief. It’s a personal call.”

“A citizen phones to say she’s locked out of her house and I dispatch a sergeant to help her, that’s regular business. Every call has to be recorded, you know that, all right, get going.”

Lanigan shook his head as he logged in the call. “Are you planning to go to see Mrs. Fine, David?”

The question caught the rabbi unprepared. “Why would I do that?” he asked.

Lanigan regarded him with interest. “Well, you saw her husband in jail, didn’t you? All I know is if it was one of ours, the priest would go as a matter of course.”

“But I’m not a priest. I don’t have that sort of relationship with the people in my congregation. Besides,” he said. “I had some trouble with her a while back.”

“Oh?” said Lanigan.

“It was nothing serious.” said the rabbi.

Driving home, he was far from convinced that he should see Mrs. Fine. For all he knew she was not even at home, she probably had gone back to her parents, and he certainly had no desire to face Mr. and Mrs. Chernow as well.

But he had to pass the Fine house and when he saw a light on he stopped.

Edie Fine opened to his ring. “Oh, it’s you. Rabbi,” she said, obviously surprised. “I – I was just on my way to my folks –”

“May I come in?”

“Well, all right, but I don’t have too much time. I’m due there for dinner.” She led the way into the living room. “I suppose you want to tell me you had nothing to do with Roger being – I mean, that business Friday night. I didn’t put them up to it, you know.”

“It’s quite all right, Mrs. Fine, as a matter of fact. I saw your husband this morning. I found him not at all depressed.”

“Well: I’m glad to hear that. Of course, I know it’s all a horrid mistake, and it could happen to anyone, but it makes you wonder.”

“What does it make you wonder, Mrs. Fine?”

“Why, about all sorts of things. Whether there’s any justice in the world, about the police and the law courts and – if it pays to be decent –”

“Mrs. Fine!” He spoke sharply. “I am pleased to say that your husband appears to be bearing up well under this ordeal. I suppose that’s because he is certain of his innocence. When I see him again, I should like to tell him you are bearing up well, too.”

She stared at him, and then understanding came to her, she said in a quiet, controlled voice. “Yes, you tell him that. Thank you.”

When he arrived home, instead of giving Miriam his usual, matter-of-fact, husbandly peck, he embraced her, kissing her on the lips with considerable authority.

“Well,” she said in surprise, “what brought this on?”

“I have had a very unpleasant day,” he said, “but I learned that I love you very much.”

“Well, if you learned that, you must tell me about it.”

“I can’t.”

“Then at least let me fix you a drink.”

“No: but I’d like a cup of coffee.”

“So would I.” And she went inside to put on the pot.

He unlaced his shoes and kicked them off, then, punching a pillow into place, he stretched out on the divan. But the phone rang and he went to answer. It was the assistant district attorney.

“Yes, Mr. Ames. What can I do for you?”

“Sergeant Schroeder has just been to see me, he’s quite annoyed with you, and I’m not sure that I’m entirely pleased with you myself.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” said the rabbi. “Is it his feeling in general or is it something he thinks I did?”

Ames chuckled appreciatively. “He’d like me to order you picked up as a material witness. It’s what you would probably call a sin of omission, a Kathy Dunlop came to see you with information bearing on this case, he thinks you should have reported it to the police.”

“I see. So she went to you people with her story.”

“She did.”

“Well.” said the rabbi. “I thought about it and decided that her uncorroborated story would not be of much use to the police, whereas reporting it might very seriously affect a matter in which I have some responsibility. I balanced one against the other and decided not to report it for a while.”

“Indeed? And what matter is that. Rabbi?”

“The relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Fine. I performed the marriage, you know.”

“You were afraid Schroeder might go see Mrs. Fine?” There was a pause. “All right. Rabbi. I’ll buy that. Now how about your little trip to the Excelsior? That is purely police business.”

“I can justify that, too.”

“Save it. Rabbi. Why don’t you join me after your class tomorrow morning in Hendryx’s apartment. You can tell me all about it there, and Rabbi,” he said, “it better be good.”

He hung up as Miriam came into the room with a tray. “More trouble?” she asked in concern.

“Nothing serious, and nothing I have to worry about until tomorrow. Tonight I’m looking forward to a quiet evening at home.”

She heard a car and went to the window.

“Oh, David, the police cruising car has just pulled into our driveway.”

Sure enough, there was a peremptory knock on the door and Miriam went to answer, the policeman tipped his hat and said. “How do you do. Mrs. Small. I brought you your tickets to the Policeman’s Ball.”

“You deliver them in person now?” asked the rabbi.

“The chief thought it might be good for public relations. You know, get to know the people, we’ve got quite a program in public relations going down at the station.”

“Well, I think that’s a wonderful idea.” said Miriam.

“Why not do a good job of it and come in and have a cup of coffee?”

“That’s very nice of you. Mrs. Small, but my partner is outside.”

“Well, bring him in, too.”

“It’s the latest wrinkle in police work.” said the first officer, as he and his partner sat on the edge of their chairs, gingerly balancing coffee cups on their knees. “Public relations. It’s all on account of these young people that go around calling the police pigs and other things, then when you have to arrest one of them, they accuse you of police brutality. So the purpose of our campaign is to get lie public to back their police, to know them. I suppose it makes sense, but personally I feel that the ones who aren’t looking for trouble already know the police are there to protect them; the others are just sore because we try to prevent them from doing mischief.”

“Is that your view, too?” asked Miriam of the other officer.

“Well, things might be different in the city, ma’am. But here in Barnard’s Crossing everybody knows everyone on the force. So to me this public relations is like extra duty.”

“That you’d just as soon do without, eh?” asked the rabbi.

“Oh, I don’t mind,” he said quickly. “We volunteered. It’s nice meeting people like this, having a cup of coffee and charting, not in the way of business you might say.”

“Maybe they ought to try the same thing in the city,” Miriam suggested.

The policeman shook his head. “It wouldn’t work there. You take these young people, well, here we know all of them. I’ve umpired games for them when they were in Little League and Joe here has been coach and manager of a team for years, they call us by our first names. But in the city; they don’t know the police and the police don’t know them, the same ones that are so nice to us here, when they get into the city they can become a bunch of raving maniacs when they come up against the police.” He turned to his partner. “Remember how they carried on the day we had to drive Miss Hanbury back to college?”

“Yeah, the day the place was bombed, they were pretty hot, I can tell you.”

“You drove back Dean Hanbury after the bombing?” asked the rabbi. “Why was that?”

“Well, she’d just got home.” said Joe. “and phoned us to say she’d found one of her windows open. Lots of times people leave them open and then forget, so when they get home they call the police on account they think somebody might have broken in.” He turned to Miriam. “Now don’t let that keep you from calling us any time you think there’s anything wrong. Mrs. Small, we don’t mind, we’re only too happy if it turns out you did it yourself and forgot, well, anyway, we went right out to Miss Hanbury’s house and I looked around, for footprints, maybe a mark of a jimmy on the sash, but I couldn’t find anything.”

“And while he was looking.” his colleague continued, “a call came through on the radio about the explosion at the college, they wanted Miss Hanbury right back in Boston, and since she’d just driven out we offered to take her, and when we got to the school, there was this crowd of kids hanging around, ragging the officers who were guarding the building, they were jeering at them and laughing, even though the police were just doing their duty. Now if something like that happened here, we’d know every one of them and make a point of talking to their parents.”