“Yes.”
“That would be how he would know the things in the dissertation.”
“I’d say so.”
“So what does it all mean?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Yet.”
“If he was guilty of some kind of criminal behavior,” Susan said, “or even if he just wanted to conceal his identity, wasn’t it foolhardy to get that close to it all in his dissertation.”
“Maybe,” I said.
“Or maybe,” Susan said, “he had to write a dissertation, and that’s what he had.”
“Maybe.”
“Or maybe he felt some need to sort of confess,” Susan said. “In which case, where better than a dissertation?”
“Your secret will be safe?” I said.
Susan smiled.
“Yes,” she said. “I think mine went from my typewriter direct to university microfilms, unseen by human eye.”
“You mind that?” I said.
Susan grinned at me.
“I was grateful,” she said.
“Bad?”
“It took me two weeks to write it,” she said.
“But it got you the Ph.D.,” I said.
“That’s what it was for,” she said.
45
I called Healy in the morning. He said he’d get back to me. I hung up and sat at my computer and typed up a report of what I knew, how I knew it, and what I made of it. I printed out two copies, put them in self-sealing envelopes, put first-class stamps on them, and walked to the end of my hall, where there was a mail chute. Healy called back in less than an hour.
“Phone number is listed on Market Street in Brighton,” he said.
“Pays to be a state police captain,” I said.
“Not in real money,” Healy said.
He gave me the address.
“You want to tell me more?” he said.
“I just sent you a letter, and a copy to Belson,” I said.
“Quirk’s man?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“I talked with him yesterday,” Healy said. “He filled me in on the bomb.”
“I have written down everything I know, and everything I suspect, and how I know it, and why I suspect it. I reread the thing before I mailed it, and it’s beautifully written.”
“In case they win and you lose?”
“Expect the best,” I said. “Plan for the worst.”
“Well, at least I’ll have a keepsake,” Healy said.
“That doesn’t sound like a vote of confidence,” I said.
“They seem to know what they’re doing,” Healy said.
“And they’ve missed me twice.”
“If you hadn’t had the dog the first time. If you hadn’t thrown your bag the second time,” Healy said. “You’re alive mostly through luck.”
“ ‘Luck is the residue of design,’ ”I said.
“You quoting somebody again?”
“Branch Rickey,” I said.
“Jesus,” Healy said. “You know stuff most people don’t even care about. You going to go visit the Herzberg Foundation?”
“Yep.”
