business?”
The rabbi was spared the necessity of answering by the ringing phone. It was Lanigan.
He sounded jubilant. “Rabbi, remember I told you that Goralsky, Mr. Ben Goralsky, was the one who recommended Hirsh for the job at Goddard?”
“Yes.”
“Well, did you know that Hirsh and Goralsky were originally partners, and that the process the Goralskys now use by which they made a fortune, I might add, was Hirsh’s idea? They backed him with money and then bought him out.”
“Yes, I knew that.”
There was a pause, then-and the voice was cold, “You never mentioned it to me.”
“I didn’t think it was significant.”
“I think you and I should have a little talk, Rabbi. Maybe tonight?”
“That will be all right. Right now, Mr. Marvin Brown is here with me. He tells me that a couple of your men were down to see him.”
“And I might say that he wasn’t what I would call overly cooperative.”
“That may be, but what I’m concerned with right now is that he seems to think it was done at my instigation. Did your men say anything to give him that idea?”
“You know better than that, Rabbi.”
“Of course. But then how can you possibly be interested in him?”
“Well now, Rabbi, on that point I received a bit of intelligence not twenty minutes ago. Since he’s there with you, you might just ask him a question for me. Ask him, why did he leave the temple before the service was over?”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure, Rabbi.” With a laugh Lanigan hung up.
The rabbi turned to Marvin Brown. “That was Chief Lanigan.”
Brown’s smirk seemed to say, I told you so.
“Tell me, Mr. Brown, Friday night, the Kol Nidre service, did you leave the temple early?”
Marvin Brown reddened.
“So that was why you did not respond when you were called for your honor. Why, Mr. Brown, why?”
“I-I don’t think I have to answer. I-I don’t care to-that is, I’m not on any witness stand, and I don’t have to answer as to my whereabouts to anyone.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
I’m a cop first and foremost, Rabbi,” said Lanigan, “and I don’t take kindly to your withholding information that might be of value to our investigation.”
“I don’t see how the fact that Goralsky recommended Hirsh for a job should make me think he wanted to kill him,” said the rabbi. He was matching the chief’s reserve and his tone was coldly polite.
“Rabbi, Rabbi, I explained all that. We’ve got a weapon that practically anybody could have used, and a motive that can be almost anything. The only line we can take is to check opportunity. I told you the Jews of Barnard’s Crossing had practically a communal alibi because they were all in the temple at the time, so for that very reason anyone who wasn’t has some explaining to do. Now who wasn’t? Your friend Marvin Brown, for one. I understand he’s some kind of big shot in your temple, a vestryman or something like that.”
“He’s on the Board of Directors.”
“Okay, so if anyone should have been there, he should. And we know he was at the temple but left early-why, he wouldn’t say. Now on top of that, we find he sold Hirsh his insurance. It isn’t much, but for a guy like Hirsh who kept to himself pretty much, it’s a connection. So we question him. If it upsets him, that’s too bad. It’s one of the burdens of citizenship.”
“Aren’t you supposed to tell a man what he’s being questioned for? And in a murder case, aren’t you supposed to warn him that what he says may be used against him?”
“We haven’t accused him of anything. We were just looking for information. Maybe when we go see him again, I’ll take just that line. Right now, I’m letting him stew a little. And remember, no one is supposed to know that Hirsh was murdered.”
“How long are you going to keep that up?”
The chief grinned, for the first time since he arrived. “It’s actually not much of a secret right now. Once I reported the matter to the D.A., it was bound to get around town. You can’t keep those things dark. The chances are that your friend Brown has already figured out that we wouldn’t send two men to question him at his office and check on his whereabouts unless something like murder was involved. In tonight’s
“I don’t read gossip columns.”
“Well, sometimes it pays. The Roundabout asks: Are the police hiding something? Why should the office of the District Attorney be investigating the death of a well-known scientist in a town not many miles from here? Could the death possibly be more mysterious than it appeared? Did the police goof and are they covering up?”
“And this is how the most important business of the community is conducted?” asked the rabbi sadly. “Hints in gossip columns, rumor, speculation? And if Marvin Brown’s secretary and the other people in the office see that item and jump to the conclusion that he’s a suspect in a murder case, that’s just one of the burdens of citizenship, is it? And all because he sold the dead man an insurance policy.”
“It wasn’t just the insurance policy. There was also the matter of selling the widow a grave site. And trying to shunt the body aside in the cemetery. And in this crazy case where we have so little to go on, we check any two facts that happen to coincide.”
“And Ben Goralsky-he is suspect because he got Hirsh a job and because years ago they were partners for a short time?”
“And because he wasn’t at the synagogue either. And according to what I hear, the Goralskys are very Orthodox and very devout. It seems funny that he shouldn’t have gone.”
“You also heard, I suppose, that his father was very sick and that he was afraid he might die?”
“Not from you, Rabbi.” And once again, the atmosphere which had warmed somewhat, cooled.
“You said you were first and foremost a policeman. Well, first and foremost I am a rabbi. Mr. Goralsky is a member of my congregation, and I cannot see myself inviting his confidence in order to transmit it to the police.”
“You mean that if you found a member of your congregation had committed murder you would not inform the police?”
“I am bound by the duties of citizenship just as is everyone else,” said the rabbi stiffly.
“But you won’t help us find him.”
“I will not cast suspicion on innocent people so that the police can harass them-”
“Harass them? Do you think we grill them for the pleasure of seeing them squirm?”
“The effect is the same. Marvin Brown was upset-even frightened. I’m sure it wasn’t because he had committed murder and was afraid he might be discovered. He was afraid of the effect on his business and his friends, on his wife and children.”
“But he did leave the temple early and he wouldn’t tell you why.”
“What of it? There were probably lots of people who left the temple at one time or another. It’s a long service, and people get tired. They go out for a breath of air, or to stretch their legs-”
“And would they be ashamed to say so?”
“Of course not. But Marvin Brown might have left for any number of reasons he would hesitate to admit to me. Maybe he went home for a bite, and he wouldn’t like it known that he had broken his fast.”
“And he might have gone to kill Hirsh.”
“Why? Because he sold him an insurance policy? You might as well question anyone else who had the slightest contact with Hirsh-the baker who sold him bread, the butcher who sold him meat, the mechanic who fixed his car,
