become a father, David.”
“Are you sure? That’s all we need right now. Look, don’t worry and don’t get excited. Just sit tight and I’ll flag down a car.”
“Be careful, David,” she called as he got out.
A moment ago the highway had been filled with cars, but now not a car was to be seen. He drew out his handkerchief and took up a position in the middle of the road. Presently he saw a car in the distance and began to wave his handkerchief. To his tremendous relief, the car slowed down. It passed, swung over to the side of the road, and then backed up to within a few feet of his car. When the driver got out, the rabbi saw it was Dr. Sykes.
“Why it’s Rabbi Small, isn’t it? You in trouble?”
“My car stopped.”
“Out of gas?”
“I don’t think so. No, I’m sure it isn’t that. I’ve been having some trouble-”
“All right, I’ll call a garage just as soon as I get to the lab. I’m supposed to meet the police chief there. Conked out right in the middle of driving, eh? Could be that your-”
“Look, my wife is in labor.”
“Oh, boy, that’s bad-” He eyed her in consternation. “Maybe, I-Say wait a minute! Why don’t you take my car and I can hoof it to the lab. It’s only a few hundred yards up the road.”
“It’s very kind of you, Dr. Sykes.” The rabbi climbed into the bucket seat of the little sports car and grasped the wheel. He looked uncertainly at the array of dials on the dashboard and then at the grinning face of Sykes leaning on the open door.
“Stick shift with four speeds forward. She’ll do a hundred easily. I had her gone over not long ago and she’s tuned like a fine watch.”
The rabbi nodded at the sticker on the doorjamb. “Yes, I see.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a Hebrew word. It means life.”
Sykes looked at him doubtfully, and then over at Mrs. Small and seemed to understand. “Right. You both have it on your mind. Well, let me help your lady out.”
“No.”
“What’s the matter?”
The rabbi had stepped out. “No, I couldn’t. I wouldn’t dare drive it. I-I wouldn’t know how. We’d end up in a ditch. Look, I’ve got a better idea. Why don’t you drive on to the lab and tell Lanigan about our situation here. He’ll come and get us. Oh, and you could also have someone call the doctor-Dr. Morton Selig. He’s in the book, and tell him what happened and that I’m on my way to the hospital.”
“All right if you’re sure you’d rather.”
He climbed into the car and gunned the motor with a deafening roar. “Good luck and my best to your lady.”
“Nothing to be worried about, you two,” Lanigan remarked over his shoulder to the couple in the back seat. “When I first joined the force, I was on the ambulance trick and I wouldn’t care to venture a guess at the number of women I drove to the hospital. We used to take them over to Salem in those days-didn’t have a hospital of our own in the town. I don’t claim to be an obstetrician, but in my experience the first child always took a long time.”
“The pains are coming every ten minutes now.”
“Plenty of time. It’s when they start coming fast, every couple of minutes or every minute. It’s when it’s a second or third child they’re apt to pop. And don’t think I haven’t delivered babies either, or helped to. So you couldn’t be in better hands.”
He was obviously talking to distract them, and the rabbi recognized it and was grateful. He sat with one arm around his wife and gave her his hand to clutch whenever the pains came. Every so often he would wipe her forehead with his handkerchief.
They reached the outskirts of the city and Lanigan glanced back at them. “You know, if you like I could pick up a motorcycle escort. That way we could get through a little quicker.”
Miriam answered before the rabbi could speak. “I don’t think it will be necessary.” She blushed. “The pains appear to have stopped.”
“Doesn’t mean a thing,” said Lanigan. But he slowed down and proceeded at a more moderate pace until they reached the hospital. “I’ll stick around, until you know what’s what, Rabbi.”
Thanking him the rabbi helped Miriam out of the car and supported her up the steps. Though she needed no assistance, she enjoyed his solicitude. With some embarrassment they explained to the reception clerk that the pains had stopped.
The nurse at the desk informed them it was not uncommon and arranged for Mrs. Small to be escorted to her room. The rabbi remained in the waiting room, where after some ten minutes he was joined by Dr. Selig, a pleasant young man of his own age, who seemed to exude both assurance and reassurance.
“The pains have stopped for the time being. It’s quite common. Sometimes the girls get a little lazy, or maybe they just change their minds. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be women, ha-ha. Well, we’ll keep her here for the night anyway. Even if the pains start in again it will be hours, so there’s no sense in your waiting around.”
“But she’s all right?”
“Oh, perfectly. Nothing for you to worry about. You know, Rabbi, in all my practice I’ve-”
“I know, you’ve never lost a father.”
“Rabbi,” the doctor was reproachful, “that was my line.”
“Sorry. Can I see her now?”
“I’d rather you wouldn’t. She’s being prepared and we’ve given her some sedation. Why don’t you just go home. I’ll call you just as soon as anything begins to happen.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
The rabbi climbed into the front seat beside Lanigan. “The doctor says it will be hours.”
“I thought as much. I’ll drop you on my way back to the lab.”
“It was very decent of you to come and get us, Chief,” said the rabbi. “Things were pretty rough there for a few minutes until Sykes came along.”
“I understand he offered you his car and you refused. Those little foreign jobs are actually no different from ours, except you have to shift a little more often and they respond to the wheel a little quicker than you’re used to. But you would have got the hang of it before you’d driven a quarter of a mile.”
“Oh, I had no doubt I could drive it. I just didn’t want to be indebted to a murderer for the birth of my child.”
“Murderer? Sykes?”
The rabbi nodded soberly.
Lanigan stepped on the brake and brought the car to a halt at the side of the road. “Now. Let’s hear it.”
The rabbi settled back in his seat. “The man who drove Hirsh home had to be on foot. That’s basic. If he’d been driving, and stopped to take the wheel of Hirsh’s car, he would have had to leave his own. You had alerted the state troopers, so they were patrolling the road. An empty car would have been spotted. Chances are that it wasn’t a hitchhiker, because they’re expressly forbidden on Route 128. There are signs posted at each entrance, and the state troopers would pick up anyone they saw.”
“So.”
“But the people at Goddard regularly leave their cars to be serviced or repaired at Morris Goldman’s garage because it’s just a few hundred yards from the lab. They drop off their cars in the morning and walk along the embankment of 128 to get to work. At night-and Goldman’s, like most garages, stays open late-they walk back, pick up their cars, and drive home.”
“Everyone knows that.”
