“Without saying why it didn’t, more than this?”
“Nary a hint, Abner. When I pushed them on it all I could get was goodbye and good luck.”
“And goodbye’s the right word. Ralph.” said Abner Perkins. “All right, so the Doctor’s living on his own money, not any government handout. All the better. And that institute and clinic could have bent some California rules, but what about it? He didn’t open them up again here, did he? You don’t mind me saying it, Ralph, but you have gone so far off the track that you want to lay everybody missing from the county on that man just because he’s new to these parts.”
“Didn’t want to, Abner. Just couldn’t help it, once I got to the Europe part of it.”
“Now it’s Europe?” Abner Perkins rose abruptly. “Look, I have got a hot supper waiting for me at seven, and I don’t—”
“Abner,” said Samuel Sprague, “hush up and sit down.” He addressed Ralph Gibbs. “And don’t you play games, Ralph. What’s Europe got to do with this?”
“Ever hear of Interpol, Sam?”
“I might have. Some kind of international police, right?”
“Well, more like an information place to help police in one country get lined up with those elsewhere. Help make connections, so to speak.”
“And how come Huxtable Falls needs any such connections?”
“Well,” said Ralph Gibbs, “according to these California documents, Doctor Karl Jodi landed there from Switzerland where he used to have another such institute and clinic. And the Switzerland government people told me they was just shut up tight one day. Want to guess why?”
“Unacceptable procedures?” said Samuel Sprague.
“You get the cigar, Sam. So then I got in touch with Interpol and had them look up Doctor Jodi. Didn’t get much from them really, but did get friendly with one of their men over the phone.”
“Our headquarters phone?” said Benjamin Starr. “To Europe?”
“We’ll get to that later, Ben. Right now the point is that this fellow steered me to a private agency in Switzerland that would look real close into people’s private business, for a price. And yes, Ben, before you come out with it, it cost money signing up that outfit. But, as duly noted before, it was worth every cent.”
“Worth it?” said Fraser Smith. “Lord almighty, you must have run right through your whole department budget already.”
“Pretty near, Fraser. And even gone into my own pocket. But here and now” — Ralph Gibbs detached several folders from the stack — “is what you could call the history of Doctor Karl Jodi in Europe from way back when. Copies of everything that agency sent, along with old photos from magazines and newspapers there. There’s a set for each of you gents so as not to waste time.” He passed the folders around the table, then sat back comfortably in his chair. “Just say the word when you’re ready.”
For fifteen minutes by the Naval Observatory clock there was intense concentration around the table on the contents of the folders. Samuel Sprague finally closed his folder very gently. He waited until the laggards had finished their reading and a frowning examination of the photographs. All faces around the table, excluding the police chiefs, reflected bewilderment.
“Well?” said Ralph Gibbs.
“There’s something crazy here, Ralph,” said Samuel Sprague.
“My thought, too, Sam, when I plowed through that mess first time around.”
“It was?”
“Had to be. After all, here was all that Europe information put together. The whole works. Birth certificate from Austria, schooling, medical training, marriage, that rejuvenation clinic up in the mountains there, then Italy right across the border and another clinic, then Switzerland and still another, and those dates just didn’t make sense. And those photos even less. Had to be at least three different people here, I told myself, not one Doctor Karl Jodl. Except, however you add it up, it comes out only one.”
“Lord almighty, Ralph,” said Fraser Smith, “it can’t be. It makes that man a hundred years old. And that woman — that Madam Solange — near as much. I’ve seen them this close. I’d figure him to be maybe forty, if that much. And she don’t go much over thirty by any reckoning.”
“That’s how it looks, Fraser, not how it is. The dates on these papers and pictures are all truthful. Allowing for the old-fashioned clothes and hairdos, can you tell me that those aren’t photos of Doctor Karl Jodi and his wife and nobody else? Fact is, she’s the clincher. Maybe the original Karl Jodi would have had a son and grandson and great-grandson who was every one in turn his spitting image and for some reason wanted to make out they themselves was all the original when they grew up. But we know each of them did not marry women who one and all just happened to be the spitting image of Mrs. Doctor Karl Jodl. No way could that happen. So that leaves just one answer that makes sense. And it’s all down in those papers, like it or not.”
“The clinics,” said Samuel Sprague heavily. “Hemodynamics. Total transfusion.”
“Total’s the payoff word, Sam.” said Ralph Gibbs. “Take a few quarts of fresh young blood, add a dab of some secret chemicals, pump out all the old stuff, pump in all new, and look what you’ve got. Why, it could be the biggest thing any doctor ever come up with — except it might be a little too total for some people’s good. Specially some healthy young folks who wouldn’t be offered any vote in the matter, would they?”
“Not much,” said Samuel Sprague. “But I still can’t get it into my head that a man like that—”
“Right,” Abner Perkins cut in. “Because this whole thing is wildeyed speculation, that’s all. That man never set up any such clinic here, did he? There’s no reason in the world to think what you all look like you’re thinking.”
“Just one, Abner,” said Ralph Gibbs. “He and his wife do look mighty spry for their age. And there’s something more to take into account. Kind of touching, too, in a way.”
“Touching?” said Samuel Sprague. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Means I put in a stretch a few times this summer up in that brush in Samson’s Hill with the binoculars. Couldn’t see inside the main house that way, but could get a good look at the grounds roundabout.”
“Why?” said Samuel Sprague. “Trying to find out if any customers in Rolls-Royces were sneaking in to get rejuvenated?”
“You are sharp, Sam, that I’ll give you. That’s why, all right. And never did see any such customers. What I did see was the Doctor and his lady doing a slow ramble through those fancy gardens up to what’s left of the old swamp. Just walking along slow and easy, talking to each other and mostly holding hands. Sometimes they’d set themselves down on one of them ironwork benches and have a kissing party. Those are high-powered binoculars all right. And one thing came clear through them. I figure that man’s a little crazy more ways than one, but one way I know for sure. He is crazy in love with that woman. Easy to see why, too, with her looks and style. And that’s what it’s all about. Whatever it takes, he is going to keep her just the way she is for as long as he can. And himself right there along with her.”
“Whatever it takes,” said Samuel Sprague.
“Afraid so, Sam. That’s the catch.”
“Only if you buy all this foolishness,” said Abner Perkins.
“Abner,” said Samuel Sprague, “you know that what we’ve got here is no foolishness, so quit trying to make it sound that way.” He turned to Ralph Gibbs. “Now what? You aim to get out a warrant against the Doctor?”
“Lord almighty,” said Fraser Smith.
“But there’s no bodies,” said Benjamin Starr. “Only some people missing.”