“But the way they acted and the questions they asked, like I had done something criminal. Why was I so interested in changing the layout of the road? Didn’t I realize that it would cut Hirsh’s grave off from the others? What did I have against Hirsh? I couldn’t tell them about the Goralsky business. That’s all hush-hush, and as far as I know Ben Goralsky hasn’t even agreed to give the chapel. So I told them about our law against burying suicides. And then they tell me that they understand according to you it isn’t against the law, and couldn’t it be I had some other reason. Then they begin asking me what I was doing the night Hirsh died.”
“Well, that should have been easy. It was Kol Nidre.”
“None of it was hard. They were just giving me the business. And don’t tell me, Rabbi, that they can’t touch me if I haven’t done anything wrong. Aside from taking up my time, they can do me lots of harm just by coming to see me. A man in business, especially the insurance business, has to be above suspicion. What if word gets around that the police are coming down to the office to question me? Do you think that would improve my 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 Examiner there was a little item in Fred Stahl’s Roundabout column. Didn’t you see it?”
“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-”