"Well, I went over each and every name, and with yours we have eight, which is just enough. Bill was sure you'd go along, but I said I wanted to hear it from you myself, personal. How about it, Joe? Can I count on you?"
The reference to Bill Shaefer, one of his bigger accounts, was not lost on Krasker. "Oh sure, Henry. It's just that I wanted to know all the ins and outs. Know what I mean?"
"Oh, sure. I don't blame you." He reached for a file on his desk.
But Krasker was reluctant to leave. "What you said at the meeting Sunday, about this guy Jordon, was it true? About him being an anti-Semite?"
"It's true all right."
"Because I've got this account, a doctor, and we were talking about the murder, and he was saying what a nice guy Jordon was, and how he always made a big contribution to the Hospital Fund."
"So what? He also probably liked dogs, and was kind to children. Hitler liked dogs, too, and music. But he didn't like us. One thing has nothing to do with the other."
"Well, I just thought you'd like to know."
35
ANNE KAUFMAN WAS A SILVERSMITH WITH A SHOP IN TOWN. It was just a hole-in-the-wall sort of place with a workroom in back, where she sat on a high stool at her bench making the rings, pendants, earrings, and cufflinks that she sold in the tiny more. When the doorbell jangled, she would dismount from her stool and come out front to wait on trade.
In spite of the difference in their ages—her children were already in high school—Anne and Molly Mandell were close friends. Molly had used her good offices at the bank to help her get the loan that had enabled her to set up the shop in the first place, and she was grateful, and since they were both downtown in the business district most of the day, they saw each other frequently, which was why Molly had offered to speak to her about Maltzman's plan.
When Anne called to ask if she had made plans for lunch, it seemed like a good opportunity.
"No, Anne. I thought I'd get a sandwich at Creighton's. What did you have in mind?"
"I thought maybe you could get a sandwich at the deli and bring it here, and I'd make some coffee on the hot plate." "Sounds good to me. See you around noon."
When she arrived a few minutes after twelve, Mrs. Kaufman locked the door and hung up the Back at One O'clock sign in the window, she offered her visitor the old wicker arm chair in which she occasionally relaxed, while she herself perched on her work stool, she poured coffee, and then as Molly unwrapped her sandwich, she said. "Did you know this Ellsworth Jordon? The paper said he was a director in the bank."
"Oh, I knew him all right." Molly said grimly. "He'd come in almost every day. Not because he was a director, but because he had nothing else to do, the other directors, you don't see them from one month to the next."
"Was he—you know—anti-Semitic?"
"He was a dirty old man, that's what he was." She smiled sourly. "I don't know if he was anti-Semitic or not, all I know is that he kept making passes at me and he knew I was Jewish."
"He did? What kind of—"
"Oh, you know, the usual accidental-on-purpose pat on the fanny."
"And didn't you ever tell your boss?"
"I mentioned it once, but he was so upset, I thought I'd handle it myself."
"What did you do?"
"Oh, the next time he did it. I was prepared for him. Instead of kind of jumping the way you naturally would, I didn't move, but I gave him a sharp jab with my elbow."
"And what did he do?"
She laughed." He jumped—and had a coughing fit." She munched on her sandwich, and then asked, "Why are you so interested in Jordon?"
"Well—" Mrs. Kaufman glanced up at the angled mirror on the wall which gave her a view of the front door. "This morning I was sitting right here, working like always, the door opened and I looked up and saw it was these two old biddies who keep coming in and never buying anything. So I didn't hurry to come out. I could hear them talking, though, and one of them said that everybody knew it was the Jews that did it because he was 'so down on them.' That was the expression she used, that he had tried to arrange a secret agreement not to sell them property on the Point and that's why they did it, then I coughed, or cleared my throat, and I suppose they realized that if they could hear me. I might be able to hear them because I saw in the mirror one of them put her finger to her lips and nod toward the shop here."
"Hm, that's interesting. So what did you do?"
"I didn't do anything." said Mrs. Kaufman. "After a while. I came out. One of them asked if she could see a certain piece I had in the showcase, and I told her it was already sold and the customer was coming in tomorrow to pick it up. Mavbe thev sensed thev weren't welcome, anvwav, they didn't ask to see anything else, they left, and then I called you."
"You bothered?" asked Molly. "A little.," Anne admitted.
"You can't get upset over everything that people say," Molly said, trying to reassure her.
"But if they're saying it, maybe others are, too." "So what can we do?"
"I think we ought to do something," Anne insisted. "Maybe the rabbi could—"
"Rabbi Small? You think you'll get him off his duff to take action on anything?"
"Well—"
"Listen, anne, don't expect Rabbi Small to do a damn thing about anything, he actually said so when Henry Maltzman came to see him about equality for women in the service, according to him, one change produces other changes, and some of them could be bad, so he wasn't going to take any chances. Now I ask you."
"Well, that has to do with religion, but this is a matter of—of—"
"Of law? Of politics? All right. Last week, the selectmen voted to reconsider their approval of traffic lights near the temple. Come to think of it, that was some of Ellsworth Jordon's dirty work, well, did Rabbi Small do anything about it? Did he so much as write a letter to the press protesting the action of the selectmen?"
"You don't know, he may have done something, or—"
Molly's eyes danced with amusement. "Oh, you think maybe it was Rabbi Small who killed Jordon?"
"Molly! What a thing to say! I mean, he might have spoken to the selectmen, or is planning to."
Molly shook her head. "If it's action you're looking for, don't expect it from Rabbi Small, weVe got to make up our mind to that, he's good at telling us all the things we can't do, and what the Talmud says about it, but when it comes to taking positive action, forget it."
"Then what can we do?"
"Get another rabbi." said Molly promptly.
"How? And how can you be sure the next one will be any better?"
"We won't take one unless he has a proven track record, as to how—" Molly then proceeded to explain
Maltzman's plan.
They discussed it at length, anne raised objections, pointed out problems and difficulties. But when Molly left and returned to her office, she was able to phone Maltzman that her friend had agreed.
36
"HE'S ON CHILDREN'S ISLAND/ SAID CHIEF LANIGAN. "WHAT'S your business with him?"
"What's he doing on the island?" asked Rabbi Small.
"Living there. Working there, the first night he came back, he slept in one of the cells right here at the stationhouse. But I couldn't have him stay on where he hasn't been charged, and I couldn't have him go back to Jordon's house, even if he had wanted to, weVe got the house sealed up, he didn't want to go back to working in the bank just yet. Thought he might be pestered by people asking him a lot of questions, then I thought of the Hegerrys, they live on the island until about Thanksgiving, fixing up, painting, putting up shutters on the cabins against the winter, they can use any help they can get. So I put it up to them, and the boy seemed willing, even interested, so it was arranged."