Lanigan nodded. "I won't say it's unthinkable. What's more, Henry has a temper, as a Marine. I'm sure he learned how to handle a gun. But the pattern of the shooting doesn't fit him, and he has an alibi, we know he was at the temple when the murder was committed."
McLure lumbered to his feet. "I wish I had a dollar foa every airtight alibi I’ve cracked. If you don't mind. I'm going to keep checking on Brother Maltzman."
When McLure left them. Jennings said. "You know. Hugh, there's something that bothers me about Maltzman at the temple that night. Let's see the file, will you? Yeah, here it is. When we asked the rabbi's wife if Maltzman had been at the temple, she said. 'I believe so. Yes, I'm sure he was.'"
"Yeah?"
"Well, when she said she believed so, doesn't that mean she wasn't sure?"
"Oh, I don't know, that's just a manner of speaking."
"But that was something she should have been sure about. Hugh. You ever been to one of their services?"
"No, I can't say that I have."
Jennings smirked his satisfaction. "That's because you Catholics wouldn't join this Visit a Church program we had a couple of years ago. Your Father Regan was all for people coming to visit his church, but he wouldn't encourage his people to go and visit other churches. You see. Hugh, you Catholics tend to be kind of narrow-minded about certain things, whereas we Methodists—"
"Get to the point, Eban, get to the point."
Jennings turned pale blue eyes on his chief and said, in tones that were both hurt and forgiving. "That's what I was doing. Hugh. You see, they have this kind of platform, and in the middle of it, they have this Ark where they keep their holy writings. Now on either side of this here Ark, they got these fancy chairs, two on a side, the rabbi and the president of the congregation sit on one side, and the vice-president and the cantor sit on the other side, except when he's singing, the cantor. I mean, which is most of the time, and then he stands up front—"
"Get on with it, Eban."
"Right. Hugh. So what I'm saying is that Maltzman is the president, so he'd be sitting right next to Rabbi Small if he was there, and the rabbi's wife wouldn't have any doubt about it, because he'd be up there on the platform in plain sight."
"So maybe that night he didn't sit up there, but sat down
with the rest of the congregation."
"That's what I think. Hugh. Like if I ask you if Father Regan was in church Sunday, you'd say., 'Of course he was.' But if I ask you was Mrs. Murphy in church Sunday, you might say, you think so, and then maybe you'd remember and and you'd say, 'Yeah, I'm sure she was.'"
"Who is Mrs. Murphy?"
"Oh, you know. I just took her like an example."
"All right, what's your point?"
"My point is—well, why wouldn't Henry Maltzman be sitting in his regular place? Maybe that night he was kind of nervous and uncomfortable and didn't want to be sitting up there, right in front of everyone."
"More likely, I'd say, he may have come in late, after things got started and—yea-ah, maybe he came in late." Lanigan drummed the table with his fingers. "If he came in late, he wouldn't want to walk all the way down to the front and then go up to the platform—"
"Especially., if he was kind of nervous and uncomfortable."
"All right, we didn't ask Miriam what time he got there, so she didn't say, not knowing why we were asking in the first place. Okay, Eban, there must have been at least a hundred people there that night, so someone must have noticed when Henry arrived."
"We have a man on duty directing traffic into the parking lot Friday nights, maybe he noticed."
"Right. Check around, and when you find out, then I'll go to see Henry."
43
"THAT'S THE START OF THE RUN," SAID SERGEANT HOLCOMBE. "so there's no chance of the driver being mistaken, he says that only two people got on, and neither was Martha Peterson, he knows the two well because they take the eight o'clock to Lynn every night."
Chief Lanigan interlaced his fingers behind his desk and stretched back in his chair. "She could have taken a cab."
"I checked both the local cab companies." said the sergeant. "And the ones in the nearby towns. I went as far as Lynn. Beyond that. Revere or Chelsea, they wouldn't be able to make it in time."
"Unless they happened to have a car in the area and two-way radio." observed Jennings.
"Yeah, but I didn't think she'd be likely to have called them in the first place." said the sergeant. "Would you like me to check them?"
"No, don't bother." said Lanigan. "If she thought of going back, she would have planned on taking the bus, and if she realized it was too late for the eight o'clock, she would have waited for the half past, and if for some reason she felt she wanted to get there right then and there, she would have called one of the local cabs."
"Maybe she didn't want anyone to know." suggested Jennings. "Then she might have called a cab from another town."
"Why wouldn't she want anyone to know?" demanded Lanigan. "She wasn't going out there to kill him, she didn't know about a gun lying on the table, she would have gone there just to demand her pay, or to argue with him a little. Or to let him argue with her so they could make up and she could get her job back, all right. Sergeant, what about the time before eight? Could she have gone out earlier, and maybe got a ride—"
"No, Sir, that's pretty tight, that neighbor of hers who is something of a snoop, I guess, heard her come in and was pretty sure she didn't go out. Besides, she heard her arguing with Stanley through the door around eight—"
"How'd she know it was around eight?" asked Jennings. "The TV program was just changing," he said.
"Everything gets timed by the TV programs these days." said Jennings.
"All right. Sergeant." said Lanigan. "Anything more on Stanley Doble?"
"No, sir. I'm still working on the Salem end."
"Okay, keep on with it," said Lanigan in dismissal. To Jennings, he said. "I guess that lets Martha out. Too bad."
"Why? Did you want to pin it on her? What have you got against Martha Peterson?"
"Nothing. It's just the pattern of the shooting seems to fit a woman, a woman with her eyes shut firing away, that's the way the medical examiner saw it, and that's the way I see it. But Martha is the only woman we know about, and now she appears to be out of it."
"That car that Stanley says he saw turn into the driveway," suggested Jennings, "that could have been driven by a woman."
"Possible, but I think that Stanley dreamed it. Or he might be a lot smarter than we give him credit for. Remember.
he offered that as the reason he didn't go up to see Jordon."
"Yeah, but I can't see Stanley shooting Jordon." "Why not?"
"Because of that same pattern of the shooting." said Jennings. "He goes hunting every season and he always comes back with something."
"Yeah, but he was drunk that night."
"So what? You think on a hunting trip he's likely to be sober?"
"Hm. It doesn't leave us much, does it?" "There's Billy."
"Yeah, we keep coming back to Billy." said Lanigan moodily.
"You don't like the idea of it being Billy? Do you?" "Do you?"