"And she couldn't tell the detective that she had gone there because you were present during the interrogation?"
"That's right, she was planning to see him afterward and tell him, but you know how it is, she kept putting it off."
"Does she know that it was your mother who told you that she left the house?"
"Uh-uh, she thought it was Stanley, because I'd just coma from the temple, from the board meeting, you know—" "Why Stanley?"
"Well, she thought she'd seen his car just as she was turning into Jordon's driveway, and she assumed he saw her, and I let her think so. I mean. I didn't contradict her."
"I see. Now what do you want me to do?"
"Well, I thought where you and Chief Lanigan are supposed to be so friendly. I thought maybe you could explain it to him, just how it happened." He looked eagerly at the rabbi.
"No, Mr. Mandell. You must see that it wouldn't do. Chief Lanigan would still have to question your wife, that's his job, and the net effect of my trying to smooth the ground first would only make him suspicious."
"So what should we do?"
"My advice, Mr. Mandell, is that you and your wife go and see Chief Lanigan as soon as possible, this afternoon, or right now, if you can, and tell him the whole story just as you've told it to me, he may be annoyed with you foa waiting this long, but the longer you wait, the worse it will be, and if he finds out on his own, it could be very serious for you."
Later when Miriam noticed that the rabbi appeared to be unusually abstracted, she asked. "Are you bothered about the Mandells. David? Do you think Lanigan will give them a rough time?"
"Oh, I'm sure he will, if only to impress on them the seriousness of withholding evidence from the police in a capital case. But a lot of it will be put on, because he knows that people do it all the time, he's told me on more than one occasion that it's one of the facts of life as far as the police are concerned. What bothers me is that Mrs. Mandell's story tends to show that Stanley was near the Jordon house at the crucial time, and Lanigan might decide to follow that line and pull him in."
"But he's innocent—"
"Then he'll get off eventually. I suppose. But in the meantime they'd give him a hard time, they might reason that if she was able to identify his car, he should have been able to identify hers, and that in not telling them he was concealing information."
"But Mr. Mandell didn't find out from Stanley. It was his mother who told him that Molly had gone out."
"True. But Mr. Mandell won't dare say so, because his wife will be there and he doesn't want her to know. It seems terribly unfair to Stanley somehow."
A couple of hours later, however, the rabbi received a telephone call that proved his fears were groundless, or at least misplaced. It was from Herb Mandell, he was angry, perhaps a little frightened. It showed in the sarcasm of his tone. "I want to thank you for your advice, Rabbi, we did exactly as you suggested. Lanigan questioned Molly for over an hour, he had the poor girl crying before he was through. But that's not all, he told her he didn't want her leaving town. Thanks to your advice, she's now a suspect and will be followed everywhere she goes by cops."
"Oh, surely not—"
"No? Well a few minutes ago I looked out the window, and there's a car parked in our street, diagonally across from our house, and there are a couple of cops sitting in it, and I'll bet you everything you like there's one parked on Francis Street, too, so they can see if anyone comes out the back door."
"I'm sure you must be mistaken. Mr. Mandell. Chief Lanigan may want her to be available to give evidence. If you like. I'll get in touch with him and find out, if I can, just what the situation is."
"I'd like."
50
AFTER RELEASING MALTZMAN, LANIGAN HAD SUGGESTED TO Jennings that he go on home and relax a little.
"Good idea, Hugh, the missus has been complaining about eating alone the last couple weeks. How about you? Why don't you go home, too?"
"I will a little later. I want to get everything organized for my meeting with Clegg first. I'll see you in the morning."
Not many hours later, however, while he was dozing on the divan in the midst of the litter of the Sunday paper. Jennings was awakened by a call from Lanigan, there were new developments. Could he come down?
He could tell that his chief was excited. "I'll be right over. Hugh."
Although he arrived in less than ten minutes. Lanigan growled at him. "What kept you?" And as Jennings, his Adam's apple bobbling, was on the point of being indignant. "Never mind. For the first time, we've got a break, we can place someone at the scene just about tha time the murder happened, we don't have to prove it, she admits it."
"She?"
"Right." He told of the Mandells coming to see him. "From the beginning. I've felt the pattern of the shooting was the basic clue in this case. Doc Mokely put his finger on it when he said it was like a woman shutting her eyes and firing away until the gun was empty, and that's exactly the way it looked to me, that's why I was so anxious to trace Martha's movements. When we had to cross her off, I thought the boy might fill the bill, but I wasn't happy with the idea. So along comes another woman—"
"But she said the place was dark, and Stanley said it was dark."
"Jordon used only the first floor, and that's practically hidden by the trees. From the street he wouldn't be able to tell if there was a light on in the living room or not, as for Mrs. Mandell, what else is she going to say?"
"Yeah, Hugh, but what's her motive? Why would she want to kill Jordon?"
"I don't know. Why would she want to volunteer to deliver this report when it involved leaving her mother—"
"Mother-in-law."
"All right, so it was her husband's mother, she wouldn't go and watch her husband be a big shot over at the temple, because the old lady was not supposed to be left alone at night. Yet she volunteers to sneak out and deliver this report to Jordon, well, I don't know what there was between her and Jordon, but I got just the suspicion of a hint in going over the folder. When we questioned Gore, he said that Jordon had made a pass at his secretary. Now, that's what Mrs. Mandell is—his secretary, and what's it mean that he made a pass? It could be just a dirty old man giving a nice-looking young woman a pat on the behind. Or it could be that Gore spotted some hanky-panky between the two, and Mrs. Mandell covered it by saying Jordon made a pass at her."
Jennings screwed up his mouth and shook his head.
"I know it isn't much. I said it was just a hint. So what I want you to do is check around with the folks at the bank, every single one of them. Subtle like, you understand, and see what you can come up with. Rumors, gossip, anythina I can use as a starting point for a real interrogation of the lady."
"Sure, Hugh, but a lady who works in a bank, it's hard to see her as a killer."
"If it isn't a professional killing, Eban, then it's always somebody like Mrs. Mandell, an ordinary person like the corner grocer, or a schoolteacher, or even a cop. Sure, sometimes they turn themselves in right afterward. But it isn't remorse, usually. It's because they're sure they're going to be discovered. But sometimes they're smart, and the crime goes unsolved. Right?"
"Guess so."
"And another thing I want you to do. Eban. I want the Mandell house watched."
"You think she might make a run for it?"
"I doubt it. But when I go to see Clegg tomorrow and he says he'd like to talk to her, I don't want to find that she decided to visit an aunt in Canada. Just post someone near the house. It doesn't make any difference if she spots him. It would be even better if she does, there's nothing lika knowing you're being watched to get you nerved up and edgy. So arrange for it now, and then go on home. You can't start on the bank assignment until tomorrow anyway."