"There's no time, Billy."
"What do you mean, there's no time. You've got tonight and tomorrow—"
"It's the Sabbath. I don't do business on the Sabbath." said Kaplan stiffly. "I could make a couple of calls now and a few Saturday night—"
"If you pick the right ones that could help a lot."
"All right. Billy, I'll do what I can, and don't worry. I'm sure we'll win."
Brave words, but the more Safferstein thought about it, the more it seemed that Kaplan was anything but certain of the outcome, he got up and paced the floor, trying to assess the situation, he felt hemmed in, he opened the door and, taking his hat from the rack, he announced to the receptionist that he was going home.
She glanced at the clock. "You all right, Mr. Safferstein?" "Yeah, I'm all right. Just a little headachy."
"Hadn't you better take your raincoat? It's hanging in the closet. You could be coming down with something."
"No. I'm okay." But Safferstein went back into his office and shrugged into his raincoat, automatically, he thrust his hands into the pockets and felt something unfamiliar in one of them, he drew out a bulky manila envelope and stared at it for a moment, and then he remembered: it was the envelope of pills, the original one that he had got for Mona. Curious, he went to the desk and opened the bottle and shook a couple of pills out on the desktop, then he reached for the phone and called Dr. Muntz.
"Bill Safferstein. You remember about somebody swapping coats with me at Chet Kaplan's the other night, the night of the big storm? Well, the next day I got a refill on that prescription you wrote—"
"From Town-Line Drugs?"
"Sure from Town-Line, they had the prescription, well, I just came across the original pills. See, I got the coat back from Chet and the pills were still in the pocket. What I'm calling about is that they're different from the ones I gave Mona. I mean they're different from the refill, they're the same size and shape, I guess, but these are a different color. So I wonder could it be because they were in my pocket and maybe got wet, or—"
"I'd have to take a look at them, Billy," said Dr. Muntz. "I'm going to be tied up here for another half hour or so. Where are you calling from?"
"From the office, but I'm on my way home right now."
"Suppose I stop off at your house when I get through here. I'd like to see them."
As soon as he hung up. Dr. Muntz smiled broadly and strode into the office of his colleague, Dr. Kantrovitz. "I think I have the solution to the problem of our young friend, Dan Cohen," he said, rubbing his hands, he then described the phone call he had just received from Safferstein.
"I don't get it, Al. How does that help Dan?"
"Don't you see?" said Dr. Muntz. "This is another mistake that Town-Line made on a prescription. But I can do something about this one because it's my patient. Mona Safferstein, who was affected."
"What are you going to do?" asked Kantrovitz.
"I'm not sure yet how I'll handle it, the important thing is that now I can do something. Marcus Aptaker is a nice guy and I wouldn't want to hurt him. But if it's a choice between him getting hurt and Dan Cohen getting hurt, naturally my loyalties have to be with Dan."
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
The board meeting began shortly after the morning weekday services, which on Sundays were held at nine o'clock instead of at the customary hour of seven. In the few minutes between the end of the service and the beginning of the meeting, the members stood around in the corridor gossiping, joking and arguing, then gradually drifted toward the boardroom. Today, all the conversations were related to the principal business of the meeting.
"If Bill Safferstein would just agree to extend Aptaker's lease, there'd be no problem. Do you realize that? I don't understand why he doesn't, he's a good tenant." Oscar Levy had a high-pitched whining voice that made everything he said seem like a complaint.
"How do you know he won't? Chet was supposed to ask him."
"I know," Levy replied. "At least I'm pretty sure from something Chet said the other night."
"He won't," said Manny Levine flatly. Manny was never in doubt about anything. "He won't give him a lease, because he's sore at him. It's as simple as that."
"How do you know?"
"Remember a few years back, we had this membership drive," Manny said. "Well, Billy drew Aptaker's name. It was one of the names on his list, and he went to see him. Now Aptaker not only turned him down flat, but gave him a lot of lip. I remember Billy being sore about it."
"Nah, Billy Safferstein is not that kind of guy," said Marvin Kalbfuss. "He's not one to bear a grudge, especially where it's a matter of business that's involved. What I think is that he's planning to clear out the whole block and make one big store by knocking down the separating walls. It'll be one of these big liquor stores; you know, a package store—"
"Where'd you get that idea?"
"Well," Kalbfuss said, "there was an item in the paper about Lenox Corporation planning a unit on the North Shore. If Billy was planning to operate it as a regular block of stores, why would he pay so much more than the income warrants? And it would be to his advantage to keep the drugstore, wouldn't it? A drugstore snazzies up a block, all right, so he might want to raise the rent, but I don't think Aptaker would make a stink about that. So it stands to reason Billy has something else in mind, and it can't be just some other store, because then he'd kick out one of the other tenants, none of whom, by the way, have leases, and remember, there's a vacant store. So it must be something that involves the block as a whole. Right? Now, you ask yourself—"
"Hey, look who's just come in, al Becker."
"What do you suppose it means? He hasn't been to a meeting in years."
"Will you please come to order." Kaplan banged his gavel on the table. "Come on, guys, let's get the show on the road. Come to order."
There were twenty-one members present, the same number as at the last meeting, but they were not the same twenty-one, the rabbi was not there, of course, and two of Kaplan's close associates were also absent. One had gone out of town on business; the other was home, nursing a bad cold. His wife had threatened to leave him if he set foot out of doors "just to go to a board meeting."
The secretary had a note from each of them to be polled against the motion to reconsider. It had been at Kaplan's suggestion that the notes had been sent, and he planned to make use of these proxies if it looked as though the vote would be close.
Of the three who had not been present at the last meeting, one was a regular who had promised Kaplan his support, the other two were past presidents: Ben Gorfinkle of a few years back, who occasionally attended meetings, and Al Becker, who had succeeded Jacob Wasserman, the founder of the temple, in the presidency and who had not come to a meeting in years. Chester Kaplan welcomed him warmly, although he was puzzled by his appearance— and a little disturbed.
Kaplan rapped smartly on the table and announced. "We will now take up the rabbi's motion to reconsider the sale of the Goralsky Block. Discussion. Mitch?"
Mitch Danziger lumbered on his feet, he was a big man, with a surprisingly gentle voice. In calling him first, the chairman felt that he was demonstrating his fairness, since Mitch was not one of his active supporters. "I'd like to make my position clear. I'm in favor of selling the block to Safferstein. In fact, I can't imagine how anyone could be against it, because it's a good deal. I mean if a stock is selling for sixty and a broker comes along and offers you a hundred, wouldn't you take it? But I'm not convinced that buying land in New Hampshire is such a good deal—"
"Have you seen it?" "No, I haven't, but—"