"Thank you, Mr. Becker," said Kaplan. "I think we're ready to vote now."
The secretary cleared his throat to attract the president's attention as he nodded at the proxies lying on the table in front of him. Kaplan responded with a barely perceptible shake of the head, he felt quite confident. "We'll vote by a show of hands, all in favor of reconsideration, all opposed." Kaplan beamed, the vote was fifteen to five against reconsideration.
Later, as thev made their wav to their cars, Dr. Muntz asked, "Are you going to stop by to tell the rabbi how the vote went?"
Kaplan halted suddenly. "Do you think I should?"
"Would you rather have him hear some garbled report through the grapevine, maybe from his wife who overhears a couple of women talking in the supermarket?"
"You're right. But it's not a job I relish particularly. It'll be pretty embarrassing."
"Would you like me to tell him, Chet?"
"Would you? Then I appoint you a committee of one. You going right now?"
"No," said Dr. Muntz. "Why spoil his dinner? I'll drop in on him sometime this afternoon."
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Lieutenant Jennings finished the typescript of the McLane conversation tape recording and tossed the folder on the desk. "Are you buying it, Hugh?"
"I’ve got to check it out," said Lanigan mildly. "He could be lying—" "Of course."
"I mean about giving the prescription to young Aptaker to make up," Jennings said. "And since it happened a couple of weeks ago, Aptaker wouldn't remember and couldn't deny it."
Lanigan nodded. "On the other hand, you'd expect that the name Kestler on the prescription would ring a bell. But there are other things that incline me to believe McLane's story. Begin with the fact that he voluntarily told us about the prescription. If he were guilty of having deliberately given Kestler the wrong drug, he'd keep quiet about it."
"Unless he's smarter than you think."
"All right." said Lanigan. "Then consider this: McLane gets the prescription from Cohen over the phone, so there was nothing to prevent him from changing it to penicillin, he could insist that was what he had been told over the phone, and there'd be no way for Dr. Cohen to disprove it."
"But then he'd have to write penicillin on the label, and the chances are that Kestler would know his father couldn't take penicillin."
"No," said Lanigan, "he'd use the manufacturer's name for the drug, Vespids. Kestler wouldn't recognize that as penicillin. But then the more you think about it, the stranger young Aptaker's behavior appears, he comes here all the way from Philadelphia to see his folks. If he drove up, it's a long drive, and if he flew up, it's costly. If he was on vacation, you'd think he'd at least have a week. You'd expect he'd come up Sunday or Monday and stay through to the following Sunday."
"How do you know he didn't?" Jennings asked.
"Well, Eban, if we're to believe McLane, he left the next day, and on that, we've got to believe McLane, because it's something that we can check out easily enough with Marcus Aptaker or with Mrs. aptaker. But you'd think that if young Aptaker had arrived Monday, he would have gone to the store and his father would have introduced him to McLane. But no, he waits until Wednesday evening before coming in, and then the next day, he's gone."
"So what?"
"So it's strange," said Lanigan. "It's a long way to go for a one-day visit. On the other hand, if he did something criminal that Wednesday night because the opportunity happened to come up, then I could understand his running off the next day."
"Yeah, but he came back," Jennings objected.
"Sure, because it looks safe. Two weeks have gone by and there's been no mention of any police investigation in the papers—"
"Oh hell, how would he know if it was in the papers? He's in Philadelphia. Even if it made the Boston papers, it still wouldn't make the papers in Philly."
Lanigan dismissed the objection with a shake of the hand. "There are hometown newsstands in all large cities, there's the public library—"
"Thev wouldn't carry the Lynn Examiner, much less the Barnard's Crossing Courier,"Jennings objected.
"He could have heard from his mother when they talked on the phone, that doesn't bother me any."
"Seems to me you've got your mind made up," said Jennings. "Are you going to charge Arnold?"
"I don't have enough yet, but I sure would like to talk to him."
"Want me to bring him in?"
"Right now, I don't feel that I have enough even for that."
"So you're going to wait until he gets a parking ticket?" asked Jennings.
Lanigan ignored the sarcasm. "What time does the drugstore close on Sundays?"
"Six o'clock. But you know how it is, sometimes he stays later, he wouldn't turn anyone away because it was closing time."
"Only one man on duty?" asked Lanigan.
"Yeah, young Aptaker. It's slow on Sundays, I guess."
"Good. So here's what I'd like you to do. Go down there a few minutes before six and sit in your car until you see him closing up, then you ask him to come here. Say that I want to talk to him."
"I don't arrest him?"
Lanigan shook his head. "No, just that I want to talk to him, that's if he's alone. If there's someone else there, let it ride."
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
What's it all about?" asked Arnold, he locked the door and then tried it by jiggling the knob.
"The chief wants to talk to you, that's all I know." said Jennings easily.
Arnold singled out the ignition key from the bunch on his ring and headed for his car, Jennings falling in step beside him. "If you're too busy to see him now, he can drop by your house tomorrow morning," said the lieutenant.
"No, that's all right. I have a date right now, but it's not— I mean, I can cancel it. Look here, if it's about the parking situation in front of the stores—"
"My car is right here." said Jennings. "I'll follow you down."
"The chiefs at the stationhouse?"
"Right."
When they arrived, Arnold used the pay telephone to call Leah. "Look. Leah, something's come up and I might be tied up for a while."
"Oh, that's all right. I'm kind of glad. I've been headachy all day. I might be coming down with something. I thought I'd get undressed and get into bed."
"Was that a lawyer you called?" asked Lanigan pleasantly.
"No, it was my date. Why should I call a lawyer? Say, what is all this anyway?"
"Come in and sit down." Lanigan led the way into his office and waited for the young man to be seated. "It's just that some people feel they need a lawyer when they come down to the stationhouse," said Lanigan genially. "You were here in town before, weren't you?"
"Sure, I was bom here. You know that."