Thursday The Rabbi Walked Out

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."

"What's his status? He's not under arrest—"

"No, he hasn't been charged, the D.A, doesn't think we have any real evidence against him. On the other hand, we do want him around for a while. This seems an ideal arrangement."

"Does he have a lawyer? Has his mother been notified?"

"What's he need a lawyer for? He hasn't been charged. I tell you, as for his mother, he doesn't want her to know. Thinks she might come running home, if she did, well, he's eighteen, so he's of age, so—"

"How can I get to see him?" asked the rabbi.

Lanigan smiled, he titled back in his chair and interlaced his fingers over his belly. "Well, if you had a boat, I suppose you could row out there. Or you could hire somebody to take you out there in a launch. Or I could have the police harbor boat take you out there. But I doubt if I would since I don't rightly see that you have any concern in the matter."

Rabbi Small related the gist of his conversation with Ben Segal. "So, since his mother is Jewish, the boy is Jewish, and as the only rabbi in town—"

"Doesn't it depend on the father?" "With us, it's the mother," said the rabbi.

"Do you know the father?" The rabbi shook his head.

Lanigan smiled. "Suppose I told you it was Ellsworth Jordon?"

If he expected to shock the rabbi with the revelation, he was disappointed. "It explains how he happened to be living there, doesn't it? It doesn't surprise me too much."

"It might explain Jordon's anti-Semitism." mused Lanigan. "I mean, if he were very much in love with this Hester Grimes, or Esther Green, and she turned him down."

"On the other hand." the rabbi suggested, "she might have turned him down because he was anti-Semitic."

"Also possible." Lanigan admitted. "You might be interested to know that Jordon was planning on making Billy his heir."

"The young man told you this?"

"No, I got that from Jordon's lawyer, according to Billy, Jordon was just an old friend of the family. Either ha doesn't know Jordon was his father or he isn't saying." He eyed the rabbi speculatively. "If you see him, will you tell him?"

The rabbi's face was bland as he asked, "Are you hinting that you'd like me to?"

Lanigan showed vast unconcern. "It might be interesting."

The rabbi smiled and shook his head. "That's for his mother to do if she wants to. If she's kept his paternity secret all these years, she presumably had reason, and it's not for me to come blundering in. No, I just want to talk to him."

"Why?"

"Because it's my job," the rabbi answered promptly. "He's alone, without family or friends, and he's in trouble. I—"

"What makes you think he's in trouble? He hasn't been charged."

"Because you said there wasn't any real evidence against him. But that suggests that he is a suspect, and while you don't have evidence now, you are probably looking for it,

and—"

"We're looking for all kinds of evidence." objected Lanigan. "No matter which way it points."

"Sure, and if you find any that points his way, the district attorney will charge him, and since it's murder, he'll go to jail while his court-appointed lawyer, an overworked public defender, gets a series of postponements in an effort to find time to prepare his defense, and in the meantime, the boy will be in jail, all I'm asking for is the chance to see him and talk to him and get to know him. Even more, to get him to know me, so that if anything untoward happens, he can call on me and, through me, on the Jewish community here, anything wrong with that? Now, how do I go about hiring a launch?"

"Oh hell, I'll have the police launch take you out."