Thursday The Rabbi Walked Out

48

RETURNING FROM THE BOARD MEETING, HERB WAS SURPRISED to find Molly at home. "Your bridge didn't last very long," he remarked.

"Oh, I wasn't planning to stay. I just went to help with the decorations. It was a shower and bridge for a new bride."

"Mother?"

She pointed ceilingward. "Resting." Then she said eagerly. "How did the meeting go? As planned?"

"No, the rabbi got his contract renewed. It was close, but the rabbi won."

"But, but how? Henry was sure he had eight votes."

He smiled sourly. "I guess he had to twist an arm or two to get the eight. But then he outsmarted himself with his idea of a secret ballot." He was enjoying himself as he spelled it out for her. "You see, when you vote in secret, how is Big Brother Henry to know how you voted?"

"I don't understand." She seemed bewildered, unable to take it in. "I just don't understand."

"Oh, that's all right,” he said breezily. "There are lots of things/don't understand." The coincidence of Maltzman's absence from the board meeting while she was presumably out playing bridge had made him change his mind, he now had to confront her. "For instance. I don't understand why you went out the night I was running the Brotherhood service and you were supposed to be staying with Mother." He saw that he had startled her and that she had the grace to blush.

"Stanley told you? I thought it was his jalopy I saw as I turned into the driveway."

"What driveway?"

"Ellsworth Jordon's, of course. I went to deliver that report I'd been working on."

"Gore asked you to?" "No, I offered." "Why?"

"Because I could tell that Larry was worried about not getting it in on time, the bank could lose the account. Jordon could be very nasty about things like that."

"And you delivered it?"

She shook her head. "The house was dark when I got there. I thought he must have gone to bed early, or gone out, so I came away." She hesitated. "I’ve thought about it ever since, that maybe— Do you think he might have been—you know—dead at the time?"

"He might have been,” he admitted cautiously. "But since you didn't see him and didn't know it, there was nothing you could do. So why not just forget about it?"

"But when that policeman came to ask about Mr. Gore's phone call. I should have told him that I went to the Jordon house that night."

"Gosh, yes. You certainly should have. It might be an important clue. Why didn't you?"

"Because you were right here with me,” she said with a touch of acerbity. "I didn't want to say I had gone out when I'd promised I was going to stay in. I thought of seeing tha detective later and telling him, but I kept putting it off and then never got around to it. But if they should find out I concealed information—"

"How would they find out?"

"Well, Stanley mentioned it to you, didn't he? What if he should mention it to the police?"

Learning that it was Jordon rather than Maltzman she had gone to see had lifted a great weight from his mind, he was now thoroughly ashamed of his doubts of her loyalty, he felt a great tenderness for her, he could see that she was worried and a little frightened, and he longed to allay her fears. On the other hand, having led her to believe that it was Stanley who had told him, it would be foolish now to admit that he had learned it from his mother.

"Oh, I don't think Stanley is apt to go to the police. Why should he?" He went on to explain at some length that people did not normally go running to the police, even when they had important information, simply because they didn't want to get involved; that people like Stanley who got drunk occasionally and were apt to get arrested for it were even less likely to help the police; that they had an innate antipathy toward them; that she had nothina to fear.

But he saw that she was not convinced. Finally he said. "I'll tell you what. I'll go to the rabbi and ask him what we ought to do."

"What's he got to do with it? Why go to him?"

"Because he is very friendly with Chief Lanigan, they see each other socially, I understand. I could explain to him just exactly how it happened, after all, he knows us and he knows my mother, maybe he'd be willing to talk to Lanigan, and we wouldn't have to. Or at least he'd smooth the way for us."

"No, we can't go to the rabbi for help." "Why not?"

"Because we wouldn't feel right about it, here, I—we have been working to get him out, we can't just turn around and ask him to help us."

He grinned. "Don't let that worry you. Because I voted for him, and I guess it was my vote that settled it."

"You voted for him?"

Too late he realized he had talked himself into a trap and that his best course was to make a clean breast of it.

"I was jealous,” he said candidly. "That night when you went out, Henry Maltzman came to the service at the temple late, after nine, and then last Sunday when I went out for the paper, he was here and you seemed to be—you know—awfully friendly, and then today you went out to this bridge thing, and when I got to the meeting. I found that Henry had called to say he wasn't going to make the scene. So I put two and two together and—"

"You were jealous of Henry Maltzman? You thought I might be playing around with Henry Maltzman? I would have thought you'd know me better than to think I'd be attracted to a professional macho type like Henry Maltzman."

"Forgive me,” he begged. "I love you so much. Molly, that sometimes I just can't think straight."

She relented, he was such a boy, she came over and, putting her arms around him, murmured. "Silly Herbie."

He brightened. "But it all worked out for the best, didn't it? Because now I've got the right to ask the rabbi for a favor."