Wednesday the Rabbi got wet

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."