and said, “Yes, yes, that is what you’d do, isn’t it?” Then he said something in German.
This was about two or three minutes before he had the heart attack. Something about
Dummkop. That means stupid in German, I think.’
He was looking at Richler uncertainly, inwardly quite pleased with this lie.
Richler was nodding. ‘Yes, we can understand that the letter was in German. The
admitting doctor heard the story from you and corroborated it. But the letter itself, Todd
… do you remember what happened to it?’
Here it is, Todd thought. The crunch.
‘I guess it was still on the table when the ambulance came. When we all left. I couldn’t
testify to it in court, but -‘
‘I think there was a letter on the table,’ Dick said. ‘I picked something up and glanced
at it Airmail stationery, I think, but I didn’t notice it was written in German.’
Then it should still be there,’ Richler said. That’s what we can’t figure out’
‘It’s not?’ Dick said. ‘I mean, it wasn’t?’
‘It wasn’t and it isn’t’
‘Maybe somebody broke in,’ Monica suggested.
“There would have been no need to break in,’ Richler said. ‘In the confusion of getting him out, the house was never locked. Dussander himself never thought to ask someone to
lock up, apparently. His latchkey was still in the pocket of his pants when he died His house was unlocked from the time the MED-Q attendants wheeled him out until we sealed
it this morning at 2.30 a.m.’
‘Weil, there you are,’ Dick said.
‘No,’ Todd said. ‘I see what’s bugging Lieutenant Richler.’ Oh yes, he saw it very well.
You’d have to be blind to miss it ‘Why would a burglar steal nothing but a letter?
Especially one written in German? It doesn’t listen. Mr Denker didn’t have much to steal,
but a guy who broke in could find something better than that’
‘You’ve got it, all right,’ Richler said. ‘Not bad.’
Todd used to want to be a detective when he grew up,’ Monica said, and ruffled Todd’s
hair a bit Since he had gotten big he seemed to object to that, but right now he didn’t
seem to mind. God, she hated to see him looking so pale. ‘I guess he’s changed his mind
to history these days.’
‘History is a good field,’ Richler said. ‘You can be an investigative historian. Have you
ever read Josephine Tey?’
‘No, sir.’
‘Doesn’t matter. I just wish my boys had some ambition greater than seeing the Angels
win the pennant this year.’
Todd offered a wan smile and said nothing.
Richler turned serious again. ‘Anyway, 111 tell you the theory we’re going on. We
figure that someone, probably right here in Santa Donate, knew who and what
Dussander was.’
‘Really?’ Dick said.
‘Oh yes. Someone who knew the truth. Maybe another fugitive Nazi. I know that
sounds like Robert Ludlum stuff, but who would have thought there was even one fugitive Nazi in a quiet little suburb like this? And when Dussander was taken to the hospital, we
think that Mr X scooted over to the house and got that incriminating letter. And that by
now it’s so many decomposing ashes floating around in the sewer system.’
‘That doesn’t make much sense either,’ Todd said.
‘Why not, Todd?’
‘Well, if Mr Denk … if Dussander had an old buddy from the camps, or just an old Nazi buddy, why did he bother to have me come over and read him that letter? I mean, if you could have heard him correcting me, and stuff… at least this old Nazi buddy you’re
talking about would know how to speak German.’
‘A good point. Except maybe this other fellow is in a wheelchair, or blind. For all we
know, it might be Hermann himself and he doesn’t even dare go out and show his face.’
‘Guys that are blind or in wheelchairs aren’t that good at scooting out to get letters,’
Todd said.
Richler looked admiring again. ‘True. But a blind man could steal a letter even if he
couldn’t read it, though. Or hire it done.’
Todd thought this over, and nodded – but he shrugged at the same time to show how
farfetched he thought the idea. Richler had progressed far beyond Robert Ludlum and
into the land of Sax Rohmer. But how farfetched the idea was or wasn’t didn’t matter one
fucking little bit, did it? No, what mattered was that Richler was still sniffing around …
and that sheeny, Weiskopf, was also sniffing around. The letter, the goddam letter! If only
he hadn’t been forced to make something up on the spur of the moment like that! And
suddenly he was thinking of his .30-.30, cased and resting on its shelf in the cool, dark
garage. He pulled his mind away from it quickly. The palms of his hands had gone damp.
‘Did Dussander have any friends that you knew of?’ Richler was asking.
‘Friends? No. There used to be a cleaning lady, but she moved away and he didn’t
bother to get another one. In the summer he hired a kid to mow his lawn, but I don’t think
he’d gotten one this year. The grass is pretty long, isn’t it?’
‘Yes. We’ve knocked on a lot of doors, and it doesn’t seem as if he’d hired anyone. Did
he get phone-calls?’
‘Sure,’ Todd said off-handedly – here was a gleam of light, a possible escape-hatch that
was relatively safe. DussanderY phone had actually rung only half a dozen tunes or so in
all the time Todd had known him – salesmen, a polling organization asking about
breakfast foods, the rest wrong numbers. He only had the phone in case he got sick … as
he finally had, might his soul rot in hell. ‘He used to get a call or two every week.’
‘Did he speak German on those occasions?’ Richler asked quickly. He seemed excited.
‘No,’ Todd said, suddenly cautious. He didn’t like Richler’s excitement – there was
something wrong about it, something dangerous. He felt sure of it, and suddenly Todd
had to work furiously to keep himself from breaking a sweat. ‘He didn’t talk much at all. I
remember that a couple of times he said things like, “The boy who reads to me is here
right now. I’l1 call you back.”‘
‘I’l1 bet that’s it!’ Richler said, whacking his palms on his thighs. ‘I’d bet two weeks’
pay that was the guy!’ He closed his notebook with a snap (so far as Todd could see he
had done nothing but doodle in it) and stood up. ‘I want to thank all three of you for your
time. You in particular, Todd. I know all of this has been a hell of a shock to you, but it
will be over soon. We’re going to turn the house upside down this afternoon – cellar to
attic and then back down to the cellar again. We’re bringing in all the special teams. We
may find some trace of Dussander’s phonemate yet.’
‘I hope so,’ Todd said.
Richler shook hands all around and left. Dick asked Todd if he felt like going out back
and hitting the badminton birdie around until lunch. Todd said he didn’t feel much like
badminton or lunch, and went upstairs with his head down and his shoulders slumped.
His parents exchanged sympathetic, troubled glances. Todd lay down on his bed, stared
at the ceiling, and thought about his .30-.30. He could see it very clearly in his mind’s
eye. He thought about shoving the blued steel barrel right up Betty Trask’s slimy Jewish
cooze -just what she needed, a prick that never went soft. How do you like it, Betty? He heard himself asking her, You just tell me if you get enough, okay? He imagined her
screams. And at last a terrible flat smile came to his face. Sure, just tell me, you bitch…
okay ? Okay ? Okay ?…
‘So what do you think?’ Weiskopf asked Richler when Richler picked him up at a
luncheonette three blocks from the Bowden home.
‘Oh, I think the kid was in on it somehow,’ Richler said. ‘Somehow, some way, to some
degree. But is he cool? If you poured hot water into his mouth I think he’d spit out ice-
cubes. I tripped him up a couple of times, but I’ve got nothing I could use in court And if
I’d gone much further, some smart lawyer might be able to get him off on entrapment a
year or two down the road even if something does pull together. I mean, he’s still a juvenile. Technically, at least In some ways, I’d guess he hasn’t really been a juvenile since he was maybe eight He’s creepy, man.’ Richler stuck a cigarette in his mouth and
laughed – the laugh had a shaky sound. ‘I mean, really fuckin’ creepy.’
‘What slips did he make?’
‘The phone calls. That’s the main thing. When I slipped him the idea, I could see his