The Conspiracy Club

by Jonathan Kellerman

  “Jeremy Carrier.”

  “Carrier . . . is that French?”

  “Way back,” said Jeremy. Then he blurted, “I’m not Jewish.”

  Kaplan smiled. “Few people are . . . excuse my curiosity, but Sforno’s commentary is a rather esoteric request. For anyone.”

  “Someone recommended it to me. A doctor at Central Hospital, where I work.”

  “Good hospital,” said Kaplan. “All my children were born there. None became doctors.”

  “Did Dr. Chess deliver them?”

  “Chess? No, don’t know him. We used Dr. Oppenheimer. Sigmund Oppenheimer. Back then he was one of the few Jewish doctors they allowed in.”

  “The hospital was segregated?”

  “Not officially,” said Kaplan. “But of course. Everything was. Some places still are.”

  “The country clubs.”

  “If it was only the country clubs. No, your hospital was not a citadel of tolerance. During the early fifties there was some agitation about expelling the few Jewish doctors on staff. Dr. Oppenheimer was the reason it didn’t happen. The man delivered so many babies that losing him would’ve slashed revenues too severely. He delivered the mayor’s children and just about anyone else’s who wanted the best. Golden hands.”

  “It often comes down to dollars and cents,” said Jeremy.

  “Often it does. And that’s the point of the Ethics of the Fathers. It shouldn’t. There’s more to life than dollars and cents. It’s a wonderful book. My favorite quotation is, ‘The more meat, the more worms.’ Meaning, he who dies with the most toys, simply has the most toys. Also, ‘Who is happy? He who is satisfied with what he’s got.’ If we could just realize that—and I include myself. Anyway, Dr. Carrier, I just happen to be carrying one copy of the Sforno edition because I ordered it for a man who changed his mind and stuck me with it when he bought it at discount over the Internet.” Kaplan opened the glass case, pulled out a paperback with dusty-rose covers, and handed it over.

  Jeremy read the title. “Pirk-eye . . .”

  “Peerk-ey,” said Kaplan. “That means chapters in Hebrew. Pirkei Avos—literally the chapters of the Fathers.”

  “Who were the Fathers?”

  “Not priests, that’s for sure.” Kaplan chuckled. His eyes were gray-blue, amused, slightly bloodshot. “It doesn’t mean father literally, in Hebrew the term also applies to scholars. In our tradition, when someone teaches you something important, he becomes as valued as a parent. Feel free to inspect the book.”

  “No, I’ll take it,” said Jeremy. “How much?”

  “Fifteen dollars. For you, twelve.”

  “That’s not necessary.”

  “You’re doing me a favor, young man. I’m not likely to sell it to anyone else. No one comes here anymore. I’m a relic and should be smart enough to engage in voluntary extinction. But retirement means death, and I like the old neighborhood, this street, the memories of the people I used to know. I own this building and a few others on Fairfield. When I die, my kids will sell everything and make out like bandits.”

  That caused Jeremy to think of something. “Did you know Mr. Renfrew—the used bookseller?”

  “Shadley Renfrew,” said Kaplan. “Certainly. A fine man—ah, you knew him because his shop was right near the hospital.”

  “Yes,” said Jeremy.

  “I heard he passed on. Too bad.”

  “He beat cancer, then his heart gave out.”

  “Throat cancer,” said Kaplan. “That’s why he never spoke. Before the cancer, he used to sing. Had a wonderful voice.”

  “Did he?”

  “Oh, yes. An Irish tenor. Maybe he was lucky.”

  “In what way?”

  “Enforced silence,” said Kaplan. “Perhaps it made him wiser. That’s something else you’ll find in there.” He tapped the book. “ ‘Be cautious with your words, lest they learn to lie.’ Here, let me wrap it for you.” He reached into a drawer and drew out something shiny and orange. “And here’s a hard candy to go with it. Elite, from Israel. They’re very good. I used to give it out to the kids when they came in. You’re the youngest person I’ve seen around here in ages, so today you’ll be the lucky kid.”

  Jeremy thanked him and paid for the book. As he left the shop, Bernard Kaplan said, “That customer could wait for his ethics. I’m glad you couldn’t.”

  35

  On the way to the car, Jeremy popped the orange candy in his mouth and ground it to sweet, citrus dust.

  He opened the book while the Nova’s engine idled. The right side was Hebrew, the left English translation. During the brief time he’d been in the shop, the temperature had dropped, and the car had turned frigid. Still a good ways from winter, but his windshield was coated with a gossamer layer of rime. It could get like that because of the lake. Winds whipping across the water, churning up the cold.

  His first year at City Central, a storm from the north had plunged the mercury from forty above to forty below in two hours, and the hospital’s auxiliary generators had threatened to shut down.

  No deaths, the bottom-liners claimed, but Jeremy’d heard tales of respirators hesitating, operating lights switching off midincision.

  He switched on the heater, reached to activate the wipers to clear the frost and thought better of it. Privacy was good.

  Time to soak up some ethics from the Fathers. From Bernard Kaplan’s quotations and the Bartlett’s analogy, he’d expected a collection of homilies, and the pages he flipped on the way to Chapter Five seemed consistent with that.

  But Chapter Five, paragraph 8 was different.

  A litany of punishments wreaked upon the world for a host of transgressions.

  Famine for failure to tithe, a plague of wild beasts for vain oaths, exile for idolatry.

  Section e read:

  The sword of war comes to the world

  for the delay of justice.

  Rabbi Ovadiah Sforno’s commentary backed that up with a citation from Leviticus: A sword avenging the vengeance of the covenant.

  Someone out to set things in order.

  A covenant—an agreement—to set things straight.

  By clearing up unsolved murders?

  Or committing new ones—a cleansing plague?

  36

  Viewed through the prism of vengeful justice, the articles took on a different cast.

  Laser surgery on women. Newspaper accounts of two murdered women.

  The laser, a cleansing weapon—a cleansing tool?

  Had some madman used an ancient text as rationale for his personal brand of justice?

  Or worse: a fiend, simply bragging?

  Jeremy flipped through the pink book and gazed, uncomprehending, at the Hebrew letters. Could there be a Jewish link to all this? Someone wanting him to think there was?

  That brought to mind something he’d read years ago, in college. About Jack the Ripper. An abnormal psych professor, straining for relevance, had placed a true-crime account of the Whitehall murders on his reading list, claiming it illustrated sadistic psychopathy better than any textbook.

  Straining for relevance was generally a fool’s game, and Jeremy had considered the work yet more gratuitous dumbing-down: lots of speculation, theories that could never be proved or disproved, pages of gory photos.

  But one particular illustration came to mind, now. An etched reproduction of chalk graffiti scrawled on a black brick wall in London’s East End. A message left at the scene of a prostitute killing—something about “the Juwes” not being blamed for nothing. The original writing had been sponged off, and some police constable had jotted from memory. The etcher had drawn upon his imagination.

  The Ripper had done his thing in a heavily Jewish slum, and the accepted interpretation of the scrawl was an attempt to cast blame upon an already distrusted ethnic group.

  According to Bernard Kaplan, Central Hospital had once been besmirched by anti-Semitism.

  The murdered girls in the clipping had been Engl
ish.

  His head spinning, Jeremy closed the book and started the drive back to the hospital.

  Oslo, Paris—Damascus by way of Berlin. The Syrian capital was sure to be a place hostile to Jews. And nowhere had Jew-hatred blossomed more fully than in Germany. Was Arthur guiding him in a certain direction?

  Arthur and others? Tina Balleron hadn’t been the least bit surprised to hear about the envelopes.

  So maybe the articles weren’t correspondence from a killer but precisely what he’d guessed initially: one of Arthur’s surrogates doing the old man’s bidding.

  Leading him to an ancient Jewish book.

  The only CCC member with a Jewish surname was Norbert Levy and during Jeremy’s initial search nothing had come up linking the engineering professor to any homicides. Maybe he just needed to dig deeper.

  He pressed down on the gas pedal, drove too quickly on streets slicked by oil and rain, found his way to the doctors’ lot, parked quickly. Bounding out of the car, he hurried to his office.

  A specific assignment. That felt good.

  He’d barely hung his coat and booted up the computer when Angela phoned.

  “I need to come over.”

  “Right now?”

  “Yes—may I? Please?”

  “Are you okay?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it over the phone. Are you free? Please say you are.”

  “I am,” said Jeremy.

  “I’m coming now.”

  She burst in wearing a black blouse tucked into khakis, and sneakers. No coat or stethoscope. Her hair was tied back carelessly and loose strands flew out wildly. Her eyes were raw, her cheeks tear-streaked.

  “What is it?” said Jeremy.

  She flashed a smile that sickened him. Pure defeat. When the words came out, her voice was strangled.

  “I am so, so stupid.”

  Dirgrove had hit on her. Hard.

  It had just happened—thirty minutes ago—in the surgeon’s office. She’d been sitting shell-shocked in the female residents’ locker room since then, had finally garnered the energy to call Jeremy.

  Dirgrove had set it up carefully, inviting her over to discuss the aftereffects of coronary bypass surgery.

  Something you should know, Dr. Rios, as a practicing physician.

  When she showed up, he greeted her warmly but with formality, remained behind his desk and pointed to the journal articles he’d laid out for her in a neat, overlapping row. Bookmarks designated pages he deemed noteworthy.

  When she sat down, he began lecturing her about patient care, then instructed her to have a look at one article in particular. His tie was tightly knotted, and he smelled freshly showered. When Angela began reading, he came around from behind his desk, made a show of smoothing the tailored white coats and freshly pressed scrubs that hung from a wooden rack next to a burbling saltwater aquarium.

  Then he moved behind her. Stood there as she read.

  She was halfway through the methodology section when a hand alit on her shoulder.

  That was the way she thought of it. Alighting. Like a bird—no, an even flimsier creature—an insect. A mayfly.

  Such a delicate touch, those spidery fingers.

  Proximity added a new fragrance to the squeaky-clean aroma. A nice cologne, something herbaceous, masculine, applied sparingly.

  She could hear her own breathing but not his.

  He kept talking. His words blurred, and all she could feel was the touch of his fingers.

  Drumming her shoulder, slowly. Moving to the nape of her neck, warm and dry.

  Confident. It was that—his confidence, realizing how smug he felt—that froze her.

  She shrugged him off—violently, she thought. But he didn’t react except to lift the mayfly fingers.

  She told herself to forget it, keep reading for an obligatory interval, then make some excuse and get out of there.

  She heard him sigh. Regretful, she hoped. No harm, no foul.

  Then the hand—both hands—returned. Got busy immediately. Before she realized what was happening, one had slid down the front of her blouse, wormed under her bra, cupped her breast, grabbed hold of a nipple, and pinched it gently to erection. The other stroked the nearly invisible down along her jawline. As if sketching the contour. As if drawing a preincision line.

  She jumped up, faced him.

  He stood there, hands at his side. Bent a knee because no gesture could be more casual than that.

  “I can make you very happy,” he said.

  She’d prepared an outraged retort; her words died.

  He smirked.

  She croaked out: “How . . . could you!”

  He said, “Is that an objection? Or an inquiry about technique. If it’s the latter, I’d be happy to show you how I could.”

  He touched his crotch. Massaged himself, showed off the obvious enthusiasm that tented his trousers.

  She fled. Heard him laughing as she slammed his door.

  “Report the bastard,” said Jeremy, squeezing the words out between clenched jaws. Fighting to keep his voice even.

  She flew into his arms, freed herself, began circling the office. Stopping at the window, she stared out at the air shaft, threw up her hands.

  “Oh, shit,” she moaned. “I left my coat there. And my scope. I’m going to have to go back there.”

  “No way. I’ll get them for you.”

  “No—please. I don’t want a scene. Let’s just forget it. I’ll figure something out.”

  Jeremy didn’t answer.

  Angela said, “What? Why are you so quiet?”

  “Are you really able to forget it?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “He should be reported, Angela.”

  “What happens, then? His word against mine? An R-II against a tenured professor? It could never be proved. Copping a feel? I’ll be drawn into a huge mess. Things will never be the same for me, here.”

  She pounded the windowsill with her fist. “Damn him! Fuck him!” A sickly smile spread across her lips. “Poor choice of words . . . God, Jeremy, how could I be so dumb!”

  She hurried to his patient chair and slumped down heavily. “My coat and my scope. That’s all I care about, I just want never to see him again. I’m off Thoracic in two days, anyway. There’ll be no reason to see him. What was I thinking? I’m not going to be a cutter. What possessed me to want to waste my time with him?”

  “This isn’t about you being dumb. You wanted to be a better doctor. You believed he wanted to teach you.”

  “Yes. That’s true.” Her chest heaved. “But you knew better, didn’t you?”

  “No,” he said. “I was just jealous.”

  She managed a half smile. “Oh, Jer, how could I have been so gullible? Would I have hung out with him if he looked like a troll? If he hadn’t paid attention to me—singled me out from the other residents? I’d like to think I would’ve. I just wish I could be sure.”

  She doubled over in the chair. When she looked up her eyes were heavy with . . . guilt.

  She’d been attracted to Dirgrove.

  My jealousy wasn’t baseless. Maybe my intuition’s coming back.

  He said, “It really doesn’t matter what you thought or felt. He’s the offender. He brought you in under false pretenses, touched you abusively, and when you let him know you weren’t interested, he compounded the insult by grabbing his dick.”

  “Yes,” she said. “That’s what it was. Gross. And the way he smirked. ‘I can make you happy.’ What macho bravado b.s. The idiot’s watched too many porno movies. He was letting me know I was nothing to him. That he was in charge . . . but jeez, how could I be so stupid!”

  “You were caught off guard,” said Jeremy. “It happens to all of us.”

  “Not to you, I’ll bet. You’re so . . . composed. You think everything out. Choose your words before you speak. Your training—all the people you’ve worked with—you probably never get caught off guard.”

  A knock so
unded on the door, and Angela jumped.

  Jeremy opened it.

  A young man in orderly’s yellows stood there holding a white coat and a stethoscope.

  “Is there a Dr. Rios, here?”

  “I’ll take those,” said Jeremy.

  “Sure, Doc. Dr. Dirgrove says you left them in his office. He says to tell you hi.”

  Jeremy closed the door.

  Angela said, “He knew exactly where I’d go.”

  Jeremy said, “I guess it’s no secret.”

  Thinking: That’s the point. Dirgrove had gotten a kick out of letting the two of them know he had them pegged. This was all about power. Telling them who was in charge.

  An errant memory flashed in his head. Last week, leaving Angela’s house late at night, he’d believed someone had followed him in a car.

  When the vehicle quickly went its own way, he’d dismissed it as paranoia. Now, he wondered.

  Shortly after that, Dirgrove had asked for his help with Merilee Saunders.

  Dr. Sensitive, worried about his patient’s anxiety. Or something else?

  Not bothering to inform the patient about the consult—setting Jeremy up for failure.

  Then the patient dies. Just one of those things.

  Informing Jeremy via Angela that he’d done a great job when he’d accomplished nothing.

  Playing with him? One way or the other, he sensed he’d be dealing with Dr. Theodore Dirgrove.

  37

  He walked a very subdued Angela back to the wards and told her he’d stay late, they’d have dinner in the cafeteria.

  “Not the doctors’ dining room,” she said.

  “Not tonight, but eventually we’ll go there, too. To hell with him.”

  “If I get phobic, will you do therapy with me?”

  “Rapid therapy,” he said. “You’ll be fine.”

  She kissed him full on the lips. “Despite all you went through as a kid, you grew into a prince.”

  “C’mon up to my place, got a glass slipper for you.”