Sara Paretsky - Total Recall

“I have nothing to say about him.” His chin jutted out at a lofty angle: the Gladiator is not afraid of Death.

“Nothing about your meeting with him last night? Nothing about how he persuaded you to abandon your protest outside Ajax for one here at Beth Israel?”

He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. “Whoever told you I met with him is lying. I have private reasons for being here. They have nothing to do with Rossy.”

“Let’s not start our nice little chat with accusations about lying: I saw you at Rossy’s place-I had dinner with him and his wife last night.”

“I didn’t see you!”

“Now, that disclaimer is pretty pure proof that you were there.” I gave a supercilious smile: Posner was so used to being the daddy in the story that I figured the way to keep him rattled was to treat him as if I found him childish.

“Reb Joseph, I don’t think you should talk any more to this woman,” the sidekick said. “She’s trying to trick you into saying something that will discredit us. Remember what Radbuka said, that she’s been keeping him from his family.”

“That’s not true, either,” I said. “I’m eager for Paul to rejoin his true family. But I’m curious about the situation between your Holocaust Asset Recovery group and Ajax Insurance. I know you know Preston Janoff was in Springfield yesterday, killing the Illinois Asset Recovery Act, so what made you abandon Ajax? I’d think today your wrath against them would be greater than ever. My bet is that Bertrand Rossy told you something last night, or offered you a nice little bribe, that made you withdraw from the Loop to come up here.”

“You’re right, Leon.” Posner turned away from me. “This woman doesn’t know anything-she’s playing a guessing game to keep us from disturbing her rich friends at the hospital.”

Even though I was getting tired of being “this woman” instead of having a name, I kept my voice genial. “I may not know anything, but I can make guesses that Beth Blacksin at Global will listen to. And believe me, I did see you at the Rossys’ last night-if I tell her that, she’ll be parked on your doorstep for a week.”

Posner had turned to leave, but at that he looked back at me, darting a worried glance at Leon, then up the street to see if the cameras were there.

I smiled. “I know that you were furious when you got to Rossy’s place, so I figure it was because you knew he was talking to Alderman Durham: you were afraid Ajax was going to offer Durham some special deal that would undercut your movement.

“Rossy refused at first to see you at all when you showed up in the lobby, but you threatened over the house phone to expose him for doing business with Durham. Even so, Rossy said he wouldn’t see you if Durham learned you were there. You arrived at Rossy’s place angry, but by the time you and he finished, you were all smiles again. So Rossy gave you something. Not money, perhaps. But information. He knows you’re aggressive with Jewish-run institutions that you think are too secular, so maybe he told you something that combined both insurance and one of Chicago ’s leading Jewish charities, Beth Israel. You should bring your protest up here, he told you, force the media to shine a light on the hospital and Max Loewenthal.”

Standing on the corner in front of the Cozy Cup Café, I gave Posner a chance to answer. He didn’t say anything, but he was looking worried, nervously chewing his cheek.

“What could it have been? Did he say, Oh, the hospital has been denying medical benefits to Holocaust survivors? No, that would be too crude-the media would have been all over that one. Maybe he said, Oh, Max Loewenthal got some kind of big bond package for the hospital in exchange for helping kill the bill. It sounds crazy, of course, because it is crazy, and in your heart of hearts you know any suggestion Rossy made is crazy. If you didn’t, you’d be blaring it to the world. But Bertrand Rossy would be happy because it would distract public attention from Ajax ’s role in killing the Asset Recovery Act. How am I doing? Is this the story you want me to share with Beth Blacksin and the rest of Chicago? That you’re Bertrand Rossy’s dupe?”

While I was speaking, Radbuka kept trying to interrupt, to say they were here strictly on the issue of Max and his family, but I raised my voice and talked past him.

Posner kept chewing his cheek. “You can’t prove any of this.”

“Very lame, Mr. Posner. After all, you’re making accusations against Beth Israel that you can’t prove. I can prove that you spent fifteen minutes with Bertrand Rossy last night. I don’t have to prove that your conversation followed my story line-I only have to start the story moving around Chicago. The wires and Internet services will take it from there, because Rossy means Edelweiss, which means not only local but also international news.”

“Are you trying to imply that I’m selling out the IHARA Committee?” Posner demanded.

I shook my head. “I don’t know if you are or not. But of course if your group finds out that you wasted precious resources on a wild-goose chase, I don’t expect they’ll be very supportive of your leadership.”

“Whatever you may choose to believe, I take our mission with utter seriousness. Alderman Durham may be on the streets for votes. He may leave the streets for money, but neither of these-”

“You know that Rossy offered him money to shut down his protest?” I interrupted.

He pressed his lips together without answering.

“But you did follow Durham to Rossy’s place last night. Do you follow him every night?”

“Reb Joseph isn’t like you,” Radbuka burst out. “He doesn’t set out to spy on people, make their lives miserable, deny them their rights. Everything he does is aboveboard. Anyone could tell you that Rossy talked to Durham last night: we all saw Durham go over to Rossy’s car when it was stuck in traffic on Adams.”

“What? Did Durham get in with Rossy?”

“No, he leaned over to talk to him. We could all see Rossy’s face when he opened the window, and Leon said, Hey, that’s the guy who’s really running Ajax these-”

“Shut up,” Leon said. “You weren’t asked to take part in this conversation. Go wait in the bus with the rest of the group until Reb Joseph has finished with this woman.”

Radbuka stuck out his lower lip in a babyish pout. “You can’t order me around. I sought out Reb Joseph because he’s doing something for people like me whose lives were destroyed by the Holocaust. I didn’t risk being arrested today so I could be bossed around by a loser like you.”

“Look, Radbuka, you only came along to take advantage-”

“Leon, Paul,” Posner chided them, “this is only grist for this woman’s mill, to see us fighting each other. Save your energies for our common enemies.”

Leon subsided, but Paul wasn’t part of the movement; he didn’t need to obey Posner any more than he did Leon. In one of his rapid mood shifts, he turned angrily on Posner. “I only came along on your march last night and this one today to get help in getting to my family. Now you’re accusing my cousin Max of cutting secret deals with the Illinois legislature. Do you think I’m related to someone who would act like that?”

“No,” I put in quickly, “I don’t think your relatives would do anything so awful. What happened last night, after Durham talked to Rossy on the street? Did they drive off together? Or did the cops take Durham in a separate car?”

“I didn’t know the police took him,” Radbuka said, ignoring shushing gestures from Posner and Leon, responsive as usual to anyone paying him serious attention-even when it was an ostensible enemy like myself. “All I know is Durham went off and got in his own car: we walked down to the corner of Michigan and saw him. It was parked right there in a no-parking zone, but of course he had a policeman guarding it, sleazebag that he is. And Reb Joseph didn’t trust Durham, so he decided to follow him.”