Hope to Die

"Who indeed?"

"I don't think he was trafficking in illegal substances, if that was going to be your next question."

"It wasn't."

"And you never answered my question, now that I think about it, aside from declaring it a good one. Did our Mr. Breit owe you money, too?"

"No," I said, and I could have let it go at that, but something about this gentleman made me want to say more. "I can't be a hundred percent sure," I said, "but it looks as though he killed five people."

"Oh, my," the man said. "Five, you say?"

"It looks that way."

"Well, that's just terrible," he said. "Why on earth would he want to go and do something like that?"

I went back the way I'd come, on the subway, and when I got to the Northwestern T J was downstairs, in what passes for the lobby. He said, "Thought I'd save you a trip upstairs. I been all over the Internet, and the man don't exist."

"Adam Breit."

He nodded. "Spelled either way, E-I-T or I-G-H-T. He a psychiatrist, a psychoanalyst, a psychologist, any damn kind of a shrink, he gotta be listed somewhere."

"You couldn't find a thing?"

"Oh, I found all kind of things," he said. "Broader you make your search, more useless shit you turn up. Put in 'Adam Bright' an' you get some news story, some politician predictin' 'a damn bright future for the farmers of Schuyler County.' You narrow it down enough to be useful, ain't no Adam Breit to be found."

"Well, he's not at Broadway and Waverly," I said, and told how Breit had pulled up stakes and disappeared.

T J said, "Maybe he did light out for the Territories. Or he was the first person killed."

"The man we're looking for killed Adam Breit and took his identity."

"You don't like that?"

"Not a whole lot," I said, "since you've just established he didn't have an identity to take."

"Slipped my mind."

"And he's still around, because Peter Meredith and his friends are still seeing him. I gather he's some kind of guru, the spiritual leader of their little commune."

"The Buddha of Bushwick," he said. "You want to find him, you start right there."

"On Meserole Street? I don't know. If they think he's the closest thing to God, how much are they going to give out about him? All we'd do is run into a brick wall."

"An exposed brick wall," he said.

We needed a place to start, and I didn't think Meserole Street was it. I thought for a minute and said, "Seymour Nadler."

"You think him an' Breit the same person? He sets up this other identity, goes down an' lives on Broadway an' Waverly an' meets with Peter Meredith an' the rest of them, an' then- " He stopped, shook his head. "That don't make no sense," he said.

"That's not where I was going."

"Good thing, too."

I said, "The burglary. When we figured Nadler was our guy, there were two possibilities. He faked the whole burglary, or it was legit and a day or two later he made a false report about a missing gun."

"One or the other."

"But if Nadler's in the clear- "

"Then the burglary was legit, an' the burglar took the gun."

"Right. And how did Adam Breit wind up with it?"

"He was the burglar."

"Right again," I said, "which would explain the similar MO in both burglaries. They were similar because one man committed both of them."

"Now that we know that," he said, "what do we know? The burglar did it, but are we any closer to finding him?"

"Think about it."

He thought about it. "He did it to get the gun."

"That's my guess."

"How'd he even know the gun was there?"

"There you go," I said.

Some years ago, back when I lived in the room that is now T J's, a couple of computer hackers, David King and Jimmy Hong, spent an evening on my behalf deep in the i

I suppose stealing is stealing, whether it's the phone company or a blind newsboy you're ripping off, and I'm sure moral relativism is philosophically unsustainable, but what the hell, nobody's perfect. If I had to call all over Martha's Vineyard looking for Seymour Nadler, I was just as happy to do it from T J's room, secure in the knowledge that nobody was ever going to have to pay for it.

When I finally got him I said, "Dr. Nadler? I'm sorry to disturb you. I believe you spoke yesterday with Detective Ira Wentworth?"

"Yes?"

"I have a follow-up to that interview, Doctor. I wonder what you can tell me about any co

"I can't talk about patients," he said. "I'm sure you're familiar with the principle of doctor-patient confidentiality, and- "

"As I understand it," I said, "that would only apply if Adam Breit were a patient."

"If he's not a patient," Nadler said, "then why are you calling me?"

"We thought he might be a colleague."

"A colleague."

"A psychiatrist, or therapist of some sort, and- "

"Breit!"

"You know him, then?"

"Adam Breit," he said. "He's not a close friend, we never worked together, never studied together. But yes, I know him. Not well, but I know him."

"How do you- "

"In the most casual way, yes, I know him. Adam Breit. A pleasant enough young man. What about him?"

"How did you happen to know him?"

"Didn't I just tell you that? Casually, very casually. I smile, he smiles. I say hello, he says hello. One day we get to talking, and I say, 'Breit, you're a good fellow. You must come over for drinks. Bring your wife.' 'I don't have a wife,' he says. 'So bring somebody else's wife,' I say, which is of course intended as a joke, and he laughs, showing he has a sense of humor."

"And he came over for drinks?"

"Yes, and by himself, needless to say. Very personable fellow, told some wonderful stories. I don't know what exactly his field is, but I suppose you would class it as reality-oriented therapy. He told about a patient of his, oh, it was a charming story, how she was allergic to dogs so he had her switch to stuffed animals instead, with perfectly satisfactory results." He chuckled. "I suppose a traditionalist like myself would want to know first why she was allergic, but Breit seems to have found an effective and humane solution."

"That's interesting," I said. "But I must have missed something. I don't think I understand how the two of you happened to meet."

"We bumped into each other."

"At a conference or- "

"In the lobby. The lobby of our building."

"You live in the same building?"

"Well, where did you think we lived? Breit moved in, oh, sometime around Christmas. You know Harold Fischer? The paleontologist?"

"I don't believe so."

"Brilliant man. He's on sabbatical, a full year in France, poking around in caves. Breit's subletting his apartment."

"He lives in the same building."

"Didn't I just say this?"

"Yes, of course. Was he at your apartment only the one time?"

"Maybe twice. No more than that. He was pleasant company, but we didn't have that much in common."

"Did he know about the gun?"

"The gun? What gun are we talking about?"

"The one taken in the burglary."

"This was before the burglary," he said, "so how could he know about it?"

"Did he know the gun existed, Dr. Nadler?"

"Oh," he said. "Oh, now I see what you mean," and laughed heartily. "Oh, have you got the wrong number, Detective."

"How do you mean?"

"He was afraid to touch it."

"You showed him the gun?"

"I tried to show him the gun. I took it out of the drawer, I held it out to him, you'd have thought I was trying to hand him a coral snake. It wasn't loaded, he knew it wasn't loaded, and still he wouldn't touch it."