The Resort (39 page)

“To tell you the truth,” Lynn said, “no. Accessory charges would seem most tenuous to Argentina. And to a prosecutor, I might add.”

Margaret offered them both coffee. She wondered what kind of woman Clifford was married to.

As Lynn and Stanton settled down in front of the welcome fire, Lynn, clearly in charge, decided to pass a few more civil moments with the Browns before getting down to what was troubling the administration.

“How is your son?” he asked.

“His spirits are up since he’s returned home,” Henry said. “I’ll defer to my wife for a medical opinion.”

Lynn had been led to expect that Henry might not be entirely friendly and was glad to turn his attention to Dr. Brown.

Margaret said, “Stanley’s scheduled to go into New York Hospital in less than a week for a second operation on his left leg. Everything has to be done in stages. It’ll be another year before we’ll know if he’ll be able to cope without a wheelchair.”

“I certainly hope so,” Lynn said. “I trust you’ve both gotten over your own bad experience.”

*

By bad experience Lynn was not referring to Cliffhaven but to a letter addressed to Margaret that began,
My dear Dr. Brown, lest you derive some satisfaction from the detention of Merlin Clifford, please be advised that those of us who believe in his cause will use all of our many and varied resources to protect his civil rights and to secure his earliest possible release. Moreover, a sister resort to Cliffhaven, already in operation at another location, has taken in several members of the Cliffhaven staff who escaped the dragnet
…

When Margaret had gotten to the last paragraph of the letter, she was instantly on the phone to the local police.
While we are all very busy right now, Dr. Brown, rest assured that as soon as convenient we shall dispatch two loyal marksmen to eradicate your family for its role
…

The policeman who came dismissed it as a crackpot letter. As a precaution, however, he suggested that the Browns contact the postal authorities, who had an investigative division. Henry, who considered the postal service the chief enemy of his order-fulfillment business, elected to turn the matter over to the FBI, which, because the letter threatened bodily harm, accepted jurisdiction.

The FBI, which had missed Cliffhaven, could not afford to ignore the letter, but it didn’t have much to go on. In Washington the lab managed to raise some latent fingerprints, which were quickly identified as those of Margaret and of the local policeman. The unsigned letter was typed on a rather common electric typewriter and mailed from a shopping mall in Ohio that was frequented by tens of thousands of persons each week. There were no misspellings. Bureau offices in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati were asked to check all resorts in isolated areas that could accommodate one hundred or more persons. Nothing was found. The special agent in charge of the case thought the letter was probably mailed to Ohio from another state for remailing. “The man who wrote that letter,” he said, “is not a dummy.”

*

“It is very important,” Lynn continued, “that you both testify at the California trial. As you know, the prosecution is in the very capable hands of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California.”

“Would you like a drink?” Margaret asked.

“No, this coffee’s fine, thank you,” Lynn said, hurrying to his point. “My office is involved solely to convey the President’s view that this case is of grave national concern.”

“I will tell you,” Margaret said, “why I have decided not to be involved any further.”

“I hope you still have an open mind on that subject,” Lynn inserted quickly.

“There have been four phone calls since that letter,” Margaret said.

Stanton leaned forward. “I heard you thought they were all from the same person.”

“It sounded like the same person to me.”

“I meant the same person who wrote the letter,” Stanton said.

“He used one of the same expressions.”

“What was that?”

“He said loyal marksmen.”

Stanton said, “I understand our local people have put a recording device on your phone. I’m sure they’ve told you that all you have to do, Dr. Brown, is lay the phone down quietly. He’ll go on talking, but you don’t have to listen as long as we’re recording it.”

“Mr. Stanton,” Margaret said, “if your wife were on the receiving end of phone calls like that…you have a wife, I presume?”

Stanton nodded.

“She’d be upset by phone calls like that.”

“Damn right,” Stanton said.

“But you see,” Margaret said, “I’ve been a physician for twenty years. I’ve become inured to crackpots. It’s an occupational hazard of anyone who’s involved with the public on an intimate basis. I am not shockable, not by words. But I am concerned about threats of physical harm. I’ve met those people face to face. So has my husband. So has my son. More importantly, right now my obligation is not only to my patients but to my most important patient, Stanley. I’m not going to leave him either here or in a hospital and traipse off to California. If you want further
affidavits, fine, but I’m not going anywhere
till Stanley’s well.”

Mr. Lynn looked as if he’d been waiting for this moment. “Doctor Brown,” he said, “one of the reasons I am here today is I have the authority to offer you and your husband accommodation in the Witness Protection Program after you testify. Your son could go with you.”

It was Henry who stood up. “Are you crazy?”

In the weeks after Cliffhaven, when he seemed to be on the precipice of a nervous breakdown, Henry’d raised his voice a good deal. Margaret had given him a tranquilizer to take three times a day, but he’d given them up almost immediately because they made him feel sleepy.

“Change our identities?” Henry said a bit shrilly. “Move somewhere else?”

Margaret, distressed by Henry’s momentary loss of control, intervened.

“Surely,” she said, “even if we were willing, a physician with an active practice could not—”

“Doctor Brown,” Lynn said, “I assure you we’ve thought of the expense as well as the complexity in your case. Your husband has a thriving business. You have a practice and hospital connections. Nevertheless we’d be willing…”

“Never!” Henry said.

“Of course not,” Margaret added, gently taking Henry by his arm and urging him to sit.

“Well,” Lynn said, addressing himself squarely to Margaret since she seemed in control of herself (
she isn’t Jewish
is what he thought), “I’m certain one of your hesitations is that the tampon incident would come up. I don’t see any reason why you should volunteer that story. I certainly would arrange for the U.S. Attorney not to examine you on that point unless the defense brought it up.”

“Why in heaven’s name would the defense bring it up?” Margaret asked.

It was Stanton’s role to be the nice guy in the sister act. He leaned forward and said, “Doctor Brown, I think it is only fair for you to know that an agreement has been reached with Daniel Pitz’s attorney. Since he was only employed at Cliffhaven for less than one day and during that time hadn’t harmed anybody, the government has agreed to exchange his testimony for
a…”

Henry, standing again, his eyes blazing, said, “I know it! Say it!”

It was Lynn who said it. “For a suspended sentence. His testimony will be invaluable.”

“Then you can’t have mine,” Margaret said, motioning to Henry to please sit down.

“I’m afraid we will,” Lynn said. “You see, under the law we have to advise the defense of the witnesses we will call. The moment Clifford’s lawyer sees Dan Pitz’s name on that list, he’ll question Clifford privately about Pitz and learn that the tampon idea was Pitz’s. It is inevitable that the defense will bring it up to try to impeach Pitz as a witness, whether or not you are present. However, having you as a witness will enable us to make it clear that Clifford and the others were present, that Clifford was in charge of the interrogation, and that Pitz was merely trying to show off to Clifford by coming up with something shocking. Now, Dr. Brown, before your husband gets upset again, let me say that the affidavit you gave in California about your
experiences
at Cliffhaven is a cornerstone of our case. Since this is a criminal prosecution in federal court, the government, I’m afraid, can compel your attendance at the trial to testify, and that if you refuse, you can be fined and imprisoned, and the trial adjourned until you agree to testify. You are welcome to check this with your personal attorney, of course.”

“I can’t believe that,” Margaret said.

“Nevertheless,” Lynn said, “it is the law.”

“I can say ‘I don’t remember’ over and over again. That won’t help you, will it?”

Lynn coughed ever so slightly. “It is a felony to lie on the stand, Dr. Brown. Moreover, and please do check this with your lawyer, the response ‘I don’t remember’ can be prosecuted as a false declaration under Title 18 of the U.S. Code, 1623.”

“I thought this was a free country,” Margaret said.

“It is,” Stanton intervened. “And we’ll surely try to get the man who wrote that threatening letter to you.”

“You want to bet?” interjected Henry.

Stanton smiled. “The Bureau doesn’t bet.”

“As for Stanley,” Lynn said, “if you’re concerned about his welfare, I’m sure Mr. Stanton can arrange for the Bureau’s local office to have someone with him at all times, here or in the hospital, while you are in California.”

“He needs medical attention,” Margaret said, “not a policeman.”

“I’m certain you can arrange for another physician whom you trust to be on call,” Lynn said. “We can probably even arrange for you to be compensated for the additional expense. We can promise you that you won’t be gone more than three days, including travel time. You do realize that you must go.”

It is normal for governments to be brutal
,
Margaret thought.

“I’m glad we have that resolved,” Lynn said. “And now,” he turned to Henry, “I’d like to raise the other subject. I understand from one of my colleagues that you’ve consented to give an extended interview on your experiences at Cliffhaven to
U.S. News and World Report.
”

Henry wasn’t surprised that they had found out.

“I’ve discussed that matter with the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California, and we agree that an extensive interview by you given before the trial would greatly impair the government’s case.”

“How?” Henry asked. “I’ll tell nothing but the truth, exactly what happened, step by step.”

“Don’t you see,” Lynn said, “that by doing so you will provide the defense with opportunities for a fishing expedition? The whole truth can give the defense all kinds of handles for impeaching your testimony. When you freed the people in the lockers, you gravely injured one of the staff members. You beat him brutally with a club, though he in no way injured you. Don’t you see how that might look if the defense attorney brought it out? You set fire to a protected wilderness area, causing millions of dollars’ worth of damage. Why are we not prosecuting you?”

“You didn’t make a deal with me,” Henry said.

“Of course not, but it can be made to look as if we did. We much prefer that your testimony be carefully organized and gone over when you return to California, and that you discipline yourself to speak to the agreed matters under questioning by the prosecutor
and in cross-examination by the defense.”

Stanton said, “It’s for your own good, Mr. Brown. We want to put these people, Clifford and the others, in jail where they belong. We’re on your side.”

For a moment Henry seemed detached, as if he were remembering something. When he spoke, Margaret noticed with relief, his voice had its normal pitch.

“I had the impression from
The Los Angeles Times
,”
Henry said, “which I had sent to me for several weeks after we returned, that some considerable part of the California citizenry was more concerned about the number of perpetrators still at large, presumably in California, than about what happened at Cliffhaven.”

Lynn coughed. “It is perfectly natural for people to be concerned about their safety. I think there’s enough evidence that at least some of the people who worked at Cliffhaven were criminal types—”

“By criminal types,” Henry interrupted, “you mean types who would commit crimes other than crimes against Jews?”

Lynn had tried to get a fix on Henry Brown before leaving Washington. He had not expected that much belligerence.

“
The Los Angeles Times
,”
Henry continued, “is looking to the police power of the state to clean up the residue of the Cliffhaven mess—I think they used those exact words in an editorial. Maybe that’s good. Maybe that’s better than
The New York Times,
which addressed the conscience of humanity three times on the subject of Cliffhaven.”

“Surely,” Lynn said, “the conscience of humanity is outraged by what happened.”

“I agree,” Stanton nodded.