Someday the Rabbi Will Leave by Harry Kemelman Page B

entire management team. Anyone you sense is not devoted to you and your interests, you get rid of. The trouble with that is that you may lose some awfully good talent. So you try to convert them. Sometimes you exert a little pressure. Fine, if it works, but I have found that you get better results by giving the man a raise. If he’s a gentleman, he’ll always remember that he owes you one.”
    â€œYou think the board will go along?”
    â€œOh, I think so. I can count on your vote and your support, can’t I?”
    â€œOh sure.”
    â€œThat’s fine.” He reached for the phone. “So now I’ll call the rabbi.”
    â€œYou mean you’re going to tell him before we’ve voted on it?”
    â€œOf course not. I’m just going to call to tell him that I’d rather he didn’t come to the next meeting of the board.”

15
    Tony D’angelo watched Al Cash’s secretary, an estimable woman of sixty who had been with him for years, leave the Prescott Building in Lynn’s Central Square. Then he mounted the stairs and entered Cash’s real estate and insurance office.
    Without waiting for an invitation, D’Angelo sat down in the visitor’s chair. “Hullo, Al,” he said genially.
    â€œEr—hullo,” Cash replied, nonplussed. “What brings you here?”
    â€œTook the lady friend shopping. Hey, you ever go shopping with your missus? They don’t just go and buy what they need, even if they see exactly what they’re after. They got to go to all the other stores, and see if maybe there’s something they want even better. So I said I’d meet her afterwards. Which gives me some time to kill, so I’m right in the neighborhood, and I thought I’d drop by and pass the time of day.”
    â€œHaven’t seen you around the statehouse lately,” Cash remarked.
    D’Angelo nodded. “That’s a fact. I’ve been taking some time off.”
    â€œMoriarty sent you?”
    â€œHis Nibs? Well, let’s just say I’m here on my own.” D’Angelo favored Cash with a conspiratorial smile.
    â€œI see. He doesn’t want to be involved. Okay, what is it?”
    D’Angelo’s smile disappeared as he leaned forward and stared hard at the man behind the desk. “You’re in a threeway race. Would it help you if it were a two-way race?”
    â€œWho’s the two?”
    â€œYou and Scofield.”
    â€œYou mean Baggio might drop out? You got something on him?”
    D’Angelo folded his arms across his chest and remained silent.
    â€œWhy should the Majority Whip want to get involved in Republican politics?” asked Cash suspiciously.
    â€œHe don’t want to get involved, but you can understand that he might be interested.”
    â€œI see. So that’s why you’re here”—he smiled—“on your own.”
    â€œUh-huh.”
    â€œAll right. So why does Moriarty want me to win? I voted against the Harbor Bill, and ah—he wants me to vote against reconsideration. That’s the quid pro quo , isn’t it?”
    â€œYou vote any way you want.”
    â€œI don’t get it.”
    â€œWhat’s to get?”
    â€œI’ll tell you what’s to get. Why should the Majority Whip—yeah, I know you say he’s not concerned, but we both know better, don’t we?—why should he be interested enough in my winning the nomination to want to do something about it when it isn’t even his party? And he knows I’ll be voting against him most of the time. And what’s more, when it was me who led the fight against the Harbor Bill and almost made it. And furthermore knows that I’m backing reconsideration and have a good chance of bringing it off. Did he fall out with Atlantic Dredging and wants to show them that he can pass their lousy Harbor Bill or unpass it if he wants to? Is that it? He wants to