Right to Die

his beard with the fingers. “I think you’d be better off with a psychiatrist.”
    “I’m not looking for a profile. Doctor. I’d like names, if you have them.”
    “Toward what end?”
    “Toward the end of finding out who’s sending these.” Eisenberg combed some more. “Mr. Cuddy, I don’t know anyone who would do something like this.”
    “Has anybody approached you about their opposition to what Andrus is doing?”
    He hesitated. “No personal approaches, outside of professional circles, of course, but none of them could possibly be involved in this.”
    “How about letters or phone calls?”
    “I do get correspondence from time to time. From nonprofessionals, I mean. Mainly older persons who don’t have much... who have the time to read books and articles like mine. The closer we get to the end, Mr. Cuddy, the more the end intrigues us.”
    “The name Louis Doleman sound familiar?”
    “The man at the debate. Who asked the question about his daughter, you mean?”
    “Right.”
    “Well, yes. At the time it did sound familiar, but I was too... it wasn’t until I was home that I remembered who he was. He’d written me, even made a small splash in the newspapers after his daughter committed suicide. Tragic situation. I believe she was a spinster who cared for him.”
    “You wouldn’t by any chance have a copy of his letter?”
    “A copy? No, all I would have is the original. But that sort of thing would just go into the daily file.”
    “Daily file?”
    “Yes. My daily correspondence file for the day it was received. We date and time-stamp each communication. It’s simply easier for the lawyers to be able to read everything that arrives on a given day rather than rely on our... uncertain filing system for the case folders themselves.”
    “By ‘the lawyers,’ you mean for malpractice?”
    “Yes. It’s eating us up, you know. The insurance rates are soaring, and the state won’t let us balance-bill the patients to keep up with it. On top of that, most of us are scared blind of AIDS and can’t even test for it without the patient’s permission. Crazy.”
    “Was there any malpractice involved with Doleman’s daughter?”
    Eisenberg’s forehead wrinkled again. “What?”
    “Doleman’s daughter died of leukemia. Was there any malpractice?”
    “What difference would that make?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Well, I don’t know either, Mr. Cuddy. I don’t even recall where she was treated.”
    I was starting to tick Eisenberg off, and I didn’t want to do that. “Anybody else?”
    “Anybody else?”
    “Besides Doleman, anybody else contact you about Andrus and mercy killing?”
    “Oh. No, but you have to understand, I wouldn’t be thinking of it that way.”
    “If mercy killing is the wrong phrase, I—”
    “No, no. What I mean is, I wouldn’t get a letter and say to myself, ‘Aha, another Andrus hater.’ My mind wouldn’t have been alert to that kind of thing.”
    “The name Steven O’Brien mean anything to you?” Eisenberg laughed. “Poor man. He lives in Rhode Island , comes up to lectures. I’m afraid he’s a bit too... concentrated in his view.”
    “Which is?”
    “The right to life, but the sort of person who makes debates like the other night a debacle. He talked to me after a presentation I made at one of the local colleges. Nearly ranting, though in a strange way.”
    “Strange how?”
    “ Well, he has this little voice, and he speaks very quietly. But he still gives the impression of fanaticism. You’d have to see him to know what I mean.”
    “You said before that nobody had approached you.”
    “Approached me?”
    “About Maisy Andrus.”
    “Oh. Oh, I’m sorry. I must have misunderstood your question. I meant to say that the only people who’ve approached me about her were professional colleagues, in the circle of physicians or professors of philosophy who are interested in the area of euthanasia and patients’ rights. We would talk about many things, Maisy and her writings included. But not in any... vindictive way.”
    “And O’Brien?”
    “He may be aware of Maisy’s works. In fact, I can’t imagine he isn’t. But I don’t recall his ever saying her name, and that’s why I suppose I didn’t think of Steven as approaching me until you mentioned him by name.” Steven. “Any other characters like O’Brien floating around?”
    “Probably. I’m sure I don’t know them all.”
    “How about Gunther Yary?”
    “Never heard