Right to Die

of him.”
    “At the debate, he was the skinhead who incited the riot.”
    Eisenberg didn’t laugh this time. “I’ve read about the skinheads, Mr. Cuddy. Have you?”
    “Not extensively.”
    “They’re neo-Nazis. Oh, they come on like states’ righters without southern accents, but you heard the words he used for us. ‘Nigger,’ ‘kike.’ People like that—like Yary, you say his name is?”
    “Yes.”
    “People like this Yary are very dangerous. They can do anything, as history proves.”
    “Do you know Alec Bacall?”
    “Quite well. If you are active in the area, you come to know most of the others. Alec is a good man, and of all of them—the advocates of euthanasia, I mean— he’s the one I could come closest to agreeing with. However, the development of AZT and DDI and the drugs they might inspire merely make my point more strongly.”
    “Which is?”
    “That no patient should be taken from us because medical technology may yet improve to the point that he or she could be saved.” Eisenberg consulted his watch. “Look, Mr. Cuddy, I really have to insist.”
    “I understand. I’d appreciate your keeping our talk confidential.”
    “I will.”
    Eisenberg gathered the threat notes but paused before handing them back to me. “One more thing, though.”
    “Yes?”
    “I know you said you weren’t looking for a profile, but I can’t help but notice something in these notes.”
    “Which is?”
    “The use of words. I think only a male would use... those words to describe a female.”
    “That’s how I see them too.”
    “Foul, but evasive as well. ‘THEY DIE,’ and so on. As though it were a cause involving a lot of people.”
    “Why is that evasive?”
    “It’s hard to work up to violence for a cause, Mr. Cuddy. I think it’s more personal.”
    “Personal.”
    “Yes. Somebody who lost a loved one to something he blames on Maisy Andrus.”
    “Like Louis Doleman.”
    “Like a Louis Doleman. Good luck.”
    “Thanks.”

= 16 =

    “Area A, Detectives, Neely.”
    “Neely, this is John Cuddy.”
    “Cuddy, how ya doin’?”
    “Doing fine. You have a chance to run those names for me?”
    “Names? Oh, yeah, just a second, got them here... somewheres.... Hold on, okay?”
    “Right.” Through the phone I heard him tear off part of a sandwich and chew.
    “Cubdy?”
    “Still here.”
    “Ga wha chu wan.”
    “Go ahead.”
    Neely swallowed. “Okay. We got Yary, Gunther W. You want just his sheet or D.O.B. and that shit too?”
    “Start with his sheet.”
    “Got a commitment to DYS—that’s Division of Youth Services?”
    “I know.”
    “Commitment in seventy-eight on his first juvie. Must have been a pisser, send him in as a first-timer. After that we got A&B as an adult, then disorderly... disorderly... another A&B. Obstructing a public way, probably some kind of demonstration thing. That’s it. Nothing heavy, no hard time, just your run-of-the-mill asshole.”
    “Schooling?”
    “Hyde Park High, no college here.”
    “Employment?”
    “Delivery service over in Dorchester .” He gave me the name and address.
    “All right. Who else do you have?”
    “On Doleman, Louis R. Just a flag. Seems his daughter was dying from something or other, and he made some phone calls to the doctors, the hospital about it.”
    “What kind of calls?”
    “Says here ‘harassing.’ ”
    “You figure that means ‘threatening’?”
    “Don’t know. Ask Mass General.”
    “Mass General?”
    “Yeah. That’s where she was at.”
    Odd that Eisenberg didn’t recall the treating hospital. “Anything else on Doleman?”
    “Yeah. Gun permit.”
    “To carry?”
    “Sporting. Just rifle and shotgun, not concealed.”
    “How recent?”
    “Last renewal two years three months ago. Probably means the calls to the medics weren’t too serious.”
    “Or he wouldn’t have gotten his renewal.”
    “Right.”
    At least you’d like to think so. “How about Strock?” Neely chuckled. “You’re gonna love this.”
    “What?”
    “I told you I thought I heard the name, right?”
    “Right.”
    “Well, turns out I caught the call. Seems this guy Strock’s a professor. Of law, yet. Also seems he kinda had the hots for one of his students coupla years back. You with me?”
    “Go ahead.”
    “Well, this student has an apartment on the Hill, backside down near Cambridge Street . Old Strock follows her from some kind of student party over there at the school, and tries to slap the make