Chapter 2

"All right," I said, "have you reported this to the police?"

"Naturally."

"And what did they say?"

"They're investigating."

"Yeah, I imagine they are. But you called me anyway."

She nodded. "I have faith in our law enforcement agencies. But I am not unaware of their limitations. The Albuquerque Police Department has only so much money and so many officers. And threats are not a major crime."

I gave her points for knowledge and wisdom. "And so you called me," I said, reminding her of what she hadn't addressed.

"So I called you. Willis told me that you would, if you took the case, give it your full attention, which a police detective can't do."

"That's true. That's a point I often make to people who are dithering." I smiled, but Dr. Bernard apparently didn't think much of the joke. For that matter neither did I – it was weak even for me. "So, have you thought of anyone it might be?"

She shrugged. "Specifically, no. But there are always groups who wish to destroy a woman's right to choose."

I bit my tongue. I'm not a diplomat, but I have learned that there are times when doing my job requires me to ignore things I really want to comment on. "Do you have any reason to expect that any anti-abortion group has decided to go beyond public proclamation of their viewpoint?"

"I believe that any such group may, at any time, become violent."

I had to address that one. "Then you don't know my church, Dr. Bernard."

She glared at me. Probably it had been a long time since she'd actually engaged in any sort of debate on the subject; working in an abortion clinic she'd be surrounded by people who agreed with her, and since she ran the place and had a Ph.D., probably no one would be likely to tell her to her face if they thought she was wrong about something. "Mr. Carpenter, we are not here to debate that issue."

"No, we ain't. But you've brought it up twice, and the second time implicitly accused me and three hundred or so others of being just a hair away from burning this place down around your ears. What did you expect me to do – sit here and play fizzbin?"

Her voice was rigid. "I didn't know you ... what did you say?"

"Which?"

"Sit here and play what?"

I chuckled. "Fizzbin. It's from Star Trek – a card game Kirk makes up as he goes along in the episode 'A Piece of the Action.' In this case it's equivalent to twiddling my thumbs."

"I see. I didn't know you were a member of a church, nor did I know that your church is opposed to choice." I bit my tongue again. "I didn't mean to offend you."

"Nevertheless you did. I probably don't belong in the advice business, not when it comes to avoiding foot-in-mouth disease, since I suffer from it, but sometimes maybe it's better to think twice before saying something, and then not say it at all. No, you didn't know anything about my church affiliation – but you barged ahead with your claim anyway, even though for all you knew I ran an anti-abortion ministry in my spare time. Take it from me – the voice of experience – sometimes diplomacy, as hard as it might be, is a good thing."

"I have apologized."

"And I accept your apology. So back to where we were. If I understand you rightly, you don't have any specific suspects, either individuals or groups, that you could point me to."

"No."

"Well, that's how it is sometimes. I'll check the postmarks on the mail, and of course I'll read the letters and listen to the tapes. But have you noticed any patterns as to time – you know, the day of the week, the time of day, anything like that?"

"No, but I haven't been looking for patterns."

"Oh well, you can't have everything. And probably there aren't any patterns anyway. Still, if you get any more, if you could make a note of the date and time I'd appreciate it."

"What would a pattern tell you?" she asked.

"Maybe nothing. Investigation is the accumulation of a ton of facts, and sorting through that ton to find the one ounce of useful information. It's sort of like mining for gold. You know that these days you don't find nuggets just sitting in the stream – you've got to dig out whole mountains, and process the ore, and out of tons of rock you get this little button of gold you can hold in your hand. That's sort of what I'm doing now – digging up the ore. Of course, it's possible that a pattern could tell me something. If, for instance, the calls always come on the second Tuesday of the month, it would point to someone who's only able to call on that day each month. And so I could eliminate people who have access to a phone, and for whom it's a local call, seven days a week. But that's just an example, and probably a bad one."

"I see ... well, I'll have our staff keep track."

"Thanks. Next question: You said you can't think of anyone who's mad at y'all, but what about procedures that went wrong? You know – women who felt significant pain, who experienced emotional trauma afterward, were thinking about adoption or keeping the baby but y'all persuaded 'em to have an abortion—"

"Mr. Carpenter, I can assure you that abortion is a safe medical procedure which does not create physical or emotional distress."

I stared at her for a moment. Finally I said, "I ain't a-gonna argue about it, not here and now, but I've known a couple or three women who went through it, and if you're telling the truth two-thirds of 'em are lying in their teeth. Now I'm trying, here, to get information that'll help me protect y'all, but I can't do it if you meet my questions with an argument. I ain't taken your money yet, and if you want I'll just get up and leave, and you can find another PI to help you out."