Read Right To Die - Jeremiah Healy for Free Online Page B

'first-year'
instead of 'freshman.' I knew Ethics and Society would be an
upper-level course. Accordingly. it's a good bet I attended law
school. But I went here, and you hadn't heard of me, which probably
means I'm not a grad who decided to become a detective, because
that's the kind of oddity that would get around the halls. So you
could have deduced that I attended but didn't graduate law school, or
you could just have asked Tommy Kramer. Either way, I'm not curious
about how you know these things."
    Andrus appeared pensive. "You're acting out a
bit. Could it be because you feel a little uncomfortable being back
at your old, almost alma mater?"
    She had a point. "Maybe. Sorry."
    "Nothing to be sorry about. Tell me, why did you
leave law school?"
    "I didn't think it had all the answers."
    "Is 'it' law school or the law itself?"
    "Both."
    Andrus shook her head. "Losing faith in law
school is all right. We must occasionally lose faith in most means in
order to eventually I improve both means and end. But the law itself,
you must never lose your faith in the law, Mr. Cuddy. The law is what
protects us all."
    "St. Thomas More?"
    The lopsided smile again. "Yes."
    "Pre — Henry the Eighth, anyway."
    Andrus gave me a real smile, one that made her seem
ten years younger with aggressive good looks. "Alec has always
had a capacity for finding good people. Tell me truly, what did you
think of the class just now?"
    Let the games continue. "I've never seen people
have to stand before."
    "It helps get them over the butterflies of
presenting in public. Also, I'm terrible with names, and making them
stand helps me to remember them, at least in the short term. But I
really meant, what did you think of my hypothetical'?"
    "The Dirty Harry thing?"
    "I can no longer rely on the students having
read the classics, Mr. Cuddy. So, I disguise subliminally familiar
movies or television shows as my hypos. Again, what did you think of
it?"
    "I think torture is a serious matter. I think
you do your students a disservice by abstracting it and then making
it seem they have no way out of an intellectual puzzle."
    "Have you ever witnessed torture, Mr. Cuddy?"
    I thought back to the basement of a National Police
substation in Saigon. Suspected Viet Cong subjected to bamboo
switches, lit cigarettes, telephone crank boxes and wires. Walls
seeping dampness, the mixed stench of body wastes and disinfectant,
the screams-
    "Mr. Cuddy?"
    "No, Professor, I've never seen torture."
    She looked at me more carefully, her lips pursing.
"I'm sorry. Truly."
    "Like you said before, nothing to be sorry
about."
    Andrus exhaled once. "The notes I received, Mr.
Cuddy. What is your professional opinion of them?"
    "I'm no lab technician, and I haven't talked to
the police about what they may have found on the originals."
    "I meant . . . do you believe I have anything to
fear from the author?"
    "Nobody could tell you that, even psychiatrists
after examining the guy."
    "You're assuming it's a man."
    "From the words used to describe you, yes."
    A nod. "Mr. Cuddy, I have received many threats.
Half the unsolicited mail that arrives here disagrees with my
position in a way that could be interpreted as threatening."
    "But most sign their names, and all are
delivered here by mail, not to your house by hand."
    Back to tapping the pencil. "That is correct. I
would still like to hear whatever analysis you can give me of the
notes."
    " 'Analysis' may be too scientific a word."
    "That's all right."
    "Notes don't usually make sense if somebody's
rationally trying to kill you. They're just an additional warning and
possibly a lead the police can follow back to the killer. Notes do
make sense if the guy is just a nut trying to get his jollies from
scaring you. Or if he wants to get some publicity from you going to
the cops and the notes becoming a media football."
    "Which is why I was opposed to Alec and Inés
going to the police in the first place."
    "Yes, but our guy didn't send the notes to