Page 48 - Just Deserts

Revelation Research

Brisbane shook the older man’s hand perfunctorily, looked around
the deserted dining room, and sat down. He drew himself close to
the table and said in a low voice, “I’m sorry, Mr .Karp, but I don’t
know who to trust at Liberty Lobby beside you. Believe me, once you
find out what I discovered, you’ll think twice about whom you let in
on it. And don’t take any notes, please. I am committing nothing to
paper, yet. Too risky. And we have to protect my source: this could
put her in terrible danger if her cover is blown prematurely.”
Karp scowled. “What are you talking about?” he barked; then,
noting the dismay on Hugh’s face, diminished his decibels. “You’d
better start making sense! Have you been drinking?”
“No, no, no! Just hear me out, Mr. Karp. This could be very
important to our cause.”
Phineas T. Karp shot his left cuff and peered at the face of his
watch in the gloom. “All right. But make it snappy.” His face
expressed profound prejudice.
“Thank you—you won’t regret it! Okay, here is the gist of it: last
week I stopped at one of those free card-table clinics in front of the
supermarket to get my blood pressure checked. At the time I was
carrying a copy of ‘Satan in our Schools’ and the nurse who was
administering the test happened to notice it. Well, we got into a
harmless little chat about Christian values and the decadence of
morality in America, the usual sort of discussion born-again people
have when they first discover their common faith. One thing led to
another, and I told her that I had written the pamphlet she was
looking at, and that I did research into religious issues for a living.”
Karp interrupted. “Say, I don’t want to hear about your feeble
attempts to pick up women. Save that for your friends. Or if you
have committed a sin, don’t get me involved: my time is too
valuable.”
“Oh, no, sir, that’s not at all what this is about. I’m only telling
you how I met this woman—I will call her Mary, but that is not her
real name—and how she decided she could trust me. She asked me
for my phone number before I left, and then called me that evening
at home. She wanted to talk to me about something she had learned
several years ago, when she was working in Miami for an airline. But
she didn’t want to discuss it on the phone. So I felt a little like you do
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