"Newman, Kim - The McCarthy Witch Hunt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Newman Kim)

Roy Cohn showed up early and excited. He had a feeling this case was going
to crack in the next few days. He wore the full beard and skullcap and
carried his Torah, but on him orthodoxy looked like a disguise. He'd made
his name exposing the cabbalist workings of the Rosenbergs' rituals,
volunteering that the couple had to be prosecuted by a fellow Jew lest the
taint of golem-raising and child sacrifice spread to his entire people.
'Mrs Saylor committed suicide last night,' Finlay told him.
Cohn couldn't conceal his delight.
Tansy Saylor, wife of a middle-ranking college professor, had been their
channel to Mrs Stevens's coven. Named as a witch by a fellow traveller, an
anthropologist, she had been easy to pressure, her husband's tenure being
so fragile, and had been the first to cough up her twelve names. Since
then, seven of the others had been called in and had all - angrily,
hysterically, coolly, incoherently, through tears or with icy malice -
named the others.
Only one had tried to cover for special friends in the circle by naming
'innocents' who weren't part of the coven; two of those now shaped up as
promising leads into other covens. Witches had as many rivalries and feuds
going as the baseball leagues. That was the reason why they never would
get round to overthrowing the Christian Government. It was why the Indians
had lost, too.
Cohn wanted more details. 'Does Mrs Stevens know?'
'Professor Saylor telephoned her last night. It's on the wiretap.'
'So the old guilty conscience got to the witch after all.'
'You could say that.'
'There's a higher justice, Deacon Finlay.'
Last night, according to the Bureau's tail, Cohn had left the offices of
his law firm late and picked up a fifteen-year-old boy in Grand Central
Station, taking him to a hotel in the area where he was well known. At the
precise moment Mrs Saylor was walking into the river, Cohn was enjoying -
presumably - sexual congress with a minor. Finlay didn't care about that,
either. But information was useful and lawyers were notoriously slippery.
Cohn wouldn't cut a deal with the Devil if the Righteous had a bigger
stick.
'What's the Stevens situation like?'
Finlay got out his folder, which had Dwight's badly-typed reports in it.
'Pious Americans broke the family's front windows three nights ago,
throwing stones. There've been more incidences of slogans daubed on their
house. None of the local handymen will paint them over.'
'Regrettable. I guess the local cops weren't too upset, though. With their
heavy caseloads, it's hard to expect them to catch every kid with a
paintbrush.'
'The daughter's nursery has asked for her to be withdrawn. The other
parents got up a petition and threatened to pull their own kids. The
Knights of Columbus have added Goodwife Stevens's name to a list
circulated unofficially among businesses in the area, a list of people
whom it isn't advisable to supply with groceries, gasoline, hardware,
liquor, and so on. Stevens's employment is under review and he may well be
let go within the month. Advertising is a tetchy industry and many clients
are picky about who gets associated with their products. Also Stevens's