Dapper and Sensitive
Two weeks after Leah and Dorothy had their strategic conversation in Naples, Florida, a private detective began trailing Roger McAllister. On a foggy Friday afternoon, the well-dressed book dealer took the ferry across Puget Sound, from Victoria, British Columbia to Seattle, Washington. McAllister checked into a room in a large, efficient hotel, a place with two fewer stars (noted the detective) than the hotel in Victoria, the one where McAllister pretended to live.
Hundreds of clean-cut teenagers filled the lobby of this Seattle hotel with cheerful, earnest chatter—they were the participants in a national forensics tournament at the nearby convention center. The detective observed McAllister’s behavior that weekend, and reported the findings to his employers, who insisted that no action be taken until McAllister was on Canadian soil.
In late April 2000, McAllister was arrested for propositioning two cadets of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, one male and one female, in a hotel bar in Vancouver. The two cadets, both age 19, were wearing lanyards with badges from a Model United Nations conference, and had told McAllister that they were high school students from Winnipeg, 15 years old—and sweethearts. The male cadet spoke proudly of his role in the mock delegation from Croatia; the female boasted of being a mock delegate from the Philippines. McAllister bought them both several alcoholic beverages, and invited the couple to his room, where other members of the RCMP intervened and made the arrest.
At the trial, MacAllister’s attorney argued that his client had made only a mock proposition, in the spirit of the Model United Nations, in much the same way that the cadets were pretending to be underage high school students, who in turn were pretending to be international diplomats.
The court rejected this argument with some vehemence, and convicted McAllister on two counts of soliciting a minor and six counts of serving alcohol to minors. He was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, to be served at the Ford Mountain Correctional Centre, in Chilliwack, British Columbia.
In September, Leah joined Dorothy in her new condo, overlooking Fisherman’s Wharf in Victoria, to review the media coverage of McAllister’s trial and verdict. The compilation, which they had discreetly commissioned, showed that McAllister was described as a “sexual predator” 215 times, an “appraiser of antiquities” 205 times, and a “self-help author” 164 times. After the verdict, he was called “the dapper pervert” 97 times. The Josephson family name appeared only once, near the end of a long print article, in a summary of McAllister’s previous legal problems. The cover of the 1995 “masculine empowerment” edition of The Song of Henry appeared on television screens a total of 32 times, but its title was never spoken out loud.
“So that worked out… ” said Leah, putting down the report, “about as well as can be expected.”
“Does he know we were involved?” said Dorothy.
“He has no idea,” said Leah. “He blames the counseling center at UBC. His name seems to have come up in several support groups.”
“I’m not surprised,” said Dorothy. “Well good then. So he won’t try to strike back, won’t try… ”
“To destroy our good name?” said Leah. “Our reputation? Face it, Dorothy. We are a newly rich Jewish family. The people who hate us already hate us. The only people in the world who really care about our grandfather’s… poor choice of… correspondents… are here in this room.”
They listened for a while to the seagulls outside the window. The birds seemed bolder now than when this was a working dock.
“Have you read those letters?” asked Dorothy. “From… that man? The one… who seems to have been… some sort of… friend?”
“No,” said Leah. “That’s your job, isn’t it? Fraternizing with the enemy?”
Dorothy remained silent.
“Oh relax,” said her sister. “You did read them, didn’t you? His name was Augustus, right?”
“No,” said Dorothy, “Adalbert.”
“Okay. Adalbert Something. He was a vegetarian, wasn’t he? Some sort of scholar? So tell me. What were they like, his letters?”
Dorothy thought for a long moment, then looked at her sister.
“He had a sensitive soul.”
“Some of them do,” said Leah. “It makes it that much worse, doesn’t it?”
Dorothy nodded her head.
A seagull, looking in through the window, added a noisy comment.
Next episode: A Slow-Motion Credit Check
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