the Third Twin (1996)

by Ken Follett

  “The same or similar. But it would not tell me anything about either man’s health.”

  “However, if you knew previously that John Doe was a paranoid schizophrenic, you could conclude that Jim Fitz was, too.”

  “We would never know such a thing.”

  “You might know John Doe.”

  “How?”

  “He might be your janitor, anything.”

  “Oh, come on!”

  “It’s possible.”

  “Is that going to be your story?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Okay, it’s theoretically possible, but the chance is so small that any reasonable person would discount it.”

  “That’s arguable.”

  The reporter seemed determined to see an outrage, regardless of the facts, Jeannie thought; and she began to worry. She had enough problems without getting the damn newspapers on her back. “How real is all this?” she said. “Have you actually found anyone who feels their privacy has been violated?”

  “I’m interested in the potentiality.”

  Jeannie was struck by a thought. “Who told you to call me, anyway?”

  “Why do you ask?”

  “Same reason you’ve been asking me questions. I’d like to know the truth.”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  “That’s interesting,” Jeannie said. “I’ve talked to you at some length about my research and my methods. I have nothing to hide. But you can’t say the same. You appear to be, well, ashamed, I guess. Are you ashamed of the way you found out about my project?”

  “I’m not ashamed of anything,” the reporter snapped.

  Jeannie felt herself getting cross. Who did this woman think she was? “Well, someone’s ashamed. Otherwise why won’t you tell me who he is? Or she?”

  “I have to protect my sources.”

  “From what?” Jeannie knew she should lay off. Nothing was to be gained by antagonizing the press. But the woman’s attitude was insufferable. “As I’ve explained, there’s nothing wrong with my methods and they don’t threaten anyone’s privacy. So why should your informant be so secretive?”

  “People have reasons—”

  “It looks as if your informant was malicious, doesn’t it?” Even as she said it, Jeannie was thinking, Why should anyone want to do this to me?

  “I can’t comment on that.”

  “No comment, huh?” she said sarcastically. “I must remember that line.”

  “Dr. Ferrami, I’d like to thank you for your cooperation.”

  “Don’t mention it,” Jeannie said, and she hung up.

  She stared at the phone for a long moment. “Now what the hell was that all about?” she said.

  WEDNESDAY

  21

  BERRINGTON JONES SLEPT BADLY.

  He spent the night with Pippa Harpenden. Pippa was a secretary in the physics department, and a lot of professors had asked her out, including several married men, but Berrington was the only one she dated. He had dressed beautifully, taken her to an intimate restaurant, and ordered exquisite wine. He had basked in the envious glances of men his own age dining with their ugly old wives. He had brought her home and lit candles and put on silk pajamas and made love to her slowly until she gasped with pleasure.

  But he woke up at four o’clock and thought of all the things that could go wrong with his plan. Hank Stone had been sucking down the publisher’s cheap wine yesterday afternoon; he might just forget all about his conversation with Berrington. If he remembered it, the editors of the New York Times might still decide not to follow up the story. They might make some inquiries and realize there was nothing much wrong with what Jeannie was doing. Or they could simply move too slowly and start looking into it next week, when it would be top late.

  After he had been tossing and turning for a while, Pippa mumbled: “Are you all right, Berry?”

  He stroked her long blond hair, and she made sleepily encouraging noises. Making love to a beautiful woman was normally consolation for any amount of trouble, but he sensed it would not work now. He had too much on his mind. It would have been a relief to talk to Pippa about his problems—she was intelligent, and she would be understanding and sympathetic—but he could not reveal such secrets to anyone.

  After a while he got up and went running. When he returned she had gone, leaving a thank-you note wrapped in a sheer black nylon stocking.

  The housekeeper arrived a few minutes before eight and made him an omelet. Marianne was a thin, nervous girl from the French Caribbean island of Martinique. She spoke little English and was terrified of being sent back home, which made her very biddable. She was pretty, and Berrington guessed that if he told her to blow him she would think it was part of her duties as a university employee. He did no such thing, of course; sleeping with the help was not his style.

  He took a shower, shaved, and dressed for high authority in a charcoal gray suit with a faint pinstripe, a white shirt, and a black tie with small red dots. He wore monogrammed gold cuff links, he folded a white linen handkerchief into his breast pocket, and he buffed the toecaps of his black oxfords until they gleamed.

  He drove to the campus, went to his office, and turned on his computer. Like most superstar academics, he did very little teaching. Here at Jones Falls he gave one lecture per year. His role was to direct and supervise the research of the scientists in the department and to add the prestige of his name to the papers they wrote. But this morning he could not concentrate on anything, so he looked out of the window and watched four youngsters play an energetic game of doubles on the tennis court while he waited for the phone to ring.

  He did not have to wait long.

  At nine-thirty the president of Jones Falls University, Maurice Obeli, called. “We’ve got a problem,” he said.

  Berrington tensed. “What’s up, Maurice?”

  “Bitch on the New York Times just called me. She says someone in your department is invading people’s privacy. A Dr. Ferrami.”

  Thank God, Berrington thought jubilantly; Hank Stone came through! He made his voice solemn. “I was afraid of something like this,” he said. “I’ll be right over.” He hung up and sat for a moment, thinking. It was too soon to celebrate victory. He had only begun the process. Now he had to get both Maurice and Jeannie to behave just the way he wanted.

  Maurice sounded worried. That was a good start. Berrington had to make sure he stayed worried. He needed Maurice to feel it would be a catastrophe if Jeannie did not stop using her database search program immediately. Once Maurice had decided on firm action, Berrington had to make sure he stuck to his resolve.

  Most of all, he had to prevent any kind of compromise. Jeannie was not much of a compromiser by nature, he knew, but with her whole future at stake she would probably try anything. He would have to fuel her outrage and keep her combative.

  And he must do all that while trying to appear well intentioned. If it became obvious that he was trying to undermine Jeannie, Maurice might smell a rat. Berrington had to seem to defend her.

  He left Nut House and walked across campus, past the Barrymore Theater and the Faculty of Arts to Hillside Hall. Once the country mansion of the original benefactor of the university, it was now the administration building. The university president’s office was the magnificent drawing room of the old house. Berrington nodded pleasantly to Dr. Obell’s secretary and said: “He’s expecting me.”

  “Go right in, please, Professor,” she said.

  Maurice was sitting in the bay window overlooking the lawn. A short, barrel-chested man, he had returned from Vietnam in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down. Berrington found him easy to relate to, perhaps because they had a background of military service in common. They also shared a passion for the music of Mahler.

  Maurice often wore a harassed air. To keep JFU going he had to raise ten million dollars a year from private and corporate benefactors, and consequently he dreaded bad publicity.

  He spun his chair around and rolled
to his desk. “They’re working on a big article on scientific ethics, she says. Berry, I can’t have Jones Falls heading that article with an example of unethical science. Half our big donors would have a cow. We’ve got to do something about this.” “Who is she?”

  Maurice consulted a scratch pad. “Naomi Freelander. She’s the ethics editor. Did you know newspapers had ethics editors? I didn’t.”

  “I’m not surprised the New York Times has one.”

  “It doesn’t stop them acting like the goddamn Gestapo. They’re about to go to press with this article, they say, but yesterday they got a tip-off about your Ferrami woman.”

  “I wonder where the tip came from?” Berrington said.

  “There are some disloyal bastards around.”

  “I guess so.”

  Maurice sighed. “Say it’s not true, Berry. Tell me she doesn’t invade people’s privacy.”

  Berrington crossed his legs, trying to appear relaxed when he was in fact wired taut. This was where he had to walk a tightrope. “I don’t believe she does anything wrong,” he said. “She scans medical databases and finds people who don’t know they’re twins. It’s very clever, as a matter of fact—”

  “Is she looking at people’s medical records without their permission?”

  Berrington pretended to be reluctant. “Well … sort of.”

  “Then she’ll have to stop.”

  “The trouble is, she really needs this information for her research project.”

  “Maybe we can offer her some compensation.”

  Berrington had not thought of bribing her. He doubted it would work, but there was no harm in trying. “Good idea.”

  “Does she have tenure?”

  “She started here this semester, as an assistant professor. She’s six years away from tenure, at least. But we could give her a raise. I know she needs the money, she told me.”

  “How much does she make now?”

  ‘Thirty thousand dollars a year.”

  “What do you think we should offer her?”

  “It would have to be substantial. Another eight or ten thousand.”

  “And the funding for that?”

  Berrington smiled. “I believe I could persuade Genetico.”

  “Then that’s what we’ll do. Call her now, Berry. If she’s on campus, get her in here right away. We’ll settle this thing before the ethics police call again.”

  Berrington picked up Maurice’s phone and called Jeannie’s office. It was answered right away. “Jeannie Ferrami.”

  “This is Berrington.”

  “Good morning.” Her tone was wary. Had she sensed his desire to seduce her on Monday night? Maybe she wondered if he was planning to try again. Or perhaps she had already got wind of the New York Times problem.

  “Can I see you right away?”

  “In your office?”

  “I’m in Dr. Obell’s office at Hillside Hall.”

  She gave an exasperated sigh. “Is this about a woman called Naomi Freelander?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s all horseshit, you know that.”

  “I do, but we have to deal with it.” “I’ll be right over.”

  Berrington hung up. “She’ll be here momentarily,” he told Maurice. “It sounds as if she’s already heard from the Times.”

  The next few minutes would be crucial. If Jeannie defended herself well, Maurice might change his strategy. Berrington had to keep Maurice firm without seeming hostile to Jeannie. She was a hot-tempered, assertive girl, not the type to be conciliatory, especially when she thought she was in the right. She would probably make an enemy of Maurice without any help from Berrington. But just in case she was uncharacteristically sweet and persuasive, he needed a fallback plan.

  Struck by inspiration, he said: “We might rough out a press statement while we’re waiting.”

  “That’s a good idea.”

  Berrington pulled over a pad and began scribbling. He needed something that Jeannie could not possibly agree to, something that would injure her pride and make her mad. He wrote that Jones Falls University admitted mistakes had been made. The university apologized to those whose privacy had been invaded. And it promised that the program had been discontinued as of today.

  He handed his work to Maurice’s secretary and asked her to put it through her word processor right away.

  Jeannie arrived fizzing with indignation. She was wearing a baggy emerald green T-shirt, tight black jeans, and the kind of footwear that used to be called engineer boots but were now a fashion statement. She had a silver ring in her pierced nostril and her thick dark hair was tied back. She looked kind of cute, to Berrington, but her outfit would not impress the university president. To him she would appear the kind of irresponsible junior academic who might get JFU into trouble.

  Maurice invited her to sit down and told her about the call from the newspaper. His manner was stiff. He was comfortable with mature men, Berrington thought; young women in tight jeans were aliens to him.

  “The same woman called me,” Jeannie said with irritation. “This is ludicrous.”

  “But you do access medical databases,” Maurice said.

  “I don’t look at the databases, the computer does. No human being sees anyone’s medical records. My program produces a list of names and addresses, grouped in pairs.”

  “Even that …”

  “We do nothing further without first asking permission of the potential subject. We don’t even tell them they’re twins until after they’ve agreed to be part of our study. So whose privacy is invaded?”

  Berrington pretended to back her. “I told you, Maurice,” he said. “The Times has it all wrong.”

  “They don’t see it that way. And I have to think of the university’s reputation.”

  Jeannie said: “Believe me, my work is going to enhance that reputation.” She leaned forward, and Berrington heard in her voice the passion for new knowledge that drove all good scientists. “This is a project of critical importance. I’m the only person who has figured out how to study the genetics of criminality. When we publish the results it will be a sensation.”

  “She’s right,” Berrington put in. It was true. Her study would have been fascinating. It was heartbreaking to destroy it. But he had no choice.

  Maurice shook his head. “It’s my job to protect the university from scandal.”

  Jeannie said recklessly: “It’s also your job to defend academic freedom.”

  That was the wrong tack for her to take. Once upon a time, no doubt, university presidents had fought for the right to the unfettered pursuit of knowledge, but those days were over. Now they were fund-raisers, pure and simple. She would only offend Maurice by mentioning academic freedom.

  Maurice bristled. “I don’t need a lecture on my presidential duties from you, young lady,” he said stiffly.

  Jeannie did not take the hint, to Berrington’s delight. “Don’t you?” she said to Maurice, warming to her theme. “Here’s a direct conflict. On the one hand is a newspaper apparently bent on a misguided story; on the other a scientist after the truth. If a university president is going to buckle under that kind of pressure, what hope is there?”

  Berrington was exultant. She looked wonderful, cheeks flushed and eyes flashing, but she was digging her own grave. Maurice was antagonized by every word.

  Then Jeannie seemed to realize what she was doing, for she suddenly changed tack. “On the other hand, none of us wants bad publicity for the university,” she said in a milder voice. “I quite understand your concern, Dr. Obeli.”

  Maurice softened immediately, much to Berrington’s chagrin. “I realize this puts you in a difficult position,” he said. “The university is prepared to offer you compensation, in the form of a raise of ten thousand dollars a year.”

  Jeannie looked startled.

  Berrington said: “That ought to enable you to get your mother out of that place you’re so worried about.”

  Jeannie hesitated on
ly for a moment. “I’d be deeply grateful for that,” she said, “but it wouldn’t solve the problem. I still have to have criminal twins for my research. Otherwise there’s nothing to study.”

  Berrington had not thought she could be bribed.

  Maurice said: “Surely there must be another way to find suitable subjects for you to study?”

  “No, there’s not. I need identical twins, raised apart, at least one of whom is a criminal. That’s a tall order. My computer program locates people who don’t even know they’re twins. There’s no other method of doing that.”

  “I hadn’t realized,” Maurice said.

  The tone was becoming perilously amicable. Then Maurice’s secretary came in and handed him a sheet of paper. It was the press release Berrington had drafted. Maurice showed it to Jeannie, saying: “We need to be able to issue something like this today, if we’re to kill this story off.”

  She read it quickly, and her anger returned. “But this is bullshit!” she stormed. “No mistakes have been made. No one’s privacy has been invaded. No one has even complained!”

  Berrington concealed his satisfaction. It was paradoxical that she was so fiery, yet she had the patience and perseverance to do lengthy and tedious scientific research. He had seen her working with her subjects: they never seemed to irritate or tire her, even when they messed up the tests. With them, she found bad behavior as interesting as good. She just wrote down what they said and thanked them sincerely at the end. Yet outside the lab she would go off like a firecracker at the least provocation.

  He played the role of concerned peacemaker. “But, Jeannie, Dr. Obeli feels we have to put out a firm statement.”

  “You can’t say the use of my computer program has been discontinued!” she said. “That would be tantamount to canceling my entire project!”

  Maurice’s face hardened. “I can’t have the New York Times publishing an article that says Jones Falls scientists invade people’s privacy,” he said. “It would cost us millions in lost donations.”

  “Find a middle way,” Jeannie pleaded. “Say you’re looking into the problem. Set up a committee. We’ll develop further privacy safeguards, if necessary.”