As a result, thereâs practically nothing left for them to talk about. Definitely not anything important. The continental style, by contrast, is unconstrained by logic, science, common sense, or even experience. It produces work that seems like nonsense to outsiders. Because it is.â Iâm quoting. Thatâs Nathanielâs quick and handy definition.
âYou can see, with people who take themselves seriouslyâand why shouldnât they; their livelihood depends on itâhe could make them very, very angry.â
âSo, were they angry?â
âOh, yes.â
âWho in particular?â
âYou want me to name names?â
âWell . . . â
âI donât name names . . . but if you were to go talk to everybody in the department and ask if they liked Nathaniel, and they all said yes, they loved him, they adored him, they were his best friends, they would all be lying, except for maybe two of them. All right, three. And, if I were you, I would start at the top.â
âThe top?â
âThe chairman. And if he pretends to be nice, that quote I gave you, just toss it into the conversation. Ho, boy.â
âThe one about . . . â I tried to look at my notes.
âAnalytic philosophy . . . canât talk about anything. That one.â
âWhat about students? Was he close with or did he have problems with any of his students?â
âClose with. Oh sure. There was a whole gang of them. Talk, talk, talk. Especially if you wanted to get God off your back, Nathaniel was the go-to guy.â
âWhy would anyone want to get God off their back?â
She heard more edge in my tone than I intended. âAre you a Christian?â she asked.
âWould that bother you? I mean, most of the people in this country are Christians.â
âYou know what I mean. Are you one of those megachurch, born-again Christians? You know, save the fetuses, kill the foreigners.â
âYes, Iâm afraid I am.â
âOy, I put my foot in it.â
âLook, Iâm a Christian working for a Jewish lawyer whoâs working for an Islamic kid to find out who really killed the atheist. Itâs America, right?â
âYes, thatâs America. Thatâs America the way it should be. Please God, we should keep it that way.â
I asked her if she could name some of the other students who were close to Ahmad or Nathaniel or both. She rattled off several of them. I wrote them down. Then I asked if she thought Nate was ever intimate with any of his students.
âOnly grad students,â she said. âUndergraduates, itâs against the rules.â She said it like that was just fine, like it made him an upstanding citizen of the university community.
âAnd his wife didnât mind?â
âOh, that one,â she snorted.
âWhat does that mean?â
âShe was too much of an intellectual and feminist to admit that she ever got jealous. At least, thatâs what I think. So instead, she tried to outdo him. Go after his friends and anyone he was close to.â
âMen and women?â
She shrugged. âIâm not an eyewitness.â
I looked down at my notes, at the list of students close to Nate. âI heard,â I said to her, âthat there was an Emma or Emily, someone with an em sound in their name, who was part of the group or close to Nate? But sheâs not on your list.â
âNo,â she said.
âOh.â
âWait. Not em. Itâs en.â
âThatâs a name?â
âAn initial, N .â
âWhatâs it stand for?â
âI donât know.â
âIsnât she registered for his course or something?â
âI think she was auditing the course.â
âShouldnât there be some kind of record?â
âOf course there should be. And she should have been paying too. But I donât think she was. I think it was an
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