THE BRIDGE TEAM MURDERS
by Matthew Granovetter

Chapter 16

The Cayne mutiny was about to commence.

"Speaking for myself," said Sonty, "I think we have to stick to the rules. You guys can play - I'm going on a cruise."

"That's very sporting of you," said Wolff, "and we'll take your offer to withdraw under consideration. Due to the circumstances, I think we should take a vote. Gentlemen."

The players rose and left the room, everyone showing great camaraderie. There were a lot of, "Oh, what the heck, you play"s and a few "Some things are more important than a world title"s. All in all, it appeared that Meckwell were still interested in playing, but the rest of us were content to call it a day. It was only a few minutes before everyone was called back to the room. The verdict was unanimous.

"Both committees have agreed," said Wolff, "to allow the original team leeway, and permit them to add the names on this addendum, Granovetter, Marx and Mitchell. The ACBL feels that the best chance for an American victory would come from the team that has already been toughened by the events to date. The WBF has also agreed to reduce the number of boards in the semifinal and final to 64 each, with the proviso that should the U.S. team be reduced to three again during the course of either match, it will be forced to forfeit."

Bang. The gavel came down.

"Next," said Wolff. "Send in the members of the Russian and Canadian teams, please."

The team regrouped at Jimmy's apartment. In the library a rabbi was giving a lesson to four women and one man. I half-recognized one of the women as I made my way to the back of the apartment.

Belsky excused himself from the class and met me in the hallway. "What happened at the funeral?" I asked.

"Just a minute," he whispered. "The rabbi is talking about Loshen Hora."

"Loshen what?"

"Shh. It's a law. In Judaism you're not allowed to say anything bad about another person. It's the power of words, and the harm they can do. Did you know that life and death rests on the tongue?"

"I thought it was: Sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you."

"Just the opposite, Matt. The world's got it backwards. You can fix a broken bone but you can never repair a reputation once it's been slandered."

It was interesting stuff, I suppose, but with the latest developments, I was dying to know who was at the Barkowsky burial party and what was said.

"Detective snooping is not Loshen Hora," I told him. "This is clearly in the line of duty."

We moved into the spare bedroom and sat down. Belsky told me his story.

"Well, first, Matt, I went to the parlor. It was a closed coffin; as you know, Jews don't have open coffins, so there was no way to get another look at Jinks."

"It doesn't matter, Belsk. Just tell me who was there." And, I thought, who wasn't.

"When you go into these places, you become quite introspective, you know? There I was, and I signed in the book, then went over to the line where people were paying respects to the daughter. I didn't know it, but the mother was long since gone."

"She died three years ago," I said. "Go on."

"Well, the line was no line, if you get my drift. It was a shame. There couldn't have been more than a dozen people there. And Jinks was a nice guy, right?"

"Bridge players don't really like funerals," I said, excusing the group in one quick sentence.

"It was all right, though. Because, luckily a whole group of young college kids showed up - must have been his students at the University. I say luckily because they made up the minyan."

He paused.

"I know what a minyan is. Ten men."

"Yeah, very good. Anyway, there she was - Evelyn - all decked out in black, and looking like a million dollars, in a way, 'cause between you, me and the lamppost, there was an insurance agent there, and I found out through a little small talk that the late Mr. Barkowsky had a life insurance policy in his daughter's name that would leave her enough money to play mah jongg, if not bridge, the rest of her life."

"Good work, Belsky. What else?"

"Well, when she saw me, she seemed to put on the tears a little spritzier than usual, and I noticed the D.A. there also, and he was noticing the tears as well with a suspicious eye or two.

"Then the Rabbi came out and gave a speech that wasn't really the best I ever heard. He talked about how Moses had not gotten into the promised land before he died, and compared it to Jinks not making it to the world bridge championships this week. A little weak, but I think the card-players in the crowd enjoyed it."

"Anyone we know there?"

"Well, let me see, there was that guy Marx, the Hungarian. He came in late, though. Then there was the fellow from the Mayfair club - I think his name is Roth. And there was a tall guy, who I didn't know, and he stood in the back and didn't talk to anyone."

"Did you get a look at him?"

"Kind of."

"Did he look . . . like a monster?"

"A monster? Hmm, come to think of it, he wasn't what you would call debonair. He had a ghoulish sort of face, if that's what you mean." I took a deep breath. No, it couldn't be, I thought.

Sonty stuck his head in. "Are you coming? Jimmy wants the whole team for a strategy meeting."

"Okay, I'll be right there," I said. Sonty came closer and confided "Don't you think this is a little crazy? I mean, we're risking our necks just for a bridge title."

"Well, you've won it once, Sonts. The rest of us would like to win one, too. Besides, Belsky is on the job. If it makes you feel any better, he can personally stake out near your table."

"Happy to oblige," said Belsky.

"It doesn't make me feel any better," said Sonty.

As we rose to switch rooms, I remembered to ask Belsky if he had gone to the cemetery.

"Yes, Matt, and I brought flowers, too."

"Did you see anybody new there, anything different, any clues?"

"There was only Evelyn and the rabbi - and he was Reformed, it turned out. It was very sad, Matt. I even helped her with the shovel and we said a couple of psalms. There was one thing, though. Right after we lowered him in, on our way out, my foot felt something funny underneath it. It was sticking out of the dirt and I pulled it out. Here, wait a second, here it is."

Belsky pulled out a convention card, a dirty, old convention card, that must have been dropped by somebody visiting the cemetery - either that or left by one of the residents who no longer had a use for it. On the top of the card where the names of the players are printed were the words: "Charlotte and Frank Stein." It was their card all right. From strong notrumps to four-card majors to forcing jump raises.

I folded it carefully, put it inside my back pocket, and left the bedroom in a state of dizziness. I didn't like spooky things. And this had Stephen King written all over it!

"Belsky," I said, taking a deep breath, "would you mind going down to police headquarters? I want you to check where Charlotte and Frank Stein were buried."

In the den, the coach was holding court. Sonty, Jimmy and Otto were lined up on the couch, each with a xerox copy of yet another set of notes. I noticed that the Mitchells were absent from the meeting and figured they had a low estimate of its worth. The coach, who was looking remarkably chipper for a guy who had recently been attacked and had had a note pinned to his ear, passed me a copy, and I took a seat next to him. I heard the bathroom flush, and out came Evelyn. She took a seat on my other side. Still in black from the funeral, she was now wearing glasses and was looking very business-like.

The heading on the first page of the notes was: "Defense to the Russian Pass." "Wait a second," I said. "Have the Russians won the protest?"

If they hadn't, this was surely a waste of time.

"They're meeting now," said the coach, "but it's a sure thing."

"What was the protest?"

"A scoring error by the Canadians on the next-to-last board. It was accepted by the Russians, and even on VuGraph no one noticed it but me." "Hold on now," I insisted. "Are you saying that if it weren't for you, we'd be on our way to playing the Canadians this afternoon?"

"Of course not. If you must know, it was really Evy here who caught the error. Now it doesn't matter who caught the error. That's history. The point is the error was made and is being corrected by committee. I am sure we will be playing the Russians, and we'd better get on with our preparation if we are to put up a decent battle.

"As I was saying before Granovetter came in, it's important to distinguish the difference of defending against the Russian complex-meanings and the defense I set up for you with the more common artificial sequences, such as Stayman or Transfers."

"Could you say that in English?" said Jimmy.

"Ahem. The secret to success against the Russians is to always treat their artificial bid for what it means, not what it says. Against two clubs, Stayman, for example, double is generally used as a lead-director for clubs. But against a bid that may be much weaker, the double is a takeout of whatever suit the bidder is showing by his bid, not the suit he actually bid."

"Ah," said Otto looking at me, "like our system - where any bid can mean something difflent, if we choose."

Everyone looked up at me, now, perhaps wondering what kind of system Otto and I were planning to play.

"You are playing what I outlined?" asked the coach.

"Of course," I said. "Continue with your defense."

"Here, turn to page 2."

We all turned to page 2.

Said the coach to Evelyn: "I thought we put the summary on page 2."

Evelyn to the coach: "I put it on page 7."

The coach to the team: "Turn to page 7."

We turned to page 7. Page 7 had a bridge hand on it with the following bidding diagram:

West    North     East       South
Pass    Double    Redouble   Jump Shift

The coach: "The summary, Evy, where's the summary?"

Evelyn: "The trouble is your page 7 is not my page 7. I told you a hundred times not to count the cover page as a page."

The coach: "The cover page is a page, though. Why do you deny that?"

Evelyn: "Nobody in America counts the cover page."

The coach to the team: "Would somebody please tell my assistant here that the cover page is real and not existential."

"C'mon, already!" screamed Jimmy. "Let's go to page 8."

"No," said Evelyn, "jerko put it on page 6."

We all turned to page 6.

"There," said Jerko (a name for the coach that I found endearing), "Basic rules for artificial defenses. Rule number one: Treat artificial bids according to their strength.

a) Against strong artificial bids (strong being where the opponents have made at least one bid at the 16-point level or higher), play lead-directional doubles and lead-directional bids.

"b) Against medium-strength bids - bids that appear to be in the 12-15 point category - play strength-showing doubles, which refer to the suit or suits implied, not necessarily the suit bid.

"c) Against weak artificial bids - less than opening-bid strengths - we play complete offensive strategy, using double as our strongest bid. It might be takeout of whatever their bid implied, but a cuebid serves that purpose better."

"Fine," said Jimmy. "You got that, Sonty?"

Sonty: "I got it, but what do I do with it?"

"All right," said the coach. "Let's go to some examples. Turn to page 3."

"Two," said Evelyn.

We all turned to page 2.

"Here we have a perfect example of three types of defenses to the same auction:

West    North   East    South
1 NT    pass    2 D*    ?

*2 D is a transfer to hearts.
What does double mean?

a) If one notrump was a strong notrump, double = lead directional;
b) If one notrump was a 12-14 notrump, double = a takeout double of hearts;
c) If one notrump was a 10-12 notrump, double = a strong hand, not
necessarily takeout of hearts.

He was pointing to something on page 53.

"That's not for you, James," said the coach. "I don't plan to play you against that pair."

We all turned to page 53. There at the top was: "Defense to Plotsky and Schlotsky's '35-Pass System.' "

Underneath was the following:
"As the opening pass by Plotsky and Schlotsky suggests any of 30 hand patterns and 5 strengths, I suggest that we defend in the same manner that they offend. That is, we hoist them by their own petard, by passing in second seat with the same patterns and strengths. This would then, in turn, force third seat to defend against our second-seat pass and place fourth seat (we) into the perfect position of being able to double third-seat's defensive opening."

We all started laughing now. This had gone too far.

"This is not a laughing matter," complained the coach. "If you don't fight fire with fire, you will be at a tremendous disadvantage. Even on the simplest terms, you must make them pay the consequences of their actions. If your opponent opens a natural one club, you double for takeout of clubs. If your opponent opens one club meaning diamonds and hearts or spades and clubs, your double must also be either takeout of diamonds and hearts or takeout of spades and clubs. If their opening bid shows seven types, so must your double. It's perfectly logical."

"It's looney," said Jimmy. "And besides, I can't take it any more. We're going back to level-one defense, Sonty."

"Well, at least level two," said the coach. "You just can't survive in today's world on level one."

As I was leaving the apartment, I bumped into the woman I had half-recognized earlier at the rabbi's lesson - she was my wife.

"Well? Have you solved the case?" Pamela asked.

"How can I have solved the case? The case is almost as complicated as Jimmy's defense to the Russian Pass."

"Look at yourself," she said. "You're all dishevelled. Here, take my comb. Listen," she continued, "Patty and I are just saying goodbye to the class and then we're going to help you."

"Great," I said, not really meaning it. "But right now I have an appointment at the office."

"But don't you have to play bridge at one o'clock? Forget your office, come have some lunch and rest a bit. Patty said that Jimmy has his heart set on winning this championship. It's going to be his last tournament, and your first concern has to be playing your best.

"And what about the three corpses and the serial killer who's still loose out there? You think you and Patty can handle that?"

"And do you think the killer can handle me and Patty? Anyway, let's do one thing at a time. Eat some lunch and take a nap."

So I did. And it was a great lunch and it was a deep sleep. But by the time I awoke, the first 16 boards of the semifinal were almost over.

At the Sheraton, I headed straight to the ballroom. There a VuGraph show was just finishing. Concurrent presentations of both semifinal matches were on the big screen. Any passerby who didn't know it was bridge might have thought that it was a film festival. But instead of a film, it was a computer printout of a bridge hand flashing on the screen in front of 50 rows of "kibitzers." Up on the podium to the right of the screen were the commentators - Billy Eisenberg, Edgar Kaplan, Sami Kehela and Ron Andersen - analyzing the fine points and entertaining the crowd between bids and plays.

Standing near the back was Al Roth. I was surprised to see him there, although on occasion he would venture out of his Mayfair shell into the bridge community.

"Granovetter, your team needs you," he said, not unsarcastically. "I've never seen such bridge. That's why they won't put me up there on the microphone. I'd tell the people the truth: how bad the bridge has become."

"What's the score? Are they finished, Al?" I asked.

"What's the difference what the score is? Do you think the way your team bids, they really deserve to win anything? Did you see the hand they bid to four hearts and the Russian team bid to six clubs? If Cayne and Sontag were using my methods, they'd have been in six clubs in three bids."

Al told me the two hands. They were:

West                     East
S  A K x                 S  T x x
H  A K J T x x x         H  x
D  K                     D  Q x x
C  A Q                   C  K J x x x x

The Russians had bid:
pass    2 C
2 H     3 C
6 C

Cayne and Sontag bid:
2 C     2 D
2 H     3 C
3 H     4 C
4 H

Cayne and Sontag, however, were using Step Responses, and the two-diamond response showed a king or less. Unfortunately, Sontag could never really show his decent club suit. His three clubs was a second negative and though four clubs was natural, it didn't have to be headed by two honors.

"In my methods," said Roth, "East simply bids three clubs over two clubs, like the crazy Russian auction. It shows a semi-positive, a good, long suit and, presto, you're in six clubs."

Well, that must have been a 13-imp loss, I thought.

I moved quickly into the throng and tried to get a glimpse of the scoreboard. I first spotted the score of the other match. Great Britain: +35, Italy +27. A few lines below was our score with one board to go. Russia +33, USA +6.

Good grief, it was a rout!

The last board was now up on the screen:

Board 16        VUGRAPH
West dealer
East-West vulnerable

          North
          S  A J 8 7 6 3
          H  T 9 3
          D  K
          C  Q T 6
West                    East
S  T 9 5 4              S  Q 2
H  J 8 6 5 4            H  -
D  4 2                  D  A J 9 8 7 6 5
C  K J                  C  9 8 7 3
          South
          S  K
          H  A K Q 7 2
          D  Q T 3
          C  A 5 4 2

Closed Room
V. Mitchell     Plotsky   J. Mitchell    Schlotsky
West            North     East           South
pass            pass      3 D            3 NT
pass            ?

"Understandable," said Eisenberg on the VuGraph microphone. "The overcall of three hearts may look normal, but it doesn't show the strength of the hand. Three notrump should work out, though."

"Yes," said Kaplan, "but somehow bidding your long suit usually works out better."

"There you go again, Edgar," kidded Kehela, "with your radical views."

           North
           S  A J 8 7 6 3
           H  T 9 3
           D  K
           C  Q T 6
West                     East
S  T 9 5 4               S  Q 2
H  J 8 6 5 4             H  -
D  4 2                   D  A J 9 8 7 6 5
C  K J                   C  9 8 7 3
            South
            S  K
            H  A K Q 7 2
            D  Q T 3
            C  A 5 4 2

Closed Room
V. Mitchell     Plotsky   J. Mitchell     Schlotsky
West            North     East            South
pass            pass      3 D             3 NT
pass            4 D       pass            4 H
pass            4 S       pass            5 C
pass            5 S       (all pass)

Jacqui (East) led the DA, then switched to a club. Declarer ducked and Victor (West) won the king and gave his partner a heart ruff. That was down one, and though the panel all said Victor would score a trump trick as well, they were wrong. Declarer proceeded to ruff himself down and trump coup Victor for a brilliantly played minus 50.

At the other table the Russians did themselves in with a convention that many Americans also play.

Open Room
Pladichek       Cayne   Vladichek       Sontag
West            North   East            South
pass            pass    2 NT            ?

"Perhaps he is disciplined," retorted Kaplan.

"Maybe he is playing the strong two," said Kehela.

"Meanwhile," said Andersen, "the Russians have unveiled their secret weapon, the opening two notrump: a preempt in an unknown suit. I wonder if this will give North-South the same headache that the simple three-diamond preempt did in the Closed Room."

I recalled the same opening bid the day before at the Mayfair. Apparently the panel was unaware that the bid showed a side suit as well - not that it would help the Russians. . . .

Open Room
Pladichek       Cayne     Vladichek       Sontag
West            North     East            South
pass            pass      2 NT            double
pass            pass      3 D             ?

Kaplan: "Ah, yes, it may prove that the direct three diamonds took away valuable bidding space."

Eisenberg: "I don't think the auction will go the same way now."

It didn't. In fact, by the time the auction had been completed, Jimmy and Sonty had taken six natural calls and accurately described both hands!

        North
           S  A J 8 7 6 3
           H  T 9 3
           D  K
           C  Q T 6
West                     East
S  T 9 5 4               S  Q 2
H  J 8 6 5 4             H  -
D  4 2                   D  A J 9 8 7 6 5
C  K J                   C  9 8 7 3
           South
           S  K
           H  A K Q 7 2
           D  Q T 3
           C  A 5 4 2

Open Room:
Pladichek       Cayne     Vladichek       Sontag
West            North     East            South
pass            pass      2 NT            double
pass            pass      3 D             3 H
pass            3 S       pass            3 NT
pass            4 H       (all pass)

"Well done by the Americans," said Andersen.

"Very interesting," said Edgar.

"Illuminating," said Kehela.

"I agree," said Eisenberg.

It didn't take long for Sonty to play the hand. West led a diamond to East, who returned a club. Sonty went up with his CA, cashed the SK and DQ, discarding a club, then ruffed a diamond in dummy, West discarding a spade. Sonty cashed the SA and ruffed a spade, then led a club. He leaned over and claimed, because he could ruff a club in dummy, ensuring 10 tricks. The screen flashed and the score changed. It read: Russia +33, USA +16.

Well, that was better. We had picked up 10 imps on the last board. In a few minutes, Jimmy and Sonty appeared in the back of the VuGraph room, and I rushed over to congratulate them for their last hand. Unfortunately, they were arguing over some of the earlier losses, which is the way of champion bridge players - they remember the disasters better than the successes.

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