Monday the Rabbi Took Off (26 page)

“She’s one of yours?”

“M-hm.”

“Then arrange to have copies made of the tapes.”

“All right. Oh, here’s something interesting: one of the tapes is labeled ‘Memavet.’”

Adoumi shrugged his shoulders. “If the son’s story about buying a car is right, and I guess it is because the rabbi fellow confirmed it, then it’s probably just a recording of the meeting.” He looked off into space and murmured. “He goes around recording conversations, eh? When you think about it a bit. it’s a good cover. He can talk to anyone and claim he’s recording it for possible use in his book.”

“You think he’s an agent? CIA?”

“All those American correspondents are.” Adoumi said matter-of-factly. “If they’re not actually paid by the CIA. at least they swap information with them. Anything else on him?”

Ish-Kosher shook his head. “Except that he’s gone to Tel Aviv for a couple of days. He called the hotel from there to ask if he’d got any calls and said he’d be at the Sheraton for a couple of days.”

“At the Sheraton? That’s interesting.”

“What’s interesting about it?”

“Just that that’s where he went when he came to Israel. Instead of going direct to Jerusalem, he drove into Tel Aviv and registered at the Sheraton.”

“You were having him watched?”

Adoumi’s jaw dropped to make a slow, sly smile. “It was not him we were watching. There is a Rumanian dancer, thepremiere danseuse of the Rumanian ballet troupe that played in Tel Aviv. Olga Ripescu. She is a Russian agent. It was she we were watching. Almost immediately after Stedman registered, she spotted him, and they were together for a while. What do you think of that?”

“They could have known each other for some time. After all, these foreign correspondents get around.”

“True, but it’s interesting. Now did you get anything on this rabbi fellow?”

“Just what I told you after I questioned him.” Ish-Kosher said. “He seems harmless enough. He doesn’t do much of anything, just walks around the city, sometimes with Stedman. goes to the synagogue some mornings –”

“And just happens to live at number Five Victory Street, which was the house to which someone asked the civilian guard to direct him, the night a bomb went off in the next street.” Adoumi said dryly.

“That could be just coincidence. It proves nothing.”

“Ah, Chaim, you are a policeman. You think always in terms of proof, of what can be presented by the government lawyers in a court of law. a chain of evidence leading to a definite conclusion. But in Intelligence, where we are concerned with the safety of the state, we can’t afford the luxury of absolute proof. We look for a pattern, or some oddity, or better still, a pattern of oddities.” He tapped a stubby forefinger on the desktop.

“What do you call an oddity in this case?”

“Chaim. Chaim. it’s full of oddities. Take any one of the people we are concerned with. Every one of them shows anything but normal behavior. Start with Stedman. He arrives in Israel, and instead of going directly to Jerusalem, where his son is, he goes to Tel Aviv for a couple of days first.”

“But he has friends there –”

“It can be explained, of course, but it’s still a little odd where he hasn’t seen his son for some time. He could always run down to Tel Aviv afterward. It’s even odd that he was not met at the plane by his son. But on top of that, one of the first persons he meets in Tel Aviv is Ripescu. a known agent. Now that’s odd. But it doesn’t end there. He comes to Jerusalem, and he is engaged in an odd occupation, which could serve as a cover. It enables him to talk to anyone in seeming innocence. No meeting in special places, no whispered remarks in passing, but all open and aboveboard. If we confronted him and asked him why he was talking to someone we happened to be watching, he merely points out it’s his normal method of gathering material.”

“But look here, if some intelligence were passed to him. it would be right there on tape as proof against him.”

“Come. Chaim. I wouldn’t expect him to be that simple. If it were dangerous information, he would simply wipe the tape. Conceivably, if he were confronted on the street by one of our men. he could wipe the tape right then and there with one hand in his pocket while our man was holding him by the arm. Believe me. it has excellent possibilities – this writing a book based on street conversations. Has it occurred to you. Chaim. that he might have been the one who approached the civilian guard to ask for number Five Victory Street, in which case we would have still another oddity.”

“It’s possible. That we might be able to check out. We could get hold of the civilian guard and bring him down to the King David.” Ish-Kosher seemed pleased at the prospect of a definite assignment.

“It might be worth trying.” said Adoumi. “But let’s go on. We next run across him in connection with Memavet. And the very evening of the day he goes to see him. Memavet’s apartment is bombed. Now, that’s damn odd.”

“It’s certainly an interesting coincidence, especially if he was the one who spoke to the civilian guard, because that would connect him with both bombings.”

Adoumi went right on. “And now, the most interesting oddity: He is the father of Roy Stedman, who was not only present at the right time for the Memavet bombing, but who is friends with Abdul El Khaldi, who is someone in whom we have been interested for a long time.”

“Have you ever brought him in for questioning?”

Adoumi shook his head. “No. he’s an intellectual. We treat these Arab intellectuals with kid gloves, especially if they are students at the university. That’s government policy, and insofar as it’s feasible, we respect it. Now let’s go on.

I’ve already mentioned that it is odd that Roy didn’t go to meet his father’s plane. And it’s odd that a Jewish boy should be so friendly with the Arabs. But take the two together, father and son, and there you come up with another oddity. We pull the boy’s passport, and instead of doing the normal thing, making representations to the consulate, they do nothing – just sit and wait for it to come in by mail. Let’s assume that the boy doesn’t know any better, but his father certainly does. And then you have the rabbi –”

“You are suspicious of him, too?” asked the inspector.

“He lives one street away from where the first bombing occurred, and it occurred the very night he arrived in the city. Coincidence? All right. But someone who could have placed that bomb inquired about the location of the house where our rabbi lives. Coincidence? Perhaps. Finally, he becomes friends with the Stedmans and goes with them to buy a car from a man who is subsequently killed in a bomb explosion, that very night. And this on the Sabbath; a rabbi to go to a business conference on the Sabbath? Coincidence? Well maybe, but to me, it looks like a pattern.”

“Still –”

“It’s a chain. Chaim. Don’t you see it?” He held up a large hand and ticked off the links on stubby fingers. “Ripescu. a known agent, the older Stedman, the younger Stedman. Abdul, an Arab we suspect. And Rabbi Small somewhere in the middle as one of the connecting links.”

“It’s interesting.” Ish-Kosher admitted, “and odd, and there seems to be a pattern of sorts, but there’s nothing there that I can take action on.” He seemed disappointed.

Again Adoumi displayed his slow, sly smile. “You couldn’t, but I could.”

“You mean you’d go ahead and –”

Adoumi shook his head regretfully. “Not yet. I don’t really have enough. But if Stedman were the man who was wandering around looking for Victory Street, that would help a little. There’s also the note that young Stedman left in Memavet’s mailbox.”

“What about it?”

“You remember how it read: ‘I came back as I promised.’ That could mean just what he said it meant. But there’s a chance that it might mean something else.”

“Like what?”

“Well.” said Adoumi. “suppose he’d had dealings with Memavet before, and there had been some trouble and he had said. ‘Look. I’m not forgetting this. I’ll be back!1”

“But before you were sure that Memavet was killed by accident, by the terrorists and that they probably had nothing against him personally.11

“True, but in the light of what we know now. it could be that Memavet was killed because someone wanted him killed. It might be worthwhile checking through his business records a little more carefully, going back as far as you can, questioning the people at the shop, perhaps.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” said Ish-Kosher purposefully.

“That would give us a motive, you see.”

“I understand. And that would do it for you?”

“That plus a lot of checking among my own people.” said Adoumi. “In this crazy business you never can tell what you’re liable to run up against. These people could all be agents and yet in some crazy way working for us. I’d have to check it out.”

“I see.” Ish-Kosher nodded sympathetically.

The two sat in silence for a while, and Ish-Kosher wondered if their meeting was at an end. Then he remembered that Adoumi had said he wanted to see him about something. “Did you just want to talk it out. Avner?” he asked. “Or did you have something special to tell me?”

“There was something. I have received word that the Americans would consider it a favor if we did not interfere with the Stedmans, father and son. leaving the country. That’s what Stedman went to Tel Aviv for. to arrange to have this favor asked.”

Ish-Kosher was surprised. “You mean he went to protest to the embassy?”

“Oh, not protest. That’s too strong a word. He spoke to someone who passed the word to one of our people –”

“Let me understand this. Avner.” the inspector said carefully. “You mean if we come up with proof that Roy Stedman murdered Memavet, the Americans would want us to drop the case against him?”

“Oh, no. If we had proof that he had broken one of our laws, they would not think of trying to beg him off. It’s just that if all we have is a pattern that might lead to proof eventually, but right now is nothing but a pattern – you understand.”

“So what are you going to do?” asked Ish-Kosher.

“Your people might come up with something, but it would

probably take some time. And we can’t just go on keeping

these people on ice. Right now, the situation is essentially

static. Maybe if they started acting up

“

“And if they don’t? Do I just send Stedman’s passport back with a note saying I’m sorry if I caused him any inconvenience?”

“I was thinking maybe we could nudge them a little.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well.” said Adoumi. “suppose we put a little pressure on one end of the chain. It might cause reactions all along its length. We can’t at the Ripescu end because she’s gone. But how about the Abdul end. One of their group is a girl named Leila M’zsoumi. Now suppose a couple of your men were to pick her up… .”

As Rabbi Hugo Deutch. still in pajamas and bathrobe, went to the stove to pour himself a second cup of coffee, his wife, still in nightgown and housecoat, said anxiously, “Hadn’t you better get dressed, dear? You don’t want to be late for the board meeting.”

“I’m not going. It was suggested that I stay away today. I gather that they’re going to discuss the question of my staying on here. So I decided to take a holiday and pass up the minyan as well.”

“Then why don’t we take our coffee out on the porch? It looks lovely and warm out. Smell that air!” She opened the porch door and stood on the threshold, coffee cup in hand.

“It’s an offshore breeze. We’re getting the smell of the ocean.”

“Spring in New England. Hugo – I never enjoyed it so much before.”

“Well, Darlington is a factory town and spring breezes there were apt to be full of smoke and that sulfur smell – remember?”

“Mm. Oh, I’m glad. Hugo, that we’re going to stay. I was afraid you were going to be stuffy about it.”

“Just a minute, Betty.” He brought his cup and sat down on a porch chair beside her. “I haven’t changed my position. I just said I’d be willing to stay on if Rabbi Small decided not to return.”

“But you said –”

“The meeting today? That’s to decide if they want me – if Rabbi Small doesn’t come back.”

“You mean that Drexler told you that they want Small, and you are just their second choice?”

He sipped his coffee. “No. my impression is that if we were both equal candidates. I would be their first choice. But it’s really his job.”

“Is that their opinion. Hugo, or is it yours?”

“That’s my opinion.” he said stubbornly. “I’m not taking a man’s job away from him.”

She bit her lip to keep back the angry words that welled up within her. She knew how her husband reacted to opposition when he was having one of his stubborn streaks. Then her face cleared, and she smiled. “It’s an easy job for you, Hugo, isn’t it?”

“It’s a real vacation. I’ve thought about it – why it’s so much nicer here than it was in Darlington. I think it’s a matter of money as much as anything. The rabbi depends on the congregation, on the board really, for his salary, and so subconsciously they can’t get over the feeling that he’s a salaried employee. Since they’re the ones that are paying, that gives them the whip hand, and it’s only human nature when you’ve got a whip in your hand to flick it occasionally. But they know I’m on a pension and don’t need their salary. So that puts me on a somewhat different plane.”

“Oh, I don’t think it’s only that. I think they’re a nicer class of people than the congregation we had in Darlington.”

He shook his head. “No. I won’t go along with you there. These people may be a little better off financially, but it’s new money that they’ve made in the last ten or twelve veers. And a lot of the lovely homes we’ve visited are mortgaged to the hilt. As a matter of fact, there’s a kind of meanness that I detect every now and then, that I didn’t notice in Darlington. Take this matter of Rabbi Small’s not drawing a salary while he’s in Israel.”

“Yes, but you said it was a matter of his own choice.”

Rabbi Deutch nodded. “That’s what they said. But you know how these things work. They back a man into a corner, and he practically has no alternative. The decent thing would have been not to mention it at all, but to just go on sending him his checks.”