"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!'"
"But before you were sure that Memavet was killed by accident, by the terrorists and that they probably had nothing against him personally."
"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...."
Chapter Thirty-Nine
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."
"And this bothers you? Is this why you won't come right out and accept the job?"
"Oh, for myself it doesn't bother me at all. I was just thinking of poor Small. As far as I'm concerned, it's probably a little wicked of me, but I rather enjoy the situation. You see, here I have the upper hand. I don't need them. We have enough for our needs, and I have no long-term career here that I have to safe-guard. If I remain here, it will be for three years? Five? Seven at the most. You notice in the time I've been here. I haven't had any rows, no crises of the sort that seemed to come up every other week at Darlington. They know that when I take a position. I'm going to stick to it." He smiled complacently.
"But you don't take a position quite so often here." she pointed out.
"I guess that's true. too. Since I think of the job as essentially temporary, I don't have the same feeling of urgency on most things as I did in Darlington. There, when some minor matter came up. I sometimes had to make an issue of it. not because it was important in itself, but because I was afraid of what it might lead to. Here I don't bother. If it should develop into a major crisis. I feel strong enough to handle it then. Do you remember Mr. Slonimsky in Darlington?"