"This window? You are suggesting it was on my window?"
The rabbi nodded. "I would think so. Gittel claimed all along it was you they were after. I think she's right. She has said that you have a very important position in the government."
"Of course. I was right." said Gittel smugly. "Why would the terrorists be interested in this old used car dealer? I’ve said from the beginning it was you they were after. Avner." To the rabbi she said. "Avner has a very important position. Why, in Tel Aviv, before he came here—"
"Sha, Gittel. You talk too much." said Adoumi. "So you think the bomb was on my windowsill. Rabbi? And Ben Ami saw it?"
"I would say so." He leaned back so that he was sitting on the edge of the windowsill. "I don't know what I'd do if I came across a bomb as Dr. Ben Ami did. I'd be scared to death. I suppose. It was armed and could go off at any moment. What could he do? Run? Try to hurl it away? He had no way of knowing how long it had been there and when it was due to go off. I'd say he acted very sensibly. He remembered that the stories in the newspapers carried instructions on how to disarm it— by pushing in the plunger. Then normally, he would have called the police, and they would have come in several cars and searched the area and frightened your wife out of her wits in the bargain. So instead, he called you because he knew, I suppose, that the terrorists and their activities were even more your concern than they were the concern of the police. In any case, he knew you'd know what to do. He called you and said that he had something important to tell you."
Adoumi nodded slowly.
"And what did he tell you when he saw you?"
"Only that after he examined her, he said he thought she ought to come into the hospital for observation and some more tests."
"But he phoned you before he had examined her."
"Well, I suppose he had been thinking of it—"
"Then wouldn't he have said there was something he wanted to discuss with you or talk over with you rather than that he had something important to tell you?"
"I get what you're driving at." said Adoumi. "He goes down the alley and sees the bomb. He disarms it by pushing in the plunger and then calls me. Then instead of waiting around for me to come home, he goes to see Memavet first. No reason why he shouldn't. He wouldn't just stand there. But even if I accept your account of what happened between him and Memavet. I don't understand why he would then reactivate the bomb. You said it was to make the killing look like a terrorist crime, but why did he have to? He could have said he rang Memavet's bell and there was no answer—■
"Because Roy was there!" the rabbi exclaimed. "When he opened the door to leave, there was Roy. To be sure, the death was accidental, but it was the result of violence. There would have been an investigation, and would everyone have believed it had been purely accidental? He had established himself here in Israel and was liked and respected. Would that continue after the police started digging? And if he did nothing, the body would be found, the next day perhaps, and Roy would come forward to say that he had seen the doctor leaving the apartment and closing the door behind him. But then he thought of the bomb and realized he could make it appear a terrorist act — and he knew they would immediately claim the credit for it because they always do. And of course, they did plant the bomb originally. So he reactivated it and placed it on the corresponding window of Memavet's apartment."
"But Sarah, he was endangering her," Gittel objected.
"Was he, Mr. Adoumi?" asked the rabbi. "In the newspaper description of the bomb, it said that it was of limited range and power."
"That's right," said Adoumi. "The noise and the shock, of course— but he gave her a sleeping pill. She awoke but went right to sleep again. Poor devil— I can't help feeling sorry for him." He got up from his chair and began pacing the floor while all three of his visitors sat silent, following him with their eyes. "Maybe we haven't got anywhere with Abdul because we've been harping on the connection with Memavet," he mused, seemingly oblivious of his guests. "Maybe if we change our line of questioning—" He broke off to turn to Stedman. "I— I am sorry," he said awkwardly. "Sometimes, mistakes are made— you understand— it is the safety of the state—"
"I understand." said Stedman. "I have no hard feelings toward you."
"Thank you." Adoumi smiled sheepishly. "And he was responsible for the bombing, you know—just by being there." He looked from one to the other of his guests uncertainly. "Rabbi. I want to thank you, and you too. Gittel, for bringing them here— I—"
"You should have known, Avner," she scolded, "that the son of a man like Mr. Stedman would not be mixed up with terrorists— or a friend of a nephew of mine."
"I— I should have known."
She looked sharply at him and then at her nephew and his friend, who were both grinning. "Men!" she exclaimed, striding to the door. "Well, are we to spend the whole afternoon here and Miriam at home wondering what happened to us?"
Meekly, Stedman and the rabbi followed her to the car.
Chapter Fifty
They've got a flight out Monday." said the rabbi. "Dan said he'd try to drop by sometime tomorrow to say good-bye."
"But why can't Roy finish the year?" asked Miriam.
They were alone in the apartment, Gittel having taken Jonathan to the park. The rabbi shrugged and didn't answer immediately. He went to the stove and poured himself a cup of tea, looked questioningly at her, and poured another.
He brought both cups to the table. "It's probably best," he said only after he had sipped cautiously at the cup. "The boy got off on the wrong foot. And then he suffered a pretty traumatic experience. I don't think he'd be able to do much in the way of studying the rest of the year. Besides, there might be some danger— from Abdul's Arab friends, who wouldn't know what had happened except that they had gone off together, he and Abdul, and he is free while Abdul is in custody."
"And Dan?"
"Under the circumstances, he couldn't very well just ship him off alone."
"But his book—"
"So he'll come back a little later. Or maybe he's got enough material now to sit down and write it." He drained his cup. "At the end of next week, we will have been here three months. We ought to begin thinking—"
"Oh, but Gittel said she had seen Mrs. Klopchuk and she was quite agreeable to our staying on for a while if we wanted to."
"No. I didn't mean just this apartment." said the rabbi. "I meant that we ought to begin thinking of going back to the States."
"Oh?" She controlled her surprise, waiting for him to go on.
He was embarrassed. "The last thing they need here in Israel is another rabbi. It's outside that they need them. Don't you understand? A doctor goes where there's sickness, and a rabbi, too. goes where he's needed."
"But your idea was to give up the rabbinate if you stayed on."
"I know." he said sadly. "That's a kind of daydream that occurs every now and then to anyone whose work carries with it responsibility for others. But it's only a daydream, and sooner or later you have to come back to reality and pick up where you left off."