Terrif. There were also several D.T.'s. Now the punch line. Look at this."
He lowered his index finger to a spot at the center of the Sumbok page.
Terrif, D.D.
Daniel remembered the name. One of the three he'd thought might be Arabic.
His hands were trembling. He put one on Gene's shoulder, said, "Finally."
"Bingo." Gene smiled. "That's American for 'we done good.'"
A Latam detective named Avram Comfortes sat in the soft mulch beneath the orange trees that surrounded Walid Darousha's large, graceful Ramallah villa, inhaling citrus fragrance, shooing away mice and the night moths that alighted upon the trees and sucked nectar from the flowers.
At fifteen minutes past midnight, the metal shutters to Darousha's bedroom window craoked open. They'd been sealed shut for an hour, since Darousha and the watchman had finished a late supper, the doctor cooking, the watchman eating.
An hour. Comfortes had a good idea what had been going on inside, was glad he didn't have to look at it.
The window was small, square, laced with grillwork-the old-fashioned kind, ornate enough for a mosque. Framed inside was a clear view of the doctor's bedroom. A large room, painted blue, the ceiling white.
Comfortes lifted his binoculars and saw a sepia-tone family portrait on the far wall, next to an old map of pre-'48 Palestine-they never gave up. Under the map was a high, wide bed covered with a while chenille spread.
Darousha and Zia Hajab sat under the spread, side by side, naked to the waist, propped up by wildly cotored embroidered pillows. Just sitting there, not talking, until Hajab finally said something and Darousha got up. The doctor was wearing baggy boxer shorts. His body was soft, white, and hairy, generous love handles flowing over the waistband of the underpants, breasts as soft as a woman's, quivering when he moved.
He left the bedroom. Alone, Hajab fingered the covers, wiped his eyes, stared straight in Comfortes's direction.
Seeing, the undercover man knew, only darkness.
What did guys like that think about?
Darousha came back with two iced drinks on a tray, Tall glasses filled with something clear and golden, next to a couple of red paper napkins. He served Hajab, leaned over and kissed the watchman on the cheek. Hajab didn't seem to notice, was already gulping.
Darousha said something. Hajab shook his head, emptied the glass, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Darousha handed him a napkin, took the empty glass and gave him the second one, went back to his side of the bed and just sat there, watching Hajab drink. Looking happy to serve.
Funny, thought Comfortes, he would have expected the opposite, the doctor in charge. Then again, they were deviates. You couldn't expect them to be predictable.
Which made them well worth watching.
He picked up his logbook, made a notation. Writing in the dark, without benefit of seeing the letters. But he knew it would be legible. Plenty of practice.
At twelve-thirty, from his perch atop the Law Building, Shimshon Katz saw movement through his telescope. Human movement, originating at the rear of the Amelia Catherine, then hooking around to the front of the hospital and continuing southeast on the Mount of Olives Road.
A man. Swinging his arms and walking in a long, loose stride. The relaxed stride of someone without a care in the world.
The man stopped, turned. Katz saw him quarter-face, enough to match him with his photo. He resumed walking and Katz followed him through the scope, using one hand to switch on the videotape interface. Hearing the whir of the camera as it began to do its job.
Probably nothing, just a walk before bedtime. The administrator, Baldwin, had done one of those twenty minutes ago, along with his cute little Lebanese girlfriend: a stroll along the ridge, stopping for a couple of minutes to look out at the desert, then, back inside. Lights out.
But this nightwalker kept going, toward the city. Katz matched the silhouette grow smaller, turned up the magnification on the scope, and nudged it gently in order to keep the departing figure in his sights.
He continued following and filming until the road dipped and the figure dropped from view. Then he got on the police radio, punched in the digital code for the security band, and called Southeast Team Sector.
"Scholar, here. Progress."
"Relic speaking. Specify."
"Curly, on foot down the Mount of Olives Road, coming your way."
"Clothing and physicals."
"Dark sport coat, dark pants, dark shirt, dark shoes. No outstanding physicals."
"Curly, no vehicle, all dark. That it, Scholar?"
"That's it."
"Shalom."
"Shalom."
The communication was monitored by Border Patrol units stationed in the desert above Mount Scopus and near the Ras El Amud mosque, where the Jericho Road shifted suddenly to the east. The man who'd answered the call was a Latam man, code-named Relic, stationed near the entry to the Rockefeller Museum at the intersection of that same road and Sultan Suleiman, the first link in the human chain that made up Southeast Team Sector. The second and third links were undercover detectives positioned on Rehov Habad at the centre of the Old City, and the Zurich garden at the foot of Mount Zion.
The fourth was Elias Daoud, waiting nervously at the Kishle substation for word that a suspect was headed due west of the city walls.
The radio call came in at Daniel's flat when he was on the phone to the American Medical Association offices in Washington, D.C., trying to find out if a Dr. D. Terrif was or had ever been a member of that organization. The secretary had put him on hold while she consulted with her superior; he handed the phone to Gene and listened closely to what Katz was saying.
Wondering, along with the rest of them, if Dr. Richard Carter had anything else in mind tonight, other than a casual stroll.
A miracle, thought Avi, watching Wilbur stumble toward his front door, carrying something in a paper bag. Amount of liquor the shikur had inside of him, it was a miracle he hadn't ended up in some gutter.
One forty-three in the morning-late-ending party or an all-nighter cut short?
Through his binoculars he saw the reporter fumble with his keys, finally manage to find the right one, scratch around the front-door lock.
Put a little hair around it. Though from the looks of this jerk, even that wouldn't help.
Wilbur finally got the key in and entered the fourplex. Avi radioed the Latamnik in back to let him know the subject was home.
"Aleph here."
No answer.
Maybe the reporter had walked through the building straight to the back alley-to throw up or get something from his car-and the undercover man couldn't give himself away by answering. If that was the case, any transmission would be a betrayal.
He'd wait a while before trying again, watch for some sign that Wilbur was up in his room.