through it, then showed it to Denise:
Denise read the passage. She looked up. ‘The 88 Killer is trying to save Jews?’
‘There are some who see the number like that, to mean that 144,000 Jews will be redeemed.’
‘Our killer’s a delusional fanatic. The bullets they found in three of the bodies were original Nazi bullets.’ Denise lowered her head. In the museum, they were surrounded by examples of the horrors of the Holocaust, the mindless and ruthlessly inhuman destruction of millions of people. It was hard to imagine that the lessons of history had been lost so quickly.
‘What do you want from me?’ said Goldenberg.
Denise put out a hand. It rested on his shoulder. ‘You need to help me profile this killer. If he’s delusional, then I need to profile the projection as well as the man. I need to know what he’s doing.’
‘Committing crimes against Jews!’ said Goldenberg. ‘Playing God. Perhaps he thinks he is working in a concentration camp or a ghetto.’
‘The ghettos were just holding compounds for the camps,’ said Denise.
‘That’s right, Dr Levene. And it was happening all across Eastern Europe. When the Nazis invaded and took over areas, they created walled cities within cities. Policed by vicious soldiers, sometimes Jewish police. People were crammed into these ghettos, disease spread — but you knew this. The Nazis liked to associate the Jews with disease. Infected bodies were kept behind barbed wire. There were outbreaks of typhoid and cholera. They starved the populations, feeding them so little that they had to burrow out through the walls to find some food. You once said that one of the victims was found without a coat.’
‘Esther Haeber.’
‘In the bitter winter, they outlawed winter coats and fur coats.’ Dr Goldenberg sighed heavily. ‘In the Warsaw Ghetto, the Nazis outlawed the owning and wearing of winter coats upon pain of death.’
Denise listened. The full horror of what she was hearing opening inside her mind.
‘He’s doing the same.’
‘So it would seem,’ said Goldenberg. ‘It doesn’t end.’
An hour later, Denise dropped Aaron Goldenberg back at his house and called Harper.
When Harper answered, his voice was strained and tired. ‘How did you get on?’
‘Good,’ said Denise.’ ‘He’s not just a Nazi.’
‘So what is he?’ said Harper.
‘He’s living like a Nazi. I think he’s a copycat.’
‘Of what?’
‘Of Nazi crimes, Nazi murders.’
‘A copycat. These are real historical crimes?’
‘I think so. They echo what happened in the ghettos. I think he’s delusional. I think he even thinks he’s policing the ghettos and punishing crimes. The number 144 might be a Biblical reference to 144,000 Jews who would be saved.’
‘He thinks he’s saving them? What about Abby?’
‘Starvation. It’s how they killed great numbers in the ghetto. But there’s something else.’
‘What?’
‘Aaron Goldenberg told me something he feared. They sometimes used Jewish women for prostitutes. They kept these women in brothels.’
‘You think that’s why he took Abby?’
Denise paused and then whispered her answer.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Harper and Eddie spent the night in the car, searching around the various locations that Jack Carney had given them for Heming’s whereabouts. Conducting surveillance was never easy and the night had been cold and long. There wasn’t much hope of finding anything, either, but they needed to keep busy and keep the team active. The interviews had revealed nothing. The killer seemed to come and go without ever being seen.
Harper pulled over at a news-stand. ‘We’re going to see some reaction now,’ he said. He handed across a dollar bill and took a copy of the
Eddie looked and sighed. ‘There’ll be protests and marches. This is going to cause real outrage.’
Erin Nash was focusing on the murders of David, Marisa and Esther. Two big pictures of confident women stared out, smiling, with David in the middle. Denise read Erin Nash’s report.
On a quiet Monday afternoon earlier this week, in downtown Manhattan, a 32-year-old Jewish woman was found tethered to a piling in the East River. She had been submerged and then shot through the head. A small symbolic number was carved into a nearby post. It was the number 88.She was the third Jewish New Yorker murdered in the past two months, the second in the last three days. The question needs to be asked: is this a series of hate crimes against the Jewish community?Marisa Cohen, a PR consultant recently separated from city lawyer Daniel Cohen, had been missing since Sunday evening. A police source said that she was half-drowned before she was shot. A death that is so horribly violent and cruel that it takes your breath away.This attack comes only a few days after another Jewish citizen, David Capske, was found dead in East Harlem, his body wrapped in barbed wire.And now a police source is saying that two months ago, in a similarly random and brutal attack, 29- year-old Esther Haeber was shot in a vicious robbery. The thief cut off her fingers in order to escape with her gold rings. Although officially a closed case, police are investigating the possibility that this was a hate crime.All three victims may be among a growing number of victims of a new and vicious breed of American hate crime. Brooklyn’s higher rate of anti-Semitic hate crime seems to be heading across the river to Manhattan.Right-wing organizations like the American Brethren, the White Wolves, the Neo-Aryan Alliance and Legend 88, have been growing in recent years as unemployment and international and national crises deepen the sense of disorder and chaos.In communities across America, youths are seeing right-wing rhetoric as an attractive way to cope with social and national insecurity. In places like Brooklyn, Jewish communities are concerned by the rise in verbal and physical intimidation.Even with their own security force, the community could not prevent several attacks in recent months. A schoolgirl on her way home; a mother pushing a stroller with twins; a shopkeeper closing for the day; a businessman getting into his car. All of these people were assaulted and beaten to the accompaniment of racial taunts.Lieutenant Tierney of the Hate Crime Task Force said yesterday, ‘There is nothing more despicable than crimes of bias and we will seek out and prosecute every one of them. But there is little actual increase in crime figures. We are reporting more because we are better at identifying them. In the past, many hate crimes would not have been reported at all. We’re now hearing about them, and can act.’But is it true to say that communities feel less safe than a decade ago? Hate has come back and, as David Capske, Marisa Cohen and Esther Haeber lie dead, we must all ask ourselves: do we have a Nazi serial killer or, as the police have named him, the 88 Killer, stalking New York?
Harper waited as Eddie read and reread the article.
‘What do you think?’
‘It’s what you wanted her to say. I’d even go so far as to say she’s been a little reserved.’ Eddie passed the paper back to Harper.
Harper said, ‘Let’s see what kind of a reaction we get.’
‘The Captain will know it was you.’
‘I know, but he won’t be able to prove it.’
