Ruth Shahar answered the door. 'David!' She embraced him. She was a small wiry woman with gray bangs and nervous eyes. 'How's Anna? Rafi keeps saying the four of us are going to get together. But you two guys are always busy.' She stood back from him, smiled. 'Don't stand out here. Rafi's in the greenhouse. Wander around back. Surprise him. He'll be delighted. I know he will…'
David retraced his steps, then followed the narrow stone walk that led around the side of the house to the garden in the back. He stood there a while watching Rafi moving inside the greenhouse, an unlit pipe clenched between his teeth. The long fluorescent tubes of the greenhouse were lit, bouncing purple light off the top of Rafi's head. He carried a plastic bottle and every so often dipped into it with a dropper which he then squeezed above the hanging plants.
Rafi must have sensed the presence of a stranger; he froze and peered out toward the lawn. Then, when he recognized David, he smiled and beckoned him in
'This must be important. I've barely been home an hour. Be with you in a minute, soon as I finish giving dinner to my beauties here.'
He gestured David to a wicker chair, then began to move again among the orchids. They were strange tormented-looking things clinging to bunches of bark and masses of moss that hung from the greenhouse ceiling. Sometimes, after Rafi had finished his hybridization experiments, he would release a group from his control, setting them outside in the branches of shrubs and trees where a few, although not all, survived.
'I can't tell you how relaxing it is to garden after a day of crime and punishment. Do you have a hobby, David?'
'Nothing quite like this.'
'I know you love music.'
'I like to listen to it, but I never learned to play.'
Rafi put down his bottle and dropper and slipped into the other chair. 'I'm glad to see you. I know we've been tense with each other. I'm sorry that we have.'
'Why do you think there's been so much tension, Rafi?'
'Strain of the job, I guess. Stress of the case.'
'Do you remember that symposium back in May, the first one we held in Latsky's conference room?'
'With Sanders and your father? Sure.'
'You told them I was the best detective in Israel. Do you remember saying that?' Rafi smiled. 'But you didn't mean it, did you?'
Rafi squinted at him. 'Why do you say such a thing?'
'You didn't think I'd see through your bullshit then.'
Rafi's face turned stern. 'What's on your mind, David?'
'You were 'Hurwitz.' I know that now. You were the driver of the van. You overheard everything, and you took down all the names so that later the witnesses could be killed. You played me for a fool, Rafi, with your 'our first Israeli serial murder case' and 'consistently marred flesh' and 'you're my best man so I'm giving this to you' and 'it's a pattern crime so you solve it because you're in charge of pattern crimes.' '
Rafi stared at him. 'So that's why you came. You've come here to arrest me.'
'Is that all you have to say?'
'You sound bitter.'
'I trusted you. How should I sound?'
'I suppose I ought to say I'm sorry.'
'Don't apologize to me, Rafi. Just tell me why did you do it? Why?'
'You've heard me complain often enough. You know how I feel about things these days.'
'I thought you hated the intolerance, the polarization. I thought you hated the way the fanatics have been gaining power.'
'Yes, I hate all that. But you didn't listen carefully. If you had, you'd understand why I think Gati's right, that our only long-term hope is to become bigger and more powerful.'
'And if-'
'Yes, if that means making alliances with pigs like Katzer or screwballs like Stone, that's okay too. When you need allies you take what you can get. Which is why Israel's allied now with South Africa.'
' A war, Rafi?'
'A war might be the best solution.'
' Might be! ' David shook his head. 'But, you see, I don't give a damn about your politics. I only want to know how you could bring yourself to set those people up?'
'Will you believe me, David, when I tell you that that wasn't what I was trying to do, that the thought that they might be killed never entered my head? When the accident happened and Stone got hurt, my first priority was to salvage our cause. It had taken months to set up that meeting. It was the crucial meeting where the final deal would be struck. So I started shouting and pretending I didn't speak English to draw attention to myself and give the three of them time to get away. Then that damn nun started snapping pictures. I tried to grab her camera, but she wouldn't give it up. Then other people crowded around. So to distract them I took down their names. It was only later, after Cohen's assholes killed the nun, that he decided to get rid of all the witnesses and bury the killings in a case I could control. None of it was directed at you personally. I never doubted you were a fine detective, maybe even the best in Israel. But best or not you're plenty good enough, otherwise I wouldn't have you on my staff.'
They sat facing one another, two men who'd once been friends. Finally David spoke.
'I can forgive you for using me, but not for being party to the murders.' He stood up. 'I'll arrest you in the morning. That way you have tonight to explain things to Ruth and organize your affairs.'
'I did what I did for love of Israel. You must believe that, David, if nothing else.'
David looked at him and shook his head. 'Oh, yes, Rafi-for love. For love…' He turned away.
The next morning when Rafi did not appear, David was not surprised. He called the house. Ruth told him that Rafi had been up the whole night working in his study, and then, just before dawn, had driven off without saying good-bye.
That afternoon, when an envelope addressed to David was hand-delivered to the guardhouse of the Russian Compound, he had an idea what had happened. Inside the envelope was a complete sworn and signed confession of Rafi's role as conspirator in the Ninth of Av affair.
Two days later an army patrol found Rafi's body in the Judean Hills. His police Beretta was still in his hand. There was a single bullet in his brain.
MUSIC
At the end of September, just three days before the Jewish New Year, the weather in Jerusalem changed. The sun, which for months had been baking the streets, suddenly became more temperate. The harsh white sky turned a deep fathomless blue, and the dry cutting winds gave way to a gentle breeze. Jerusalemites, welcoming these changes, congratulated themselves on their good fortune. It was such a privilege to live in a city imbued with so much radiance!
The following afternoon David left work early, then walked from the Russian Compound over to his father's room on Hevrat Shas. The ostensible purpose of this visit was to invite Avraham for Rosh Hashanah dinner. But David had other matters on his mind.
'Irina Targov is back,' he told his father. 'Remember how she insisted her husband and Sokolov had to be buried side by side? Now she wants a new inscription cut into the base of Targov's sculpture: 'Dedicated by Aleksandr Targov to His Oldest Friend Sergei Sokolov in Honor of His Lifelong Struggle on Behalf of Imprisoned Soviet Jews.' '
Avraham shook his head. 'On some level she knows she ruined their lives. Now she wants to force them to forgive each other.'
'But they never would have done that.'
'No, of course not. But still I think Irina did a healthy thing. Now she should feel less guilt.'
