'If you quote statistics, be prepared to back them up with numbers.'
Daniel was silent. Laufer smiled. Now it was his turn to patronize.
'Some murderers, Sharavi, are also thieves. Some are reckless drivers. The pedophile thing may be nothing more than a random correlation-nothing to make Malkovsky a suspect.'
'What,' Daniel asked, 'does this guy have going fof him in order to earn this kind of protekzia?' 'Protekzia has nothing to do with it,' snapped Laufer. 'He's never been convicted of anything.' 'He escaped before trial.'
'He's a Jew, Sharavi. You saw that beard-as long as Moses.' Entitled to entry under the Law of Return.' 'So was Meyer Lansky, but we sent him back to Amer-ica.'
'Malkovsky's no Lansky, believe me. Besides, we've re-ceived no extradition request from the Americans.' 'Yet.' said Daniel. 'What happens when we do?'
Laufer r ignored him. 'In the meantime, he's well super-vised. His rebbe vouches for him.'
'I didn't know,' said Daniel, 'that we employed rebbes as probation officers.'
'That's enough! A decision was made, in a specific context. A decision that you needn't concern yourself with.'
'The man,' said Daniel, 'is seriously disturbed. He admitted to me having erotic feelings for his own daughters, denied molesting them, but I think he's lying.'
'You think? You've harassed him, have you?'
'I've spoken to him.'
'When and where?'
'Yesterday, at his apartment.'
'What else have you done?'
'He's under surveillance.'
'By whom?'
'Cohen.'
'The new hire-how's he doing?'
'Fine.'
'Told you he was a good kid. Anyway, call him off and reassign him.'
'Tat Nitzav-'
'Call him off, Sharavi. Malkovsky is being handled. Stick to your own case and it might even get solved.'
Daniel's abdomen was hot as a fry pan, his jaw so tight he had to consciously relax it in order to speak.
'If you don't approve of how I've done my job, feel free to remove me from the case.'
Laufer looked at him hard, then applauded.
'Very theatrical, Sharavi. I'm impressed.'
He pulled an English Oval out of his shirt pocket. Lit it, smoked, and let the ashes fall on the clippings. A stray ember rolled from the papers onto the desk top and he stubbed it out with a fingertip. Examining the gray-smudged finger, he said, 'If and when you're removed, the decision won't be yours. In the meantime, stay out of administrative matters and concentrate upon the job at hand. Tell me, how many staff meetings have you had?'
'Staff meetings?'
'Getting the team together, sharing information.'
'I'm in daily contact with each of them.'
'How many times have all of you gotten together?'
'Twice.'
'Not nearly enough. In cases such as these, communication is paramount. Collating, correlating, the tying up of loose ends. You may have missed something-another Anwar Rashmawi.'
Laufer played with the cigarette ashes, allowed his words to sink in.
'Communicate,'hesaid.'Verticallyandhorizontally. And expand your thinking. Open up new avenues of investigation.' Daniel took a deep breath, let it out silently. 'Such as?'
'Such as Arab girls are being cut up like kebab meat. Such as maybe the Arab papers aren't all wrong. Have you thought of talking to Moshe Kagan and his gang?'
'Am I to consider Rabbi Kagan a suspect?' 'Rabbi Kagan thinks he's another Kahane. Arabs are subhuman- unclean animals. He goes to their villages and calls them dogs to their faces. He and his Gvura hooligans are a giant pain in the ass-bunch of misfits and nut cases. All they want is an excuse to go around breaking heads. Is it illogical to suppose that one of them has convinced himself it's a mitzva to slaughter unclean animals?' 'No.' said Daniel, 'not illogical at all. But we ran a check on them last year, after Kagan was elected. Found no evidence of violence beyond tough talk and a couple of light skirmishes with the communists.'
But even as he spoke, he recalled what Ben David had told him: Racist politics and psychopathy can be comfortable bedfellows? We're not all lambs. There's a reason for the commandment
Times change,' Laufer was saying. 'Crazies get crazier.' The other thing to consider is that he's a Member of
