'Such as?' Trying to tough it out, but totally scared shitless.
Now it was his turn to smile. 'I'll let you know.'
He got up, walked around to where Doctor was sitting. Slapped him on the shoulder and smiled again. 'We'll be in touch, stud.'
At one-fifteen Daniel received news from Tel Aviv that Aljuni, the Gaza wife-stabber, had passed his polygraph. At one-thirty p.m. he made radio contact with the Chinaman. Nothing new from the Old City.
'What's with Cohen?' he asked.
'Still feels like a dumb shit about Malkovsky, but he seems to be doing his job.'
'How's Daoud doing with Roselli?'
The big man laughed.
'Share the joke,' said Daniel.
'Daoud spend the morning dressed as a beggar with palsy, whining for alms near the Fourth Station of the Cross. Did such a good job that an Arab policeman smacked the soles of his feet with his baton, screamed at him to stop defiling the holy places.'
'How is he?'
'Proud as hell, and sore. You should see him, Dani-all shaking and filthy. If anyone can pick up idle chatter, he can.'
'Drop a shekel in his can for me,' said Daniel.
'I already did. Talk to you later.'
At two o'clock, Shmeltzer called in.
'The Hebrew U. archaeology department and the nature people promise to get me their hike lists as soon as possible. I had breakfast with the lady. Our request to look for the Nasser whore is being taken under consideration.'
'That the best they could do?'
'There was cooperation floating between the lines-I got a breakfast date immediately, so they're taking it seriously. My feeling is they'll look for her if they can do it safely. Problem is the Amman operatives took a long time to plant-they're not going to shut down the entire operation because of something like this.'
'Stay in touch with it,' said Daniel. 'If we need to push a little, let me know.'
'I don't think pushing will help,' said Shmeltzer. 'Something else came up. I'm in Tel Aviv, at Beilison Hospital-the reason I didn't call sooner. I got a call from one of the doctors I talked to a couple of weeks ago-eye surgeon named Krieger, had something to say about one of his colleagues, anesthesiologist named Drori. Remember the flap last year about the doc who refused to give gas to an Arab kid? A cross-eyed baby-they were wheeling him into the operating room and the mother started praising Allah for straightening her little lion's eyes so he'd be able to throw stones at the Zionists. The doctor got pissed off, told her to screw herself, he hoped the kid went blind, then walked off the case. That was Drori.'
'I remember. One of the leftist MKs wanted him brought upon charges.'
'Right-Sardoffsky and his usual Marxist crap. Anyway, it blew over in two days-that was that. But according to this Krieger, Drori has a real thing for Arabs. Since the incident with the baby, he's gotten even more militant, interrogates Arab patients before he agrees to work on them, has them recite this pledge that they support the state and think Yasser Arafat's a perfidious dog. If anyone on the staff tries to talk to him about separating politics and medicine, he gets irrational-that's Krieger's term. It's come close to blows. On top of that, he's a loner, unmarried, antisocial. Krieger says several times when he's been on night shift, he's seen Drori leave the hospital, get into his car, and come back early in the morning wearing the same clothes, unshaven. Says it's obvious the guy hasn't slept, has been doing something else all night.'
'Something like stalking and killing.'
'That's what Krieger thinks. At first he didn't want to believe it, but the more he thought about it, the better Drori looked as our guy. He wasn't too happy about telling me all this, of course. Felt like an informer. But civic duty and all that.'
'Think this could be some issue between them?'
'It's possible, but Drori sounds strange enough to look into.'
'What else do you know about him?'
'His employment records show he immigrated two years ago from England-Scotland, actually. Original name was Denzer-Selwyn Denzer. Divorced his wife and left her and some kids there. Personnel notes say he's got a very good reputation medically, but hard to live with.'
'Has the lack of sleep affected his performance?'
'Not yet, but they're watching him for slip-ups. They'd love an excuse to get rid of him.'
'Where does he live?'
'In Petah Tikva.'
'Not exactly local.'
'No, but with the new highway he could be driving back and forth in ample time. Who knows, maybe our second kill spot's out of town. A guy this fanatical could be into rituals, making some sort of symbolic statement.'
'Any connection between him and Kagan?' ~ 'According to Krieger, Drori thinks Gvura's too moderate.'
