'All right, dear.'
'Those people,' said Gene, pointing to pictures on the walls. 'Every one of them is skinny. They all look in great shape, even the old ones. From eating organs.' He speared several chicken hearts with his fork and swallowed them.
'It's true,' said Laura. 'When the Yemenites first arrived, they had less heart disease than anyone. Then they started assimilating and eating like the Europeans and developed the same health problems as everyone else.'
'There you go,' said Gene, looking at the menu again. 'What's this expensive stuff-'geed'?'
Daniel and Laura looked at each other. Laura burst out laughing.
'Geed means penis,' explained Daniel, struggling to remain straight-faced. 'It's prepared like kirshe-sliced and fried with vegetables and onions.'
'Ouch,' said Gene.
'Some of the old people order it,' said Laura, 'but it's pretty obsolete. They put it on the menu but I doubt they have it.'
'Penis shortage, huh?' said Gene.
'Honey!'
The black man grinned.
'Get the recipe, Lu. We get back home you can cook it for Reverend Chambers.'
'Oh, Gene,' said Luanne, but she was stifling a giggle herself.
'Can't you just see it, Lu? We're sitting around at the church supper, with all your tight-girdled bridge buddies jabbering on and tearing people down, and I turn to them and say, 'Now, girls, stop gossiping and eat your penis!' What kind of animal they use?'
'Ram, or bull,' said Daniel.
'For the church supper, we'd definitely need bull.'
'I think,' said Luanne, 'that I'd like to go powder my nose.'
'I'll join you,' said Laura.
'Ever notice that?' said Gene, after the women had left. 'Put two females together and they have this instinctive urge to go to the bathroom at the same time. Just let two fellows do that and people start to figure there's something funny about them.'
Daniel laughed. 'Maybe it's hormones,' he said.
'Gotta be, Danny Boy.'
'How are you enjoying your visit?'
Gene rolled his eyes and picked a crumb out of his mustache. He leaned closer, pressing his palms together prayerfully.
'Rescue me, Danny Boy. I love that woman to death, but she's got this religious thing-always has. At home I don't mind it because she raises Gloria and Andrea straight and narrow-she certainly gets the credit for what they are. But what I'm fast finding out is that Israel's one big religious candy store-everywhere you go there's some sort of church or shrine or Jesus Slept Here whoozis. And Lu can't bear to miss one of them. I'm a profane person, start seeing double after a while.'
'There's a lot more to Israel than shrines,' said Daniel. 'We've got the same problems as anyone else.'
'Tell me quick. I need a shot of reality.'
'What do you want to hear about?'
'The job, guy, what do you think? What kind of stuff you've been working on.'
'We just finished a homicide-'
'This one?' asked Gene, reaching into his pocket and drawing out a newspaper clipping. He handed it to Daniel.
Yesterday's Jerusalem Post. Laufer's press release had been used verbatim-just like in the Hebrew papers- with the conspicuous addition of a tag line:
.. LED BY CHIEF INSPECTOR DANIEL SHARAVI. SHARAVI ALSO HEADED THE TEAM THAT INVESTIGATED THE ASSASSINATION OF RAMLE PRISON WARDEN ELAZAR LIPPMANN LAST AUTUMN.
AN INQUIRY THAT LED TO THE RESIGNATION AND PROSECUTION OF SEVERAL SENIOR PRISON OFFICIALS ON CHARGES OF CORRUPTION AND
He put the clipping down.
'You're a star, Danny Boy,' said Gene. 'Only time I ever received that kind of coverage was when I got shot.'
'If I could wrap up the publicity and give it to you, I would, Gene. Tied with a ribbon.'
'What's the problem, threatening the brass?'
'How'd you know?'
Gene's smile was as clean as a paper cut. Pure white against umber, like a slice out of a coconut.
'Ace detective, remember?' He picked up the clipping, put his half-glasses on again. 'All that good stuff about you and then they just throw in the other guy-Laufer-at the end. No matter that the other guy is probably a
