“No. We haven’t had any news on the disappearance, but we’d like to stop by and reconfirm a few matters. Whenever it’s convenient is fine with us.”
Posner regains his composure and suggests the following Tuesday at two. Wisdom confirms the time after consulting his calendar. Posner hangs up but is not as shaken by the surprise call as he might have been some months before. Maybe he really is getting more in control. The thought is comforting and he walks back and stands before the floor-to-ceiling glass that faces the ocean.
He loves the almost feral nature of the sea when it abandons all pretense of civility. He becomes engrossed in the abject wildness of the ocean and never once thinks to turn and look out the front window that faces the street. If he did, he would see a small blue car roll down his street and idle briefly at the foot of his driveway before picking up speed and moving away with its lone occupant, a man whose face he might remember, bent behind the wheel.
CHAPTER 9
Wisdom’s next day seems normal at first, and then gets more complex. He speaks to Brigid about the meeting he’s scheduled with Posner and promises to try and reach Welbrook later that day. He leaves word with Bennett and the chief about the Posner meeting. In between other calls, he hears an old voice mail from Bennett, who relates the essentials of a message from a hospital administrator at Mt. Sinai.
“What the hell is a rabbi in Brooklyn doing in this mess after almost five months,” Wisdom wonders aloud, but there is no one near or interested enough to venture an answer.
He grabs his phone, leans his back just far enough, so that with his feet crossed on the metal desk, he and the chair are in a semibalanced state. He rocks slightly and calls the seven-one-eight area code number Bennett left. The phone picks up before the first ring ends and Maccabee Youth is announced by an energetic youthful female voice. He suddenly feels much older than thirty-eight.
“I’d like to speak to Rabbi Schmittman, please. You can say it’s Detective Peter Wisdom of the East Hampton Police Department concerning his inquiry about Heidi Kashani.”
The voice says, “Wait a second,” and Wisdom hears muffled sounds in the background. He tilts forward and manages to lift half a cup of tepid coffee with his left hand before his swaying motion begins to move him backward. He struggles to regain balance, but at the last instant some of the coffee splashes upwards until gravity draws it down onto his chinos where it produces a very predictable and raucous repetition of “shit.”
“Is that any way to greet a lady?” asks a new voice.
“Sorry about that,” Wisdom answers, but a part of him wants to laugh. “Just spilled some coffee. I’d like to speak with Rabbi Schmittman please.”
“This is Rabbi Schmittman. And you’re with the police. Right?”
Wisdom fumbles for a reply and resorts to a simple, “Sorry about that. Yes, I’m with the East Hampton police.”
The answer seems to be enough.
“The reason I’m calling is that I just got back into New York last week after being away for six months and found out that Heidi hasn’t been at the youth center in almost as long. When I called the hospital, they said she’d disappeared shortly after I left and referred me to a Sergeant Bennett of the East Hampton Police who said he’d ask you to follow-up.”
There is a long pause before Wisdom speaks.
“It’s true. She disappeared early in May on a day trip out here.”
Thereafter it took only a minute for Wisdom to fill the rabbi in with an overview without mentioning any of the possible suspects.
“May I ask you how you know Heidi?” Wisdom has learned in such cases to always refer to the object of an investigation in the present tense, although he had already written off the chance of her still being alive. The rabbi’s next comment shows she’s struggling with the same issue.
“We were... we are friends. She’s done a lot for the center.”
“Like what?” Wisdom becomes more intrigued at the prospect of adding to the profile of the missing woman.
“She came to us about a year ago. I guess you know she’s a resident in psychiatry at the hospital. One of our board members recommended her when we needed an experienced person to do some part-time pro bono counseling. She arrived a week later. Came direct from the hospital by a car service. Always wore a white hospital jacket and arrived every Tuesday at about five and stayed till eight. After a few weeks everyone began calling her ‘The Woman in White,’ like the title of the old English novel.”
Wisdom just agrees. He’d studied English lit in college, but can’t immediately remember details of that particular book, although something about the name resonates a familiarity. He’s probably read it back when.
“So what exactly did she do at the Maccabee Youth Center?” Wisdom unknowingly pronounces Maccabee with the emphasis on the second syllable and the rabbi points this out after expelling a soft laugh.
“You pronounce it like an Israeli,” she says. “It’s the name of a popular beer in Israel although it’s in honor of Judas Maccabee who led a revolt over two thousand years ago to throw the Greeks and Syrians out of Israel.”
Wisdom doesn’t know what to say in the presence of such knowledge, so he quietly moves on and asks again about what Heidi did at the center.
“Let me first tell you about what our mission is here. To make it as simple as possible we try to counsel those teens that have been through a serious family trauma. That takes in anything from child abuse, alcoholism, drug addiction, and the death of a parent, sibling or close friend.”
“And this is only for Jewish kids?”
“No. It’s open to anyone in the community, which helps us get government funding, but I’d say about sixty percent of the kids we treat are Jewish.”
“Do you know why Heidi wanted to work there? I mean it’s a pretty long trip once a week and she’s not even Jewish.”
“I know. On the first day she walked in she told us right from the start that she was Muslim, but that she wanted to work especially with Jewish kids. And everyone she counseled loved her. She was a very caring person. I can’t believe she’s disappeared just like that. There’s this one young girl about fifteen. Her father was in the diamond business and was convicted of setting up a phony robbery to collect on insurance. It destroyed the whole family and this young girl went off on her own deep end. Started with drugs, moved out of her mother’s apartment here in Boro Park, and drifted into prostitution. She was picked up for loitering and the precinct captain sent her over here rather than have her charged. She was here for less than a week with her mother’s permission when Heidi arrived. Within a day she began to follow Heidi around like a puppy dog. She’s back in school now and wants to study medicine like Heidi, but seems to be relapsing of late according to her mother. Without Heidi I’m not sure if she’ll ever get back to what counts as normal. She idolized Heidi for her empathy, since she always made time for the kids, but also for her looks. Heidi’s very attractive, but I guess you’ve seen pictures of her.”
Her voice fades as she finishes. Then silence. Dead air. Wisdom grunts a “yes” into the mouthpiece to break into the stillness.
“Do you think she’ll turn up?”
The weakness in her speech continues and sounds to Wisdom as if she’s entered a period of resignation. Until then he’d almost forgotten he was talking to a rabbi and a woman no less.
“Honestly, we can’t be too hopeful at this point. Too much time has gone by without anything to go on.”
“I remember she had family in Europe. What do they think?”
“They have nothing to add,” Wisdom notes, even as his mind wanders ahead and wonders how or even whether he’ll approach Brigid and tell her about this side of Heidi. A side he was sure she’d never seen based on what she’d told him.
“Was Heidi particularly friendly with anyone at the center?”
