The Kabbalist (17 page)

“Yes, chief,” Danny was
impressed. “We must be dealing with dynamite.”

“You bet,” agreed Luria.
“This is a murder of a senior clergyman, and the Catholic Church is applying
pressure for a low profile. We are going to be working under a magnifying glass,
and there is panic concerning leaks, coming straight from the Minister’s
office. This is why it is going to be just you and me. There is going to be
zero tolerance for mistakes. Do you understand?”

Danny nodded his
understanding. “Yes, I do.”

“Now back to our
robber. I believe that having almost crashed into another car, he understood he
had attracted attention and feared being reported. He probably just switched
cars. Check for stolen car reports from that night in the Central Carmel area.
I would bet on a Mazda-3.”

“Thanks for the tip,
Sherlock,” Danny was already on his feet. “I will report back soon.”

“And don’t you forget,”
Luria was already talking to Danny’s back now. “Not a word to anybody. You are
talking only to me.”

Danny was gone, and
Luria leaned back in his chair. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate. After
a few minutes, he straightened up, opened one of the drawers and pulled out a
pen and a blank sheet of paper. Forgetting he was hungry, he started writing,
trying to organize his thoughts. He did not make much progress before the door
burst open again, and Danny charged in.

“What the hell is the
matter with you? Don’t you ever knock?”

Danny was too excited
to notice his chief’s annoyance. “We have a report of a Mazda-3 found in the
Ben Shemen woods. There is a body next to the vehicle and guess what? The car
was reported stolen yesterday morning, from Sderot Hatzvi, Central Carmel,
Haifa, just next to Keller Street.” Danny was enthusiastic. “You did it again,
sir.”

Luria jumped out of his
chair. “When did this report come in?”

“Five minutes ago.”

“Let me make sure I get
the authority to take over the crime scene.” Luria was all fired up. “We’ll be
leaving soon.”

*    *    *

The ride took almost ninety
minutes. Danny was driving, with Luria constantly on the phone, making sure he
had the command of the scene. Arnon handled it directly with general police HQ
and got it approved. Once this was done, Luria pulled his chair back into a
near horizontal position, closed his eyes and fell asleep.

T
he scene of the crime
turned out to be a small clearing inside the woods, not too far from the main
road. The place was buzzing with activity. Yellow tapes marked the boundaries
of the scene, and the usual crowd was on site. A photographer and a forensic
technician were busy doing their job. A chief inspector and two uniformed
policemen were standing nearby engaged in a lively discussion.

Danny parked the car,
and the two detectives got out and approached the working team. Everybody
stopped what they were doing and looked at them disapprovingly. “Just a
moment,” said the chief inspector. “Who the hell are you? Who allowed you in
here?”

Luria took out his
wallet and produced a small laminated card. “Superintendent Yossi Luria,
detective, Haifa Police,” he introduced himself. “This is a special investigation,
and I have been instructed to take over.” He extended his hand in greeting.

His hand stayed hanging
in the almost visibly tense air.

The chief inspector
took the card and eyed it suspiciously. “Superintendent Yossi Luria,” he
mumbled to himself and returned the card to its owner. “What do you mean by
‘take over’? This area is under my direct responsibility. With all due respect,
Superintendent, the fact that you claim to take over, does not impress me.”

Luria stifled a groan.
The ninety minutes it took to arrive from Haifa to Ben Shemen were obviously
not long enough for the wheels of bureaucracy to turn. “I have no intention to
challenge your authority, Chief Inspector…”

“Maimon, Chief
Inspector David Maimon.”

"I have no
intention to challenge your authority, Chief Inspector Maimon, but this is a
special investigation by order of the Chief of Police, and I was instructed to
take over. Please check and verify this with your station.”

Maimon wanted to say
something but thought better of it. He turned around and walked toward his
patrol car. After a few minutes, he came back, frowning. “OK, Superintendent,
the scene is all yours. Good luck.” He signaled his men and turned his back to
Luria.

“Just a moment,” said
Luria quietly but in an unmistakable commanding tone. Maimon stopped in his
tracks and turned around to face him. “The fact that I am in command does not
mean I do not require your services.” Maimon’s face became red. Danny thought
the man was going to blow up, but he gradually calmed down.

“Update, please,” said
Luria casually but definitely in charge.

Maimon spoke with an
effort. “Sella, give the Superintendent a status report before we go, and make
it a brief one.”

One of the sergeants, a
young and lively man, stepped forward. “Come with me, please.” He signaled
Luria and Danny to follow him into the tape-bounded area. A foul smell of human
waste dominated the air and all three instinctively raised their hands to cover
their noses. “The body has been lying here for more than twenty four hours
now,” explained Sella, pointing at a mass covered in a blanket, which lay next to
a grey Mazda-3 sedan. “We received the call three hours ago. A group of
schoolchildren on a road trip discovered the deserted car and the body.”

Luria looked around. “A
group in a bus, and a few cars.”

“Yes.” Sella looked
surprised. “It was a school class from Jerusalem. Don’t ask me why anybody
would want to take kids on a trip here, in the middle of a rainstorm.”

“Nature tour, I guess,”
said Luria quietly, almost to himself. “It looks like they have done an
extremely good job at wiping out every shred of evidence in the area.”

“Definitely,” agreed
Sella.

“Have you established
the cause of death?”

“The doctor says a
broken neck. He was attacked.”

“Attacked with an
instrument?”

“No, the doctor thinks
somebody killed him with his bare hands.”

“Are there any other
marks of violence on the body?”

“The neck is bruised,” said
Sella. “The doctor said he was strangled. The attacker pressed so hard as to
have broken his neck. It must have been someone with exceptional physical
strength.”

“Have you identified
the victim?”

“Yes,” replied Sella.
“This was not too difficult. He carried a wallet on his body. His name was
Shlomo Illuz.”

Luria and Danny
exchanged glances.

“By the way,” added
Sella, “he had more than a thousand shekels in his wallet, and they were left
untouched. This was no ordinary heist.”

"Let us take a
look at him,” said Luria. They approached the motionless body and Sella removed
the blanket. The dead man was about forty five, with thinning hair. He lay on
his back with the right side of his unshaven face turned up. The body was
stiff, having succumbed to
Rigor Mortis
. Through the mud patches, it was
possible to see the skin which started turning grayish white. They took their
time looking at his face.

“It’s him all right,” said
Danny and Luria nodded.

“Do you know him?”
asked Sella.

“Yes,” answered Danny,
“he is a known character in Haifa; a small-time crook, in and out of jail ever
since he was eighteen, mostly for breaking and entering, with a reputation that
no door or window can stop him. Not a huge loss to the community, I would say.”

“What’s going on,
Sella.” Maimon sounded impatient.

“Have you found anything
which could be used as evidence? Any clue whatsoever?” inquired Luria, ignoring
the background noise.

“Forensics made an
effort,” said Sella, “but with the scene in such a mess, I doubt if we can
learn much. The murder took place outside the car. With the rain pouring before
and after the event and with those damned hikers walking all over the place, it
looks like a circus ring right after the elephant show.”

“Was anybody sitting
next to him in the car?”

“Follow me.” Sella turned
towards the car with the two detectives following. He opened the door opposite
the driver’s. “There you go.” He pointed at the perfectly clean rubber mat on
the floor and then to the driver’s mat, which was smeared with mud. “It is easy
to see there was no one in the car with the driver.”

“I see,” said Luria. “So
the murderer must have arrived and left in another car.”

“I guess so,” agreed
Sella. “But the weather and the elephant herd which moved through this place
badly restrict our ability to identify the marks of a second car.”

“Weapons?”

“He had a gun and a
switchblade in his pocket.”

Luria and Danny looked
at each other. “We’ll need to run a check on the gun,” said Luria. “What about
a mobile phone?”

“We have found one on
the body. The rain and mud have rendered it useless. We have the SIM card though.”

“Sella!” Maimon’s
patience was now completely gone.

But now Luria’s
patience was gone, too, and he turned around sharply. “Chief Inspector Maimon!”
he called aloud. “Will you please step over here for a moment?”

Maimon approached. “Are
you done?” he asked testily.

“For the moment, yes,” said
Luria. “I have seen everything I needed to see here. I request that you keep on
the excellent work you have been doing. I would like you to compare all the
tire marks in the area with the cars of the tourists who have roamed around
here. Try to isolate those marks which do not belong to them or to the Mazda.”

“Thank you very much,”
retorted Maimon. “It was so good of you to show up. Otherwise, we would have
had no idea how to do our job.”

“Excellent,” said Luria.
“Then you know what to do. I am always glad to have professionals under my
command. I want you to try to locate the other vehicle which must have been
here early yesterday morning.”

Maimon grimaced. “I
thought this was no longer my investigation.”

Luria smiled pleasantly
“Well it is, Chief Inspector. The only change is that you are now working for
me. Your job is to organize the findings, forensics included, which you will
forward to me in a detailed, classified report to Haifa Station. I’ll also want
to see a list of calls to and from the deceased’s mobile phone during the past
month. After that, you will forget all about this case and go on with your
pleasant routine life. I’ll be expecting your full report by 16:00 tomorrow.”

Maimon got red in the face,
and Danny anticipated a thunderstorm.

“Unless, of course, I
have more requests or questions for you,” Luria added sweetly.

“Who the hell do you
think you…” Maimon was starting to boil, but Luria raised his hand.

“Chief Inspector
Maimon,” he said, “I think I have been extremely patient with you so far. If
you have any problems whatsoever with my requests, you are welcome to check
with your chief.” He paused for a second. “And, by the way, if you regain your
senses and start collaborating, I promise not to report the atmosphere of
non-cooperation that you have been so effectively promoting. I think we had
better save your chief the need to provide explanations to the Chief of
Police.”

Maimon’s eyes widened.
He opened his mouth to speak up but reconsidered. He said nothing but forgot to
close his mouth, which made him look quite ludicrous. Luria turned to the
sergeant, who was standing there awkwardly, embarrassed by the whole scene.
“Thank you very much for your cooperation, Sergeant Sella. You have been a
great help to us.”

He signaled Danny and
they both walked to their car. Danny started it and drove back on the path
leading to the main road. In the mirror, he could see Chief Inspector Maimon staring
at them until he disappeared around a bend.

Danny shook his head.
“What a character.”

“Well, he is not that
bad,” said Luria. “I believe he is a good man, who knows his job. You would
have been furious too, had somebody appeared out of nowhere to grab your case
from you.” They continued traveling silently. The rain outside started again,
and the wipers struggled bravely with the huge sheets of water pouring on the
windshield.

Luria broke the
silence. “What do you think our next step should be?”

“Obviously, we need to find
Illuz’s murderer. We may have a problem salvaging something from the chaos on
the scene. Nevertheless, now that we can assume that Illuz was the Stella Maris
murderer, we have a major lead.”

Luria nodded his
agreement.

“We knew Illuz well,”
Danny went on. “He is a small fish, usually working for his patron, Ze’ev Srur.
I bet Srur knows something about this.”

“I concur,” said Luria.
“I would first like to see the output of Illuz’s mobile phone calls. However, a
major piece of information is missing. We still have no idea what was stolen
from the monastery. I want you to go back there tomorrow morning and find
anything you can about Father Fernando. Try to understand what he was doing in
the library in the middle of the night. Identify who his friends were. Find out
whether he had any special interests, or any other details that may help. I’ll
be paying a visit to our friend, Ze’ev Srur.

*    *    *

When he arrived home that
night, it was very late. Luria showered quickly and wriggled his way into his
side of the bed, trying not to wake up Ella.

“Yossi?” She was one of
the few people on the planet who used his first name.

“Yes, Ella. Sorry for
waking you up.”

She turned toward him,
pressing teasingly against his body. “I missed you,” she whispered, half asleep.
“Is everything OK?”

“Yes, if you can say
that about a homicide investigation. How was your exam?”

“It was fine,” she answered,
glad that he remembered. Then, suddenly, she was wide awake. “Listen, this
murder case you are investigating was the talk of the day at the university.”

“How come?”

“The dead monk, Father
Fernando Diaz, was a doctor of history who taught at the university. Guess who
his doctoral student was.”

“How would I know?”

“Dr. Yuval Eldad.”

“
Your
Dr.
Eldad?”

“Well, he is not really
mine. I am just a teaching assistant of his. But if you are on that track, I’ll
grant you he is cute, even sexy in his geeky way.” Ella never missed an
opportunity to tease him.

“So Eldad must have
known him well. Did they keep in touch?”

“I think so. Yuval was
a total wreck today. He asked me to take over one of his lectures and
disappeared early. I think he took this quite hard.”

“I must talk to him
ASAP. Can you fix me a meeting?”

“I’ll consider it,” said
Ella, wrapping her right leg around his body. "First, you must fix me a
meeting with Superintendent Yossi Luria tonight, and then we shall see.”