Sanctuary (36 page)

“Unless the offender makes it into one of the cities of refuge. Then you’re not allowed to kill him.”

“This is true.” Gold stared at Decker. “Sometimes people think they make it to a city of refuge. Sometimes they think they do, but they don’t. Because there is no city of refuge if the crime is purposeful. Nowhere on earth. Nowhere under God’s heaven. The person may think he—or she—is safe. But this is a falsehood.”

“Especially if the chaser is an expert sniper who can hit the head of a nail from five kilometers.”

Gold smiled. “You take good notes.”

“Not so hard to do,” Decker said. “Sneak into Syria using his expert knowledge of the Golan Heights and do a couple of pops.”

Gold said, “You think it would be easy, you do it.”

Decker said, “You must have loved Dalia very much. You spoke of her as one of your own just a moment ago.”

Gold rubbed his hands. “A long time ago, there was a little boy of five who escaped Nazis by skin of the teeth. The boy had parents, the boy had a brother. The boy was not taken by Nazis because he was hiding when they came to the door. They simply missed him. But the boy remembered very good the look on mother’s face when the Nazis took away family, especially part when they took away younger brother from the mother. It was terrible, you understand?”

Decker nodded.

“Good. I thought you would understand. I remember you tell me that you were in war for America, right?”

“Right.”

“See, I have a memory, too.”

“What happened to the little boy?”

“Somehow he made it through the war. He was very young so he doesn’t have much memory. But he made it. Then somehow he goes to Palestine and grows up into young man. And Palestine becomes Israel. Young man becomes an Israeli. At last, he has family of sorts. So many now had big family called Israel because so many lost all family in the war.”

Gold licked his lips.

“One day, the young man sees a list in the paper. There are many lists, he reads them all. But this is a very important list. It tells him he still has a mother. She did not die like father and the brother. She still lives. He feels joy in his heart. He finds mother.”

There was a pause.

“You cannot go backward,” Gold said. “The man sees mother but she is not the same. She is very scared. She never goes out of house. She has remarried a man very rich who is older than she. For protection. The young man is worried. He is worried that if he comes back to his mother’s life, her new husband may not want him. And the new husband may not want
her
. And the young man does not want to see mother in any more pain.

“So they make deal. They don’t tell husband. The young man moves close to be with mother, the young man helps mother when she get pregnant. The young man even baby-sits the new little girl. And they grow close, the young man and the baby. They grow so close that young man learns trade of her father.”

“And the husband still doesn’t know.”

“No, he still does not know. And neither did the little girl. Never! The man was just a friend.”

“Then…” Gold swallowed hard. “Then one day the little girl is murdered. And the young man, who is now older man, goes to see his mother, to comfort her in her pain. And what does he see? He sees in her eyes
that same look when they took his first, younger brother away.”

Gold clenched his fists.

“We still hunt Nazis, Detective. Because there are things in this world that are so bad that there is no city of refuge. There is just no sanctuary for pure evil, you understand?”

“I understand,” Decker said. “But I don’t agree. I believe in a system of justice.”

“And I just believe in justice.” Gold stood. “Anything else, Detective?”

Decker stood. “No. Nothing else.”