The Bar Mitzvah Murder (2 page)

2

The plane came in over the Mediterranean Sea. At one moment, the blue water ended and land began. We were fairly low and could see tall buildings and small houses. In a few minutes, we had landed.

To say we were exhausted would not describe how we felt. It had been a long trip and I think all of us ached from sitting so long. We went to our respective hotels in separate taxis. Although it was daytime, Eddie was half-asleep and hardly knew with whom he was riding. We kissed one another good-bye and took off from the little airport.

My impression of the drive is hazy. I remember that at some point I became aware that we were ascending a hill and I remembered from my readings that Jerusalem is built on hills. Along the way there were war vehicles that our driver said were left over from a long-ago war. The signs were in English, Hebrew, and Arabic, so I could tell when we were passing Arab villages.

Toward the end of the drive, which lasted less than an hour, we climbed more steeply, then got on a very wide street with several lanes in each direction. We were in Jerusalem and I began to wake up. As I watched, the driver turned, then turned again into the grounds of the hotel and stopped.

“It's beautiful, Jack,” I said, looking at the greenery and appreciating the privacy of the location. He reached over and squeezed my hand. Then we got out.

Our first real look at Jerusalem was that night after we had slept several hours and awakened hungry. My in-laws called and said how excited they were to be there, in a fine hotel with every modern convenience and a roll-away bed for Eddie that he thought was the best bed he'd ever slept in. They decided to have a bite in the hotel and sleep for the rest of the night, or at least until their grandson awakened them.

We had found a message from a Jerusalem policeman when we arrived and Jack had called him and promised to call back when he was awake and more clearheaded. He did that as soon as we finished our family call. I showered while they had their conversation, and when I came out of the bathroom Jack was looking at a map of the city I had brought along.

“OK. The guy's name is Joshua Davidson and he'll be here in half an hour to give us a nighttime tour of the city.”

“How wonderful. I hope we can get a bite at some point.”

“I told him we were starving and he promised to join us for something to eat before our tour.”

“I'll be dressed in a flash.”

Officer Davidson, a rather handsome dark-haired young man who arrived in casual clothes, was driving a small car whose license plate had white numbers on red, identifying it as a police vehicle. Happily, it had four doors. Jack and I were waiting in the lobby of our beautiful hotel, having taken a quick look around. The hotel was built around a central open area that was a restaurant, and although I hadn't had my dinner yet, I was already looking forward to having breakfast there tomorrow.

“Good evening,” the officer said in a deep voice as we met him at the door. “Mrs. Brooks, it's a pleasure to meet you. Lieutenant Brooks, a pleasure.”

“Please call me Chris,” I said.

He smiled but said nothing, and it struck me he might not feel comfortable calling me by my first name, as there was a difference in rank between him and Jack.

“Let me take you to dinner and then I'll show you the city.” He opened the doors on the passenger side and Jack gave me the option of sitting in the front.

In a minute, we were on the road. Our guide and driver kept up a steady stream of narrative, which meant little to me as I had no idea where we were or how it related to our hotel or the rest of the city, but I listened attentively.

“Would you like a light meal or are you very hungry?” he asked.

“I'm hungry,” Jack said from behind me.

“Good; so am I. Now, if you look over to the left”—and he was off again.

“Looks to me like you have no skyscrapers here,” Jack said at a pause, “no steel-and-glass buildings.”

“You're very observant, Lieutenant. All the buildings in this city are made of Jerusalem stone.”

“That's amazing,” I said. “All the same stone?”

“And all of it from the Jerusalem area. Of course the height and style of the buildings can vary, so they don't all look the same. Tomorrow you'll be able to see the color. Here's our restaurant.” He made a sudden U-turn and parked his car.

We got out and went inside. Officer Davidson exchanged a few words in Hebrew with an older man whom I took to be the owner, and we were taken to a table at the far wall. The restaurant was half empty and it had the look of a family place, making me feel quite comfortable. Menus were in Hebrew on the right side and English on the left. While I looked at my menu, I listened for the sound of English from people at other tables but heard none. Joshua made some suggestions and I gave them some thought.

“Chris isn't a very adventurous eater,” Jack said. “I'll try anything, but Chris takes things kind of slow.”

I ordered fish, but Jack asked Joshua what he would recommend and then ordered a lamb dish. But first a group of small dishes, each with a different food on it, came to the table.

“I thought you might like an assortment of Middle Eastern foods,” Joshua said. “Here is some couscous; this is hummus,” and he went on through the dishes, losing me pretty quickly.

Jack was delighted. He took a piece of pita and began sampling everything. I waited, then decided to plunge in myself.

“You gotta try this,” Jack said.

It was what Joshua had called hummus with an unpronounceable first sound. Gingerly I put some on a corner of the thin bread and tasted it. In a moment, I found myself smiling. “It's delicious,” I said. “What is it?”

“Chickpeas and garlic and some olive oil. I promise it can't hurt you. And your husband seems to like it.”

“Jack,” I said, putting another small bit on the bread, “don't leave this country without getting the recipe.”

The meal was wonderful and the tour afterward even better. We were driven by the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, and up to the Israel Museum and the university, a high point where we got out of the car and looked out over the desert and the Dead Sea, although we couldn't see much of it in the dark. We were constantly driving up and down hills and Joshua reminded us that Jerusalem was built on hills. We drove by Yad Vashem, the memorial to the many people murdered during the Second World War, past the King David Hotel to the gates of the Old City, which I hoped to visit, and to the Mount of Olives, where Jesus looked down on the city. We got out and stood near a little church above the Garden of Gethsemane to do our viewing.

After much sightseeing, Joshua drove us to yet another building and stopped. “This is the national police headquarters, Lieutenant,” he said, “where you will begin work at eight tomorrow morning. I will now show you how to drive from here to your hotel.” With that, he turned around and started down the wide road nearby, pointing out landmarks in the dark. “And here,” he said finally, “you turn left and”—the car moved across several lanes of thin traffic into what I recognized as the compound of the American Colony Hotel—“here you are where we started from. It's a very easy drive.”

“Looks good,” Jack said from the backseat. “I think I can do that.”

“Your car will be delivered to the hotel at seven-thirty. I hope that will be all right. As you can see, it's a short drive and fairly straightforward.”

“Absolutely. Chris, we can drive there together and you can have the car for yourself.”

I felt my hands trembling. This city was not the grid that New York is. Without a compass, I would have no idea whether I was going north or south. “We'll talk about it upstairs,” I said.

Joshua had driven into the unloading area in front of the hotel. “There's a very nice shop just across the way, Mrs. Brooks. You will have no difficulty spending money there, but don't accept the first price you're given. Bargain a little.”

“Oh, dear.”

“It's accepted practice. Think nothing of it. And a word of caution: if you take a taxi, make sure the driver puts the meter on.”

I swallowed and smiled. “Thank you for a wonderful evening.”

We stopped at the front desk and Jack asked for a wake-up call at six-thirty the next morning. I was happy we would be getting up early. I've always been an early riser and I wanted to pack as much as possible into the two weeks we were to be here.

“Mr. Brooks,” the young man behind the counter said, “you had a caller a little while ago, not long after you went out.”

“A phone call?”

“No, sir. A woman came and left you a message. One moment.” He went into a file and pulled out an envelope. On the front was written: “John Brooks.”

“Thanks,” Jack said. He came over to me and tore the envelope open. “Let's see. Looks like it's for you.”

“For me?” I took it and looked at the sheet of paper inside. “It's from Mel. Why would she come over instead of calling?” I began to read what looked like a hurriedly written message. “There's a problem. Let's go up and I'll call her. I've got her number and her room number.”

Upstairs, I called her hotel, looking at my watch uncertainly. She had dropped this off a couple of hours ago and it was getting late. They put me through and I heard her phone ring once.

“Hello?” It was Mel's voice, but she sounded breathless.

“Mel, it's Chris. I'm sorry we missed you. We went out for dinner and a—”

“Chris, listen to me. Something's happened.”

“Are you all right?”

“I'm fine. We're all fine. It's Gabe, Hal's cousin.”

“What happened?”

“I don't know. No one will tell us anything. I don't know if he's dead or alive. The only thing I'm sure of is that he's missing.”

3

“Calm down; calm down. Give me the phone.” Jack had been pulling off his shoes as I repeated what I had just heard. He took the phone from me and started asking Mel questions, most of them starting with “wh.” “Look,” he said finally. “I know one cop in this city—he just took us out to dinner. I'll call him and see what he can find out. . . . Yeah. . . . Yeah. . . . OK. You bet.” He hung up. “Shit,” he said. “I don't have Joshua's phone number. Where's the phone book?”

I found it in the usual place, a drawer in the dresser, and handed it to him. He opened it and looked at me. “This is the phone book?”

“What's wrong?”

“It's in Hebrew. How am I supposed to find this guy's listing?”

I looked over his shoulder. It was like a bad dream. There was no English anywhere in the book. It was useless. “Let's go downstairs and ask them to help us.”

“There have to be ten Joshua Davidsons in this town.”

“Come on, Jack. Don't be defeatist. Let's go down. I'll do it. I've still got my shoes on.” Without waiting for assent, I went down to the desk in the lobby and asked them to look up the number.

There were only two Joshua Davidsons listed in the book, and the young man agreed to call both. As usually happens, the first one didn't pan out, but the second one did. Joshua was just walking in the door when his wife answered the phone.

“Is something wrong?” he asked when I told him who I was.

“Someone we know has disappeared or been kidnapped in Jerusalem,” I said, stretching the facts in the interest of brevity. “The family has been told nothing and they're very worried.”

“If you give me the particulars, I can look into it for you.”

“Hold on. I'll have them transfer the call to my husband. I'm down in the lobby.”

As Jack picked up, I went back upstairs, thinking that this was not happening. This was a work and fun trip, a time to enjoy ourselves. We were in the Holy Land; I was eating Middle Eastern food and touring the city of Jerusalem at night. How was it possible that a disaster could intrude? How could Hal's cousin have died or been kidnapped on this very important day in his life?

I listened to Jack's description of the few facts he knew: the name of the victim, the location where the accident had happened, the circumstances of his being in Jerusalem. When Jack hung up, he sat and looked at me, shaking his head. He was in his stocking feet and he had wriggled out of his jacket, which lay where it had dropped on his bed.

“This is wild. Tell me again. This guy Gabe, he's the cousin who had the Bar Mitzvah?”

“That's the one.”

“And he got himself hurt or killed or kidnapped.”

“Did Mel tell you how it happened?” I asked.

“She doesn't know. They found him lying unconscious on the grass and a cousin who's a doctor tried to revive him but couldn't get him to wake up. They got someone to call an ambulance, and they came and took him away.”

“Where's his wife?”

“That's one of several questions I didn't ask,” Jack admitted.

“Did they take him to a hospital?”

“Presumably. Mel doesn't know which one because the name on the side of the ambulance was written in Hebrew letters and she was too stressed to try to figure them out. I guess she knows some Hebrew, at least more than we do.”

“Are you telling me they don't know where Gabe was taken?” I asked.

“That's what she said. They've been trying to find him in hospitals all over the city this afternoon, but either they don't have his name right or there's a language misunderstanding or—I don't know what. He's missing.”

“Did they try the morgue?”

“Joshua said he'll make some calls and get back to us tonight.”

“You said they looked for him this afternoon. Then it didn't happen at the Bar Mitzvah.”

Jack looked puzzled. “Mel said something about that. The ceremony was yesterday, she said. And there was some big dinner in the afternoon at a hotel. But something else was doing today, another party with music and dancing.”

“That's a lot of celebrating,” I said.

“Look, the guy has a ton of money. You fly a planeload of your best friends to Israel, you better entertain them right.”

“I guess so.”

“We may as well get ready for bed. If Joshua calls, I'll take it. This is crazy, Chris.” He got up and went to the dresser, where I had put my handbag and a couple of maps. He opened the big map of the city and studied the back of it. “There are half a dozen hospitals in Jerusalem that are listed here. It shouldn't take Joshua too long to check them out.”

“I'll brush my teeth while you baby-sit the phone.”

I had just fallen asleep when the phone rang. I could tell from the conversation that it was Joshua, and I could also tell that he had not found the missing man.

“What about the ambulance?” Jack asked at one point. “Somebody's got to have a record of a call and a location that it went to.” He listened and listened. After a while, he said good-bye. “You think I should call Mel this late?” he asked, sitting on the bed in the dark.

“You have to. She's probably waiting up to hear.”

He made the call and I got the gist of the situation. Gabe was not registered at any hospital in Jerusalem. Gabe's body was not at the morgue. Gabe was not at his hotel. Gabe was not at the last place he had been seen alive.

“I don't like this, Chris,” Jack said. He was lying down and talking to the ceiling.

“You can't disappear. A body can't disappear. The people in that ambulance know what happened.”

“Joshua will check it out in the morning. I'm sure I'll see him at the police station. You gonna see Mel tomorrow?”

“I'll call her in the morning. I had hoped we could get together and see the city.”

“Ask her all your questions. Take notes. We'll talk at dinner.”

“OK, honey.”

“I don't believe this is happening.”

The car was delivered as promised just as we finished our first Israeli breakfast. I had actually eaten some herring from one of the many dishes offered and I was feeling game to try driving. One of the secrets of my life is that I have always driven a car with a manual shift. As I am very careful with money, it always made sense to drive a car that used as little gas as possible, and now finally I have found myself among the majority. Most people in this country also shifted. Jack had learned how to shift when he was a teenager and he had had plenty of practice driving my car, so we didn't need any special favors. I had studied the map during breakfast and determined that the drive to the police station was as easy as it had appeared last night.

Jack got in the driver's seat and pulled out of the compound to the main road, made a right turn, and we were on our way. By day the city looked completely different. I got a good look at the shop Joshua had told me about and I knew I would drop in when I had a moment. In the meantime, I looked happily at the blue sky and watched all the little cars speeding along the road.

“Joshua told me to look out for Israeli drivers. They're not as polite as New Yorkers.”

That made me laugh. “As New Yorkers?”

“That's what he said. I guess we'll find out.”

The drive was as short as it had been last night, and we reached the police station well before eight.

“You gonna be all right with the driving?”

I was scared to death but refused to show it. “Sure,” I said. “How bad can it be?”

“Drive with Mel. Then at least one of you can look at the map and check the street signs.”

We both got out and I walked around to the driver's side. Jack gave me a quick kiss and said, “I'll find out what I can. You do the same.”

“Have fun at whatever you're doing.”

He grinned. “That's the name of the game.”

I watched till he was in the building, then got in the car and made my way slowly back to the hotel. I had a tough left turn to get into the compound, but I made it. The parking situation wasn't great, but I found a spot around the side of the hotel under a tree and left the car there. It was twenty-five after eight as I walked into the lobby and saw Mel.

“Oh, Chris, am I glad to see you,” she said, getting up from a chair near a window. She came over and we hugged.

“Any word?”

“Nothing. I talked to Marnie—that's Gabe's wife—after Jack called last night. She's distraught; what can I tell you? I didn't want to call her this early, but I didn't want to miss you, so I came right over. Hal's with the kids. I'm so shook up I can't even remember where he's taking them.”

“How 'bout a cup of coffee? We can sit and relax a little— it's still early—and you can tell me what you know. Jack is hoping this very nice police officer will find something out today. At the latest, I'll talk to Jack tonight.”

“Coffee sounds good. This is a gorgeous hotel, Chris. It's so old-world. We're in a splashy new one with a pool and all kinds of amenities, but I really like the feel of this one.”

“Me, too.” I smiled and led the way to the courtyard restaurant. It was a bit cool, but it was so lovely there, I thought it was better than sitting inside.

“I love it!” Mel sounded delighted. “How about here? There's a little sun. In fact, I think I'll take my coat off and let the sun warm me.”

We ordered coffee and I pulled out my notebook and a pen. “We have to go over this carefully,” I said. “I heard a little from you, a little from Jack, a little from Officer Davidson. I need to know everything you can tell me.”

“OK.” Mel sipped her coffee. “Saturday was the Bar Mitzvah. It was wonderful. It really moved me to tears, Chris. Here was this guy who'd devoted so much of his life to business and he decided to rededicate himself to his roots. We all flew over together, you know, but most of us planned to go home separately. Hal and I wanted to stay on, and a lot of the others did, too. We're all in the same hotel and Gabe is picking up the bill for as long as we stay. This guy is just so generous. Anyway, Saturday morning we had the Bar Mitzvah in a temple in Rehavia.”

“What's that?”

“It's a part of Jerusalem settled by German Jews in the nineteen-thirties. Gabe was wonderful. He read from the Torah and translated into English so his family would know what he was talking about. Hal made an Aliyah.”

“A what?”

“People are selected to come up and say a blessing before and after the Torah is read. It's called an Aliyah and it's an honor to be asked.”

“OK. Go on. That was the actual Bar Mitzvah.”

“Right. When it was over, we went to the King David Hotel for a really splendid buffet lunch. It was more like a dinner, if you want to know the truth. The table had the most wonderful dishes on it, ice sculptures, the whole thing. And it was delicious. We stayed for a couple of hours. There was champagne, live music, everything.”

“And then?”

“It was late afternoon when we broke up. Hal and I wanted to walk because we were so stuffed, so my in-laws took the kids back to the hotel and we just walked around. Jerusalem is closed up on Saturday, you know.”

“It's the sabbath.”

“And nothing's open, just the hotels and maybe some little restaurants. But it's not a shopping day. Even the supermarkets are closed. So we had the pleasure of walking on empty streets, looking in windows, that kind of thing.”

“What happened to Gabe?”

“I don't really know. We hugged him and kissed him after the meal and said we'd see him the next day.”

“So the celebration continued for a second day,” I said.

“Right. Gabe said he didn't want to overdo it and have an evening out after a big day, so he scheduled the final party for Sunday afternoon.”

“And where was that?”

Mel had a map with her and she opened it on the table, folding it back to highlight a small portion. “We're here.” She pointed. “The party was here somewhere.” She opened the map and circled an area with her finger. It didn't mean much to me, as I had not yet come to terms with the geography of the city. “It's a lovely place. We had a champagne lunch on the patio, dancing, and we did a lot of singing. The weather was gorgeous, so we were outside.”

“Anything unusual happen?”

“You mean before Gabe—?”

“Before, yes.”

“Nothing.” She looked at me blankly. “Everything was normal. We were a bunch of friends and family having a good time.”

“You said last night that Gabe had an accident.”

“That's what we thought it was. I mean, what else could it have been?”

“How did it happen?”

“We were all having a good time. I remember hearing someone say, ‘Where's Gabe? He can tell you.' But no alarms went off. I don't always know where Hal is at a party. Then I heard Marnie—Gabe's wife—say, ‘Gabe? Gabe, where are you?' I remember I kind of looked around, but I didn't see him. A minute or two later, I heard someone scream.”

“Who was it?”

“You know, I'm not sure. I thought at first it must be Marnie, but it could have been another woman. It was just a scream. We all stopped talking and people started running.”

“Where?”

“Around the back, behind the little band. When they saw us running, they stopped playing. I didn't really see him at first. A lot of the others got to him before I did, but I could see his leg stretched out on the grass. Hal's cousin Leonard—he's an internist in New York—pushed through the crowd and dropped out of sight. I walked over and saw him leaning over Gabe, testing his pulse maybe. Gabe was lying flat on his back, eyes closed. There was a little bit of blood on his shirtsleeve, I think, so I assumed he'd cut himself or hurt himself on something. I really didn't know what to think, it was so surreal. Here we were having a good time and suddenly something terrible happens. I didn't really grasp it till later.”