The righteous men

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Sunday, 10.10pm, Crown Heights, Brooklyn

TO was leading the way, fast and determined. She was not to be diverted. She last walked these streets a decade ago, but she had not forgotten where Rabbi Freilich lived.

Rushing to keep up, Will was firing out questions. But TO was staring straight ahead. 'They found the body a couple of hours ago. On the floor of my apartment. Apparently no one realized he had gone missing till this morning.'

'Christ. How long do they think he'd been dead?'

'Since last night. He was killed in my apartment, Will.' TO's voice wavered for the first time.

Will thought of the super's face: the Garry Kasparov of the basement. If he had been killed last night, it could only have been minutes after he had helped Will and TO escape. That was surely why he had been murdered. An image jumped into Will's mind. The man in the baseball cap.

First Yosef Yitzhok, now Pugachov. Two people who had come to Will's aid had paid for it with their lives. Who would be next? Rabbi Mandelbaum? Tom Fontaine?

Ever since Friday morning Will had felt as if he was falling down a mineshaft, getting further and further away from the light. He could see nothing clearly. The rabbi had explained what was surely going on, but how on earth did it involve him and Beth? What had they got to do with this mystical prophecy, a kabbalistic legend which now appeared to be fuelling an international killing spree? He was falling and falling.

And just when he thought he had hit rock bottom — hearing of the killing in Bangkok or of YY's death — he would fall some more. Now Pugachov was dead and TO was in dire trouble.

'Janey says the police knocked on every door, asking after the occupant of Apartment 7. Thank God she was in. She told them my name and said she hadn't seen me since yesterday afternoon, which is good. Luckily, she was smart enough to say she didn't know my cell number. They just left and she phoned me right away, to give me a heads-up.'

'And they definitely regard you as the suspect?'

'Janey says she got that impression. Why else was the guy in my apartment? Like, he went in there alive and now he's dead. I'm gone. What else does it look like?'

TO was still striding forward, her breath forming instant clouds. Her cheeks were beginning to glow. 'Apparently, they asked lots of weird questions.'

'What kind of weird questions?'

'About me and Pugachov. Did we have a sexual relationship?

Was he obsessed with me? Was he a stalker?'

Now Will understood what the police were thinking.

Pugachov, the psycho super, gets himself into TO's apartment after midnight. Tries to rape her. TO reaches for her gun, kills him and flees the scene.

'It won't take long for them to get your cell number. The police must have access to all that.'

'Hence this.' TO held up the carcass of a cell phone, minus its battery. Once the police had her number, they would doubtless be able to track it. Will had covered a couple of investigations where detectives reconstructed someone's movements using phone records. These not only revealed the numbers the suspect had dialled, but each time they had come within range of a transmitter. Police could draw a map showing where someone had been and when. Unless the phone was completely without power: no signal, no trace.

'When did you last have it on?'

'Mandelbaum's.'

'It won't take them long to get there. Will he talk?'

TO slowed down and turned her eyes to meet Will's. 'I don't know.'

They had come to Rabbi Freilich's house, no grander than any of the others in Crown Street. The paint was peeling on the front door, but that was not what Will noticed. Rather it was the bumper sticker that had been placed just above eye level: Moshiach is coming.

If these were student digs, it would not have looked incongruous.

But this was the home of a grown-up, a man of standing. The sticker sent a tremor through Will. It said one thing: fanatic.

TO had already knocked on the door and now Will could hear movement. Through the opaque glass, he could see the outline of a man's head and shoulders.

'Ver is? Vi haistu?'

Yiddish, Will imagined.

'S'is Tova Chaya Lieberman, Reb Freilich. I've come because of the great sakono.'

'Vos heyst?' What do you mean? 'Reb Freilich, a sakono fur die gantseh breeye.' The same warning she had given Rabbi Mandelbaum: a threat to all creation.

The door opened, to reveal the man Will had talked to at some length but had never seen. He was neither tall, nor physically commanding but his face had stern, firm features which, Will could see, conveyed a quiet authority. His beard was brown rather than white or grey and it was short and well-kempt. He wore neat, rimless glasses. In a different context, Will could see him as the CEO of a moderate-sized American company. As he saw and recognized Will, he hesitated, then gave a dip of the head, a gesture Will chose to interpret as contrition.

'You'd better come inside.'

They were ushered once again around a dining table white tablecloth, plastic sheet — in a room filled with holy books. This room, though, was large, airy and tidy. In a corner, Will spotted a pile of editions of The New York Times. He could also see a magazine rack stuffed with the Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic and a variety of Hebrew newspapers.

Making the instant assessment that was part of his trade, Will wrote a four-word headline in his head to describe Rabbi Freilich: Man of the World.

'Rabbi, you know Will Monroe.'

'We've met.'

'I know how strange this must seem, Rabbi Freilich, me turning up like this after all these years. I promise you, I never thought I'd come back, truly I didn't. But Will is an old friend of mine. And he asked for my help when his wife went missing. He didn't know about my… my background.'

She paused, to collect herself. 'But now we know what's going on. We've pieced it together. It's taken some time and it's not been easy but we are certain.'

Rabbi Freilich held TO's gaze and said nothing.

'Good men are dying. First it was Howard Macrae in Brownsville, then Pat Baxter in Montana. Then Samak Sangsuk in Bangkok. And now this British politician. Someone is killing the lamadvavniks, aren't they, Rabbi? Someone is killing the righteous of the earth.'

'Yes, Tova Chaya. I'm afraid they are.'

Will drew breath, a tiny gasp. He had expected a battle with Freilich, a round of game-playing as the rabbi played dumb, forcing TO and Will to produce all their evidence. But he was denying nothing. A dread thought surfaced. What if the rabbi had already realized that these two had indeed exposed his murderous plot and had therefore decided there was no alternative but to silence them? They would have walked straight into his hands! No need for the man in the baseball cap, Pugachov's killer: Will and TO had done his job for them. How could they have been so stupid? They had not even planned a strategy for this encounter. TO had just stormed over there…

'A plot is indeed underway to murder the thirty-six hidden just men. For some reason, this plot is taking place now, during the Ten Days of Penitence — the holiest time of the year. The killing started on Rosh Hashana and it has not stopped. Whoever is behind this must have decided that these are the judgment days, that a righteous man murdered in this period will not be instantly replaced by the birth of another. Perhaps they have seen something in our texts we never saw, the existence of a kind of limbo period between the New Year, when people are inscribed in the Book of Life, and the Day of Atonement, when the Book of Life is sealed.

During these ten days maybe the world is especially vulnerable.

Whatever their reasoning, they have set out to kill the lamad vav and they seem determined to do it by sunset tomorrow, by the end of Yom Kippur.' He faltered. 'I didn't think anyone else would find out.' He turned towards Will, though not quite meeting his eyes. 'Tova Chaya was always an exceptional student. And you, you have shown admirable persistence.'

Thanks for nothing, thought Will.

'We have known about it only for a few days. But I tremble for the world at the very thought of it. Some will say this is only a legend, only a fairy story. But it has deep roots, ones that go back to Avraham Avinu, to Abraham our father. It has endured for millennia. Whoever is doing this is gambling that the story is just a story. That it is not a true statement about the way the world has worked since the beginning of time.

But what if they are wrong? They are testing this idea to destruction. It will be the destruction of everything.' The rabbi was drumming his fingers on the table. If he was faking anxiety, thought Will, he was doing a very good job.

'You keep saying they,' Will said suddenly, his confidence taking even himself aback. 'But I'm not sure there is a they. I think there's a you.'

'I don't understand.'

'Oh, I think you do, Rabbi Freilich. So far there are no suspects in any of these cases, except you and your, your… followers.' He knew it was the wrong word. The only leader these people followed was the man whose photograph hung on every wall. And he was dead. 'You more or less admitted killing Samak Sangsuk to me.' The muscle around the rabbi's left eye gave a slight twitch. 'And I know you are holding my wife, though what she has to do with any of this still no one has explained to me.' On those last words, he had raised his voice, betraying an anger he could not conceal. He stopped, to bring himself back under control. 'The only people we know have been engaged in criminal activity are you and the people who work with you.'

'I can see how it looks.'

'So can I. And I'm sure the police, who have you in their sights already, would get the picture very quickly if they knew half of what we know. I don't think I need to mention Mr Pugachov, the super at TO's, sorry, Tova Chaya's, building, do I? Killed last night by that goon in a baseball cap you had chasing us?'

'I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about.'

'Oh, come on. We really can't play these games much longer, Rabbi. Don't you see? We know what's going on.'

'Will, that's enough.' It was TO, speaking in her normal accent.

'I have no idea about any Mr Pugachov. And I know nothing of any man in a baseball cap.'

'I don't believe this. This is ridiculous! You sent a man to follow me yesterday. We saw him, we got away and the man who helped us is now lying dead in her apartment.' He could hardly bring himself to use the name Tova Chaya again. It sounded strange enough the first time.

'Will, please.' TO was imploring him to stop. But he could not help himself. The pressure of the last few days had been coiled up for too long.

The rabbi's face was tensing. 'I promise you, I know of no man in a baseball cap. I did not send anyone to follow you.

I have not lied to you. Not once. When you confronted me about the man in Bangkok, I did not deny it. I told you that a terrible mistake had occurred. When we,' he paused for the right word, 'met on erev shabbos — excuse me — when we met on Friday night, I even conceded that we are indeed holding your wife. I have not lied. And I am telling you the truth now: what you tell me happened in Tova Chaya's building was nothing to do with me.'

'So who do you think did it, then? Eh? If you didn't kill that man, who did?'

'I don't know. Which should worry you infinitely more. It suggests that whoever is behind this dreadful scheme is now aware of you.'

'Rabbi Freilich, I think you have to tell us what's going on.' TO was sounding like Tova Chaya again. 'You know things, we know things. We all know time is running out. It is already the Day of Judgment. Whoever is doing this wants to finish the job before the Ten Days of Penitence are over.

We don't have time to fight each other. So far, handling this alone, what have you done? Have you stopped the killing?'

The rabbi had his head bowed, his right palm flat on his forehead. It moved up onto his scalp, tucking under his yarmulke, and back down again. Whatever TO was saying, it was striking a nerve. The man looked weighed down with worry. He muttered a barely audible 'no'.

TO sat forward, trying to close the deal. 'The killing is still going on. In twenty-four hours they might have killed the last of the lamadvavniks. And who knows what will happen then. You can't do this alone. We can help you and you have to help us. You must do it. For the sake of HaShem.'

For the sake of the Name, for the sake of God himself. It was the ultimate argument, the one no believer could refuse.

Was TO deploying it because she knew which buttons to press? Or was Tova Chaya speaking sincerely, genuinely fearing for the sake of the world if they did not act? Will was not sure. But if he had to guess one way or the other he would, to his great surprise, declare for the latter. For all her scepticism, for all her ten years away from Crown Heights, for all her bacon breakfasts and body piercings, she was not acting merely to find Will's wife, nor even for the sake of the remaining righteous men. At that moment Will realized that TO was driven by nothing less than fear for the fate of the world.

'Tova Chaya, we have so little time.' Rabbi Freilich was looking up. He had removed his glasses, revealing a face etched in anguish. 'We have tried everything. I don't know what more there is you can do. But I will tell you what we know.'

Unexpectedly, he rose to his feet and made for the front door. He put on his trilby and his coat and, without another word, gestured for TO and Will to follow him.

Outside was a quiet Will had never experienced in a city.

The streets were desolate. No cars travelled because the Yom Kippur restrictions prohibited all driving. A few knots of young men walked together, wearing their prayer shawls. Even though the evening was warm and people were out together, the atmosphere was not festive. Instead Crown Heights seemed to be under a blanket of contemplation and silent thought; it was as if the whole neighbourhood was a single, roofless synagogue. Will felt grateful for his costume, so that he could move through this extraordinary atmosphere without breaking the spell.

They were, Will now understood, moving towards the synagogue. Once again, he wondered if he and TO were walking voluntarily into the wolf's lair — with the wolf as their guide.

But they did not go inside the main entrance. Instead they entered a building next door, one that seemed entirely out of place in this neighbourhood. It looked like a redbrick annexe to an Oxford college, ancient by New York standards. Outside were crowds of men, spilling out from the lobby. They did not have to wade through the throng: people stepped out of the way the moment they recognized the rabbi. Will could see some raised eyebrows. He assumed they were directed at him, a face they did not know. But when he saw TO looking down at her feet, he understood: they were shocked to see a woman in this usually male terrain.

TO managed to whisper an explanation. They were entering the Rebbe's house. This was the home the late leader had lived in and which had doubled as his office.

Will stared. He had been here before, forty-eight hours earlier.

Soon they had reached a staircase. The crowds were thinning now. They moved up another flight, to a corridor empty of people. Straight into his trap, thought Will.

Rabbi Freilich led them through one door, which revealed another. But he did not go in. Instead he turned around, to offer an explanation to TO.

'I want you to know that what you are about to see is a mark of our desperation. It is a violation of Yom Kippur that has never before occurred in this building and, please God, will never happen again. We are doing it for-'

'Pikuach nefesh.' TO had interrupted him. 'I know. It is a matter of saving lives.'

The rabbi nodded, grateful to TO for her understanding.

Then he turned around, breathing in sharply through his nostrils as if bracing himself for the secret he was about to reveal. Only then did Rabbi Freilich dare open the door.