Stuart Kaminsky: Blood On The Sun

"And the police. We were partners."

The rabbi waited for more.

"He's dead," said Flack. "Shooting during a routine drug bust. He saved my life."

The rabbi closed his eyes, leaned forward and said something in Hebrew.

"You know anyone who might do a thing like this?" asked Flack.

"Perhaps."

"Who?"

" 'Thou shalt not bear false witness,' " said the rabbi. "If he is innocent, as he well may be, I will have borne false witness."

"Rabbi…"

"Ask Yosele, his widow," the rabbi said. "She is outside with the others. She is the pregnant woman with two small children certainly clinging to her. I should let them in."

"It's a crime scene. Do you know why there's a pile of nails and a hammer next to the wall near the deceased?" asked Flack.

"Repairs," said the rabbi.

"Asher Glick?"

The rabbi nodded with understanding.

"Asher Glick was a respected member of our congregation," said the rabbi. "Devout without being pedantic."

"What did he do for a living?" Flack said, looking at the bimah, the raised platform on which the simple pulpit sat. In the wall behind the bimah was a recessed alcove with a sliding wooden door.

"The Torah," said the rabbi, following Flack's eyes.

"The first five books of the Scriptures," said Flack. "Transcribed by a sopher, a scribe, by hand on a single sheet of parchment using a quill pen. He devotes his life to slowly hand-printing the five books on a scroll. And if he makes even the smallest error, he has to discard the scroll and start again."

"It must be pristine," said the rabbi. "Like life, there is no going back. We have four Torahs. Your partner taught you something of our religion."

"A little," said Flack. "What did Mr. Glick do for a living?"

"Furniture," said the rabbi. "He bought antique furniture at estate sales, shops, usually from people who had no idea of the value of what they were selling. I am told he had a brilliant eye for what lay beneath a veneer of paint, polish, misadventures and neglect. He then found buyers who he knew would be interested in his acquisitions and the buyers would restore the pieces and sell them."

Inside the library, Stella and Aiden looked down at the body. It was time to call the paramedics and have them take the dead man away.

But Stella found herself studying the corpse. Something was wrong. They had missed something.

"How long has he been dead?" Stella asked.

Aiden had taken the dead man's temperature.

"About two hours," Aiden said.

"Those nails wouldn't have killed him," Stella said. "And he didn't call for help."

Stella knelt next to the body and gently lifted the head. Beneath it was a small pool of blood. Aiden had examined the body. Aiden had missed it.

Aiden knew why she had missed it. No sleep. Up all night in bed. Not alone. This morning, still hazy after two cups of coffee, she had been thinking of ways to tell him that it was over, that she didn't want to see him again. She wanted to let him down without pain, but she hadn't thought of a way. What she had done was foul up on the job.

"Bullet holes in the back of the head," said Stella. "Close together. No exit wounds."

She looked at Aiden, who was staring at the corpse.

"No harm, no foul," said Stella. "You all right?"

Aiden nodded, went for her kit to take more photographs and to vacuum the dead man's clothes. She also took samples of the thin layer of sawdust on the floor next to a makeshift carpenter's bench.

Three minutes later Aiden and Stella came out of the library. In addition to their kits, Aiden carried a plastic bag with a hammer inside and another one filled with nails. Stella carried the now folded chair.

The old rabbi and Flack were waiting for them, steaming cups of coffee in their hands. Aiden moved toward the door at the back of the synagogue to call in the paramedics.

"What do those Hebrew words mean?" asked Stella. "The ones printed by the body."

"Ein tov she-ein bo ra," said the rabbi. " 'There is no good with no evil in it.' It's a Kabbalah saying."

"So the killer was Jewish," said Flack.

"Not necessarily," said the rabbi. "The sole purpose of those words in Hebrew may well have been to make you think the killer was a Jew."

"You'd make a good detective," said Flack.

"The Talmud teaches us to be wary of simple answers," said the rabbi. "When can we have the body?"

"Maybe three days," said Stella.

"Unacceptable," said the rabbi. "He must be buried by tomorrow."

"Wrapped in a linen shroud," said Flack. "In a plain pine box. No embalming."

"He must be returned to the earth from which he came as soon as possible," said the rabbi.

"We'll try to get the autopsy done today," said Stella.

The rabbi was shaking his head "no."

"He must not be cut open, his organs removed," the rabbi said. "He must go naked and whole as he came."

"I'm afraid an autopsy is necessary," Stella said gently as two paramedics entered the synagogue, wheeling an aluminum cart that rattled and echoed loudly through the room.

"We will fight this," said the rabbi as he looked soulfully at the two paramedics.

"Many Orthodox Jews have had autopsies," said Flack. "Our medical examiner will be as unobtrusive as possible."

"But still he invades," said the rabbi. "We have lawyers. We will try to stop you."

"You'll fail," said Stella.

"I know," said the rabbi, "but since when is the certainty of failure a reason not to try?"

"We'll need the names of the other men at this morning's minyan," said Flack.

The rabbi shook his head.

"I cannot without their permission," he said.

"Then I'll get them another way," said Flack.

It was time to remove the nails in the hands and feet of Asher Glick. Stella returned to the small library, and with the help of the paramedics, she did just that, talking into a miniature tape recorder, indicating the depth of each wound through the body and into the floor. Then the paramedics exited the library, pushing the cart on which the body of Asher Glick now lay covered by a white sheet.

The rabbi watched as the cart was wheeled down the center aisle.

"If I get the names of those in the minyan another way, it'll take time, time I could be spending looking for Mr. Glick's killer," said Flack.

"I cannot," said the rabbi.

Flack gave up, put his hands on his hips and looked at Stella, who shrugged. They'd get nothing more here, not now.

"They should have sent a Jewish detective," the rabbi said softly, more to himself than Flack, Stella and Aiden.

No one said anything, but all three agreed.

"I should- must- go out to the congregation, bring them in," said the rabbi, leaning forward.

"It's a crime scene," said Flack. "You can't bring them in for a few hours."

The rabbi nodded and said, "Talk to Yosele. She is outside."

There was nothing more to say. The three investigators headed for the door, opened it and found themselves facing a crowd of bearded men of all ages, all wearing black suits and wide-brimmed black hats. The women had their heads covered by scarfs, and many of them herded children together. Behind this first crowd was another, smaller crowd of curious, young, mostly male black people.

Crown Heights had been the site of more than four days of rioting in August of 1991 after an ultra-Orthodox Lubavitcher Jew drove his car into two black children. The African-American blacks and the growing number of Caribbean blacks joined in the riots and the attacks, focusing their rage not on whites, not on all Jews, but solely on the ultra-visible sect in black hats, suits and beards. Many in the black community had believed for years that these Jews got special treatment from the city. The belief erupted on that hot August night. Flack, a rookie cop, had been sent with hundreds of others to the 71st Precinct with full riot gear.