A Deadly Act by Jonathan Dunsky

Author:Jonathan Dunsky [Dunsky, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-02-08T05:00:00+00:00

23

There were a few more people I needed to see, but my conversation with Mrs. Chernick was weighing on me like a necklace of stones, so I headed to Greta's Café instead.

I was hoping for a couple of hours of quiet with nothing but my chessboard and Greta's coffee for company, but that hope was dashed the second I entered the café.

"He's been waiting for you for over an hour," Greta said from her perch behind the counter. "You know him?"

The man was sitting at my regular table at the rear. He smiled when he saw me and raised a hand in greeting.

"Yes, I know him." I cursed inwardly, mourning the wreckage of my longed-for tranquility. "Get us each a cup of coffee, will you, Greta? He'll pay for them."

I crossed the room to my table. Above me the ceiling fan was behaving. Last night, after my visit with Dahlia, Greta had informed me that the fan had been repaired yet again, and that the repairman had assured her that it would operate quietly from now on.

I could only hope that her luck would prove better than mine.

"Good morning, Shmuel," I said, and went around the table to my chair without offering my hand. I sat with my back to the wall. Something the Westerns I read had taught me.

"And to you too, Adam," Birnbaum said. "I was beginning to think you weren't going to show up."

"If I'd known you were coming to see me..." I intentionally left the end of the sentence hanging.

Birnbaum's smile widened. "You'd have come sooner, of course."

"That's one possibility. Let me guess, you're here to persuade me to cast my vote for Mapai in the upcoming election."

"I would have thought that would not be necessary. A man of such high intelligence as yourself could scarcely consider voting for any other party."

"Yet so many citizens did the last time around and undoubtedly will again this time."

"I'm not worried. Mapai will win again."

"You lost in Tel Aviv," I remarked, and felt a thrill of pleasure at seeing Birnbaum grimace. The fact that Tel Aviv's mayor, Israel Rokach, was a member of the General Zionists, the party that was shaping up to be the main challenger to Mapai's hegemony, was a sore point for the ruling party and its supporters, one of which was Birnbaum.

Actually, he was more than that. Davar, the widely read daily where Birnbaum worked, informally served as the party newspaper of Mapai. And while Birnbaum was less fanatic in his support of the party than most of his colleagues, he was still a committed member of Mapai, a true believer in its platform and ideology, and a fervent admirer of Prime Minister Ben-Gurion.

He said, "The policies the General Zionists are advocating will drive the country into ruin, Adam."

"Some say it's heading that way right now."

"Times are hard, I'll grant you that. Which is why we need a firm and steady hand at the helm. Ben-Gurion's hand."

"People have had enough of rationing, Shmuel."

"You think I

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