Rabbi Gabrielle Ignites a Tempest Read Online Free PDF Page A

from the previous days, we found it was a Hyundai
SUV hidden under camouflage netting. Unfortunately, by the time we
realized what we were dealing with, it was gone. What does that
suggest?"
    "Terrorists don't park their vehicles in the
same place on consecutive nights. They like to move them around to
confuse us. Perhaps the Hyundai belonged to an amateur archeologist
scrounging around Qumran to get rich."
    "Possible," Bar Jehoshua said, “but I
suspected terrorists, so I sent out a team with mountain climbing
experience. My boys struck gold on the second day. An unexplored
cave, only a half kilometer from where this victim was found."
    "I haven't read anything about a new cave at
Qumran," Zabronski's voice betrayed his surprise.
    "And you won't. One word about this in the
press and the desert will be swarming with treasure hunters. On
their heels will follow legions of lawyers telling the IDF what it
can do and what it can't. As soon as Orthodox members of the
Cabinet learn about a new cave with archeological implications,
they'll throw up barriers to all investigation. Then the prime
minister's office will start issuing instructions to me."
    Like so many people who worked in the region,
Zabronski was an amateur archeologist. " Nu ? What's with this cave?"
    "Itamar Arad's people from the Antiquities
Authority are working there as we speak. They're even more
interested in keeping this secret than the army."
    "Any scrolls?" Zabronski pressed on with more
than casual interest.
    "You know I can't answer that. What I can say
is there was a tarpaulin camouflaging the entrance. And remains of
a recent oil fire, so we know others were there before us. We
discovered a hole in the tarp from a small-caliber bullet. We also
found two slugs from an AK-47 and three from a 9-mm weapon embedded
in the chalk wall. There might be a connection with your
Bedouin."
    "Not my Bedouin, Galya. It's my job to
investigate and I will, but I can tell you right now that I've got
better things to do. These people don't enjoy us messing around in
their business. Once I solved a homosexual murder in one of their
camps. The tribe got hold of an Israeli lawyer and lodged a
complaint with my superior officer. I was suspended for six months.
I'm telling you, we're better off without this. These people don't
need our help, thank you."
    "Have you no shame, Zvi?" she joked with an
artificial grin. "Should it matter whether the victim is a Bedouin
or a Jew? Isn't it our duty to bring all murderers to justice?"
    "Tell that to our Palestinian neighbors. And
if I find the killer, will Arabs thank us for it?"
    "Perhaps not, but I'd like you to consider a
link between the Qumran cave and your victim."
    "I will," he said and stood up to leave,
thinking to himself that he had made no promise other than to roll
the matter around in his mind. As far as he was concerned, the
sooner he was finished with this case, the better.
     

CHAPTER TWO
CHICAGO
    Silence. Nothing but blank silence, if that's
what you call not receiving expected e-mail. Rabbi Gabrielle Lewyn
stared at her computer screen with what had begun as hopeful
waiting and dissolved over a period of three weeks into
disappointment, frustration, and eventually, anger. On January 17,
Tim Matternly had e-mailed her from Israel in a terse computerese
he usually deplored. Normally, he insisted on using formal grammar,
but this time he had abandoned such formalities, abbreviating
whenever possible, as if in a great hurry. No capital letters or
punctuation. His message said that he was pursuing the discovery of a lifetime and promised more details
ASAP. But damned if nothing followed into the second week of
February. Surely, she thought, he could have found a spare moment
to tap out a few words. No one on the planet, even the president of
the United States, is that busy. She wrote
him daily, at first politely requesting and later demanding a
response. He seldom refused what she asked, and his silence after
announcing the