Murder in Jerusalem by Batya Gur Read Free Book Online

close friends with a man living with the woman who was once my wife. Even worse, I don’t know what I’d do if I still loved her.”
    â€œClose friends? They’re more than close friends,” Hefetz had said. “They’re like…they’re like brothers, like brothers, they’ve been together since childhood, it’s like they’re family. Don’t you think they’re like family? They were like family! I myself have heard Rubin call Benny ‘practically my own flesh and blood.’ So what would you do in his place? Give up on your own brother? What would you do? They were like family, don’t you think they were like family?”
    â€œThat’s why it’s even harder to comprehend,” Zadik had said. “I wouldn’t be able to handle it.”
    â€œNobody ever knows what he can handle and what he can’t,” Hefetz had exclaimed fervently. “What person knows what he’s capable of? Does anyone know what he’s capable of? No, nobody knows, how could they? As for me…” He fell silent suddenly. Zadik followed his gaze and caught sight of Natasha at the newsroom door, her hair disheveled, wearing her usual getup: army jacket, jeans, and a ratty red scarf. She stood scanning the room as though looking for someone until she fixed her large sky blue eyes on him, on Zadik. For a moment she gazed at them both, then turned around and walked back down the hall. Hefetz’s face clouded over.
    Zadik could not for the life of him understand these entanglements that people got themselves into. Okay, he himself had not been completely…but with a twenty-five-year-old girl?! Only one year older than Hefetz’s own daughter? These people had no limits, and at work, no less! To get mixed up with a girl you worked with, that’s something he himself would never have done. Anyway, not here, maybe overseas, where nobody could…
    The drill started pounding again, and a cloud of dust rolled out from the open door of the adjacent room straight into the newsroom.
    â€œTell them to lay off,” Zadik instructed Aviva.
    â€œHow can I?” she answered with a shrug. “I’ve been waiting a month for them to come. You wanted renovations, you said the foreign correspondents’ room needed renovating. That’s what you said, didn’t you? I’ve been waiting a month for these guys, so today’s the day they start work. I’m not going to tell them to lay off now. If you want to, tell them yourself. Call Maintenance.”
    â€œStop!” Zadik shouted. “Take a break, go drink some coffee, come back in an hour!” The two workers stood at the doorway of the foreign correspondents’ room, staring at him. Zadik tried to soften his tone. “Haven’t you heard what happened?” he asked. The worker holding the drill stared at him in silence. “Didn’t you hear that one of our senior employees was killed last night?” The second worker shook his head and whispered something to the first. They emerged from the correspondents’ room and stood at the doorway of the newsroom stealing furtive glances at the people seated around the conference table. Aviva hurried over to them.
    â€œCome back in an hour or two,” she told them. She turned to Zadik, casting him a look of reproach. “It took me ages to get these guys here, ages for them to find the time to do the job, and then you go and toss them out.”
    â€œWe’ve got to get the lineup started, there are all kinds of problems and changes with tonight’s topics,” Hefetz said, to which Zadik nodded. Erez made a show of rattling the page in front of him.
    â€œJust another word or two,” Zadik told him, clearing his throat again. “There’s more I need to tell them.” Erez sighed, and Hefetz covered his sheet of paper with his two large hands.
    â€œWe all know,” Zadik began, his voice