Invisible City (Rebekah Roberts #1)(60)

“Everybody needs to calm down,” Saul says. He looks down at Baruch. “Do you understand?”

Baruch grunts an affirmative. Dev crawls to sit beside him. Heshy is still half-sitting half-lying down on the sofa, and Suri and Moses are standing, looking at Saul.

“I know you’re all very upset about Rivka,” says Saul. “I’m here to ask some questions. That’s all.”

My phone rings again. It’s Tony again. I silence it and see I’ve missed a text from him: saul katz is not a cop





CHAPTER TWELVE


“He’s on indefinite suspension from the NYPD,” says Tony. I’m halfway to the F train station with the phone to my ear.

“Oh,” I say, stopping to catch my breath beneath some scaffolding across the street from a housing project. “So he is a cop.”

“No! Rebekah. If he’s pretending to be on the job when he isn’t, you need to stay away from him. He’s off the rails.”

I bolted from the house the moment I got Tony’s text, hoping, as I ran down the steps and around the corner that maybe everyone in that living room would just forget I’d ever been there. I’ve got three people on the record now. I’ve got a photograph of Rivka Mendelssohn. I have a story even without Saul. What I don’t have is any f*cking answers.

“I assume Darin told you this,” I say. Obviously, the information that Saul—whom I’ve been quoting as a source inside the NYPD—has been suspended from the force is important, but I’m still unhappy with Tony for getting Darin involved in my life. I feel like a child and I’m going to kick. “I’m glad he’s so concerned with my welfare.”

“I’m the one that’s concerned for your welfare, okay?” says Tony. “This guy’s been lying to you, Rebekah. He might be a bad guy.”

“What do you mean, a bad guy?”

“I don’t know,” he says. “But Darin says they want you to come in.”

“Come in?”

“To the station,” says Tony. “They want to ask you some questions.”

“Questions about what?”

“About Saul. I think they think he might have been involved in the murder. Apparently, he has a history of violence.”

I need to sit down somewhere and think. Other than lying about his employment status, everything Saul has told me so far has been true. No one from the police department has been to the Coney Island house to ask Rivka’s friends—or lover—any questions. No one has talked to her sister-in-law or her brother-in-law or her husband or her son. No one but Malka and Saul and me and, presumably, her killer, has seen her injuries up close. I’d like to hear Darin explain how all that adds up to a proper homicide investigation.

“Where’s Darin’s precinct?” I say. “I’ll take the train.”

“I can pick you up,” he says. I almost feel sorry for him.

“I’ll call you after,” I say, and hang up. I know I’m being a bitch, but I don’t want his worry and guilt clouding my judgment any more than the situation with Saul and my now possibly in-jeopardy job already are.

I turn around and start walking back toward the house. At the end of the block, I see Saul.

“Rebekah,” he says, jogging toward me. “Are you all right?”

I step back. “Why have you been lying to me, Saul?”

“Lying?” His yarmulke is askew, his coat unbuttoned.

“You’re not a cop anymore.”

Saul closes his eyes for a moment. “Rebekah…”

“What are you doing here that you don’t want me to know about?”

“Rebekah, I understand you’re upset,” he says. “I hope you know I’m only trying to work…”

“What were you talking to Heshy about?”

Saul takes a breath. “Heshy is a troubled man.”

For some reason this makes me laugh. My teeth are chattering but I’m not cold anymore. I feel like I’m on speed. “Every single person in there is troubled, Saul. That doesn’t mean shit. What did he say? Did he tell you Aron and Miriam were here? Did he tell you Aron threatened Rivka?”

“Moses asked me to come to the house to speak with Heshy,” says Saul slowly. “He felt perhaps Heshy knew something about what had happened to Rivka. I didn’t call you, because I knew he wouldn’t talk to a woman.”

“Do you have any idea what kind of situation you’ve put me in? I’m going to lose my job when they find out my source is a f*cking suspended…”

“Rebekah…”

“And I assume the NYPD has no idea you’re currently acting as a homicide detective?”

“I don’t think so,” says Saul. There is no apology in his voice. He doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong.

“What did you do to get suspended?” I ask.

Saul hesitates.

“Tell me or I’m going to go back in there and tell them all you’re a f*cking fraud and that they should report you to the police.”

Saul lowers his voice. “I was suspended because I assaulted a man.” He pauses, then continues. “I told you that Rivka Mendelssohn stood up for my son when he was fired from his teaching position? He was fired, in part, because of what this man had done.”