by Tom Shepherd
“Totally bizarre,” Olivia said. “How did an Israeli diplomat become a jihadi double agent?
Tanella’s dad shook his head. “I still can’t accept it.”
“It is a shameful story, Dr. Blake,” Mordecai Wechtel said from the doorway. Behind him I glimpsed white robes and black hair. My pulse quickened when Prince Ahmad stepped beside me. “The Solomon Rightmeir you knew was a devout Jew, hungry to live in Israel.”
Nathaniel Blake nodded slowly. “When Sol received permission to emigrate to Jerusalem, he wept with joy.” The history professor looked out his hospital window at the sparkling sea. “He thought Israel was the Kingdom of God upon earth.”
“But it isn’t,” Mordecai Wechtel said softly. “He discovered everyday life in Israel means fighting among our religious and political factions, Israel’s domestic realpolitik—you know.”
I leaned to Tanella’s ear. “What does—?”
“Decisions based on power, not ideals.”
“Thank you.”
“Disappointment produced bitterness.” Wechtel looked at Tanella and smiled. Sadly, I thought. “Israel isn’t heaven on earth, it’s a haven on earth. A nation of refugees with no place to go. Sol couldn’t accept imperfect reality. Bitterness became despair, then rage. Finally, something inside him snapped. He rejected his whole Jewish heritage and began selling secrets to the enemies of our people.”
Agent Clark went to the window and raised the Venetian blinds. Sunlight warmed his brown face. “The C.I.A. found out Rightmeir received payments exceeding twenty million dollars during the last five years, paid by governments known to fund terrorism. He scattered secret bank accounts from Tunis to Vienna.”
Wechtel sighed. “Solomon was planning to retire soon. Live in luxury on terrorist money.”
Tanella whispered that line from the gospels where Jesus tells the disciples about gaining the world and losing your soul, but I don’t think they heard her.
“So—what?—Rightmeir killed O’Malley?” I said. “Then he killed Peter Antonucci because the old turtle guy saw him knock nephew Carsten overboard.”
“That’s what our investigation leads us to believe,” Moses the bartender—I mean, Agent Clark—said from the window.
“What about Clancey Beaumont?” Olivia Bennett said.
“You mean Elliot Pavachek?” Agent Clark said. “Real name of the guy who ran the Gray Ghost. Clancey Beaumont died three years ago. The Board of Beaumont Industries sent Pavachek down here from Minneapolis to play the international tycoon. His job was to make the hotel pay or sell to the highest bidder. He made it pay for himself, but only by renewing his friendship with a major cocaine smuggler—”
“Borkowski,” Tanella said.
“He was the pivot point,” Clark said. Borkowski worked for Hector Bennett and the phony Beaumont, without them knowing each other was involved. That’s why Bennett kept trying to buy the Gray Ghost and Pavachek kept refusing.”
“Ironic,” Tanella said.
“So, Borkowski killed the fake Beaumont?” I said.
Moses-Clark nodded. “Then he shot Tony McClure because you kids could tie the comedian to the drug drop, and McClure could finger the Inspector.” He slumped on the window sill. “Two different killers running loose. No wonder we couldn’t piece this mess together. If you hadn’t nailed Borkowski and smoked out Rightmeir, who knows?”
“That was foolish of me,” Tanella said. “I should have told Daddy.”
“You needed an audience,” Dr. Blake said with a smile.
“And I didn’t suspect Mr. Rightmeir until Sally Ann tagged him as the David’s son mentioned in Antonucci’s diary,” she said.
She skipped the Hymie part. Tanella is real sensitive.
“What about Abdu’l?” I said.
“He caught the Inspector moving drug bundles from your apartment,” Clark said. “Borkowski shot him once, wounding him slightly, then went back to rescuing his drug bundles. He must’ve thought Abdu’l was dead.”
“Blood on the carpet,” Tanella said.
Agent Clark nodded. “Right. But Abdu’l stopped the bleeding and struggled back to his room, where Rightmeir was waiting to kill him because the big Arab knew about the phony oil story.”
“After my father told Abdu’l by telephone,” Ahmad said, “he must have confronted Rightmeir with the information.”
“So many people harmed,” Mordecai Wechtel said. “I should be accustomed to violence by now, but it still sickens me.”
“But we have some joyful news,” Ahmad said with a smile. “Shall we tell them, Mr. Wechtel?”
The Israeli diplomat smiled. “Ahmad’s country has lots of money and high illiteracy. We’re a nation with plenty of poor scholars. We struck a deal.”
Ahmad nodded. “Utaybah has hired Israel as its tutor.”
“Positively brilliant,” Dr. Blake said.
“Wow! How’d you get your daddy to buy that idea?” I said.
Ahmad waved a finger. “I merely announced the deal and gave Father all the credit.”
Wechtel laughed. “Almost a palace coup, my young friend. A dozen Western countries have already proposed the Emir’s name for a Nobel Peace Prize.”
“He won’t get it, of course,” Ahmad said. “But now the West has an Arab leader to praise while condemning jihadi terrorists.”
“I knew you weren’t a wimp,” I said.
“I would be, if you so desired.” He leaned to Tanella’s ear. “What is a wimp?”
She just smiled.
Mordecai Wechtel and Agent Clark excused themselves and left. Olivia Bennett sat in a chair by the window and read an old Readers’ Digest while Tanella and her dad talked. Soon the Blakes switched to a foreign language which sounded like seals barking down an alley. That was okay, because me and Prince Ahmad just wanted to hold hands.
After a while I excused myself to the ladies’ room, and at the far end of the corridor stood a redhaired young woman whom I recognized from a distance. My curiosity overpowered my desire for a potty break.
“Eyla, what are you doing here?”
“Just checking to see if you and Tanella are okay before I leave for home.”
“You finished your story?”
“No, I think it’s only begun. May I tell Keshikka you said hello?”
I gawked. “You know Keshikka Grant, that new girl at Spirit Creek? Is she a relative?”
“Not exactly a relative. We look forward to seeing you again.”
I smiled faintly. “Okay.”
“Meanwhile, remember what I told you. You are smarter than you know. Be kind to Sally Ann.”
“Thanks. See you again, maybe.” I turned toward the restrooms, then had another thought. “How did Keshikka—?”
But Elya was gone.
* * * *
So, what else can I remember? I’ve got this journaling thing on a roll. Tanella and I meet with different counselors once a week. They say we’ll be okay, but I don’t think I’ll ever shake the image of my best friend covered in Abdu’l blood. Yeah, I get nightmares. Not often, thank God.
Other thoughts… Oh, yeah! Before Ahmad left to catch a flight from the Georgia coast to the Persian Gulf, he promised to never forget me. He said he was going to name a mountain after me, and keep in touch every day by e-mail and Facebook. Well, Uff-dah! That was six months ago, and the e-mails have trickled down to every other week, and I’ve friended him a dozen times, but he hasn’t accepted yet. Still, I’m hopeful.
I haven’t heard from the mysterious Elya either, and Keshikka Grant transferred out of Spirit Creek as quickly as she’d arrived. Maybe they moved back to Miyos. Tanella said the only redhead she saw on Barrier island was Eric. Also, there was no country named Miyos. Closest match was a volcanic Greek island named Milos in the Aegean Sea. Who knows? Maybe I didn’t get the name right.
Speaking of getting it right, let’s talk about the kissing bandit Prince Ahmad one last time. Okay, so he snuck away like a sheikh in the n
ight. But thanks to my unplanned hiatus into the world of homicide and diplomacy, I’ve learned a few things about realpolitik.
I’m keeping up on world geography online, and by next year if I don’t find Mount Sally Ann on the new map of Utaybah, I’m calling a press conference to announce our engagement.
I’ll keep y’all posted.
About the Author
Tom Shepherd taught ten years in the public schools of Richmond County, Georgia—middle grades for eight years at Spirit Creek Middle School, Hephzibah, GA, and two years teaching high school English at the Academy of Richmond County, Augusta, GA. He is a Vietnam veteran, retired US Army Chaplain and ordained Unity minister. Shepherd holds a B.S. in Education from the University of Idaho, Master of Divinity from Lancaster Theological Seminary, and Doctor of Ministry from St. Paul School of Theology. He retired in 2016 to write novels full time and lives in Tucson, Arizona, with wife carol-Jean. Several of his former Georgia public school students, now adults with kids of their own, still keep in contact with their “Mr. Shepherd.”
Shepherd’s primary genre is science fiction, and Star Lawyers Origins Book 2, Bad Moon Rising, contains strong hints of a sci-fi storyline begun in SLO-1 – Stardate. The two casts of characters will merge for a fully sci-fi adventure in Book 3, The Secrets of Rahjen, which completes the first Star Lawyers Origins trilogy.
Watch for SLO-3, The Secrets of Rahjen, summer 2019.
Star Lawyers Origins is a spin-off from the main Star Lawyers series. Nine books—three sets of trilogies—will take readers on the accelerating journey from pre-FTL human civilization in twenty-first century to the galaxy-spanning adventures of Tyler Matthews and the Star Lawyers, which begin in 3104 T.C.E. Buckle up and come along for the ride.
Available now:
Book 1 – Stardate
Book 2 – Bad Moon Rising
Coming Summer 2019:
Book 3 – The Secrets of Rahjen
Star Lawyers Origins is a spin-off series which takes readers into the formative events that will shape the thirty-second century world of Tyler Matthews and his Star Lawyers. Three trilogies will highlight the key players in human exploration of the stars: Tanella Jennings-Blake, Aurelio Lupetti, and Brian Brightstar. In Star Lawyers Book 1 – Jump Gate Omega, Tyler encounters three bronze statues of these legendary figures in the lobby of the Matthews Trade Embassy on the Rim world of Suryadivan Prime. Star Lawyers Origins tells their stories. (For information about the thirty-second century, main series Star Lawyers adventures, see below.)
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Star Lawyers series books now available:
Book 1 – Jump Gate Omega
Book 2 – Forbidden Sanctuary
Book 3 – The Blue King Murders
Book 4 - House of the Silent Moons
Watch for
Star Lawyers Book 5 –
The Stellar Light Conspiracy
Late Spring 2019
Star Lawyers Origins Book 3 –
The Secrets of Rahjen
Summer 2019
Sign up for Tom Shepherd’s Newsletter and receive a free copy of the series short-story prequel, “Knife Fight at Olathe-5”.